LadyZolt

Today we took an excursion into Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. We saw the post office; the Notre Dame cathedral that is not open and still under construction (our guide said that they're actually using building supplies from France, so that's why it's been 7 years and still not done); walked by the war museum and saw an H1 "Huey" helicopter; and we went up to the Skydeck in the Bitexco Financial Tower and saw some great views from there. It was another very hot day, though! We definitely appreciated the air conditioning today!

If you're boarding in Singapore, then you're not transiting from any of the Sri Lankan airports. You're arriving and departing by the cruise ship.

We're in Nha Trang, Vietnam, today after four sea days. My husband and I took the Vinpearl cable cars over to the amusement park and rode the Ferris wheel and enjoyed the park. It was hot out -- in the 90's -- and there were hardly any other people around even though all the stores and things were open. We had a nice afternoon!

We bring a battery-operated motion sensor light that attaches to the wall magnetically. It's not as bright as the normal bathroom light, so it's perfect for middle-of-the-night visits to the bathroom. If you look on Amazon, you'll see a few options. The one we got is by "Cruise On" and is white and blue.

We're in Osaka, Japan, today. The ship docked right beside the Tempozan Ferris wheel, which says it's the largest in Japan. We rode that and then also took the subway to the station where we could get on a bullet train and then took the bullet train to Kyoto. My husband had his phone out showing the speed in miles per hour and I got a photo when it was 175 mph. I think the top speed I noticed was 185 mph. It was fun! We'd never ridden the bullet train before, so we figured we'd do that while we were in Japan. This is the ship's last stop in Japan. Here are some photos I took today.....

We were in Shimizu, Japan, today and could see Mount Fuji from the ship. We took an excursion and saw Mt. Fuji from a lake area, and two waterfalls, and a Shinto shrine, and also the Mount Fuji World Heritage Center. It was a beautiful day with Cherry Blossoms still in bloom! Here are some photos...

We were overnight in the Yokohama port, so we explored Yokohama today. We rode the subway and went on the Cosmo Clock 21 Ferris wheel. In the amusement area, there were many coin machines selling a lot of stuff that (I assume) children would enjoy. Coin and vending machines are all over the place place in Japan! It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed seeing Cherry blossoms and lots of flowers and people. There seemed to be a food and garden event going on, so it was busy. We enjoyed our day!

My husband and I went to Tokyo Disneyland yesterday. I'd only been to Disney World in Orlando before, so it was fun to see familiar things as well as new things at this theme park. 😀 The Cherry Blossoms were still blooming in this area, so that was nice to see. (By the way, for those who aren't Disney fans -- there is a sculpture of Walt Disney and he holding Mickey Mouse's hand as he guides Mickey somewhere. There's also a sculpture of Walt's brother, Roy. He sits on a bench and Minnie Mouse places her hand in his palm. The significance is that "Walt leads" and "Roy supports." That's how the brothers worked together to make Disney so successful. The castle in Tokyo, like the one at Magic Kingdom in Orlando, is Cinderella's Castle.)

We're in Kagoshima, Japan, today. We went to the Sengan-en Garden and House and also saw an area near Sakurajima, an active stratovolcano. We learned "Sakura" means "cherry blossoms" and "jima" means "island," but now due to the active volcano, it's a peninsula and no longer an island. Our guide said that they are currently at the end of the cherry blossom blooming period, so we did see a few along the way, but not as many as we saw in Korea. She said that they might still be blooming in Tokyo, so we'll see if the are when we're there in a few days. The Sengan-en Garden was very beautiful and peaceful. We learned a bit about the history of the people in this area and how they modernized so that they would not be colonized by one of the European nations. It was an interesting day!

We docked in Nagasaki today and my husband I didn't do a planned excursion -- we just went off by ourselves and explored the city a bit. We rode the Nagasaki Ropeway cable car, rode around town on a "streetcar" (I would call it a "trolley," though), and went to Glover Garden. Here are some photos I got....

We docked in Tianjin yesterday and those of us on the included excursions had a choice of going to either just the Great Wall (and having a shorter, more manageable day), or the Forbidden City and the Great Wall (which was about a 17-hour excursion). My husband and I did the latter one. It was a long day -- we didn't get back aboard the ship until about 1 am. We went first to lunch, then the Forbidden City where our guide spent about two hours telling us about it. We then went to dinner and after the sun set, we drove to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. We didn't know it until our guide told us, but the Great Wall is usually only open at night in the summer months. They had it open especially for this Royal Caribbean cruise, and the only people on it last night were those of us who went on this excursion! We were *very impressed* with how Royal Caribbean handled this included experience. Both lunch and dinner were fabulous as well with lots of choices in food served "family style" as they do in China. And not only was the Great Wall open for us, but they had groups of performers doing dances, including dragon dances, and music, to welcome us as we entered the area. The souvenir shops were also open so we could get a souvenir. We could not be more impressed with how things went yesterday. Kudos to Royal Caribbean!

As mentioned, Royal is refunding 100% of what you paid per day for the days you elect to not be on the ship due to the itinerary change. My husband and I are getting off in Dubai and doing some things in Europe for the 42 days between Dubai and re-joining the ship when it gets to Ravenna, Italy, on June 20th. I know of some others who are leaving permanently in Dubai and Royal will refund the whole of Segments 3 and 4 for those. I heard someone call this a "Get out of jail free" card -- which it is! Usually, you'd have to go through insurance to be reimbursed, and you'd have to have a reason that the insurance considers valid unless you got the more expensive "cancel for any reason" policy. So, this is quite generous of Royal and there are a fair number of full world cruisers making other plans. I do think the majority are staying on for the Africa segment, and they are now looking forward to Royal releasing excursion information (hopefully within a week or two) so they can make plans. Yesterday, we were in Incheon/Seoul, South Korea and we went to the DMZ, so I don't have a ton of photos, but here are a few. The focus in South Korea is to remember what happened in the war and they hope someday for unification between North and South Korea. The photo of the bridge is called the "Bridge of Freedom" to those who crossed it to enter South Korea, and it is called the "Bridge of No Return" for those who opted to go back across to North Korea because they have family and homes there as those people were never seen again in South Korea. The last photo is looking at North Korea from the Dora Observatory.

We were on Jeju Island, South Korea, today. We went on an excursion to see a waterfall area and a Buddhist temple. I was thinking we might miss the cherry blossoms in Japan (next week) because of the timing and they might already be done, so I was pleasantly surprised to see dozens of cherry blossom trees here today. They were absolutely beautiful!

Photos of sail away tonight -- we went under the Busan Harbor Bridge....

We're in Busan, South Korea now, so we were not affected by the earthquake in Taiwan. We were just there a few days ago, so it does make you think! It rained all day in Busan today, so some of the things people wanted to do weren't available due to the weather. Nonetheless, we got off the ship and rode the subway around, visited a fish and food market, and generally got an idea of what it's like in Busan. Here are some photos...