Celebrity Millennium Tokyo(Yokohama) - Vancouver 7th May 2017

Good Afternoon

Myself and my partner are travelling on this Cruise, This will be our first Celebrity Cruise (been on numerous RCCI) and first Trans Pacific Cruise.

We are wondering if there are any other 'Friends of Dorothy' on board as it would be good to meet up with likeminded people for a few drinks, especially on those cold sea days from Petropavlovsk to Vancouver !!

Let us know if you are aboard :):):)

Damon & Ross

Good Afternoon

 

Myself and my partner are travelling on this Cruise, This will be our first Celebrity Cruise (been on numerous RCCI) and first Trans Pacific Cruise.

 

We are wondering if there are any other 'Friends of Dorothy' on board as it would be good to meet up with likeminded people for a few drinks, especially on those cold sea days from Petropavlovsk to Vancouver !!

 

Let us know if you are aboard :):):)

 

Damon & Ross

Hi: My best friend from College (way back when) and I will be on this cruise. This will be his first time on Celebrity and neither of us have been on a Trans Pacific Cruise before. We would enjoy meeting and having drinks with you. I'm Tom he is Paul.

Hi Tom and Paul,

Great to see there are likeminded people on board :)

We will look forward to meeting up and having a 'Few' drinks during the cruise

We are going to be in Tokyo for 3 nights before the cruise and very much looking forward to seeing the city as visited much of the Far East but Japan is a first time for us

This should be an interesting cruise due to it's unique itinerary, we are excited about seeing Petropavlovsk, we are hoping that you can just get of the boat and look around the port rather than having to take one of Celebrity's tours !!

Only 12 weeks to go now, we booked this about 18 months ago so been counting down for quite a while, its great that its now getting very close !!

Look forward to meeting up onboard and will sort something out nearer the time

Damon and Ross

Hi again: We will look forward to meeting you folks. We are not arriving until May 7th so will be going directly from the airport to the ship. Although I haven't been to Japan before, I am going on another cruise in 2018 that culminates in Tokyo so will spend more time then. I am doing several cruises before this one and have probably overbooked time-wise and money wise (March in Australia and April from Miami to Barcelona). This is my biggest reason for not getting to Japan earlier. Tom.

We are planning this trip, alas our Company don't announce our annual leave for the current year til April - so we are stuck in limbo ...... dreaming and hoping the prices stay at their current levels (or even drop....) :) Cheers Matt and Juan

And we are booked, looking forward to our first Suite experience and lots of sea days :cool:

- now to start looking into the ports in earnest !!

Good to hear .. We too are booked in a suite so looks like drinks in the Lounge on those many sea days [emoji3]

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Hey Damon - checking the spreadsheet I think we are neighbours on deck six

Do you have plans for Petropavlovsk ?? Ive emailed a company recommended on Tripadvsor EXPLORE KAMKATCHKA and will see what they come back with ....... Celebrity seems pretty pricey, but I thought I'd post here before the main thread to see if I can from a smallish group. (asked about the Siberian K9 kennel/ city highlights and volcano). Will post more when/if I get a response. Am hoping the agency will arrange visas (my understanding is we need to book thru a tour operator to sort the visa)

Let us know either way if you have plans .....

Hey Damon - checking the spreadsheet I think we are neighbours on deck six

 

Do you have plans for Petropavlovsk ?? Ive emailed a company recommended on Tripadvsor EXPLORE KAMKATCHKA and will see what they come back with ....... Celebrity seems pretty pricey, but I thought I'd post here before the main thread to see if I can from a smallish group. (asked about the Siberian K9 kennel/ city highlights and volcano). Will post more when/if I get a response. Am hoping the agency will arrange visas (my understanding is we need to book thru a tour operator to sort the visa)

Let us know either way if you have plans .....

Hi Matt,

We currently don't have any plans for Petropavlovsk, due to the confusion over whether or not a Visa is required we were going to wait and see, but we would be very interested to hear what the agency offer, we definitely want to get of and explore as it's a very unique destination and i think this will be a once and only visit :-)

We too are currently looking into tours in Hakodate, on the main thread someone has found a volunteer organisation who do 3-4 hours tours by locals of the area, they ask for 'Fee for their time' which is 3000Yen per group (US$27) and the maximum size is 6, the group then just have to pay their costs for transportation / entrance fees which again should only be about US$10-15 for the day, so if this is split between 4 people would work out around US$10 per person and if we can get 6 it would be even cheaper.

They have replied and that they will look for a guide for me, and confirm no later than 2 weeks before arrival (by end of April) if they have been able to confirm so if you are interested to join, let us know.

Hi Damon and Ross

We would be interested in Hakodate with you guys if possible.

I have heard back from the agent in Petrolvlosk, but still have no itinerary or pricing as yet.

She's responded twice, but nothing for three days.

My email is matthewderekm@yahoo.com - might be easier (and private) than here to communicate.

And if Tom or Paul are interested - you are welcome to join us in you have no plans for Petropavlovsk and this works out.

Will let you know. Cheers Matt

Hi Damon and Ross

 

We would be interested in Hakodate with you guys if possible.

 

I have heard back from the agent in Petrolvlosk, but still have no itinerary or pricing as yet.

She's responded twice, but nothing for three days.

 

My email is matthewderekm@yahoo.com - might be easier (and private) than here to communicate.

 

And if Tom or Paul are interested - you are welcome to join us in you have no plans for Petropavlovsk and this works out.

 

Will let you know. Cheers Matt

Thanks, I will talk it over with Paul when I get back from my next cruise--leaving tomorrow night and returning (April 18th) if you still have room. Tom.

Thanks, I will talk it over with Paul when I get back from my next cruise--leaving tomorrow night and returning (April 18th) if you still have room. Tom.

Tom and Paul, you are also welcome to join the Hakodate tour as well

Won't know if they can confirm till around 2 weeks before we go but I will keep you all updated

I've emailed the Concierge about the Petropavlovsk visa situation, they've emailed some one on the ship to ask and will let me know when they get a response

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I had a reply from the tour operator today and she confirmed no visa required, (she is still yet to provide a quote or itinerary)

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Tom and Paul, you are also welcome to join the Hakodate tour as well

Won't know if they can confirm till around 2 weeks before we go but I will keep you all updated

 

I've emailed the Concierge about the Petropavlovsk visa situation, they've emailed some one on the ship to ask and will let me know when they get a response

 

 

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Thank you again. I will get back to you around April 19th.

Hey Guyz

I had a reply from the Petropavlovsk agent today and they are working on a tour to the snow dog kennels and also some sightseeing about town for around four hours. Am still waiting on a costing.

Hope all the snow won't have melted mid May !!

As soon as I get a price I will let you know before I post it on the main board.

(hoping its much cheaper than the similar tour offered by Celebrity !)

Hi Damon and all ...

Decided not to go ahead with the private tour in Petropavlovsk for a few reasons I will explain on board.

The cheaper price did not match the various risks involved.

Looking forward to hearing about Japan .... Not long now .... a month today til sailaway

Totally understand .. still waiting for Hakodate information and confirmation and will update once I have information from them

Only 3.5 weeks till we depart from the UK ... excitement is kicking in now [emoji3]

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Hello!

We will also be enjoying this transpacific cruise. First time to Japan. We are traveling from Los Angeles.

Cheers,

Paul and Joe

Afternoon all, I emailed the concierge a week or so ago asking about visas for Petropavlovsk due to the confusion ..... they in turn emailed the 'Documentation Officer' on board the boat who has replied and stated 'If you do not have a tour booked you require a visa and will not be able to disembark without one'

Welcome Joe and Paul ... look forward to meeting up in 4 weeks for this hopefully great cruise [emoji3]

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We have relented and booked ourselves on to the Petropavlovsk and Local lore tour through Celebrity, we decided we'd rather pre-book and know that as long as the ship docs that day, we will be able to get of the ship and say we've been to Far East Russia :-) ... We didn't want to risk not being able to get off !

Hi Paul and Joe and welcome to our little group.

And Damon and Ross - I share your frustration because I have been giving conflicting info on the Russian Visa Requirement(from Celebrity in writing on our last cruise). We too are looking at a Celebrity Excursion with the dog sled excursion.

I tried to arrange this privately but was too risky - they wanted USD50 non refundable deposit for each participant if the ship can't get in due weather (or dare I say political reasons just at the moment):confused:

So given the remoteness it looks like a rare ship excursion for us too.

Speaking of visas we got ETAs for Canada, seems they are not required if arriving by ship but for $7 I didn't want to take the risk ......

Only 3 weeks now till embarkation day .. excitement is building

We leave the U.K in 2 weeks time , we have to spend a night in Stockholm en route and then travel to Tokyo via Hong Kong

We will be arriving in Tokyo on the 4th May and spending 3 nights at the Marriott in Shinagawa,

Trying to work out what are the must see sights in Tokyo as I'd imagine this will be a one and only visit to Japan

The dog sled excursion should be great fun, we did one a few years ago when we went to Lapland, which is why we've just picked the city tour this time

We also looked at getting the ETA but it wanted a flight number and then further reading mentioned that if you're arriving on a cruise ship you don't need one, so we've decided to leave it

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Hello,

We (Randy & Paul) booked this cruise almost 2 years ago - main reason, extended sea days, value and unique ports. We were hoping for Friends of Dorothy so will be looking forward to martinis together. We have sailed Oceania many times - this will be our 2nd sailing with Celebrity - several Transatlantic, but this will be our first Transpacific. Our understanding regarding Russian Visa is that tour has to be booked through Celebrity to circumvent expensive Visa. In other words, freelance would require a Russian Visa. At this juncture, I'm sure ya'll have already got this nailed down.

Hugz

Hi Randy and Paul, welcome

It seems you booked around the same time as we did ... so long ago but now almost here, we leave the UK in 10 days time and can't wait !

Look forward to meeting you onboard for a few drinks

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Totally understand .. still waiting for Hakodate information and confirmation and will update once I have information from them

 

Only 3.5 weeks till we depart from the UK ... excitement is kicking in now [emoji3]

 

 

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Hi: If you still have room for the Hakodate excursion, Paul and I would like to join you. Thanks. Tom.