Alternate to Vladivostok?

[asebastian]

Hi all,

In the itinerary of our next cruise in Japan, Vladivostok was listed as a port of call. However. due to the current situation with Russia, we're expecting this port call to disappear and possibly another one in Japan substituted.

 

Would anyone hazard a guess what port that would be, possibly in the northern part of Japan? Or would we be getting an additional sea day? Anyone had Vladivostok cancelled before?

 

Thanks

[skurvish]

Due to the rules the ships must visit a foreign port before returning to Japan. Our Westerdam cruise this coming April has substituted Busan South Korea. I suspect that will be yours as well.

[Sir PMP]

Too bad, Vladivostok is a great city, I would say, Incheon, Busan or Jeju Island S.Korea.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Too bad, Vladivostok is a great city, I would say, Incheon, Busan or Jeju Island S.Korea.

It does not matter how great a city in Russia is, no cruise ship is going there for the foreseeable future.

[cruisemom42]

I'm on the itinerary already mentioned above where Busan (South Korea) is substituted for Vladivostok. Frankly, after researching it, I never thought Vladivostok had that much to offer. I'm much more excited about going to Busan.

[Sir PMP]

9 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

I'm on the itinerary already mentioned above where Busan (South Korea) is substituted for Vladivostok. Frankly, after researching it, I never thought Vladivostok had that much to offer. I'm much more excited about going to Busan.

Busan hasn't much to offer, nice walk around, a large fish market and that's it.

[bennybear]

We did visit Vladivostok, and although interesting it was shocking how bad things were crumbling at the viewpoint,  not to mention the dismal quality of the museum we visited.     It has a wonderful harbour,  but pales in comparison to St. Petersburg.  

 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by bennybear

[Copper10-8]

I'm thinking chances are descent Nampo, DPRK instead of Vladi.................with a daytrip to Pyongyang.................. 😉

Edited November 26, 2022 by Copper10-8

[chengkp75]

3 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

I'm thinking chances are descent Nampo, DPRK instead of Vladi.................with a daytrip to Pyongyang.................. 😉

Been to Hungnam, wouldn't recommend it.

[Copper10-8]

57 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

Been to Hungnam, wouldn't recommend it.

 

Been to Paju and inside the 3rd infiltration DMZ tunnel. Interesting experience!

 

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by Copper10-8

[Ottawa traveller]

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Busan hasn't much to offer, nice walk around, a large fish market and that's it.

You can also take the Busan subway to Beomeosa Temple, a Buddhist shrine at the base of Geumjeong Mountain which has hiking trails.  I have done this. It is 25 stops on the subway and a short bus ride, but I was able to do it in half a day.  There is also Gamcheon Culture Village which is a 25-minute bus ride from the fish market area which I plan to do on my Westerdam trip in March.  Online you can find many other things to do and using Google Maps you can plan how to get there. Just be a little adventurous.

[asebastian]

Thank you all for your responses. Happy with Busan!

[LuAnn]

20 hours ago, asebastian said:

Thank you all for your responses. Happy with Busan!

We thought the Fish Market in Busan was really interesting..all women vendors. We saw an octopus climb out of his bucket and walk across the street!!! 😉 🙂

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, LuAnn said:

We thought the Fish Market in Busan was really interesting..all women vendors. We saw an octopus climb out of his bucket and walk across the street!!! 😉 🙂

Why did the octopus cross the street?

 

To get to the other side. 🤣

[cruisemom42]

Was that an octopus or a walktopus?  😆

[MamaFej]

Interesting. I've wanted to visit Busan ever since reading an article about it in a AAA magazine a few years ago. I don't remember all of the details, but I do recall the culture village and temple mentioned above. The accompanying photos were stunning. 

 

We have Jeju Island on a cruise in 2024, and the comment above about the all female vendors at the fish market reminds me of a Sleep Story I have in rotation about female free divers there. 

 

I'd prefer not to directly contribute to the Russian economy again unless and until things change a lot. So it's pretty unlikely that I will. 

[asebastian]

Checked out the fish market in YouTube. Sounds interesting, you can buy any kind of seafood at the market at retail prices, and take it to the restaurants upstairs where they will prepare and cook it for you!

[rj59]

Aomori in the far north of mainland Japan is across from Vladivostok--I could see it when I was stationed nearby in the Air Force. I believe I've seen it on a cruise itinerary, and they have a truly amazing parade and festival of Nebuta lantern floats in summer.

[asebastian]

Itinerary at the moment includes Yokohama, Miyako, Hakodate, Aomori, Vladivostok, Sakaiminato, Sasebo, Kagoshima, Kochi and back to Yokohama.

 

This is for the 13-day Japan Discovery cruise. First of our B2B2B that we have booked, all on the Westerdam!

Edited November 29, 2022 by asebastian
typo

[bennybear]

There is a wonderful novel by Lisa  See,  Island of the Sea Women,  that is about Jeju island.  Well worth a read.  

17 hours ago, asebastian said:

Itinerary at the moment includes Yokohama, Miyako, Hakodate, Aomori, Vladivostok, Sakaiminato, Sasebo, Kagoshima, Kochi and back to Yokohama.

 

This is for the 13-day Japan Discovery cruise. First of our B2B2B that we have booked, all on the Westerdam!

That’s a wonderful itinerary. 

[MamaFej]

3 hours ago, bennybear said:

There is a wonderful novel by Lisa  See,  Island of the Sea Women,  that is about Jeju island.  Well worth a read.  

That’s a wonderful itinerary. 

Thanks for this. I've read at least three of Lisa See's books (including her non-fiction one about her own family, in which I learned so much interesting history). I enjoy her writing, and will be on the lookout for this book before our 2024 trip. 

[asebastian]

An updated itinerary from HAL today - Vladivostok now replaced with Sokcho, South Korea. Have to do some research on what's there to see/experience. A smallish city not far from the North Korean border!

 

Disappointed that it's not Busan though.

[Colorado Klutch]

I recently spent two weeks in South Korea. I was far south of Sokcho in Osan and Seoul, but everywhere I went I found the people to be very pleasant and polite which means a lot to me.

 

I also really liked the Korean BBQ restaurants. There was always a lot of variety. You could cook the food yourself tableside, but the staff typically saw how clueless I was and did it for me. 😃

 

Korean fried chicken is very popular and it's pretty good. 

 

Noodle restaurants are EVERYWHERE. I gave that a try, but it wasn't my thing. 

 

I saw a lot of good deals on luggage, blankets, suits and coats. People tell me the deals aren't nearly as good as they were before the Olympics, but prices were still pretty good. Unfortunately, you won't have to time to have a custom suit or coat made.

 

Just a few points. 

 

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

We also received an email from HAL today (1/7/23) announcing that our Westerdam Japan cruise will be stopping at Sokcho, South Korea instead of Vladivostok, Russia.  The cruise  itinerary kept all the scheduled port-of-calls, but tweaked them by an hour or so.  HAL also added Nagasaki, which was a nice surprise!

[USN59-79]

Interesting that those of us on the 10 April Westerdam cruise received an email from HAL on 9 August notifying us of the change from Vladivostok to Buson.  They have yet to notify us if we need to apply for an ETA visa for Korea.  Was that mentioned in your itinerary change to Sokcho?

Ray