jacketwatch

Well I am a bit late getting started as we have been home for about one month. I had a terrible flu bug after arriving, then 1.5 weeks on a federal jury, then back to work so things were a bit hectic.

Lets begin with our flight to Japan. We were to leave Chicago, connect in Toronto with a 3 hr. window and then off to NRT but due to bad weather we left Chicago nearly 3 hrs. late and missed our connection. Bummer. We did fly out the next day and were put up by AC for the night and given food vouchers so it was OK but we missed one day in Tokyo. Too bad.

I must say that the AC desk people in Chicago were rude. Not impressed at all.They seemed to be not at all interested in providing updates and seemed to just want to be left alone. They did not even make eye contact most of the time and one fellow told me our connecting had finally arrived and was taxiing. So 30 mins. later still no plane so I asked again and a gal said sometimes the taxi way is 30 mins. Really!! As it turned out the plane had not even landed! It was circling. Bad form all the way around.

Then the ground personnel in Toronto for AC were hit and miss. I got a lot of misinformation including that we had to reclaim our bags which was not true. We were given incorrect directions and one lady just seemed more interested in having me relax vs. helping me. Finally one gal who had closed her line saw how frustrating things had become and just went out of her way to get us the information we needed. She gave us new boarding passes for the next day and took care of all our needs.

We then went down to the luggage area to be sure we did not have to reclaim our bags and were well treated by another AC employee who understood what we were going through. He gave us overnight kits which actually were very nice, lots of goodies.

We took a shuttle bus to a hotel called the Sandman Signature and had a good nights sleep before our 12 hr. flight to Tokyo which was a blessing in disguise I suppose. At least we were refreshed. BTW this hotel had an independent restaurant on its premised called Moxies and I must say it rivals many of the Chicago restaurants we have been to, quite a surprise considering its locale near the airport.

So off the next day to Tokyo. We used the Maple Leaf lounge preboarding and guys this puts O'Hare's UAL lounge to utter shame. UAL charges for alcohol but at the ML you get Harp and Guiness on tap! The food and overall comfort are much better too.

There has been polarizing talk about AC biz class pod seats. Well for me its a mixed bag. First of all the service and food were just fine, no issues about that. The seats could be padded better and it would be nice if they provided a small mattress like ANA. They do fully recline and there were a lot of movies and other options from their IFE so that was fine.

I did not like two things. One, there seemed to be little storage space. ANA seats are way better. I found I had to put my mags and newspapers in the space between the seats. Two its a 1-2-1 config. and if you are sitting together in the middle there is a rather high barrier so its not like you can be together if you are a couple. For two its best to have a window and aisle seat. That way you an at least talk w/o a barrier between you.

The flight was uneventful. On the way back my seat conked out and they could not fix it but fortunately there were plenty of free seats so it was no issue.

Now we are in Narita and as usual its warm there. It seems they are very sparing on the A/C so by the time we get our bags were are pretty warm. We decided to splurge for a limo to the Shinjuku area where our hotel was. The limo bus would cost about $120.00 less but thinking that after a long flight a relaxing limo ride would be well worth the money we went in that direction and were glad we did. We were met on time and had a nice ride of over an hour to the Hyatt Regency all by ourselves and very relaxed. The limo driver was dressed in a suit, tie and hat and wore white gloves and this was a hint of how overall things would be. Our check in was quick and I noticed there were several bellmen standing around. Well as soon as we were ready they snapped to get our bags, took us up and even refused a tip! Very impressed so far. They should send their training videos to the O'Hare AC staff.

By now it was around 1900 so we grabbed some dinner in the hotel, watched a little TV and tried to sleep. hey its jet lag and thats what ambien is for.

Stay tuned.

Sally_Parker

Agreed. AC MP lounges much better than UAL lounges.

Sassafrass

Looking forward to hearing about the ship and your sight seeing.

Sassafrass

Hey, Jacket, are you alright, just busy getting back to work? Hope that is the case.

jacketwatch

Hi Sass. All is well. Sorry about the delay. I actually had to serve on a jury after we got back, took about a week. It was very interesting and I'm glad I did it. I did type in more a few days ago only to see that by the time I was done Fodors had shut down for upgrades or something like that.

Anyway before we got on the ship we spent three days in Tokyo. day one we just went to a very well know store called Isetan, sort of like the harrods of Tokyo.http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...ure_Kanto.html

I was amazed by this store, especially the food court which seemed to go on forever. Its a very popular place for lunch having tons of variety at fair prices. However you have no doubt heard of the high cost of produce in Japan. Well its true. There were a bunch of purple grapes going for a lot, about $25.00 for a not so large amount. Yeesh.

Day two was something I was looking forward to, a Japanese baseball game and the old park Jingu stadium.
http://www.jingu-stadium.com/english/

This is an old style ball park and once we got near there you could feel the excitement in the air. The home team the Yakult Swallows were playing the NY Yankees of Japan the Yomiuri Giants. It was very different for a US game. First of all the fans are divided with the right side of the stadium a sea of light green, the Swallows colors and the left side a sea of orange for the Giants fans. Second the fans cheer in unison for the entire game! its their enthusiasm that you feel and its a lot of fun. The Swallows fans have this practice of raising small team colored umbrellas or parasols when they score and I have never ever seen anything like it. . Its was very cool. The only problem was that the seats are not made for us American folks! That is they are pretty small. . My knees were nearly rubbing against the back of the seat in front of me. However that aside this was a truely fun experience. The swallows won BTW.

The last day we booked an excursion to Mt. Fuji. This turned out to be a whole day journey and it was a long day but we did have a nice time. We actually saw Mt. Fuji which our tour guide said is usually shrouded by mist or fog so that was a good thing. In addition we had a nice lunch along the way. Our bus was a little late arriving to the restaurant and as it seems is typical there they were on time. The food was on the gables when we arrived. One thing I will say is that things are well run overall. Its punctual and people are very polite and helpful. This became evident all along, especially at a port stop in Kushiro where in no time Sue was being fussed about by two ladies in a shop dressing her up in a kimono. Pretty cool.

Anyway we also took a cable care ride, and a boat ride on a lake before returning to our hotel. We were given the option of taking the bus or a train and the price was the same so we actually took a bullet train to the local Japan rail station and a normal train to our stop from which we hailed a cab to the Hyatt. This was a lot better than the bus all the way back and our guide was so polite, sat with all who were taking the trains and wrote instructions on what train to connect to and even got off the bus with us to get our tickets. She took very good care of us and again they don't take tips.

BTW on day one after shopping at Isetan we had pizza at a small, local place. Its was ok but if you are used to deep dish Chicago style pizza like we are then it was so so.

We had dinner back at the hotel eating at their Chinese restaurant and it was very good. Then bed time and to the ship tomorrow. Stay tuned. .

Sassafrass

Enjoying - thanks.

jacketwatch

So now we are on to the ship, the Diamond Princess. The port of Yokohama is a ling way from the Hyatt Regency, at least one hr. away and as it seems with long ride cabs or limos the fare is a lot. In this case it was about $140.00 which was spot on with the estimate the concierge had given us. Traffic was light and we arrived at approx. 1100. We were told by Princess to arrive around 1400 as they wanted to stagger arrival times but we decided to arrive early as usual as this seems to enable us to get on quickly and again this worked. The whole process was smooth and we were in our cabin in about 15 mins. We had been given an upgrade to a mini-suite right off the elevator. I had some concerns about noise but they were unfounded. There was no issue about that at all.Our bags came w/i about an hr. or so. we unpacked and decided to explore the ship a bit.

The ship itself is like I remember its sister ship the sapphire was in 2005 when we cruised her in Alaska though some major changes were made including the addition of a sushi restaurant and a Japanese style bath house as it was thought there would be up to 80% of the passengers from Japan. Well no, this was not the case. The majority were Australians, then Japanese. The CD said there was a sizable number of passengers from Argentina however I saw many who were from the Philipines and heard far more Philipino spoken that Spanish. I was concerned about having english speaking people to talk to but that was never a problem. We had a couple from Australia and another couple from wales as our dinner mates and we delighted in their conversation. Actually many of the Aussies we met were either doing back to backs or had spent time in japan or were planning to post cruise. Love those Aussies. They know how to have a good time. .

Our first night at sea was rough. The ship rocked back a forth all night and I was worried if this was going to be the norm. It did settle down by morning and we were told that often the seas leaving Yokohama were this way. As it turned out this was the only rough night.

getting back to the ship it was in spotless condition. Now many of the newer ships like the Oasis class or the NCL Breakaway have that wow! factor this ship still provided comfort, great service, very good food and plenty of activities to keep you busy if you so choose. As usual my wife requested Indian food and the Matrie 'de George from Romania checked with us every night to be sure she was satisfied. he even took requests for the following night. I do realize this is extra and I must say Princess as usual did a great job. Actually you can get Indian food per request on virtually all cruises but what made this one special is that there were very few Indians on board, at least as passengers so they went out of their way for her and we appreciate that.

Our first stop was Aomori. I think. . Stayed tuned.

travelenthusiast

It sounds like you had a nice time. Keep it coming!

jacketwatch

Thank you. Our first stop in japan was the port of Aomori.
http://www.whatsinport.com/Aomori.html.
It was a little cool but perfect for walking. However our first port stop was memorable for the Japanese hospitality that we became so impressed with as time went on. Right next to the dock is a shopping complex so we just walked around there and then saw a small stall selling among other items kimonos. We decided to try to get one for our sons gf who before the end of our trip became our future D-I-L. . i got a text message one morning, early one morning, around 0400 with a pic of the ring on her finger and a three word message, "she said yes"! so we are delighted about that. Any way back to the kimono. . First of all I did not realize how complicated they were to arrange. In no time three people were fussing over my wife wrapping an arranging this thing complete with new shoes and a parasol. Wow! Very impressed. However we had in mind something easier to wear like a robe so a kimono despite their great care was something we really could not use. We did buy some scarves as i felt we just had to buy something from them and the owner dashed off and came back in a flash with a swan made of paper, origami I think. we were so impressed with how well we were treated. You can do a lot of tours and for us those days are over as all we want to do is chill in the ports. Just meeting the locals and experiencing their hospitality is something we will always remember and as it turned out this is typical treatment that we received.

We strolled for a while outside and actually it was too early for most of the local shops to open and we decided to go back inside. We shopped a bit, bought a few things like candy and sweets and had a cup of coffee and again the service was amazing. They really hustle for you and try to please you and we needed a carry over as it turned out because our next stop was Korsakov in Russia.

So this port is a tender port, the only one on our cruise. before tendering in we had to pass inspection from the Russian police who are steeped it seems in cold war suspicion. They were expressionless basically, never smiled and had hard, dour looks on their faces. Yeesh!. Coming back I will never forget how one officer looked at every page of this passenger who had to be 75 yrs. old. He looked at one page, then the passenger, on and on and on. What are you thinking!! Let the old man go for Gods sakes.

Any way it got better in between the KGB inspections. . I booked a tour with a Japanese guide because that was all that was left even though I began looking at excursions two mos. ahead of time. I was wait listed for an English speaking tour but it never happened. We got on the bus and this little Russian gal came on and began speaking Japanese and it must have been spot on as the Japanese people on board simply applauded her. She gave a shy smile and you could see she was nicely moved by this. Then when we got off the bus we were separated into English and Japanese groups and we had an English speaking guide after all. Nice!

We walked to the town square and yep it had a statue of who else, Lenin. We were given a brief talk then escorted to a cultural center where a very nice folk music show was on stage for us. It lasted about ten minutes and afterwards the performers rushed out to meet us for photo ops so this was very nice. They had handicrafts for sale and a pashmina I looked at was $200.00. Sorry, way too much. They had preserves as well and i asked bout the price and was told it was 25 rubles. But I said your sign says 20 rubles. So she came around the desk to look and said 25 rubles. AAAAH! But look at the sign, it says 20 rubles. And she said again "yes, 25 rubles." OK so not wanting to push it I paid as she asked. .

We walked back to the bus stop and as I had some Russian money I got last night on the ship and knowing i would lose 25% if I returned with it I bought some things at the local store, just some hard sausages that my mom would like. I spoke no Russian and the gal there no English but we managed and it was actually nice. The people we meet on shore were pretty nice but those police on board checking the passports were something else.

Korsakov itself is rather grim and dingy. i am not sure why Princess stops here but it may be because its so close to the route we took and perhaps because there is some sort of law or rule about stopping in a foreign port. Anyway It was not very impressive.

Stay tuned. .

Sassafrass

Looked at pictures of the ship. Very pretty. That is still my favorite style of ship - love the central atrium.

jacketwatch

We will be on her sister ship the Sapphire in Feb. 2016.
This will be the 1st time we have been on the same ship twice. We sailed her in 2005 for an Alaskan cruise. I will never forget that cruise or something else. We spent three days post cruise in Seattle and the first day there we watched the unforgettable videos of Katrina hitting NO.

jacketwatch

Hi guys. Thanks for being patient. Our next stop was Otaru. BTW please accept my apoligies for a mistake above. All that I said about Aomori was really meant for Kushiro. That was our first stop.

Otaru was once a fishing village known for catching a lot of herring but those days are long over as they pretty much over-fished this species and now those days are long gone.

Its a short walk from the dock to the town center and the canal. They offer boats rides though for us the wait was too long so we decided to skip this and walk around town instead. We rather enjoyed our casual strolls in less crowded towns and Otaru was one of them. We did not feel rushed or any hustle and bustle. There are a number of shops selling handicrafts and we checked out quite a few of them and got some gifts to take back home. The prices were reasonable.

One of the things I wanted to do to get a feel for the places we went to was to have a lunch at a typical Japanese restaurant, nothing fancy, just a spot where the locals go. So Sue of course wanted to have some Chinese food. Huh? . Sweetie I love you but hey we are in Japan so lets skip the dim sum and get some say teriyaki or tempura! Please. .

We managed to find such a place and were greeted in the typical welcoming style we had seen before. It was so pleasant to be treated so nicely. This place basically had one English menu and we had to pass it along to some other tourists who came in after us but the overall experience was quite charming. I had tempura and of course washed it down with a local brew, Sapporo I think and we really enjoyed ourselves.

After lunch we took another walk and checked out some more shops and headed back to the ship. Again the days of riding buses all over the place are gone for us. we now enjoy a more casual visit. On the way back we saw a "100 yen store." yes the japansese have dollar stores too. .

Our next port was Hakodate and this was our most favorite stop. Prior to this someone I met on the roll call board on "that other forum" informed me about an outfit called The Hakodate Goodwill Assn. which is a group that conducts tours. I arranged for a guide, Atsuko, to meet us there. Now bear in mind a private guide in Japan can be very costly. I was able to get quote from a few of them but the fee would include their transportation from a big city like Tokyo and all in all some were around $1000.00 USD for one day! Yikes. However this assn. was incredible charging us 3000.00 yen or about $30.00 and let me tell you what was done. Atsuko met us at the train station where the shuttle drops you off. She was with her hubby who is a veterinarian there and they gave us a ride to lake Onuma which is like a park with a few ponds, bridges and walking paths. Its ver beautiful. We then went to a coffee shop which wasn't ala Starbucks. It was in an enclosed back porch of someones home who opened a small coffee shop in her spare space. It was lovely. We had a nice cup of coffee and some snacks. Then instead of driving back we took the local train, a one car train which was incredibly quaint. We her her hubby at the stop as he drove ahead and then went for lunch at a special place she picked out. wow! It had a view of lake Onuma and we had a 9 course Japanese lunch while sitting in a room covered by tatami mats, very traditional which is the feel we wanted to get.

Afterwards we took a tram to the center of town and Atsuko gave us a walking tours. We saw some typical japanese style homes and went into a temple and saw and old lady just waving to us from the 2nd floor window like we were old friends. Again this is the type of hospitality we encountered throughout our trip.

We found out that Atsuko is a baseball fan and in fact as we learned later her fav team won the Japanese league championship later that fall. Her son collects baseball caps and her hubby likes to go ice fishing so after we got back home we sent her a Chicago Cubs baseball cap, a Cubs fleece for her hubby that he can wear under his coat when he goes ice fishing and some warm socks in Cub colors. To me this is the best part of traveling. Its seeing how others live and getting a chance to experience that and to met and make friends with those who live so far away.

Next stop Aomori, Stay tuned.

jacketwatch

Ok last stop Aomori. See port info.
http://www.whatsinport.com/Aomori.htm

Like with most Japanese ports on this cruise there was a free shuttle to take you to the town center or downtown area. Again this was a low key stop for us like most of our stops were so we did the same things, stroll the shops, check out a few watches as I am a collector and see that as usual the prices are pretty high especially compared to what we get them for in the US. FYI the brand Seiko which is thought of as a mid to high mid grade here has some very fine watches in a line called the Grand Seiko with beautifully finished automatic movements that compare favorably to better known Swiss watches but have prices to match. Though available in the US at least in some markets they have not caught on with the general public who would not spend 4-6 K on a Seiko no matter how good its quality is. For that much most people would buy Swiss including me unless I win the lottery. .

After strolling the stores we found side streets and went up and down and had some of the best, sweetest corn we've ever had from a street vendor. By the dock is a pyramid shaped building with an observation deck on the top so we went there and had a great view of the ocean and our ship. They had snack machines and as the girl at the desk there did not speak English she had appropriate signs for us with an accompanying smile that had become the norm. Again we were treated very nicely everywhere we went.

A couple of flights down was a restaurant which too had that great view. We had a nice lunch for a very reasonable price. I had the shrimp tempura and they were huge! My wife had a beef disk and it too was very good. By this time we decided to return to the ship so back to the shuttle stop and back to the Diamond Princess.

We had a day at sea before disembarkation and choose the Princess transfer to Narita. We exited w/o undue delay and our bags were where they were supposed to be. Unfortunately I managed to lose my glasses somehow during this process. I do remember putting them into the inside pocket of my vest and by the time we exited to the bus they were missing. One of the workers there searched the are as I was not allowed to reenter and they just did not turn up. I did have a back up pair however. I did call Princess but they did not have them in thior lost and found so bye bye. Too bad as they were very new but C'est la vie.

Overall this was a very good trip. The ship was spotless and the service was as I have come to expect from Princess which is excellent. This ship does not have the glitz and glamor of newer ships like the Oasis class from RCI, the Solstice ships from Celebrity or the Breakaway class from NCL. There is not that WOW! factor, at least for us but the ship is very nice. The food was good, the entertainment was as you come to expect nowadays with most of the shows down by their own performance troupe but they put on very good shows. I was led to believe that most of the shows would cater to the anticipated Japanese majority but this was not the case. Really the shows were like any other cruise and the lounge acts were all in English. Again the majority of passengers were Aussies.

So now we are anticipating our next cruise on the sister ship, the Sapphire Princess in Feb. of 2016 out of Singapore to Brunei, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. This will be first time we have ever been on a ship for 2nd time as we cruised her in 2005 to Alaska. I anticipate a nice ship but this cruise is more for the ports and the fact that we can spend some time in Singapore before we embark as we have always wanted to see this place. We also got a great deal too as Princess waived the gratuities, gave us some OBC and our TA have a spin the wheel deal which knocked off 3% on top of all this so it was too good to pass up.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and please ask any questions you desire too.

Cheers, Larry .

travelenthusiast

I enjoyed your trip report. You go to very exotic places. It sounds like you had a great time! Too bad about the lost glasses. I hope they weren't too expensive. That's why I always take along extra contacts. I can't see very much without them and would be in a bind if I didn't have them. My glasses are always in my carry on bag. It sounds like you got a great deal on your next cruise. Thanks for the report.

Eschew

Thanks for sharing Larry!

jacketwatch

The glasses were about $250.00 with my insurance but Target Optical made me a new pair tossing in the sale they had at the time of purchase so actually it came to about $10.00 more so that wasn't too bad and I got a second pair with discounted frames so it was all in all less than $500.00 for 2 pr. Not bad.

We have not seen much of Asia so this cruise and the next will allow us to do so. Yes we do like exotic though what is exotic for some is common place for others. I recall speaking to this French gal taxi driver in Tahiti and asked her what she wanted for a vacation thinking hey you are living in such beauty why would you leave. Guess what her dream destination was?
LAS VEGAS. .

Hello E. How have you been?

Eschew

Okay I guess, home instead on a plane to Sydney. Didn't know tourist Visa is required for Australia. Missed flight, re-book and now leaving tomorrow instead. Now I have 1 day less in Sydney. Good thing ship doesn't leave till Friday. Should have known better. Live and learn!

At least I'll get in at least a day of out back adventure ...

jacketwatch

Who needs a tourist visa for Australia?? You are Canadian, correct. You guys need a tourist visa?? Wow. I had no idea. Neither did you it seems. . Glad its only a minor glitch.

Eschew

I was at the airport 1.5 hours early as usual for international flights, can't check in and find out there is a visa requirement for Australia.

Called Celebrity and they referred me to a visa agent web site that offers same day service on-line. I applied on-line right away and waited and waited. Receipt came through within seconds but no visas. Called and the guy over the phone and he said to normally took only 5 minutes. Waited 5 minutes and called back and a different guy said it is not them and it is the Aussie embassy that is holding it up. He gave me the embassy's phone number (which was the wrong one as I should call direct to the Aussie immigration and border service on a different phone number)

I Call the embassy and get the real number, call the Aussie border services and they said they have no applications from me yet and I should apply on line on the official government web site rather than going through a 3rd party, and it will take anywhere from 12 to 48 hours ...... needless to say, 48 hours is not going to be any good.

The visa finally came through more than an hour and an half later so we missed the flight. The next few commuters to SF are all full. The lady at the United check-in counter took pity and re-booked my flights for the next day with no extra fees, surcharges or penalties. Everything remains the same except it's for the next day. She said that I am lucky as the flights to Sydney is full.

I guess lessons learned and never assume anything. This is where an experienced TA will come into play. I booked this trip direct and did not go through a TA. Bad mistake on my part, and I am the one who always preach the value of a good TA.

I am also not too impressed with Celebrity as there was zero notification or communication about Visa requirements. Not even a mention on their web site. When we book the Baltic trip through Princess from a couple years back, they were all over me on the Russian visa requirements making sure I know the rules. Same goes for the Holy land cruise where they keep asking questions to make sure I will not have any problem at Israel.

Leaving for the airport in about 12 hours and hopefully, everything would be smooth sailing from here.

Once I got my stress level back down, I may be calm enough to write a TA.

jacketwatch

By now you should be on your way so best of luck and yes X should have told you. Our next cruise more than a yr. from now has visa requirements for VN and Cambodia but Princess gets them for a nominal fee