Celebrity Millennium Japan - 10/24/2023 - Live(ish) Report

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, Canada17 said:

Miaminice, can you let us know at which port in Hiroshima did Millie dock at? Also, is there complimentary shuttle service into the city? We are doing this same itinerary this coming October. Thank you.

Hi,

 

Hiroshima wasn´t on this itinererary. The last time we have been to Hiroshima was quite a while ago - in 2017. I remember we took a train to Hiroshima Station from the port. So I don´t know if there will be a shuttle offered or not - sorry!

Hiroshima was part of this cruise: 
https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

Edited March 11 by Miaminice

[Canada17]

9 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Hi,

 

Hiroshima wasn´t on this itinererary. The last time we have been to Hiroshima was quite a while ago - in 2017. I remember we took a train to Hiroshima Station from the port. So I don´t know if there will be a shuttle offered or not - sorry!

Hiroshima was part of this cruise: 
https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

Thank you for the quick response Miaminice. I’ll try a new post to my cc friends. BTW love your travel logs, fantastic pictures and love the passion that you show in sharing your travels with us.

[Pharmd_excursionist]

Hi @Miaminice! Great cruise review. Thank you for showing us your journey. My wife and I are going in couple of weeks. We are thinking to do a pub crawl in Osaka since we are at the port overnight. Do they allow you to stay off the ship as late as you want or is there a specific time you have to be back on the ship at night? In other words, are you allowed to enter an exit the ship at any time at night during when the ship is parked at port overnight? Thank you!

[Miaminice]

3 hours ago, Pharmd_excursionist said:

Hi @Miaminice! Great cruise review. Thank you for showing us your journey. My wife and I are going in couple of weeks. We are thinking to do a pub crawl in Osaka since we are at the port overnight. Do they allow you to stay off the ship as late as you want or is there a specific time you have to be back on the ship at night? In other words, are you allowed to enter an exit the ship at any time at night during when the ship is parked at port overnight? Thank you!

Hi, yes they do 👍 You can come and go any time or even stay off the ship at a hotel - all fine.

[MandL]

Hi Oliver, 

 

Mark and I have so enjoyed following along with your travels. It’s been a long wait for our journey to Japan. We’re one of those that Celebrity has lifted and shifted since the start of Covid.  We finally head out Tuesday, and are spending four weeks in Japan (I guess the wait paid off, we retired in the mean time).  

 

Your wonderful outline with photos in port stops, along with the highlight of your trip  to “Kamakura” is so helpful.  It’s going to make our journey that much easier.  Thank you!!

 

[Miaminice]

3 hours ago, MandL said:

Hi Oliver, 

 

Mark and I have so enjoyed following along with your travels. It’s been a long wait for our journey to Japan. We’re one of those that Celebrity has lifted and shifted since the start of Covid.  We finally head out Tuesday, and are spending four weeks in Japan (I guess the wait paid off, we retired in the mean time).  

 

Your wonderful outline with photos in port stops, along with the highlight of your trip  to “Kamakura” is so helpful.  It’s going to make our journey that much easier.  Thank you!!

 

Enjoy Japan! Just be careful - for us it was love on first sight. The fourth cruise is already booked.

 

Have a great time!

[DaKahuna]

25 minutes ago, Miaminice said:

Enjoy Japan! Just be careful - for us it was love on first sight. The fourth cruise is already booked.

 

 

 Trying to talk my wife into taking a day pre-cruise to go house hunting!! 

 

[Northern Aurora]

Oliver:  I also re-read your travel reports regarding Japan.  We spent a month there in 2018 and will be returning for B2B cruises.  I suspect we may be on the same cruise as @MandL.  

 

But I have a quick question -- have you been to Nara?  Both of our cruises overnight in Osaka and we are considering going to Nara for the day.

[hammo]

Thanks for the wonderful posts , and all the photos . We are doing this cruise cruise in August 2025 , but also SO  interested in your Singapore to Hongkong which we are on in January this year on Solstice . Please do the same as you have previously posted , its just a wonderful insight and an inspiration to us who have followd your travels  . 

[Miaminice]

27 minutes ago, hammo said:

Thanks for the wonderful posts , and all the photos . We are doing this cruise cruise in August 2025 , but also SO  interested in your Singapore to Hongkong which we are on in January this year on Solstice . Please do the same as you have previously posted , its just a wonderful insight and an inspiration to us who have followd your travels  . 

Hi and thank you!
We did post while on the cruise. You can find it here:

If you are looking for private tours in Vietnam, contact Rose! She is absolutely the best!!! 

[loveladyc]

On 3/14/2024 at 12:46 PM, MandL said:

Hi Oliver, 

 

Mark and I have so enjoyed following along with your travels. It’s been a long wait for our journey to Japan. We’re one of those that Celebrity has lifted and shifted since the start of Covid.  We finally head out Tuesday, and are spending four weeks in Japan (I guess the wait paid off, we retired in the mean time).  

 

Your wonderful outline with photos in port stops, along with the highlight of your trip  to “Kamakura” is so helpful.  It’s going to make our journey that much easier.  Thank you!!

 

Other than Yokyo- Kamakura was the best of all the things we did.

[Miaminice]

4 hours ago, loveladyc said:

Other than Yokyo- Kamakura was the best of all the things we did.

yes, Kamakura sure is special. On this trip it was like the icing on the cake!

[MandL]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

yes, Kamakura sure is special. On this trip it was like the icing on the cake!

 Couldn’t agree more.  Just returned after 30 days of this wonderful country.  We did the journey on our own as you did to Kamakura. Might not have if it wasn’t for your wonderful outline and photos.  It was definitely a highlight of our trip. Thanks again!

[Swordfish1949]

Thanks so much for a great post....appreciate the time you invested.

[debfed65]

On 10/27/2023 at 11:13 AM, Miaminice said:

First we took the local train to Osaka Station where we changed to Japans marvelous Shinkansen Bullet Train. Smoothly soaring along the track at 265 kmh or 165 mph we reached Kyoto in no time. 

 

Hello from Toronto🇨🇦!

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your live(ish) report & all your beautiful pictures and all the details you have provided.  Your wife always looks so happy in the photos 😃

 

We are taking our first Japan cruise on Millennium this October followed by the northeast Asia cruise.  I hope you can help me out with a couple of questions!

 

Taking the local train to Osaka Station - is the local train station close to Tempozan Pier? How much does it cost, and how much does it cost for the Bullet Train from Osaka to Kyoto? How long is the total journey (approx.) from the ship pier to Kyoto? 

 

Is it possible to do Kyoto on our own or do we need to hire a guide? I completely understand that hiring a guide would be optimal, but if we could see a few sights on our own then we could do that unless it is too difficult to navigate?  We have an overnight there so we have plenty of time to go at our own pace if it isn't too overwhelming.

 

We have the Osaka Castle and Dotonburi District tour booked with Celebrity, but it looked like you did it on your own (which I would prefer).  Was this fairly simple to do, with enough time for our 3pm port departure? How do I find the train schedule for this?  

 

It seems there are many train lines, but I do not know if there is one simple website where you can see the train schedules and pricing.  I thought the trains in Italy were confusing, but this is truly confusing! 

 

We are very excited to see Japan and all of it's beauty!  I appreciate any & all advice/information you can provide.

 

Thank you...Debbie & Ron

[Miaminice]

11 hours ago, debfed65 said:

Hello from Toronto🇨🇦!

 

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your live(ish) report & all your beautiful pictures and all the details you have provided.  Your wife always looks so happy in the photos 😃

 

We are taking our first Japan cruise on Millennium this October followed by the northeast Asia cruise.  I hope you can help me out with a couple of questions!

 

Taking the local train to Osaka Station - is the local train station close to Tempozan Pier? How much does it cost, and how much does it cost for the Bullet Train from Osaka to Kyoto? How long is the total journey (approx.) from the ship pier to Kyoto? 

 

Is it possible to do Kyoto on our own or do we need to hire a guide? I completely understand that hiring a guide would be optimal, but if we could see a few sights on our own then we could do that unless it is too difficult to navigate?  We have an overnight there so we have plenty of time to go at our own pace if it isn't too overwhelming.

 

We have the Osaka Castle and Dotonburi District tour booked with Celebrity, but it looked like you did it on your own (which I would prefer).  Was this fairly simple to do, with enough time for our 3pm port departure? How do I find the train schedule for this?  

 

It seems there are many train lines, but I do not know if there is one simple website where you can see the train schedules and pricing.  I thought the trains in Italy were confusing, but this is truly confusing! 

 

We are very excited to see Japan and all of it's beauty!  I appreciate any & all advice/information you can provide.

 

Thank you...Debbie & Ron

Hello and thank you!

 

The Tempozan Metro station is actually not far away from the pier. Maybe five minutes on foot. The trains, incl. Shinkansen, are fairly inexpensive. Japan is the land of trains. The total time to Kyoto is probably around an hour. The Shinkansen part is only 15 minutes or so.

 

However, I would strongly recommend hiring a guide. Since this is your first visit to Japan and Kyoto, you would spend too much time trying to figure out how to get from A to B. Kyoto has so much to offer. We have now been there three times and we still haven’t seen it all. The individual sites are not very close to each other, so it’s really the best to hire a guide, arrange a tour with him and just follow his lead instead of wasting time on figuring out which train to take and were to go. I am no fan of Celebrity tours at all so I can only recommend taking a private guide. I can highly recommend Koichi, with whom we booked our tours over the last cruises. I can give you his contact information.

Since this report a few others followed my recommendation and toured with Kochi. All came back very happy. 

 

Osaka on the other hand is very easy to do on your own. Walk to the train station take the train to the castle, walk around, visit the castle and then take a train to the Dotonbori area to enjoy the weird and entertaining buzz. Koichi also offers tours in Osaka, but contrary to Kyoto, I‘d say you can easily do it on your own.

 

The best way to find the right train connection is Google Maps or Apple Maps. The pricing is not really a problem because the Metro rides are only between 1 and 4 USD. I used an Airalo eSim so we always had internet to look at maps and connections etc.

Oliver

 

 

[debfed65]

1 hour ago, Miaminice said:

Hello and thank you!

 

The Tempozan Metro station is actually not far away from the pier. Maybe five minutes on foot. The trains, incl. Shinkansen, are fairly inexpensive. Japan is the land of trains. The total time to Kyoto is probably around an hour. The Shinkansen part is only 15 minutes or so.

 

However, I would strongly recommend hiring a guide. Since this is your first visit to Japan and Kyoto, you would spend too much time trying to figure out how to get from A to B. Kyoto has so much to offer. We have now been there three times and we still haven’t seen it all. The individual sites are not very close to each other, so it’s really the best to hire a guide, arrange a tour with him and just follow his lead instead of wasting time on figuring out which train to take and were to go. I am no fan of Celebrity tours at all so I can only recommend taking a private guide. I can highly recommend Koichi, with whom we booked our tours over the last cruises. I can give you his contact information.

Since this report a few others followed my recommendation and toured with Kochi. All came back very happy. 

 

Osaka on the other hand is very easy to do on your own. Walk to the train station take the train to the castle, walk around, visit the castle and then take a train to the Dotonbori area to enjoy the weird and entertaining buzz. Koichi also offers tours in Osaka, but contrary to Kyoto, I‘d say you can easily do it on your own.

 

The best way to find the right train connection is Google Maps or Apple Maps. The pricing is not really a problem because the Metro rides are only between 1 and 4 USD. I used an Airalo eSim so we always had internet to look at maps and connections etc.

Oliver

 

 

Thank you Oliver for this information.  I dislike ship tours as well but we had OBC to use up so that is where I spent it.  We will do Osaka on our own,  and drop that ship excursion. 

 

I am not sure if you can post Kochi contact info on this board, but if you can that would be great.  

 

I will have to research eSim - I have never used one but I do hear a lot of people mentioning them on these boards.  I don't know how they work 🤔

 

I am in the process of reading your "Cherry Blossoms and Tranquility" on the Westerdam right now as some of the ports you visited are on either the Japan cruise, or the northeast Asia following.  If I have any questions from that post, would you mind if I posed the questions on this forum, if you don't mind me reaching out?

 

Again, thank you very much for your time. The details you provide are very helpful. 

Debbie & Ron

 

PS.  I think I will need to learn how to use chopsticks as well before we get to Japan! 🥢🍜 Your local food pics looked amazing!

[ClarP]

Hi Oliver 

 

I also am finding your posts very helpful. We are going to Japan at a different time to the last people who posted and would also like the details of Koichi as it is good to have a recommendation. I have googled him but don’t know if it is the same one. Is it possible to put his contact details on here? 

[Miaminice]

@debfed65 @ClarP

 

Hi, those are Koichi’s details. Let him know I sent you and he’ll surely take good care of you! 
 

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, debfed65 said:

If I have any questions from that post, would you mind if I posed the questions on this forum, if you don't mind me reaching out?

Sure, no problem!
There’s also a review of our first cruise to Japan on our website. Also on Millennium.

[debfed65]

5 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Sure, no problem!
There’s also a review of our first cruise to Japan on our website. Also on Millennium.

Thank you I will look on your website and read everything! 😊 

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, debfed65 said:

I will have to research eSim - I have never used one but I do hear a lot of people mentioning them on these boards.  I don't know how they work 🤔

 

 If you phone is compatible, an eSIM basically allows your phone to connect via cellular vice WiFi to the Japanese system.  Due to government restrictions, foreigners normally cannot get a Japanese phone number so the eSIMs only give you access to data. This means you can browse the Web, send and receive text messages but may not be able to make or receive phone calls.  

 

[ClarP]

11 hours ago, Miaminice said:

@debfed65 @ClarP

 

Hi, those are Koichi’s details. Let him know I sent you and he’ll surely take good care of you! 
 

Thank you ver much. I have contacted him and already had a reply and reserved him. 

[Miaminice]

9 hours ago, ClarP said:

Thank you ver much. I have contacted him and already had a reply and reserved him. 

you will not regret it for sure!

[Miaminice]

22 hours ago, debfed65 said:

will have to research eSim - I have never used one but I do hear a lot of people mentioning them on these boards.  I don't know how they work 🤔

It’s actually pretty easy. Newer phones allow you to install a secondary virtual sim without actually physically installing a card.

 

However, I have to correct my statement in a previous post. In Japan I used an Ubigi eSim, not an Airalo. I was told Ubigi has the better connection in Japan. 
I used Airalo in Southeast Asia.

Both websites have good video tutorials on how to activate the eSim and which settings to use.