Concern about Volendam's 4/14 and 5/2 sailings

[*sockmonkey*]

I'm set to go on the 4/14 Grand Asia explorer cruise on the MS Volendam. In light of the recent events, I am now very concerned about docking in the ports of call for Japan. I know HAL has made revisions to their itinerary which include eliminating 3 of the 5 scheduled stops in Japan, but unlike many other lines (Royal, Oceania and Princess) have not ceased travel to Japan completely. Furthermore, the 5/2 sailing from Osaka means they will be resupplying the ship at that time for the sailing to Alaska... does this mean they will take all their supplies from Japanese suppliers?? That sounds quite scary considering pretty much the rest of the world has halted all food related imports from Japan. Does anyone else out there share these concerns with me? I know that we are only in Japan for two days now, but considering everything from the water, to the air, to the people and now showing signs of high levels of radiation, is it worth the risk??? :confused:

[erewhon]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.
If you check the Roll Call section of this site,( which is on the previous page,) you will find your cruise with lots of discussion.

[Krazy Kruizers]

welcome to cruise critic

check out your calls here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1116271

and

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1109977

[KirkNC]

Good question, I would not be real keen on any produce, meat or dairy products from Japan right now. you might ask HAL this question.

Kirk

[mancunian]

Slightly puzzled by this post. HAL have been very generous and allowed people to cancel up to Sunday 4th April with a full refund if they were not happy with itinerary. Not sure what has happened since Sunday to worry you quite so much. I don't think in any case, problems aside HAL would restock in Japan - too expensive.

As has been said here join us on the roll call which has been a very active one. However, I do have to say you will not get the answer there. Initially people were concerned what was going to happen because so many had flights and hotels booked pre and post cruise, but once HAL published the new itinerary everyone seems quite happy. Obviously disappointment that we are missing three Japanese ports but hey you have to go with the flow and it is perfectly understandable that northern Japan is out. I think on the two roll calls only two people have cancelled and I think in both cases it was because they were on the second half and had booked the cruise to visit Japan.

[*sockmonkey*]

Thanks for directing me to the roll call! Since I am new to Cruise Critic I was unaware that it existed. Thanks for the links as well; I have made my way there and posted on that thread.
Cheers!

[CruiserBruce]

You might also want to know HAL ships tremondous amounts of supplies all over the world to meet their ships. Quite possibly the meat on Asian cruises will be from the US. Vegetables might be from the US or Australia, or possibly even South and Central America.

I won't expect many of the types of items commonly served on American oriented cruise lines would be available in Japan.

[Australian family]

You might also want to know HAL ships tremondous amounts of supplies all over the world to meet their ships. Quite possibly the meat on Asian cruises will be from the US. Vegetables might be from the US or Australia, or possibly even South and Central America.

I won't expect many of the types of items commonly served on American oriented cruise lines would be available in Japan.

HAL source a lot of fruit from Asia for their Australia/New Zealand cruises.

I doubt that they would source it from Japan, as it would be more economical for them to import it for their cruises.