Any options for Japan cruise other than Millie?

[zitsky]

We’d like to do a Japan cruise.  We are on the Millie in Bali.   It seems a bit limited with just a few restaurants.  I’d prefer to cruise Japan with an S or E class ship.  Am I being overly critical?  Has M class always been used for Japan? 
 

Has anyone cruised Japan on a non Celebrity ship?

[NMTraveller]

Hmmm.  I was looking at the same thing.  The only thing that I could find was the Diamond Princess which was a 10 day cruise vs.  the Millie 12 day cruise.  Of course some of the other luxury lines have  Japan cruises...

 

If the Diamond Princess did a 12 day cruise in May (they don't) I would probably book it.

 

My criteria was as much Japan as possible with minimal Korea ...

 

Your options are more  if you want to go other places as well as Japan...

Edited February 24 by NMTraveller

[zitsky]

2 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Hmmm.  I was looking at the same thing.  The only thing that I could find was the Diamond Princess which was a 9 day cruise vs.  the Millie 12 day cruise.  Of course some of the other luxury lines have  Japan cruises...

 

If the Diamond Princess did a 12 day cruise in May (they don't) I would probably book it.

 

My criteria was as much Japan as possible with minimal Korea ...

 

Your options are more  if you want to go other places as well as Japan...

I’m on the same page.  Don’t mind going to Korea although I prefer to visit Jeju Island rather than Busan.

 

I want to maximize time in Japan and see as much as I can.

[NMTraveller]

I am also seeing 19 and 20 day Japan cruises on Diamond Princess.  A bit long for myself...

They look like two cruises back to back with different itineraries...

[mahasamatman]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

I am also seeing 19 and 20 day Japan cruises on Diamond Princess.  A bit long for myself...

They look like two cruises back to back with different itineraries...

 

We're doing that in June/July. It's two 9-day cruises back-to-back. In addition to the Japan ports, one makes a couple of stops in Taiwan, and the other has one stop in Korea.

[Miaminice]

We just booked our fourth cruise to Japan - on Millennium.

Two of the previous cruises were on Millennium, one on HAL Westerdam. We wouldn’t do HAL again. Didn’t like the layout and we were pretty disappointed by the food.

 

Our last cruise to Japan was in October 2023 on Millennium and we really enjoyed the refreshed ship. Yes, she’s still a M class ship - but they did a great job. She feels fresh and modern.

Review can be found here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/

 

 

For our fourth Japan cruise we were looking at different itineraries and looked into NCL and Princess. Further investigating the different ports of their itineraries soon brought us back to Millennium. Celebrity’s ports of call offer many different opportunities - even though we have been to all of them before more than once. Some of the smaller ports visited by NCL and Princess just don’t offer a lot - with some I’d even say nothing.

 

So in a nutshell: even though we were open to alternatives we gladly chose Millennium again. And we also prefer E class or S class - but think M class is a perfect size for the Japan cruises.

[billc23]

8 hours ago, zitsky said:

We’d like to do a Japan cruise.  We are on the Millie in Bali.   It seems a bit limited with just a few restaurants.  I’d prefer to cruise Japan with an S or E class ship.  Am I being overly critical?  Has M class always been used for Japan? 
 

Has anyone cruised Japan on a non Celebrity ship?

Silversea. Similar pricing to Sky Suite.

[NMTraveller]

9 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

We're doing that in June/July. It's two 9-day cruises back-to-back. In addition to the Japan ports, one makes a couple of stops in Taiwan, and the other has one stop in Korea.

I would look forward to a short review.  I am still sitting on the fence trying to decide between Millie and the Diamond Princess.

 

The 12 day Millie vs 10 day Diamond only has one extra port.

 

The Diamond has more local Japanese on board.  I think that would be useful to learn more about Japanese life vs. just going on excursions...

Edited February 24 by NMTraveller

[txtechmk]

We loved the Millie cruise around Japan.  One of our favorite cruises of all time!  I would love to do this again......wonderful ship and great ports.

[critterchick]

On 2/23/2024 at 6:45 PM, zitsky said:

We’d like to do a Japan cruise.  We are on the Millie in Bali.   It seems a bit limited with just a few restaurants.  I’d prefer to cruise Japan with an S or E class ship.  Am I being overly critical?  Has M class always been used for Japan? 
 

Has anyone cruised Japan on a non Celebrity ship?

We did a 16 night (maybe it was 15)  Japan cruise on Azamara in 2019 and it was spectacular. We had one full sea day and two half days. Our only non-Japan stop was Busan, presumably to satisfy their cabotage laws. The biggest advantage of that size of ship was that we could dock in small towns. Tor example, in Hakodate we could walk to the train station in 10 minutes and were able to visit a not-too-distant park, then return and ride the tram up to the top of town. Millennium was docked at the container port and departed at 5:00 while we stayed until 8:00. Most of our ports had late departures and we had overnights in Kobe and Yokohama. We visited some really small towns and it was brilliant in every way. 

 

There isn’t much to do on the ship but the days were so full (and we walk almost everywhere) that we didn’t have the energy to do much but have a cocktail, dinner and stumble off to bed.  If only their prices weren’t so high I would go back in a heartbeat.

 

I do love Millennium, though, and I’m sure the cruises are very nice. But being in town and not having to take a shuttle anywhere made the experience even better for us.

 

[ggo85]

Consider ship vs. ports and overall experience. We looked at X for Japan but are doing Silversea.  We recently did HING Kong to Singapore on SS and loved it.  The smaller ship means less competition in port.  Also, smaller ships are often able to dock closer to the city.  It’s a trade off with the advantages of large ships, such as entertainment, etc.  I think you’ll find smaller ships tend to call in Japan.  

[Mark_K]

On 2/24/2024 at 6:04 AM, billc23 said:

Silversea. Similar pricing to Sky Suite.

If they felt limited by Millennium, Silversea might not be the best option.

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, Mark_K said:

If they felt limited by Millennium, Silversea might not be the best option.

Millie is in our future, not our past.  We will try her then decide whether to book Japan cruise on Millie.

[billc23]

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

If they felt limited by Millennium, Silversea might not be the best option.

Not for dining. The M class ships are very limited. I'm on the Silver Moon currently for a 32 day sailing.  Four sit down restaurants with table service for lunch on a port day. I was on the Ascent in January. No comparison with the dining options to Silversea. 

[zitsky]

I asked about MDR on Millie in case we might want to do Aqua in Japan.  Looking back it may be cheaper to do that and a move up bid to get into the Retreat.  Or Aqua plus MDR.  MDR was good on the Eclipse.

[Mark_K]

49 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Not for dining. The M class ships are very limited. I'm on the Silver Moon currently for a 32 day sailing.  Four sit down restaurants with table service for lunch on a port day. I was on the Ascent in January. No comparison with the dining options to Silversea. 

I sort of assumed that restaurants were just one example of how Millennium felt limiting.  I haven’t sailed on their newer ships, but the times I sailed Silversea the number of available activities was way more limited than what we had on Millennium.  

[zitsky]

1 hour ago, billc23 said:

Not for dining. The M class ships are very limited. I'm on the Silver Moon currently for a 32 day sailing.  Four sit down restaurants with table service for lunch on a port day. I was on the Ascent in January. No comparison with the dining options to Silversea. 

Are you saying that you prefer Silver Sea dining?  Four sit down restaurants?  How are they different from each other?

[zitsky]

Can anyone compare the forward veranda cabins (non Aqua) by the spa to the Aqua aft cabins one deck above the spa?

[NMTraveller]

We were in a forward veranda cabin but it was AQ,  We were right below the overhang.  Some like the overhang/roof.  Others don't.  I like it because it provides shade.

 

I have not stayed in the aft...

Edited February 25 by NMTraveller

[zitsky]

2 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

We were in a forward veranda cabin but it was AQ,  We were right below the overhang.  Some like the overhang/roof.  Others don't.  I like it because it provides shade.

 

I have not stayed in the aft...

Which deck were you on, please?  Were you next to the spa?

[NMTraveller]

27 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Which deck were you on, please?  Were you next to the spa?

We were on Deck 9 forward.  Not next to the spa.  A level down.

[billc23]

On 2/25/2024 at 10:32 PM, zitsky said:

Are you saying that you prefer Silver Sea dining?  Four sit down restaurants?  How are they different from each other?

Yes. I find the basic main dining on Silversea better than Tuscan or Murano. 

 

The Silver Moon has, for lunch - even on port days: Pizza restaurant, Sushi plus restaurant , Grill with salads/sandwiches.., and a main dining room menu with a wide variety of choices. Nice buffet too. For dinner add a small jazz club, another main dining featuring dishes local to the area of the world you are sailing in, an Italian restaurant, a $40 per person Japanese restaurant (wagyu beef appetizer shown below), and a $60 per person French fine dining restaurant. 24/7 room service with an extensive menu and basically the main dining will prepare any dish they have the ingredients for with 24 hours notice.   

 

I am referring to Muse class ships and the newest ships may have more options - the older ones have fewer options. I recommend googling Silversea Silver Moon dining for more detail... I don't want to post too much on the Celebrity board...

 

 

 

 

 

[ggo85]

SS dining beats X hands down.  More options.  Better food.  Far, far fewer people competing at each venue.  No extra cost for any venue for lunch and most dinner options have no added cost.

 

The reasons to book Celebrity vs. SS for Japan include:  (1) better, more and more varied entertainment, (2) more options for shore excursions (but also more people), (3) many more activities on board, and (4) probably the cost, depending on which cabin you would book.  Also (may or may not apply), better for kids b/c there is more to do, probably a "younger" crowd, and less formal dress code (newer SS ships have a more relaxed dress code, "older" ones are still pretty formal as compared to X.)

 

It really depends on what's important to you.  

 

[DaKahuna]

On 2/25/2024 at 8:11 AM, zitsky said:

Millie is in our future, not our past.  We will try her then decide whether to book Japan cruise on Millie.

 

 We are booked on Millennium for a 13-day Best of Japan this May.  Give that there are four at sea days out of those 13 nights, I would not let the lack of numerous specialty restaurants put me off.  As you know we did a 15-day Panama Canal transit on Millennium and only had a few port visits and thoroughly enjoyed that cruise.  

  

 

[NMTraveller]

HAL also has a 14 day cruise around Japan ...