uktog

I was very disappointed with some of the onboard substitutes but I’m going to be honest on the Japan Intensive we will have an onboard in Korea and I wasn’t happy. But now onboard we are having so many lovely treats in each port, including an interaction with three Geisha girls tonight I’m ok if spreading lots of immersion activities across the cruise if that’s the way the line opts to go

For those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to have local supplies lobster tails always made one night on the cruise very special

Akita Ship Life All going fine. One small change that caught us out, certainly on Journey they no longer call you before bringing breakfast, that was a no cost thing we really liked and we got caught out this morning as our breakfast was brought 10 minutes before the start window! The ship extras continue each night our onboard extra is accompanied by a delicious sake based cocktail. Our extra was a Hemage drumming display. Shore Excursion We went on the Historical Akita tour. This had been highlighted through extra letters as being very strenuous. We decided to risk it. In the end it was no worse than the previous trips. First a visit to see the Kanto Festival lanterns (no real walking here) and watch the athleticism of those who carry them, not by hand but by balancing the 30ft poles on their heads arms or even waists. We got to try carrying them - but shorter poles and two hands only! Then to the town park to see temples Viewing the city from the watchtower (this was a nickel and dime by Azamara we had to pay 120 yen - about a dollar to do this. Given the excursion cost it should have been included) We did however find a local exercising his beautiful Akita dog and some flowering cherry blossom. It’s coming but I think we are just going to be in the wrong place at wrong time In the end it was a two mile walk and only a few slopes and one steep flight of stairs so ok. The cruise shuttle dropped guests off at the cross on this map. We might have managed this trip on our own but the bus between the various parts was a godsend. Our guides English wasn’t great he was just reading a script but he was understandable

It’s not only training it’s the right training. Needs a hotel school or equivalent programme as part of the process to get the external view on good hotel leadership. The old guard had it as does Ryzard, new recruits some have virtually no hotel experience.

Depending on where you are going I recommend a telescopic horn. It’s a godsend in temples etc

Aomori Ship Life We had a pleasant low key sea day before reaching Aomori. There were lots of activities going on and a brunch including Dim Sum. There was a far more extensive array of food than we saw last month on Quest - perhaps higher numbers onboard allows them to have a greater range of offerings. There is one enrichment lecturer Dr Craig Benjamin- he’s excellent doing 50% history plus 50% next port of call. It was standing room only even after the extra white chairs were deployed. Shore experience Aomori had no shuttles we were parked at the start of the Main Street. We heard guests enjoyed the town visiting temples and being helped by friendly locals. We had our first welcome! We did a shore excursion to Hirosaki Castle and Nebuta Village - 5.5 hours There were many buses going but they had staggered timings and routes so it wasn’t crowded. There were 39 on our bus which had spacious legroom. We had a ships escort as well as the guide. The guides English was excellent and her explanations were very helpful. We discovered that this is an exceptionally snowy region, we say the vast number of apple trees for which the region is famous (so famous even all the roadside barriers mark this!) and the many rice fields were ready for planting. Our first stop was at the interpretative village- some local children were there with their teachers welcoming a local dignitary they were so sweet. The displays of lanterns used in the annual Nebuta festival in August were amazing - so many photos taken. We were then treated to a shamisen and drumming performance before walking over to Hiroski castle. The cherry blossoms were still not out, I imagine they will be amazing. The locals obsession with blossom really is something else. In the park we saw a TV crew and intensive close up filming of trees. Our guide explained this film would be part of that nights news program as there are scheduled slots for these reports that are “peak viewing” until the season starts. Being blessed with a beautiful day the views were amazing. The excursion was over lunchtime and we had been made well aware that lunch was not provided. However, this seemed new to some of the passengers and there was a slight delay because some of them had tried to order food during the free time we had at the castle. We had brought our bottle water and found a beautiful apple snack bar in the shop, which we enjoyed under a still to flower cherry tree. Hopefully people will read the clear information ahead of future tours and not assume what may or may not be provided. This tour showed us having one mile of walking I would say from what my App told me we were walking for about two hours and probably covered nearer two Miles with relatively flat surfaces. It’s certainly the case and Japan to date that you have to have a reasonable level of physical fitness to engage in the various excursions. I’m coping! We return to ship to discover that they had managed to get some local universities students to come on board and do a Shamisen performance they were great, a nice contrast to hearing solo playing earlier. IMG_4681.mov This was one of the first Japanese cultural extras that they speak about that we are going to enjoy on this intensive tour. Of course in the evening we had much talked about Apple pie where Azamara had bought 60 kg of these expensive Aomori apples and had made them into an extremely delicious dessert ably overseen by the ever present Ryzard . So our first full day has been very successful

I think there’s a problem with OBC just now. When we got onboard we only had half our OBC. The system claimed we had spent the other half when we had not. Guest Relations were very good, didn’t need any of our invoice papers though we’d taken the precaution of bringing them. All was solved very quickly after reference to shoreside

And they continue to!

I think it was unfortunate that for the higher tariff 2 night tour they hadn’t secured a better guide. She just wasn’t fully engaged in maximising sharing useful information. (She did repeat three times the aging population and declining birth rate data but never explained what was meant by the Samurai, Edo etc or when Tokyo was created)

Day 2 reaching the ship It took a little to fully understand the luggage logistics from our guide - in the end our luggage did come on the coach with us and although most of us had not had tags included in our pre cruise material it was absolutely no problem at the pier. The sightseeing today involved a lot more walking than maybe we had anticipated and the guide didn’t make it clear at each stop. I learned (painfully) a few minutes can be over 10 minutes and as we were in crowds at the temple many of whom have no spatial awareness re their umbrellas it wasn’t a pleasant experience. We did see the Imperial Palace the crowded Sensoji Temple and surrounding streets The high spot was a tea ceremony for the 8 of us with the most delightful informative guide who spoke perfect English. What we did discover is Japanese inflexibility today. First let’s be positive the tempura lunch was lovely At lunch seats were very low style something my non functional knee can’t do. This was a showstopper met by initial indifference by the guide. Then a solution that DH and I ate at a different part of the restaurant alone was proposed which we declined. We couldn’t get them to understand all I needed was a “ normal” chair and I could easily lean down to the food. Eventually we achieved this but it was awkward. We’ve since discovered talking to Land Discoveries on other things that the found tour operators have little sensitivity to “adapting” especially for less mobile guests even simple things are difficult. We will be watching to see how this develops during the cruise. I have a non functioning knee and spine/balance issues. Some days I’m a racing snake others a limping tortoise with no warning. I’m now using a cane far more than I like. We reached the terminal at 1430 virtually the last to board so it was a very quick and easy embarkation - safely home to the mother ship. The two day pre cruise served its purpose quite well- with a different guide it would have been so much better

Day 1 tour The previous evening we met the other six guests whom we would travel with over dinner. It was a weird dinner - set menu no choice all low quality western food in a restaurant that focused on local cuisine. Whoever signed off that included dinner should be shot but everyone was jet lagged tired and were keen just to eat and get to sleep so the firing party is stood down. We met our guide in the morning and headed to the station to experience a Shinkansen trip of 30 minutes to Odawara. Short but we got to experience it. From there, we had a larger bus to spread out in for the day where we visited the Open Air Sculpture park We had a pretty mediocre cafe lunch there but starting to get Japanese food! We then headed to the ropeway to the volcanic area And were treated to a view of Mount Fuji. We arrived back in Tokyo late afternoon. Our guide was so so - very accented but also not communicative other than to constantly thank us - it got quite annoying eg when the coach was in a little traffic jam we were thanked for sitting on the coach during the jam! Unfortunately over the two days with her, we learned nothing about the history of Japan or Tokyo or anything meaningful about the country which for first time visitors was a big let down. We asked the guide about seeing cherry tree illuminations but she didn’t know but fortunately the hotel concierge did and we jumped in a taxi - easy they all take cards - and headed to Chogi park. The blossom season is late so not everything was out but lots of work groups were having parties sitting or standing on plastic sheets or newspaper on hard ground. Shoeless off course!! Tokyo is certainly a spotless city and we felt very safe walking about and finding a taxi back. The taxi fares were quite reasonable for the distance travelled

I have so enjoyed @debcip comments on their cruise I’m going to pick up the baton prompted by some who wanted another of my sort of live journals. This time I’m going to focus more on the off ship experience as Japan is quite a challenge for many guests so as much I hope this can also be useful to future cruisers as we are doing some different excursions to Debbie. Japan excited and terrified us so we opted to use ship excursions more and also added the Azamara provided pre cruise 2 day tour. This add on did carry quite a premium to diy but it did make our two days much calmer logistically and enabled us to combine elements of sightseeing we wanted. We arrived at HND at 7 am. We had followed all the instructions and got QR codes before leaving home. I had also screenshot them in case I couldn’t get onto the airport WiFi. In the end the WiFi was so easy and quick to connect to that we didn’t need the pictures but it gave peace of mind. HND is huge and British Airways was parked a 15 minute walk to immigration! After a long flight overnight I’d recommend a wheelchair assisted arrival (easy to set up) if that bothers you. No one asked anything about whether we were carrying medications it was a case of two checks of our passports and codes one at immigration and one at customs and through we went. Azamara provided our transfer to the hotel - the New Otani - and a white gloved driver with large car, WiFi hotspot and plenty water greeted us. I wouldn’t recommend that hotel to independent travelers. It’s a conference type hotel and though it has beautiful gardens its not very individual in the service it gives. It certainly works from the tour perspective with plenty space for buses etc but it’s very inflexible. We arrived before 10am and whilst we did not expect our room to be ready we asked could we be called when it was. No was the answer, your room will be released to you at 3pm. We’ve noticed quite a bit of inflexibility since arriving (more on that in later posts) though a rules based system does mean a clean, tidy running to time experience

Currently on Journey we’ve 680 guests from 30 nationalities- the ship has quite a buzz!

We too were at the shrine precruise yesterday and it was madness not helped by a less than ideal guide. So hoping for a little more calm on the upcoming ports!

they stop there already and the new CEO is already appointed so my guess is an overhyped announcement about itineraries for 2025/26 my hope is it’s that mythical new ship

Thanks and thanks for all your great updates safe travels

Yes a lot of bookings in veranda and above get the premium package as a booking benefit when that offer is running. However there isn’t an automatic package for suites as such

No. I suspect you’ve a website error there! It will sort itself in due course I’m sure

Our preferred spirits are on the Ultimate eg Botanist Gin and of course the wine and champagne so $8 a day minus loyalty discount is a good move for us

No package included for suites I’m afraid. If you want proper sparkling water you also need the ultimate package or pay as you go

You need the Ultimate Package for the Atlas special cocktails

Interesting that in Antarctica the onboard team were taking the credit for the selection and organisation of the enrichment. Maybe you got caught in the transition

Sometimes they discount premium wines etc by 20% if you buy a bottle for that night.Never done it as it’s not the kindest environment for fine wines.

Ironically the cruise before had three Antarctic speakers all covering nature topics, a 4th speaker from a different organisation who also covered nature type issues and wasn’t aware the other 3 would also be overlapping his area until he boarded and a former concord first officer. Thank goodness for the concord diversion as we were in nature overload (but all good speakers just too much natural duplication). We too had nothing on ports and I would have liked more on the history of the region. Engaging the right speakers used to be the responsibility of the cruise director - not sure if that’s the case now but whoever is doing it needs to up their thought processes re variety etc.

The dry docks are the routine ones required at regular intervals for certification etc. They will deal with faults then where appropriate plus the routine mechanical replacements. I think the one significant difference as I reflect on how Azamara delivers post Covid and with new owners is unlike in the past you cannot rely on the experience in one vessel being the same as another. Historically the executive team ashore made many comments about the only difference between the ships was the art, if you swapped between ships the product and experience was identical. Now the product is inconsistent as highlighted in this thread. It’s more obvious with social media - I give one example- the brunches. The frequency and array of products offered. Maybe some chefs have bigger budgets, some may be less talented (not an issue when it was Fabio Iwan and Monica) who knows but if the new owners are encouraging individualism it’s often appearing to guests as inconsistency