Have you done the Japan Intensive?

[IslandThyme]

Hello - I'm considering booking this, plus the pre-cruise Traditional Japan land tour, for 2022. I'd be traveling solo and have spent a lot of time cruising, but only on HAL and Celebrity. Two years ago I did the HAL Grand Asia, 89 days, and my favorite stops were in Japan, so this cruise looks very appealing to me.

 

I'd very much appreciate hearing about your experience with this itinerary, and as a first time Azamara cruiser, anything you think I might need to know about the land portion. Thanks in advance!

[IslandThyme]

Wow, nobody has sailed this itinerary?

[Grandma Cruising]

4 hours ago, IslandThyme said:

Wow, nobody has sailed this itinerary?

You may have to wait a while. As there’s no Azamara sailings at present, fewer people than usual are looking at CC.

[ellbon]

Tons of us have done this cruise under some name. One I wish I did the same cruise twice so one day you rush around on a tour and the next time you do your own thing .

like a nice lunch out. 
 

land tour..no way.. there enough to do in Tokyo to keep you busy for days. Also you can price it out for less using many companies.

[hamrag]

5 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

You may have to wait a while. As there’s no Azamara sailings at present, fewer people than usual are looking at CC.

Gracious response, as ever, mine would have been more like....'Patience'!!....

[DRJVH]

We did a Japan intensive last year. Loved it and the fact you’re doing a land tour is even better. We hope to do Japan again but not cruising,  a land tour next time. 
A couple of ports were not really worthwhile but we had an overnight in Osaka so were  able to get up to Kyoto for one day. Didn’t enjoy Busan (South Korea) but just my opinion. 

[donaldsc]

This may be of some minor help.  I was scheduled to do this cruise but had to cancel because of an illness.  I had a whole bunch of really good sounding private tours as I did not find that the ship tours sounded at all interesting.  In a few ports, even if you wanted to take a ship tour which I never do, there were absolutely no ship tours offered.  Also, you need to be careful when they say that a stop is at a particularly interesting tourist site.  When you look at the map, the interesting site will be 2 hours from the ship port so the time to get to and from the site is more than you get to actually spend at the site.   

 

Ignoring all these negatives, I was really sorry that I did not get to take the cruise.

 

DON

[AJCM]

For what it’s worth, we passed on Azamara last year and did Regent instead. Azamara’s pricing meant that Regent, with its shore excursions included (and we expected we’d need to do ship excursions in most ports irrespective of who we cruised with) was only a little more expensive than Azamara would have been, including comparable excursions. So we opted for Regent; which at the time  also included a 3 day land program before or after. I think that’s an extra cost next year.

 

Anyway, we thought the Azamara itinerary was more appealing but their pricing deterred us. We loved the Japan cruise. All the excursions we did were very good, with a focus on the most beautiful and varied garden settings, temples and shrines and we’d happily go again. Tokyo was fantastic and pretty easy to get around using the train system, if you plan a few extra days solo pre or post cruise. The pre-land program we did with Regent was good, to get a feel for the layout of Tokyo and we met some great people who we then enjoyed the cruise with. I’m sure you’d have the same benefits doing it with Azamara. Dining and getting around independently in Tokyo is not difficult; especially if you’ve done a guided land program before the cruise. We loved the time we had independently after the cruise and stayed close to Shinjuku station, which proved to be a good base. The train system is exceptional and many of the things a tourist would want to get to are on a large rail loop, which simplifies the process. 
 

You'll have a great experience. I think Azamara pricing may be more competitive now than when we booked. At the time, it was Aza’s first venture to Japan, I think; so they went for very high pricing, like they do with the Black Sea voyages. It’s worth checking the pricing of the luxury lines, just in case - especially Regent, because of the inclusion of excursions - Japan really is one place where you probably need to do ship excursions due to language and relative distances to destinations.

[Mackdogmolly]

On 9/9/2020 at 9:28 PM, IslandThyme said:

Wow, nobody has sailed this itinerary?

Some friends of mine did this sailing last September and absolutely loved it. I would love to do it as well, but it is pricey and I like an itinerary with a few more sea days.

[IslandThyme]

Thanks to everyone who's answered, and  I'm happy to hear so many positive responses. I'm not a big city person and did spend two very full days in Tokyo a couple of years ago. The land tour appeals to me because it's seven days mostly not in Tokyo, traveling around quite a bit.

 

I have to agree that the prices seem really high, but then, Japan is expensive in general. I will look to see whether any other lines are offering a similar itinerary, but I'm curious to try Azamara since HAL, where I've spent the most time, really isn't my demographic.

 

I love the itinerary on paper, and am happiest with no or very few sea days. I hope that with time others will speak up here and tell me more about their experiences.

Edited September 11, 2020 by IslandThyme

[IslandThyme]

On 9/10/2020 at 9:57 AM, donaldsc said:

.  I had a whole bunch of really good sounding private tours as I did not find that the ship tours sounded at all interesting. 

I'm not much for ship's tours myself, so if you still have that list I might be able to put your research to good use!

[Mackdogmolly]

2 hours ago, IslandThyme said:

Thanks to everyone who's answered, and  I'm happy to hear so many positive responses. I'm not a big city person and did spend two very full days in Tokyo a couple of years ago. The land tour appeals to me because it's seven days mostly not in Tokyo, traveling around quite a bit.

 

I have to agree that the prices seem really high, but then, Japan is expensive in general. I will look to see whether any other lines are offering a similar itinerary, but I'm curious to try Azamara since HAL, where I've spent the most time, really isn't my demographic.

 

I love the itinerary on paper, and am happiest with no or very few sea days. I hope that with time others will speak up here and tell me more about their experiences.

Well, the Azamara experience is really pretty special. And I thought the itinerary looked great. Just would have liked a couple more sea days.

[donaldsc]

2 hours ago, IslandThyme said:

I'm not much for ship's tours myself, so if you still have that list I might be able to put your research to good use!

 

I looked but I must have erased that file folder when I cancelled the cruise.  Sorry but I can not help you.

 

DON

[ellbon]

There were a couple ports where not a lot to see uses you went inland. One you could walked the stops if a good walker. But I did not know that and wish I had.  Butkus Er allJapan is great.

 

two days in Tokyo are not enough.. Barely made a dent 

[DRJVH]

We only did one ship tour and that was to get to the airport. 
We preferred Kyoto to Tokyo, it seemed a much less busy city. 
We did a great walking tour of Kyoto and rode on the local buses. 
All in all the Japanese are very polite and will always try and help you, the cities and towns are clean and love the food. 
 

[Covepointcruiser]

We hit three ports in Japan on Seabourn.   You must pack very carefully!    Though it may be different in Tokyo, at others places in Japan there are no American size clothing unless you are petite!    You will not find socks or hose that will fit.   We were in search of winter type socks and clothing as it was much colder than expected.   I am a ladies size 8 or 10 U.S. and I could not find anything.   Also be warned that certain over the counter meds are not available.    We especially missed any kind of antacid or normal brands of aspirin.    Labels were not in English but we asked and were told they don’t have those problems in Japan.

 

Other than that the towns were very orderly and clean.   It is certainly an interesting place to visit..

[cruisemom42]

If you are talking about the cruise that basically circumnavigates Japan, usually during cherry blossom season, I haven't taken it but am considering it and thought I would post my thoughts. I was booked on HAL's version of this cruise for April 2020 which was, of course cancelled -- much to my disappointment. I am also a solo woman traveler. Some things I liked better about HAL's itinerary, but I like the idea of going to Busan more than HAL's stop in Vladivostock, so there is that...

 

I sail with a number of cruise lines and have only one foray so far on Azamara (Cuba in 2018), but really like the line. I'm a huge fan of small ships. HAL's pricing for this cruise is less, but Azamara is more inclusive and sometimes will have good solo pricing, so the difference isn't as much as you may suppose.

 

I've done two weeks in Japan with my son about 10 years ago, we did the major highlights in Tokyo and Kyoto and the vicinity all on our own except for a couple of day tours -- quite easy. For me, I would just plan to fly in a couple of days ahead of departure and spend them getting accustomed to the time change, which is rough (found it much worse than US to Europe).

 

Someone on the HAL cruise set up quite a lot of very good private tours, most of which I had joined. 

 

This is an itinerary that I really want to do at some point. As of right now, Azamara would be top of my list for it.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

We hit three ports in Japan on Seabourn.   You must pack very carefully!    Though it may be different in Tokyo, at others places in Japan there are no American size clothing unless you are petite!    You will not find socks or hose that will fit.   We were in search of winter type socks and clothing as it was much colder than expected.   I am a ladies size 8 or 10 U.S. and I could not find anything.   Also be warned that certain over the counter meds are not available.    We especially missed any kind of antacid or normal brands of aspirin.    Labels were not in English but we asked and were told they don’t have those problems in Japan.

 

Other than that the towns were very orderly and clean.   It is certainly an interesting place to visit..

 

So true!  I am tall-ish but not unreasonably so (5'8") and wear size 9.5 women's shoes. One of the pair I took with me on our land trip there basically self-destructed, so I tried several times to find a replacement -- no luck. Women's sizes didn't run that large and I couldn't work up courage to go look in men's stores....  We did love checking out all the vending machine food, and especially trying fizzy jello Fanta drinks.

 

[IslandThyme]

Yes, definitely no clothes in my size in Japan. Not in many countries, for that matter. As a tall and plus-size person, I plan to buy earrings and scarves wherever I travel.

 

My thought in doing a week-long pre-cruise land tour, called Traditional Japan, is that I would get to know the other people on the tour and thus have some ready-made friends when boarding. I don't make friends easily, and traveling solo is a real challenge for me, even though I've spent over 100 days solo on board.

 

But I cruise for the itinerary, so anything else is a bonus. And the Japan Intensive looks like a good one for being somewhat off the beaten path.

[darcori]

We went with Azamara on this last year and did the back to back starting in Alaska, making it about a month long journey. It was a fantastic trip! Some of the stops did not have amazing features, but we enjoy the small things so just walking around in the port area and seeing what the people were doing and interacting (when possible) with a few people was alway very interesting. I hope you do get to take the trip.

[IslandThyme]

I am booked on this trip, but would love to do a B2B. However, Journey will repeat the same itinerary immediately after my sailing, and the one before is all in Asia, which I would enjoy, but consists of at least 50% sea days, which doesn't interest me at all.

[NeilWM]

We too are on 11 April Japan cruise and always love B2B. Unfortunately in that part of Asia cruises tend to circumnavigate Japan, do lots of Asia down to Hong Kong/Singapore or head to Alaska. I think we will either stay a few days after the cruise in Japan or fly down to Hong Kong for a few days.

[Leo_On_Geo]

Hi,
 

i am a solo traveler as well. You got me inspired to write a review of my cruise last year, that may give some helpful info. Usually I organize private tours, but Japan is very easy to navigate without a tour.  Everyone is super helpful. Kyoto should be done as a several day/ night trip.  I stayed at the Keoko Plaza hotel in Shinjuku, they held my large luggage while I took a small overnight bag on train trip to Kyoto.  Other hotels would do this as well, which makes it easy to do a small land trip Pre or post cruise.  I recommend staying at a traditional Ryokan at least one night.  Restaurants are easy too as they usually have plastic food that you can see and order just by pointing. Fun!
 

Lisa

 

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