Japan Cherry Blossom HELP!!!!

So we booked a Princess cruise and bought airfare for the Cherry Blossom Festival sailing this April, went in the day excursions became available and the excursions going to see the cherry blossoms are all sold out!!! Booooo on Princess, no waitlist no nothing.... So I need all my fellow Cruise Critic experts to come to my rescue:

Can I book an independent excursion (and with what company) from these ports on my own and/or what would you do in each port:

1. Akita Japan: Lake Tazawa and Kakunodate Samurai Town Guided English tour

2. Aomori Japan: Hirosaki Castle Park- you see the Hirosaki floats, and Hirosaki Castle the Seibi-en-Japanese Garden

3. Sakaiminato Japan: Tottori Flower Park, Sweets Castle "Kotobuki-jo" Yushien garden

4. I have 1.5 days in Tokyo on the backend of cruise- Is there a place to see Cherry blossoms there?

Final question- Would you cancel the cruise (100% refundable right now) and do Japan cherry blossom festival on your own?

Thank you!!!!

You might try Viator, Japan Travel Guide or Tours by locals to see what they have available. Also check out Trip Advisors for recommendations. Have you checked out with others on your roll call? I'm sure some are using independent tour operators.

I would also check past years cherry blossom and the forecast for this year.

https://www.kyuhoshi.com/japan-cherry-blossom-forecast/

Generally, the season starts in the south and at lower elevations. We went once where the season was over in Kyoto and Tokyo, but went to Takayama in the mountains and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

Final question- Would you cancel the cruise (100% refundable right now) and do Japan cherry blossom festival on your own?

 

Thank you!!!!

If I was going to Japan to see the cherry blossoms, a cruise would never have been my choice in the first place -- I'd fly to Japan and use trains to get around the country rather than sail around the country.

Just be aware that the "cherry blossom" season varies each year and in each place. Weather-related events are like that. The latest prediction from their weather office (https://fastjapan.com/en/p130051) will help you determine if you're likely to see healthy blossoms when you are there.....you might miss them in the more southerly ports.

Typically the height of the Cherry Blossom viewing, called Hanami, is the third week of March in Kansai (Osaka area), and the fourth week of March in Kanto (Tokyo area).

The blossoms usually start appearing a week or so before the height, and continue for a week or two after that. In 2016, a heavy rain on 01 April put a very sudden stop to Hanami. All the flower petals ended up like pink snow on the streets.

As was posted earlier, changes in weather can change those dates.

But why would you need a tour to do it?

Most Japanese cities have what amounts to forests of cherry trees where you can view the blossoms. Usually we take a ground cloth, some snacks and some drinks. We sit on the cloth under the trees, have a picnic, and view the flower petals raining down on us for a few hours.

You can easily research where the locals do this in each city you visit.

Why not catch a taxi and make your own tour?

If you can get to Akita station, then it's a simple train ride to Kakunodate. Train schedules here: http://www.hyperdia.com/ Kakunodate info here: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3601.html and general Japan info here: http://www.japan-guide.com/

Kakunodate is excellent in cherry blossom. Lake Tazawa is more difficult to get to and frankly less interesting.

Similarly, from Aomori station it is a simple train ride to Hirosaki, then bus or taxi to the castle. Not a great castle, but good for cherry blossom. Castle info here: http://www.jcastle.info/

I've not been to Sakaiminato, but it is near Matsue, which is one of the most interesting towns in Japan (with very few western visitors when I've been there). It has one of the 12 original castles, the home of Lacfacio Hearn (Google if you don't know who he was), excellent samurai area, one of the most famous tea huts (Meimei-an), superb temple and cemetery (Gesshoji), beautiful views over the lakes. Nearby is the second most important shrine in Japan (Izumo taisha; the most important are at Ise, but you are not allowed to see them), and what is generally considered the best garden in Japan (at Adachi museum of art, though I've not been there so don't have an opinion). Check the orientation map near the bottom of this page: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5805.html

These are all excellent destinations that you could do on your own--and you could do them more easily without the cruise. Contrary to popular opinion, Japan is the cheapest first world country to travel if you are happy to stay in Japanese hotels (business chains like Dormy, Toyoko etc.) and eat ordinary Japanese food. There are lots of train passes apart from the well-known JR pass: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html and internal flights are cheap on the discount carriers (Peach etc.) but you cannot book them (nor most hotels) more than 3 months ahead.

That's a real shame on the shore excursions but Id say don't despair yet! I think I'm booked on the same cruise as you (20th April?) and we've booked our shore excursions this last week as they came up. BUT we couldn't get on our first choice for one port and a couple of days later it came up again - as Princess added another coach I guess. It wouldn't surprise me at all if that didn't happen again - more places become available over the next few days/weeks.

On that cruise there seem to be so few options for shore excursions that Id be very surprised if Princess let the opportunity for willing fare payers to take their money elsewhere. I could be wrong, but Id expect more spaces to become available. Keep checking!

We went on this cruise in 2016. When we got on the ship almost all the Japan tours were sold out. Luckily we booked all our must do tours on the day they were released. Princess worked hard to add additional tours where capacity allowed. We cancelled our Tokyo tour on the cruise after we went to a port lecture. We went into Tokyo on the shuttle walked for 5 mins to the open top bus tour. This was excellent and much cheaper than the ships tour. We sat on the top deck on the left side. As we drove past the cherry trees we were up in the canopy right next to the blossom. Perfect way to view and photograph the blossom. The added bonus being high up we could look over the high walls into the gardens.

Hope this helps.

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