Japan cruise - availability on non-ship excursions

[Linda E]

Hello. We are going on a Japan cruise in May with Celebrity. We recently booked it so some of the ship excursions are either sold out or very expensive. I was wondering if places in Japan are similar to the Caribbean and Alaska cruise ports where vendors are available when you get off the ship and offer either small bus or mini-van tours. I am curious about Aomori, Hakodate, Hiroshima, Osaka and Shimizu.

I have looked at a few websites with personal guides but for two people some were $800-$1000 a day which is too expensive.

Thank you for your assistance.

[CruiserBruce]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

Most of the rest of the world is not like the Caribbean on this topic. Better to look over on the Asia board, and seek out some private tour vendors. 

[Essiesmom]

How about getting a guidebook on Japan?  Get yourself to the rapid transit and take off.  I know @Hlitnerhas done Japan a number of times DIY.  I think @Jim_Iainmay have experience, and I believe @BruceMuzzmay live there.  As suggested,  he k out the Asia board.  EM

[crystalspin]

47 minutes ago, Linda E said:

Thank you for your assistance.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Here is the Asia Port of Call forum:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/43-asia/

 

Another resource is your Roll Call (where people on the same cruise "meet" each other and where sharing of private tours can be arranged). Find your ship and choose May in the small drop-down menu.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/127-celebrity-roll-calls/

[Essiesmom]

On the second page of the Celebrity board there is a travelogue about around Japan on Millennium last fall.  Member is @Miaminice.  She a,so links to another travelogue of the same area.  Reading those should give you some idea of what to expect.  EM

[GeezerCouple]

56 minutes ago, Linda E said:

Hello. We are going on a Japan cruise in May with Celebrity. We recently booked it so some of the ship excursions are either sold out or very expensive. I was wondering if places in Japan are similar to the Caribbean and Alaska cruise ports where vendors are available when you get off the ship and offer either small bus or mini-van tours. I am curious about Aomori, Hakodate, Hiroshima, Osaka and Shimizu.

I have looked at a few websites with personal guides but for two people some were $800-$1000 a day which is too expensive.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

Welcome to CruiseCritic!

 

We almost always take private tours/excursions, so we can "do it our way", and, for example, spend more time 'here', and less time 'there', etc.  Usually we plan this in advance, but if it's really just the two of us, then we can also adjust the itinerary on the go, as long as the guide agrees it will work in terms of timing, etc.

 

And we've also had some terrific experiences using this strategy:

 

11 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

Another resource is your Roll Call (where people on the same cruise "meet" each other and where sharing of private tours can be arranged). Find your ship and choose May in the small drop-down menu.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/127-celebrity-roll-calls/

 

There were two times in the Caribbean when we chartered a large catamaran.  Not only was it more than we wanted to spend, but it had *plenty* of room for more than the two of us.  (For overnight charters, which we did not do, there were four private bedroom/bath accommodations, in each corner of the catamaran.  Overnight sure would have been wonderful.  Maybe another time...)

 

We posted each on the appropriate Roll Call, describing what we had planned, and the pp cost.

One was a regular "tour", but we chartered "all of it".  So instead of something like 16 or 18 people for the day, we kept it at 8, with lots of room to spread out.  (We did not use the bedrooms, or there would have been extra charges for cleaning, etc.) 

The other was another large catamaran at another island, with a planned itinerary to some nice swimming and also some special sight-seeing opportunities from the boat.

Both times, it included a BBQ handled by the guides on board.  Nice!

And in both cases, it was less per person than if we had each gone with the regular excursion individually, with a larger group.  Win/Win.

 

And there was a 3rd, for a sailboat along the coast of Cinque Terre (Italy).  Alas, a family member got critically ill days before our planned departure, so I transferred all of the contact info to someone else in the group, and ... they all went without us.  😞 

 

For starters, you might want to inquire on your Roll Call about what others have planned and join in.  Later, perhaps you'd want to plan something and invite others.

 

Our favorite trip ever (!) was to Japan, but it was a land trip, so we got to stay overnight at places like traditional onsen ryokans (hot springs inns) and a Buddhist Monastery, among other places in various cities and towns.

 

It's a beautiful and fascinating place.

Enjoy! 🙂 

 

GC

[Miaminice]

@Essiesmom

Hi, thanks for mentioning me/us and our travelogue.

 

We have done 3 Japan cruises so far. Needless to say we fell in love with Japan after the first cruise 🙂 Our most recent one was in October 2023 on Millennium. And when we came back, we were already looking for another one. So we have a fourth booked for next year. 

So we do have some experience to contribute... and some travelogues for you al as teasers.

Japan Millennium 2023
https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/

 

Japan Cherry Blossom Cruise HAL Westerdam 2019
https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html

Japan Millennium 2017
https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

Bye for now

Oliver

[cruisemom42]

I just did 28-days in Japan last April that basically circumnavigated the main islands. 

 

Just a word of advice: when we were there last year, Japan had more or less just reopened to tourists. I like to book private tours but the choices were few for both private guides and for ship tours. One major reason for this is that Japan in general does not have as many English-speaking guides as a lot of other countries. During the long Covid shut-down (for Japan), many of these guides found other employment, and it didn't seem like they were rushing back to the tourism sector. 

 

I know people who booked private guides/tours in advance and who had their booked tours canceled because the company could not find an English-speaking guide for them. I also heard that this was the reason that the ship offered fewer tours than I've been on other cruises. 

 

Of course, it's a year later now, so maybe the situation is improved, but I would certainly NOT count on finding guides outside of the port terminals offering tours. 

 

Japan is also different in that in a lot of these ports, people who were able to make arrangements with a private guide found that the guides planned to use public transportation to get around (e.g., guide + passengers would use the metro system and buses to get around for the day). If you wanted a private vehicle, it becomes MUCH more expensive.

 

On the flip side, the excellent and safe public transportation in Japan does make it easy to do your own thing if you do the research. For example, it's easy to get to Kyoto from Osaka (and get around Kyoto) using public transport. A lot of smaller ports have great bus systems. 

 

[Linda E]

Thank you for your replies and helpful ideas.  I am new to using Cruise Critic and have never sailed with Celebrity. Crystalspin mentioned the Asia Port forum.  Should I also post my above questions there?  Thank you also for the roll call information.

 

We did get a few guide books on Japan and the areas but we are a little hesitant going everywhere on our own.  We travel in Europe on our own but at least you can read things there.  It doesn't sound like they have tour operators waiting near the ship ports in Japan so one needs to plan ahead for a private tour or take the ship excursions.  Maybe more excursions will be added later.  On a recent Princess cruise there were many more excursions available after you got on the ship than there were online before you sailed.

 

Thank you.

Edited March 13 by Linda E

[crystalspin]

2 hours ago, Linda E said:

Crystalspin mentioned the Asia Port forum.  Should I also post my above questions there?

Well, you should go there and read at least several 'pages' of threads. I think I saw one right near the top about private tours in Osaka? Take notes! Then go to your Roll Call and read all.of.it! It may be an endeavor, or short & sweet! Put the two together and formulate your more precise questions (if they haven't been answered), especially on your Roll Call. No need to reinvent the wheel if someone else has done the work!

[CDNPolar]

4 hours ago, Linda E said:

Thank you for your replies and helpful ideas.  I am new to using Cruise Critic and have never sailed with Celebrity. Crystalspin mentioned the Asia Port forum.  Should I also post my above questions there?  Thank you also for the roll call information.

 

We did get a few guide books on Japan and the areas but we are a little hesitant going everywhere on our own.  We travel in Europe on our own but at least you can read things there.  It doesn't sound like they have tour operators waiting near the ship ports in Japan so one needs to plan ahead for a private tour or take the ship excursions.  Maybe more excursions will be added later.  On a recent Princess cruise there were many more excursions available after you got on the ship than there were online before you sailed.

 

Thank you.

 

From our experience, I don't think that you will find tour companies and guides waiting at the dock for passengers looking for private tours.  I think you will have to book all this in advance.

 

The advice of going to other discussion forums on CC is good too.

 

Viator.com is an aggregator, not a tour operator, and they are owned by TripAdvisor.  We have great luck with them globally, and just a quick look at tours they offer, I don't feel they are expensive, but I don't know what your level of expensive is.

 

We as travellers have translation Apps on our phones (need data for these to work) and we are not afraid to venture off ourselves and master the local transit or subway system.  The subway system in Tokyo was daunting, but no more daunting than the London Tube.  Without a translation App that you are comfortable with however in a country like Japan, you may find yourself completely lost.  We did find however that ticket machines have an English option, but if you are going to the ticket window, you need the translation app because otherwise you probably won't find an English speaking clerk.

 

Just make sure when and if you book private tours that you make the back on board time, or that is a whole other conundrum. 

 

Just as a note, my husband is from China, and speaks fluent Mandarin, but when we travel to China, we do often hire a guide and a driver for private tours that speak English for my sake.  We don't find a full day in a private car with a guide and driver to be that expensive but again, it depends on what you consider expensive.  When we cruised around Japan, we only did the included or optional tours offered by the cruise line, but we did do significant self-exploration too.

[Hlitner]

Many years ago we lived in Japan for two years (in the USAF) and really enjoyed the company,  We have returned, several times, and just this past spring did a 6 week cruise around Japan and over to Alaska.  Prior to the cruise we spent 12 days just traveling around Japan (using Tokyo and Kyoto as our bases).  I think it might help the OP to talk a little about the situation in Japan.,

 

The country was essentially closed for 3 years (due to COVID) and their tourist industry was decimated.  When the country started to reopen, many of those in the tourist industry had moved-on to other jobs, tour companies had gone out of business or changed ownership. etc.  Then suddenly, within a few months, it seemed like the entire world wanted to visit Japan.  Tourism is now booming, hotels are doing well, restaurants are booked, etc.

 

So along come all these cruise ships.  They need to contract with land-based tour companies (for their excursions) and the tour companies are still having issues with understaffing, finding qualified folks, etc.  On one of our cruise line excursions (in April) the bus driver simply quit (on the spot) and walked away from the port.  Fortunately, that company was able to quickly find another driver.  We met quite a few folks on our ship who had booked private tours only to be told, a few weeks or days in advance, that their tour was cancelled (lack of personnel).

 

Since DW and I are very independent travelers, the situation in Japan did not present too much of a challenge.  Seeing Japan on one's own is actually not very difficult as the country has an amazing public transit system, amazing trains (you can set your watch by their schedule), good signage, and it is also one of the safest countries on earth.  

 

If folks cannot get the tour of their choice, do not want to pay the inflated excursion costs, etc. then they might consider doing some pre-trip homework and doing many things on their own (DIY).  Want to go to Kyoto from Osaka?  Simply take the train (faster then driving) and use public transit (and your feet) once in Kyoto.  Want to go to Nara from Yokohama?  Just take the train.  Want to spend some pre or post cruise time in Japan?  Make your plans, book your hotels, and off you go.  You can even buy a rail pass (such as those sold by JR) or get yourself a SUICA Card (a pre-loaded card you can use for many subways, buses, etc).  While you cannot read the signs written in Kanji, you will also find plenty of English signage and many restaurants have English menus.  And if there is no English menu, the restaurant will likely have "food models" that look real..and you can point to what you want :).

 

What makes Japan such a special place are the wonderful people.  We know of no place else where everyone is so darn polite and helpful.  And the honesty of folks can become almost comical.  A 1 yen coin fell out of my pocket on a subway platform.  Seconds later a man came up to me to hand back that coin (worth less than a penny).  Ride the subways and the cars are all spotless, and folks on the trains are always very quiet (part of the culture).  No boom boxes, no loud talking, etc.  They even have some subway card that are for "women only" for ladies that do not want to be crowded against strange men during rush hours.  

 

DW would tell other ladies that her major problem in Japan was trying to figure out how to use and flush toilets :).  Japan has very modern toilets (most have heated seats) that do everything but wash your clothes.  Trying to figure out how to simply flush the things can be a challenge :).

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

Also a little word about English...

 

In the larger cities, you will usually find some English signage. Not necessarily everywhere, but enough to figure things out. The subway system in Tokyo, which is enormous and includes many lines, can be daunting, BUT there are English signs and once you figure out it, it is actually surprisingly easy to get around by subway. I spent two weeks with DS in 2012 doing the "main" sites on our own in and around Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. These included many daytrips to surrounding sites, shrines, and castles. We used the subway extensively in Tokyo, used trains (including the shinkansen or "bullet train"), subway and buses in Kyoto, even a ferry to Miyajima Island (off Hiroshima, a must do). In 14 days, we only took, I think, two "tours" -- the rest we did on our own.

 

In all of those two weeks, I think there was only one time when we were at a loss as to how to figure out where we were vs. where we needed to go. And that one time, we easily found someone to help us. And this was in the days before Google translate, which worked quite well on my 2023 trip!