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CHICAGOPAUL LIVE!!!!! 15 Night Bering Sea & Japan TRANSPACIFIC CRUISE - LIVE BLOG

chicagopaul

By chicagopaul,
in Celebrity Cruises

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rugerdog

rugerdog

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On 9/22/2019 at 10:40 AM, Taylor D said:

My wife and i live in a tiny farming and grape growing region in Eastern Washington State  with about 3000 other people.

 

Howdy neighbors!  I have friends on this cruise, and I have been really enjoying following along with Paul's blog.  When I ran across your post and saw your town, I thought there was no way you really live in Mattawa!  I'm only an hour away, also in a little teeny tiny agricultural town.  Small world.  I'll keep an eye out for you two on my upcoming voyages.

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chicagopaul

chicagopaul

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Thanks all for following along! We are safely back in Chicago and I'm sitting here sipping a martini before starting dinner. I'm finishing up some writing on the last day and of our flight back which I will have posted by tonight. I'll then start working on the final review for all the different aspects of the cruise. As I mentioned, I'll simply post links to a page where you can download / or open via PDF on your mobile device the summaries for each category complete with photos. Figured that would make things easy for everyone and also an easy way for you to save it too if you'd like to reference it in the future. 

 

In the meantime if you have any questions you forgot to ask please fire them away! 

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chicagopaul

chicagopaul

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15 hours ago, onyourmark said:

Glad to have finally met you at the Martini bar on the last evening of the cruise. We'll catch up with the blog once we return home tomorrow. 

Onyourmark

And thanks to binbrooklady who knew we were on this cruise and alerted me about the blog.

 

 


It was a pleasure meeting you as well, even if it was on the saddest night (last night) of the cruise. Have a safe flight home and hopefully we will run into each other again on a future cruise. 

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dhream

dhream

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Hello again Paul,

Like so many of your readers and fans, I can't say enough about how much fun, and more importantly, how informative your blog has been to me personally.

I thought you might have run out of mojo after debarking, but your information on Tokyo, and the trains was nothing short of  exceptional!

As I mentioned, we embark Millie November 23 for a Japan/China 14-15 day cruise, we'll stay in Yokohama 3 days pre cruise. Our plan is to base in Yokohama, which has much to offer in itself, and "commute" to Tokyo, and maybe even Kawasaki, seems even the most industrial of Japans cities hold at least one destination of interest and charm, so we're very excited, and your blog has been invaluable, onboard and ashore.

You've actually sold us on retracing your TP voyage next fall! So get Celebrity to shoot you a commission! 😁

Glad you're home safe, and we will remember Edward and yourself to the wonderful bar staff we hope will still be there in November.

I understand Transition voyages often mark crew transfers and vacation times for crew, so hopefully we'll still get to meet some of these lovely hosts and hostesses in November.

 

Also, I will give everyone in our Roll Call thread a 'heads up' about this blog, I'm sure they will enjoy it as much as we did.

 

Thank you for 'taking us along' on your adventure!

 

Will n Meow 😽

 

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dhream

dhream

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On 9/21/2019 at 6:30 AM, bigbeergut said:

Thanks for your review, it looks like it was a great trip. After your review I 'm more inclined to take a long trip and I don't think I'd be bored but I think I'd stick to warm weather climates.  Maybe a transatlantic that goes south would be my choice.

 

Thanks for the review, have a safe trip home.

 

BBG

Hi BBG,

I did Lisbon - Miami back in fall 2009, on Seabourn (the all-inclusive price was a steal as the GFC was in full swing! But the seasonal crossings tend to be bargains anyway, probably because the long flights, and cruise length involved, keep many away).

I can heartily recommend a southbound crossing, the days do get noticeably warmer, the seas smoother, and the long alfresco brunches are one of my fondest memories of that trip.

 

Will n Meow

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kiwicruisers51

kiwicruisers51

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On 9/6/2019 at 5:41 AM, chicagopaul said:

Our First Transpacific Cruise - Follow us Live! 

 

Hello again Cruise Critic! We’re excited to say it is time for another live cruise blog and this time you’ll be joining us on our very first Transpacific crossing! We’re very excited to bring you along for the journey and share you with the many “firsts” this cruise will be for us.

 

Follow us on Instagram on my personal account if you’d like. PaulKBlackburn is my user name. If you see me in a suit on the cover and pictures of cruises and martinis you’ve hit the right profile! I will be posting on Cruise Critic at least 10 photos a day or more in addition to at least one or two photos a day on Instagram plus lots of short videos on my Instagram story as well.

 

For those of you who have not followed or read my blogs before please allow me to introduce myself! My name is Paul and my partner is Edward and we are from Chicago. We’re both in our 30s (I’m 32 and Edward is 37). We’ve been cruising on Celebrity since 2010 but started cruising on a more regular basis in 2014. This cruise will be our 19th cruise on Celebrity. So let us dive right in and discuss the details of the next cruise we are going on and why we booked it.

 

Originally we were booked on a B2B on the Equinox in November. We were excited for those two cruises, but they were to the same Caribbean ports we’ve been to. As we were booked in a Sky Suite for those cruises the pricing wasn’t cheap coming in around $9800 total for the two cruises plus airfare and hotel stay. Edward loves to check cruise prices daily when he is at work (working hard apparently!) and he ended up coming across the 15 Night Bering Sea & Japan Transpacific Cruise. We LOVE our sea days and have crossed the Atlantic 3 times on Celebrity. A Transpacific was on our bucket list and this seemed like a good way to check it off the list.

 

As always with my blog I will be fully up front and transparent about ALL costs involved, on board credits, airfare costs, hotel costs, transport costs, meal costs, etc. I know talking about money can be “taboo” but at the end of the day lets face it, cruises aren’t free and we’re all paying for them. It is only logical to understand the cost of everything so you at home at accurately assess the true value of the trip to yourself.

 

As always please ask questions and feel free to comment! The more interactive everyone is the more I enjoy writing. Let’s face it, on this cruise I will have plenty of sea days to catch up and answers questions. Let’s have some fun!

 

Ship: Celebrity Millennium

 

Itinerary

 

Day 1: Vancouver

Day 2: At Sea

Day 3: Sitka, Alaska (Our First Time Here)

Days 4 - 12: At Sea (So Many sea days!! Glorious!)

Day 13: Otaru, Japan (Our First Time Here)

Day 14: Hakodate, Japan (Our First Time Here)

Day 15: At Sea

Day 16: Tokyo - Overnight (Our First Time Here

Day 17: Tokyo - Time to head home

 

Now I know what some of you might be thinking…15 nights….17 days???? Don’t forget we’re crossing the dateline!

 

Cabin Class: Aqua

 

Pricing: $4,305.32 Including GO BEST promotion which includes $300 OBC, Unlimited Internet for 2, Premium Drink Package, and Prepaid Gratuities. This price is Total, NOT Per Person.

 

In total we have $750 OBC when we factor in the $300 from the Go Best Promotion, the booking on board promotion (we switched an on board booking to this when we booked) and OBC from our travel agent.

 

Flights

 

We are flying out a day early and we did book through Flights by Celebrity (also known as Choice Air). We’re flying Air Canada in economy non-stop from ORD to YVR. Our flight departs Chicago at 5:00pm. This Air Canada flight is on their CRJ9 which really is not a bad aircraft. Seat pitch is decent in economy and seats are in a 2 - 2 configuration so perfect if you’re traveling with another person.

 

Flight Costs to Vancouver

 

$180.58 Per Person Airfare

$110.00 for bagged (3 checked bags total)

$37.82 for seat selection ($50 Canadian)

 

$508.98 Total

 

Return Flights

 

We are flying home September 22nd from Tokyo. We booked American Airlines on their 787 (dreamliner) in Prem7ium Economy to LAX and then switch planes to an A321 to ORD. On our NRT to LAX flight we were able to snag the bulkhead seats in Premium Economy.

 

This was not booked through Celebrity. We used Google Flights to search and ended up booking through the Japanese version of the AA website.

 

Cost: $1289 per person.

 

Hotel in Vancouver

 

We are staying at Hyatt Regency in Vancouver which is only a few blocks from the port. We booked this using points transferred from Chase. In total it is only costing us 12,000 points. Points from Chase to Hyatt transfer at 1 to 1 ratio. Chase points I’d say are valued around 1.6cents per point so this ended up being a pretty decent redemption.

 

We also have Explorist status with Hyatt (the equivalent of staying 30nights or more with Hyatt per year). We have this because of Celebrity. I know I’ve mentioned this in the past. We are Elite Plus on Celebrity which transfers to Platinum Status for MLife (MGM Casino Players program) which then has a reciprocal program with Hyatt and gets us Explorist status.

 

Travel Insurance

 

We booked this cruise with our Chase Sapphire Reserve card which gives us travel insurance for the trip itself up to $10,000. That covers any issues we might have with the cruise. We do however always purchase separate medical travel insurance. We purchased a policy through InsureMyTrip. We chose GeoBlue Voyager Choice for medical coverage. I bumped up Medical to $100k per person, with $500k per person for MedVac coverage. In total for the two of us we are paying $58 and change for medical travel insurance for this cruise.

 

OK Almost time to leave!

 

OK Now that I have all that fun stuff out of the way I can finally write like a normal person! It is just past Noon here in Chicago. I am all packed and ready to go. Edward is at work and will be home around 1:30pm. Once he gets back home we will order an Uber and head to ORD. We like to show up early, have a drink and relax.

 

I was thinking this morning “I can’t wait to just get on the ship!” And the more I thought about that I realized that is the wrong way to think about travel. The whole journey itself should be a trip. Now maybe taking an Uber to the airport and checking your bags and going through security is not the most glamorous part of travel but it is still part of it and a very necessary part of the journey. So why not make the best of it! So with that being said, I will no longer think “I cannot wait to…” at all during this trip. If you catch me writing that call me out! Soon enough we will be back at home from this trip and I will be hoping that I could be dealing with the aggravation of airport security and lugging luggage in anticipation of a cruise.

 

Like I mentioned. If you have any questions at all regarding the cruise please feel free to ask. If you want me to check on something on the ship just ask. Wondering if a certain crew member is still on board? Just ask. I will do my best to answer all questions.

 

Thank you again for following along and helping make our trip that much better for us!

Cruise_Itinerary_Japan.png

Following with interest. Cant wait to read about Japan. A bit of reading to do!! Thank you

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dhream

dhream

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Paul I just had some last minute Q's if you could kindly address them here or as part of your review? Domo Arigato Gosaimashte!

 

Celebrity App:

I don't think you mentioned it much, if at all.

Did you guys use it, to board? Did friends?

Is it useful and practical as a planner? And to what extent was that. Less or more so than the Newsletter?

Did the ship use it to send PA style info or other event notifications?

Did you use it to contact and locate friends aboard?

Or did you just use the suite/stateroom phone to ring theirs?

Can it be used to contact the ship via shore wifi like FB or WhatsApp?

Any other points you'd like to add?

 

Entertainment:

I know you guys are not much into the cabaret scene, being the Casino and Martini barflies you were 😋 but any info in passing that you can recall if the acts are staying with Millie during the Japan cruising season? Not essential, just curious, as the newsletter descriptions of some speakers and entertainers did pique my interest.

 

 

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chicagopaul

chicagopaul

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Tokyo Day 1 Continued...

 

After our drink we wandered the city looking for a good lunch spot. We found the Ritz was attached a rather high end mall so we browsed through there window shopping. We then found ourselves walking through a grocery store and checking out how people buy groceries in this part of town. We saw the famous grapes that the Japanese love and are not cheap, $20lb or so. I know some can go for hundreds for even only a couple grapes or even more. We checked out their pre-packaged foods, their fish counter, their meat counters, all the beautiful Wagyu beef looking beautiful and priced so much better than in the states of course. We looked through their liquor store comparing prices to at home.

 

We kept looking around and didn’t see anything that jumped out at us for lunch. I had found sushi place that didn’t have a menu, the chef picks your food for you and its a set price. It sounded great by me but not so much by Edward so we didn’t end up there. Instead we ended up walking back towards Tokyo Station and figured we’d find something near there. On the way there, and not too far away from the station, we found a very nice neighborhood that was sort of the tale of two cities. Down one block it is very high end and included places such as Hermes and the Peninsula hotel and then one block over, next to the train tracks, felt like you were stepping back in time 100 years. We ended up opting for a sushi place in a building under the train tracks. We shared a fixed tuna set, ordered a couple of rolls, and each had a small cup of miso soup along with some Sake. Price? Pretty much the same as our drinks at the Ritz! The sushi was very good and fresh and miso soup excellent.

 

After leaving the sushi place we walked around the neighborhood a little. One my favorite spaces I came across was a small restaurant directly under the train tracks where it was just a bunch of long tables and a small open kitchen. Walking under the tracks was basically walking under an underpass and it was filled with smoke from the kitchen creating an ominous looking fog that in any other city might make you hesitate to walk any further. The restaurant tables were all completely filled or we would have sat down at least for a beer. Every seat was taken clearly by locals who were chatting with each other or just starring at their phones. This was clearly a good place.

 

After this we walked in the higher end area and saw Lexus had a restaurant called the spindle grill. If you’re a car person you know Lexus has made their new spindle grill on their cars the jumping off point for design over the past few years so I found the name of the restaurant amusing. But it was packed! And sitting in the back of the restaurant were two Lexus SUVS.

 

It was around 5pm and we wanted to head back to the ship. We decided to not take the bullet train back to Shin Yokohama, instead we planned to take a regular train from Tokyo Station on the Tokaido line to Yokohama station and then a train to Nihon-Odori station so we could walk from the station to the ship. The reason for this was because the free shuttle was done at 4:30pm to Shin Yokohama station, plus we figured this could be a way to experience another train line in Tokyo.

 

Well, after a little walking in circles looking for Tokyo station we finally found it. We walked up to the machines, pressed English, typed in the station we wanted and got our tickets. Once we entered the train area it took us a little while to find the correct platform. I asked two people working there if we were waiting for the correct train and they both said yes.

 

What is fascinating about boarding public transportation in Japan is the organized chaos. The train stops is precise places so cars line up with the green or red lines on platform. People wait in line, inch up when the train pulls up, let people off then it’s a mad dash but in an orderly fashion. People move into the back of the train car like they should. There is no fussing. No crazy yelling people. No one trying to sell you or scam you. It’s the way public transpiration should be.

 

We took the Tokaido line to Yokohama station and then we had to figure out how to buy a ticket and find the correct subway line to get to Nihon-Odori. This task took over 30 minutes. Apparently there are multiple subways but in different areas at Yokohama station. One security officer directed us to the right place, and despite the entrance being in plain view we walked by it. Once we figured it out we then couldn’t figure out how much to pay for the ticket via the kiosk. Everything was in Japanese and there was no way to search via station. We were standing in front of the electronic kiosk looking on our phones clearly frustrated and just defeated at this point. We were exhausted. A young woman, probably in her mid or late 20s approached. She said “How can I help you?” I showed her my phone and said we were looking to get to Nihon-Odori station. She pulled out her phone, used google translate, to confirm what we wanted. She then took us over to the kiosk. Confirmed we wanted two tickets. She pointed to the sign above with different prices and pointed to 210 so we would know how much it would be, 420yen total for 2. She entered the info into the computer for us and told us to put money in. 2 tickets came out. She didn’t stop there, she walked with us through the gates (she was catching a different train on that line). She pointed the direction of the platform, told us we wanted platform #1, and even looked up on her phone when to expect the next train. I wish I could have hugged her, I was so happy. Everyone in Japan was beyond helpful and nice, but she went completely out of her way without us even asking for help that I was astonished. She is the perfect example of how I should act towards tourists living in a big city. She is the perfect example of why I not only would feel so comfortable visiting Japan again, but the exact reason of why I want to visit Japan again. It is the reason why I implore you to add Japan to your list of places to visit whether it be via cruise or a land vacation.

 

So we get on the train and head to Nihon-Odori station where it is then only a 10 minute walk back to the ship. It was a perfect temperature outside. The streets of Yokohama were vibrant, filled with tourists and locals heading out to dinner or drinks. It was a somber walk back to the ship since the next morning we would be leaving the Millennium and heading back home. As we approached the ship we looked to our left to see the city of Yokohama completely lit up. The Ferris wheel in the center of town was filled with bright lights of a rainbow and flashing as if it was putting on a show. We stopped to take some photos and admire our ship before heading into the port building to go through security one last time.

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chicagopaul

chicagopaul

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6 hours ago, dhream said:

Paul I just had some last minute Q's if you could kindly address them here or as part of your review? Domo Arigato Gosaimashte!

 

Celebrity App:

I don't think you mentioned it much, if at all.

Did you guys use it, to board? Did friends?

Is it useful and practical as a planner? And to what extent was that. Less or more so than the Newsletter?

Did the ship use it to send PA style info or other event notifications?

Did you use it to contact and locate friends aboard?

Or did you just use the suite/stateroom phone to ring theirs?

Can it be used to contact the ship via shore wifi like FB or WhatsApp?

Any other points you'd like to add?

 

Entertainment:

I know you guys are not much into the cabaret scene, being the Casino and Martini barflies you were 😋 but any info in passing that you can recall if the acts are staying with Millie during the Japan cruising season? Not essential, just curious, as the newsletter descriptions of some speakers and entertainers did pique my interest.

 

 

 

No problem! 

 

We did use the Celebrity App. The messenger function was working for our friends. I had a hard time adding friends until later on in the cruise and then it worked. Edward was not able to use the messaging part of the app for some reason. He did have the most updated version of the app. 

 

We would use it to check the menu for dinner in Blu each night. It was spot on, no issues there. When we would check times for shows, etc. it did seem to work well. I think there was one time it was off, but besides that it seemed to list everything correctly. You need to make sure to refresh it daily. I would hard close the app and then reopen it. The cruise director Steve would comment on this every day and tell people to do that as sometimes the original info they uploaded to the app on day 1 would change throughout the cruise. 

 

It has a button to make reservations for specialty restaurants though we did not use it. When we had dinner reservations in specialty, it did link to our app and it would show in our calendar and it would remind us 30 minutes before dinner which I thought was cool. Our tours were also linked in the app too and would let us know the meeting time, etc. 

 

Another cool thing is when you go through the schedule in the app you could add items to your calendar. So if you want to go to Trivia at 3pm and then see the show at 7pm you can add it to your calendar so you can keep track. 

 

We didn't see a way to contact the ship in the app or stateroom attendant, etc. I think that would be a cool feature to add. 

 

As far as speakers go I think most of the speakers might be getting off the ship since the itinerary is very port heavy going forward. I know Celia the naturist is moving to the Solstice. As far as the production shows in the Theater I believe that is all remaining the same. I didn't hear anything about any big cast changes, but you never know. I imagine that the guest entertainers (not lecturers) might be staying on. The piano man was especially popular and the comedian I know has been on different Celebrity ships for quite some time. 

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CruiserfaeFife

CruiserfaeFife

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11 minutes ago, chicagopaul said:

As far as speakers go I think most of the speakers might be getting off the ship since the itinerary is very port heavy going forward. I know Celia the naturist is moving to the Solstice.

I’m guessing that Celia is actually a naturalist but hey, we’re a broad church 😉

 

Thanks for a great review, really enjoyed reading. 

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bunnyette

bunnyette

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23 hours ago, chicagopaul said:

Thanks all for following along! We are safely back in Chicago and I'm sitting here sipping a martini before starting dinner. I'm finishing up some writing on the last day and of our flight back which I will have posted by tonight. I'll then start working on the final review for all the different aspects of the cruise. As I mentioned, I'll simply post links to a page where you can download / or open via PDF on your mobile device the summaries for each category complete with photos. Figured that would make things easy for everyone and also an easy way for you to save it too if you'd like to reference it in the future. 

 

In the meantime if you have any questions you forgot to ask please fire them away! 

Hooray!  Can you post a link to your blog?  I don’t seem to see o e.

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mrsgoggins

mrsgoggins

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On 9/23/2019 at 2:15 AM, Jim_Iain said:

Wow... that sound expensive.  

 

We took the Airport Limousine Bus from Yokohama Rail Station  to Narita  and the Regular price is 3,700 yen or $34.00 and offered a Senior Rate (over 65) of 2,200 yen or $20.42.     I think the taxi fare to the Rail Station was about $10.00.  The taki takes about 10 minutes and drops you at the "City Air Terminal" in the train station  about 100 feet from the curb.   It was very convenient and a very comfortable service.    We were departing on the first night in Tokyo so bus service from Celebrity wasn't available.  

 

By the way - you tell the taxi to drop you at Y-CAT (Yokohama City Air Terminal) is is inside the train station.

 

Thanks for that great information, which I have noted for my trip in 2021.  I just googled and can see it's a pretty frequent service, although I got the fare to be 1,900 yen for seniors.  Still a cheap, and interesting way to make the journey.

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chicagopaul

chicagopaul

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Back on the ship after Tokyo  

 

We boarded the ship exhausted. We had walked almost 10 miles during our first day in Tokyo. My back ached, Edward’s legs hurt, but the night was not over. We arrived back at the room just before 7pm. We had some last minute packing to do. We had to fill out our immigration forms for the debarkation the following day, and we both desperately needed a shower. I set my phone on the charger, packed up a few remaining items, jumped in the shower and got ready as quick as I could. By 7:40 my phone had some decent charge and I was cleaned up and completed our last minute tasks. I headed down to the Martini bar while Edward finished getting ready. Thankfully our friends were still there. We had to make sure to get in our last goodbyes. Tada put on a magic show as he promised! Don’t worry I did record it and will happily have it uploaded and shared with you all very soon! We chatted with our friends and as it rolled around to a little after 8pm people started heading to dinner. It was time for the final goodbyes. We thanked our friends, new and old, for helping make our cruise wonderful. We hugged each other, probably a little tighter than normal, and wished safe travels. Ironically on the last night we actually met a couple new people too! That is the great thing about cruising, there is always someone new to meet and always a friend around too, even if you only just met them a few days prior.

 

This night we skipped Blu for dinner. We had a very late lunch in Tokyo so we were not that hungry. Plus we were too tired to sit through a whole dinner. We made our way to Blu to leave our tips and note cards as we usually do. We thanked the staff for a wonderful cruise and expressed our appreciation for everything.

 

We made our way up to the buffet for a quick bite. We grabbed a small assortment of food. I honestly couldn’t tell you how it was. I was just tried and feeling a bit odd with it being the last day and all, We ate and looked out at the Yokohama all lit up in all her glory. Passing through the buffet was Amitava, our casino bartender. He was working Sunset that night since the casino was closed. We also saw our friend Rod who said our usual group was hanging outside. So after we ate we made our way outside to their table where we chatted and shared stories from our day in Tokyo. Amitava came over to see what we wanted to drink. We passed we didn’t need anything. He shook our hands and thanked us for having the pleasure to serve us. The pleasure was truly all ours. He went around to our group, all of which he met at the Casino bar and shook everyone’s hand thanking them. It was a very sincere thank you, not faked at all. Then passing through was Melwin, our Somm from Blu! We had dropped off his card and tip at the host stand in Blu. He came by to thank us for it and wish us safe travels. It was then time for us to leave. Two of our friends, Brad and Andrew, I knew we were going to see the following morning as they too had the same half day excursion and trip to the airport planned. But for the others we hugged and said goodbye as we wouldn’t see them any longer.

 

I made my way back to the room with Edward to pull our luggage out into the hallway. Edward went to lay down while I went to the Martini bar for one last time. There was only one other person sitting at the bar. I sat at the corner of the bar at 10pm and ordered my usual drink and side of sparkling water. I watched as people walked by on the way to their cabins to get ready for debarkation the following day. I watched as some crew had family on board visiting. One woman slowed by the bar to show what appeared to be her kids the martini bar and the grand foyer. I sat there talking with Tada and Agus for about 45 minutes. I drank about half my martini and then figured I should head to bed. I grabbed a couple bottles of water, gave my farewells, and off to bed I went.

 

Debarkation Morning

 

The following morning I had my alarm set for 6:15am knowing I would need to hit the snooze a couple times. We had a 7:45am meeting time in Cellar Masters for our debarkation half day tour. Around 6:40 I made my way into the tiny shower for one last time. After we both got ready we did our customary 10 checks of every nook and cranny to make sure we were not leaving anything behind. We stuffed all of our left over bathroom supplies into our carry ons and made our way to Cellar Masters around 7:35am. We saws our friends Brad and Andrew and sat and chatted with them until their number was called. Our number was called around 8;00am. We left the ship with only a small wait in line. We heard that infamous “ding” for the last time as we walked off the Millennium and down the jet way (or should I call it the ship way? gang plank? haha). As we made our way towards the terminal we saw much of the upper level officers, including upper level kitchen staff, the hotel director and activities director in a receiving line thanking passengers for coming on the cruise. It was a nice touch and everyone was smiling. It was a good way to leave the ship. We made our way to claim our luggage. All luggage was stacked neatly by numbers and bags even stacked neatly by size. We quickly located our luggage and went to go through immigration. Even though we cleared immigration on the ship we still had to clear it again. It was simply. They had many immigration officers. We waited only a minute before we were seen. The officer asked a few basic questions then smiled, gave a small bow, and handed back our passports. We exited the terminal and looked to see where we should go to meet our bus. There was plenty of port staff and Celebrity staff leading the way. It was very simple and next to near impossible to get lost. It was a bit of a walk to the bus with our luggage but it was all DOWN hill which made it a breeze. Though I did feel bad for the porters who had to push the carts back UP hill to the main terminal. Every porter we passed smiled and nodded. All were friendly and wore their name badges proudly with a sticker that said “NO TIPPING.”

 

We found our bus, bus #4 and climbed on board and sat in the middle of the bus. This was going to be a tour that lasted until roughly 1pm before we started making the 1 hour drive to NRT (Narita Airport). The bus departed quickly as everyone arrived on time. We were to have a couple stops on this tour. The first stop was Sensoji Temple in Tokyo where we had a chance to see the temple and then wander around for over an hour which was quite nice. The weather was perfect. We had a chance to see the temple, do some shopping, grab some ice cream and fried chicken (interesting combo huh?), some more candy for friends back home and then back on the bus. We then went to Meiji shrine which is dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji. This was in Tokyo but the shrine itself was basically in a forest. Apparently people from all over Japan donated trees for this shrine and it created this beautiful little oasis in the city. Very unique place and quite peaceful to walk around. We had some time here an then it was back on the bus to head to Narita.

 

As I mentioned we decided to sit in the middle of the bus. We had two people behind us who were nice, but were quite opinionated? They were seated on separate sides of the aisle and kept talking to each other but in quite a peculiar way. I couldn’t tell if they were a couple or brother and sister and more of a brother and sister from “flowers in the attic” if you catch my drift. They seemed very sweet but definitely had their opinions. On the way to the airport, as we were almost there the bus was silent but they kept talking and then got up and walked up to the tour guide at the front of the bus and asked for more information to be broadcast about Tokyo. Come on! Everyone was tired we just wanted a little cat nap before we got to the airport! My goodness I hope they’re not reading this haha. But as I said, I promised I’d be honest with you all so there you have it.

 

Once we arrived at the airport it was 2pm. Our flight was not until 6:30pm so we had plenty of time. Most of the bus was leaving from Terminal 2 with some departing from Terminal 1. The few departing from Terminal 1 had earlier flight times so we started there with the drop off and then proceeded to terminal 2. The tour guide was very sweet and she brought over luggage carts for people who needed them. Made sure to help people off the bus who needed it, etc.

 

NRT Airport

 

We entered Terminal 2 at the far end. The initial set up of terminal 2 is VERY reminiscent of FCO (Rome) except 1000 times better organized. We made some switches to our bags and made sure we had everything and weighed our luggage on a scale nearby to make sure none of our bags were overweight. While we were doing this a young man came up to me and asked if I could help him. He was Japanese. My initial inclination when I hear this in Chicago or anywhere in the states is almost a quick no. Walking the streets of Chicago of NYC if someone asks you for help, they’re 99% not asking for help, they’re asking for a handout. But when I looked up I found a well dressed, good looking younger guy holding an iPad. He asked if I had time to take a survey, Thinking of the young woman who helped us the night prior in the subway I gladly obliged. So we sat down and he started asked me questions about our trip. It turns out he was taking a survey for an on-line insurance company that focused on travel insurance. The survey lasted only about 4 or 5 minutes. He thanked me profusely for my time, wished me safe travels, and gave me a Japanese handkerchief as a thank you gift. It was a very nice way to bid farewell to Japan.

 

We then headed to the American Airlines checkin counter. As we had priority we entered through the priority lane though there was very little line to anywhere to begin with. We didn’t have to wait and all and were helped right away. The entire back check process took only a couple minutes and we were off to security. We again had priority security but I don’t think it would have mattered anyway. There was no line and the security was efficient. All electronics the size of an iPad or kindle or larger were to be removed the bag. Besides that we left shoes and belts on and breezed through security and that was it! We then had to go through passport control which basically was a quick scan of our passport and answering one question on a screen and we were done. No line for this either and very friendly people assisting. I was shocked by the simplicity of checkin and security but was very happy at how stress free it was.

 

NRT has very little in the way of bars and restaurants, at least in Terminal 2. All the Priority Pass lounges are before security as well which was a bit of a bummer. There is plenty of shopping from Tiffanys to Gucci, Prada, etc. plus lots of chocolate and candy stores. We stocked up on a few more items for home. We then ended up a nice little Ramen place right by our gate. Edward had some spicy Ramen. I don’t eat much before I fly but I did have some gyoza and sake. Edward had a small portion of gyoza as well along with a beer. In total I think the cost was about 4300yen, so $43. Gyoza was tasty and I tried Edward’s ramen. It was very well done, quite spicy too but really good flavor. Though probably not the best thing to have prior to a 9 / 10 hour flight.

 

Flight #1

 

We then went and sat by our gate for a bit. We met some other people who were also on our cruise and started talking about cruising because that is what you do! We had boarding group 4 as we were in Premium Economy. So we waited a bit and then got up and started boarding with our group. Boarding was very efficient. We were flying on a dreamliner back to LAX where we would then connect to Chicago. Premium economy on AA is essentially domestic first class. They use the same seats as they do in domestic first, which is the new “oasis” product which is fine but I prefer the older first class product on American…a bit more padding in the seats. We did have the bulkhead however, which is exactly where you want to be in premium economy. You have a true full leg rest and your proximity to the bathroom and galley is convenient (easy to signal for a drink). The only negative is that your TVs come out from the seat, therefore they need to be stowed to take off and landing so your TV usage is decreased by roughly 25/30 minutes at the start and end of your flight compared to those with TVs in the seatbacks.

 

The flight itself back was uneventful. Service was good and friendly, but not great. I guess what you’d expect in a premium economy product. I felt like I had more attentive service in economy on my Air Canada flight to Vancouver. Drink service could have been a bit sooner and a couple times more often. The food was quite good. We ordering the Asian Vegetarian options which on American is typically some sort of curry dish. It’s usually far better than the standard options given. The dishes were very flavorful both for dinner and the morning breakfast which was odun noodles. Though the “American Breakfast” they were serving actually looked really good this time around and the smell of bacon in the cabin had my mouth watering for some.

 

LAX to ORD

 

We arrived early into LAX because of incredible tailwinds. I think we made it to LAX in about 9 hours maybe even a couple minutes sooner which is incredible from NRT. We got off the plane and went through customs. Global entry as usual was quick and easy. Our bags came out pretty quick. We grabbed them and gave our ticket to the customs officer. Before doing that we had to deal with a wonderful TSA person who loved to exert her power on anyone walking by. Welcome back to America! We then rechecked our bags which was just handing our bags off to a baggage handler as we left immigration. Nice and easy as our bags were already properly tagged through.

 

We then had to go back through security. Pre-Check had a little bit of a line but nothing too crazy. We encountered some more friendly TSA people welcoming us back to America and then found ourselves with about a three and a half hour wait until our flight.

 

The highlight of our wait was we got to see Kodi Lee returning home. Do you know who he is? He is the recent winner of America’s Got Talent. He an autistic young man with an incredible talent not only to sing but to play as well. He sat down the row from us and people were coming up to take photos with him and he was enjoying every second of it. It was so great to see. I remember his first audition on the show which was very moving and I’m so happy to see he won and to see him in person!

 

Edward and I were at the gate the entire time. No drinking in LAX for us. I worked on my blog, checked instagram, all the usual stuff to pass time until our flight to ORD at 5:05pm.

 

Our flight boarded on time. On the way back we were in economy but in “Main Cabin Extra” which means we had more leg room. Specifically we were in an exit row which had even more leg room and thankfully we were seated next to a very frequent flyer so it was a nice flight back. Service was good on this flight. Drinks are free in Main Cabin Extra so we had a drink and ordered a sandwich which we had to pay for. I think each one was $12. I had a turkey avocado wrap and Edward had a ruben. I didn’t ask him how his was, but mine actually wasn’t bad at all and considering how hungry I was it was well worth the $12 since we were arriving back in Chicago around 11pm.

 

We ended up landing about 15/20 minutes early even though we had a late departure due to peoples inability to know how to board a plane. I swear, with the exception of our seat mate, no one on this plane had ever flown before. Thank goodness for great tail winds! So we land at ORD at 10:45pm and ORD welcomed us back in true ORD fashion by not having our gate ready. Not only was our gate not ready (Gate H8) but the plane at the gate had a mechanical issue which forced them to deplane, remove all bags, and then tug the plane out. Lovely. Now, you might be thinking why not move to another gate? Well, AA operations apparently waited 55 minutes to make this decision. Not only that, they were not even communicating with our flight deck for 45 minutes. Our captain would say he was calling operations but had no updates. I was literally tweeting American Airlines and got a quicker response! So after 55 minutes on the taxi way we finally started moving again and 60 minutes after landing we arrived at gate H15 at 11:45pm. We made our way to baggage. Waited about 15 minutes or our bags and then hopped into a taxi. Thankfully there was no traffic on the way home and we got home around 12:40am. It was a long long day! But hey you know, at the end of the day I have consider myself lucky to be able to complain about a full day of travel. I would much rather be in that position than be at home wondering what it is like to be able to travel like that, so I cannot complain.

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