jacketwatch:

Thank you for your trip report and recommendation of the Hakodate Goodwill Guide Association. Hakodate was our favorite stop thanks to your suggestion. Atsuko and Masamitsu took a group of 6 of around, and we had such a good time.

When I related how I heard of them, they remembered you well.

Mahalo (thanks in Hawaiian)!

We are booked on the Diamond Princess roundtrip from Singapore in Dec. and we are having trouble finding a reputable tour company that offers tours in all the ports. We tried Cruise Critic but there is always a minimum group that we would need to fill and we are just 3. Any tips for tours or tour companies (not with Princess) in Vietnam (Nha Trang and Ho Chi Min City), Sihanoukville, Cambodia and Bangkok? thanks

Burta: Thanks so much for telling me that. They are very nice people.


jnavah: I highly recommend this fellow for VN. We used him and he was excellent and speaks very good English too.
http://saigonprivatetour.com/wp/?page_id=39

Burta: I just got an email from Atsuko congratulating me on my Cubbies winning the WS. Yes, very nice people.

Great trip report and very timely for me - we are trying to plan a family cruise (my parents, multiple sibling family groups with their children) to Japan in 2018.

From our research, it appears that Princess is the only large cruise line that has Japan centric cruises.

The hardest part about planning a family trip is trying to coordinate all of the different school/vacation schedules for the grandchildren. It appears that our best bet will be to cruise sometime in late May/early June.

I usually stick to Celebrity and have never sailed Princess before, but I've heard good things about them.

We have done six Princess cruises and two celebrity cruises. I find them to be comparable and I think you will have no problem on princess as their service is excellent.

jacketwatch: Congratulations on the Cubbies win indeed. That last game was really exciting, wasn't it? We got to see a game at Wrigley when we were in Chicago in September, so we became fans.

Jacketwatch, all I can say is WOW. What a great trip. No cruises for me this year. I went to Key West for 5 days in August and 5 days visiting Bermuda last month. Maybe a cruise in the next several years ):.

Burta welcome to Cub nation!! We saw a night game in Wrigley in Sept. too. It was against the reds. Cubs won 9-2.

Yes game 7 was super exciting. The range of emotions was like on a roller coaster and for us to finally win after so long and so much heartbreak was a thrill we will have forever. Atsuko is a baseball fan too and Isn't her some Cubbie souvenirs two yrs. ago and told her if the Cubs win the WS more would be coming. She should get two t's and a cap (her son loves caps) by Monday!

tch 912 thanks for the compliment. It was indeed a great cruise. Japan was very nice. It was clean, orderly and the people were so friendly.

That cruise to Hokkaido was memorable. I'm now anxious to go back and spend more time in each city.

Larry, did you book the Russian tour on board or outside of Princess? Princess web page offers no excursions for the Russian port.

We did it on the website b4 we left. Even 6 mos. all the English speaking tours were gone. We took a Japanese tour just to get there but it worked well as there were English speaking guided once we got off the bus.

No tours offered? How weird. With Russian visa issues I would think there would be. Has to be a money maker. Did u call them? Maybe too far out??

If you check the Princess web page for Korsakov shore excursions, it showed 3 items but when I tried to book it, nothing was available for that specific cruise dates. I may have to call them.

Strange, even outside agency shows no excursions available.


https://www.cruisingexcursions.com/i...05-09-2017/8/2

Nothing for Kushiro either. Maybe just too far away?

Hello from the Big Easy. :).

I have sent an email to the good will association. Let's see what the reply would be. I did ask for Atsuko.

I emailed here too. No reply yet. Her last name is Iwamoto.

Eschew: The excursions for the Hokkaido cruise were not all available at the same time. Some, like for Korsakov, were posted late. You need to check periodically. Even those ports that have some excursions posted will get some new ones.

We stayed on the ship for Korsakov. So many comments on that port were mixed that we decided not to bother.

Hakodate was our favorite port. If you can secure Atsuko to guide you, you'll have a wonderful time.

Wherever you go in Hokkaido, don't forget to try the ice cream. It is the best we've had.

Ice cream in Hokkaido? I'll have to remember that. I still miss the Gelato and special Italian ice cream in Rome from last summer.

E so Atsuko replied to me and here is what she said inre to getting her for a guide:

"Would you please tell him to access to the homepage of Hakodate good will association
and send the Tour Booking Form there first,as you did before." and;

"In the Tour Booking Form there is a space to write short massage ,
if you write “I prefer Atusko Iwamoto as our guide”there,it might helps.
The name of Atusko Iwamoto, not Masamitsu Iwamoto though,
because my my husband Masamitsu is not a member of it.

But Hakodate goodwill accept your requests no earlier than two months and no later than three weeks
before your arrival.
So in this case please send theTour Booking Form in June.
Thank you for understanding."