Northwest Passage with Viking Oceans

[lovetosew]

Have been shopping for 2026 cruises and would like to hear from anyone that has done the Northwest Passage cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver. Years ago we did Alaska Inside Passage with another line and loved the scenery.  Have also been to Japan and would love to see it again. Would love to hear what people think of this itinerary. 

 

[millybess]

3 hours ago, lovetosew said:

Have been shopping for 2026 cruises and would like to hear from anyone that has done the Northwest Passage cruise from Tokyo to Vancouver. Years ago we did Alaska Inside Passage with another line and loved the scenery.  Have also been to Japan and would love to see it again. Would love to hear what people think of this itinerary. 

 

Just our opinion, but we wouldn't do the North Pacific Passage again.  Dutch Harbor was cancelled and 8 days of greyness and sea was a little too much for us.  

 

Having said that, sailing down the Inside Passage to Vancouver was awesome as was everything in Japan.

[AZ_Tim]

We were seriously looking at this itinerary, but when the Russia stop was eliminated, it became a lot less attractive. Since the stop in Russia, and the Japan stops are the main reasons we were considering this trip, it makes more sense to look at other Viking itineraries that offer more stops in Japan. There are a few that couple Japan and China, with land portions of various lengths.

The Alaska Inside Passage will give you spectacular scenery, and is worth doing.

 

[Mich3554]

We did this this past spring.  Loved it, but then we really do like sea days and enjoyed the ship.  We got on the ship in Bangkok, so it was nice to have some down time.  

[Mich3554]

2 minutes ago, AZ_Tim said:

We were seriously looking at this itinerary, but when the Russia stop was eliminated, it became a lot less attractive. Since the stop in Russia, and the Japan stops are the main reasons we were considering this trip, it makes more sense to look at other Viking itineraries that offer more stops in Japan. There are a few that couple Japan and China, with land portions of various lengths.

The Alaska Inside Passage will give you spectacular scenery, and is worth doing.

 

If you get on or off the ship in Hong Kong, there are 5-6 stops in Japan before you hit Tokyo.  

[wolfie11]

I love the North Pacific Passage and will be doing it again next spring.  However, the seas can be rough, Dutch Harbor is the second-most missed port in the world after the Falklands, and the daily time changes are brutal.  

[deec]

Brutal Daily time changes are why we are sailing in the Westerly direction...always love an extra hour of sleep!  I can't remember if we add a day or loose a day though when we cross the international date line!

[Mich3554]

27 minutes ago, deec said:

Brutal Daily time changes are why we are sailing in the Westerly direction...always love an extra hour of sleep!  I can't remember if we add a day or loose a day though when we cross the international date line!

When we did this cruise last spring, they adjusted the ship’s time during the day, not at night.  2pm became 3pm. Viking did shave about a little time off of breakfast and lunch though.  We did get the extra day going east.  
Anyway, I think how they did it for us it worked well.  

[milling73]

Mich3554 - how did you take N Pacific Passage getting on at Bangkok or Hong Kong? They are not in route - did you merge two cruises babk to back?

[millybess]

On 8/24/2024 at 4:47 PM, Mich3554 said:

We did this this past spring.  Loved it, but then we really do like sea days and enjoyed the ship.  We got on the ship in Bangkok, so it was nice to have some down time.  

We were on the same cruise.  We also like sea days and have done a trans Atlantic with Viking which we thoroughly enjoyed.  We just found the eight, grey sea days in a row a little too much for us.  We would have enjoyed that part of the cruise more if they had not changed the itinerary.  

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, milling73 said:

Mich3554 - how did you take N Pacific Passage getting on at Bangkok or Hong Kong? They are not in route - did you merge two cruises babk to back?

B2B marketed as Far East and Alaska

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/far-east-alaska/index.html?startLocation=hong-kong&endLocation=vancouver-british-columbia&year=2025

[millybess]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

B2B marketed as Far East and Alaska

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/far-east-alaska/index.html?startLocation=hong-kong&endLocation=vancouver-british-columbia&year=2025

Or possibly it was B2B2B starting with "Southeast Asia and Beyond" boarding in Bangkok?  I'm not sure. 

[Mich3554]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

B2B marketed as Far East and Alaska

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/far-east-alaska/index.html?startLocation=hong-kong&endLocation=vancouver-british-columbia&year=2025

3 cruises.  Bangkok to Hong Hong, Hong Kong to Tokyo, Tokyo to Vancouver.  It was marketed as a single cruise when we booked it, under one itinerary.

[millybess]

2 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

3 cruises.  Bangkok to Hong Hong, Hong Kong to Tokyo, Tokyo to Vancouver.  It was marketed as a single cruise when we booked it, under one itinerary.

I thought so. I remember you saying that you were boarding in Bangkok and your DH was diving in Bali before that.  

[Mich3554]

4 hours ago, milling73 said:

Mich3554 - how did you take N Pacific Passage getting on at Bangkok or Hong Kong? They are not in route - did you merge two cruises babk to back?

When we booked it, it was marketed as a single cruise under one itinerary.  In reality, it was Bangkok to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Tokyo and Tokyo to Vancouver.  This particular cruise disappeared from Viking’s offering as a single cruise, but with the 3 together, it was about 30% less than each back to back.  This cruise was booked back in late 2021.  

[Mich3554]

3 minutes ago, millybess said:

I thought so. I remember you saying that you were boarding in Bangkok and your DH was diving in Bali before that.  

Yep.    We flew to Bali first so he could dive, then flew to Bangkok where we met up with friends before we boarded.  

[AZ_Tim]

On 8/24/2024 at 3:48 PM, Mich3554 said:

If you get on or off the ship in Hong Kong, there are 5-6 stops in Japan before you hit Tokyo.  

Yes, that is the itinerary Viking calls the Far East and Alaska. Those extra stops in Japan make it a more attractive itinerary than the North Pacific Passage. As I mentioned before, the Gems of China and Japan itinerary offers several stops in Japan and China and a land tour in China.

 

With many new itineraries coming out, it is hard to decide which one to take next. I don't think we'll ever have time to get all the way through the list we are building, considering that we are adding new ones faster than we're checking them off.

[deec]

I had not seen Gems of China and Japan...that looks great!