North Pacific Passage - Sep 17, 2023

[milling73]

Can anyone give review / feedback on this cruise - Vancouver, BC to Tokyo, Japan?  Offered excursions -- expensive?  Is September still normally warm enough to be outside loungers? The Sep 2023 cruise is currently on sale with free air, cabin upgrade, reduced rates etc..  

 

Usually sales like that quickly fill,  and the cruise does seem to offer a lot of beautiful sights, and yet this one has a lot of vacancy. Curious as to why not sold out.   Is it too many "at sea" days?  Weather?  

 

Tempted to book, but seeking Thoughts from fellow cruisers?

 

Thanks All....

[Jim Avery]

Not the cruise but I used to work ships up this way.  I love Alaska but Dutch Harbor was for one year my northern terminus.  The word among all of us sailors was that Dutch Harbor was not the end of the world, but you could see it from there.....🍸

[CurlerRob]

1 hour ago, milling73 said:

Can anyone give review / feedback on this cruise - Vancouver, BC to Tokyo, Japan?  Offered excursions -- expensive?  Is September still normally warm enough to be outside loungers? The Sep 2023 cruise is currently on sale with free air, cabin upgrade, reduced rates etc..  

 

Usually sales like that quickly fill,  and the cruise does seem to offer a lot of beautiful sights, and yet this one has a lot of vacancy. Curious as to why not sold out.   Is it too many "at sea" days?  Weather?  

 

Tempted to book, but seeking Thoughts from fellow cruisers?

 

Thanks All....

 

I can't speak from actual experience, but can offer a few thoughts based on the fact that we were booked on the Grand Pacific Explorer (Vancouver to Auckland) - of which this cruise is the first leg. We chose to defer that trip late in 2022, based on the level of uncertainty surrounding access to Japan, Hong Kong and several of the other Asian ports. Interestingly, the full GPE cruise is still sold out - obviously that is due to sell outs on the latter part of the longer trip, not the first leg. (Or, Viking's odd use of "sold out" is back to confuse us ...).

 

Much of this leg is well into the northern latitudes. It's also pretty much the end of the Alaska season. In our planning, we expected weather for much of the Alaska run to be in the mid to low 50's (F) with  rain about 1/3 of the time. It certainly could be better, but that would be a pleasant surprise. We would still use our balcony, but fully expected to be fairly bundled up between the temperature and wind generated during sailing.

 

We love the sea days, so that would not have been an issue for us, however, that's a personal preference.

 

One possible reason for the vacancies may be that the 6-month PIF date (for those who were able to secure it) is just in the recent past. It's not unusual to find a lot of cancellations when it comes time to pony up the full cost.

 

We are booked on the slightly longer reverse trip, Hong Kong to Vancouver, in April 2024, which is also shoulder season, but obviously reversed.

 

It's really a question of what you like and will tolerate. For us, the itinerary vastly outweighs any weather concerns. Best of luck with your decision! 🍺🥌

[WestW]

We took this cruise in August 2019 on the Orion from Vancouver to Hong Kong and thoroughly enjoyed it. We couldn't turn down the opportunity to see Alaska and Japan in one cruise.  It was actually a back-2-back Vancouver to Tokyo / Tokyo to Hong Kong cruise.

 

You would be leaving almost a month later so I can't comment on September weather. We had delightful early fall-like weather in Alaska with just a couple of light rain days and mostly calm seas for the whole cruise.  Japan was warm in the north and hot in the south.   

 

At that time it included two stops in Russia (particularly enjoyed Petropavlovsk) which are now obviously eliminated.  We loved Japan and highly recommend spending more time there if you can't continue on from Tokyo to Hong Kong (southern Japan was a highlight). 

 

Given it is a longer cruise, you may find the passenger demographics to lean toward retirees that can take the time off compared to the typical Alaska-only cruisers.  Guest lecturers were great and included a marine biologist, astronomer and expert historians.

Edited April 21, 2023 by WestW

[milling73]

WestW /- thank you!!

[zalusky]

I don't know how this will affect Alaska weather but I saw on the news the other they are expecting a very strong El Nino for this coming winter.  Usually that means more southerly weather but it could also mean more early weather.  Sometimes it also means Alaska is drier.