GrumpySushiBear

Thank you @jmalux for posting those snaps! I'm on the same cruise as @BBGrace273 and have been slurping up any info on the Nova (not our first cruise but first w/ Silversea). I'm glad to see Kaiseki's hours are actually quite reasonable with last seating at 2:30pm. DH and I have too high of expectations of food from our traveling, based on everything we've seen we don't plan on paying extra for any of the meals. Also, we don't drink and always feel repulsed by any restaurant that don't let you opt out. Hope you have a smooth journey home!

I feel your pain @drron29. I finally managed to see it from the shinkansen after many trips. I had given up and at first thought my family was tricking me when they told me to look out the window 😅 Good luck!

Oooo thanks for the tip! We’ll do that too!

Thanks! I was worried I would be locked in. Though if paying for the premium upfront for the whole cruise is only 20 a day then we might just do that instead of picking and choosing. We have 5 consecutive sea days that I was planning to squeeze in some work and was going to only buy on those days. (I know that cost could change and coverage could be bad for transpacific). My camera’s raw files are 40 mb each so going to be good to be able to back those up whenever instead of stressing to optimize a day.

I read somewhere (but can’t find it again) that you are limited to one device connected to wifi if you are on basic? Is this true?

I am on the same “boat” as you. But for us we really wanted to experience getting to Japan from the west coast without having to fly and were going to go to Japan in the fall anyway. I don’t think it can be worse than a long layover at LAX and flying. Though I keep lurking here too because I am too type A to detach from information completely. It’s a big expense so of course we desire everything to go smoothly. Past performance doesn’t always predict future success / failure. We can only hope things go decently but can have confidence we will find a way to enjoy ourselves! ❤️ My backup plan is just to sleep in, lounge, not wash dishes, catch up on reading - I never get those things at home 😀

On my transpacific cruise the health question is really just a giant block of text for your acknowledgement. They don't require you to provide any proof of vaccination anymore. They do note that local laws and restrictions apply. There's also dietary restrictions questions.

Haha.. the shower looks the same size as the one at our home and we don’t have a bathtub. So it is a net gain for us. I looking forward to relaxing baths to pre game for onsen hopping in Japan. 🙂 (we are booked on nova transpacific in the fall).

Looks like Silversea finally updated their site to show a photo with bathtub configuration! I was able to find this photo by clicking a nova cruise -> port to port -> details on superior veranda suite -> and it's the 4th photo We blindly booked the bathtub config and I've been searching for a good photo ever since. It looks like a spacious round shower stall and the sink area is slightly more squished to accomodate. We are pretty happy to see this 🙂

We go to Japan often and I actually think everything is way cheaper in Japan (even without the favorable exchange rate). But I understand that you have to know where to look. We often to things on our own but i hire guides whenever i want to really pack in a more off the beaten path - I never worry about getting lost with google translate and my basic Japanese. Worse case scenario you can call your hotel and they will help you (my mom fell and hurt herself and we had to get a taxi to an English speaking hospital - she’s fine ) I recommend hiring local guides through https://www.toursbylocals.com they can customize to what you want to do and you can choose fully private tours for very little. They will even pick you up at your hotel if you are worried about navigating on your own. You can additionally request to have the guide hire a taxi for the day (I recommend this for Kyoto) so you can maximize your time (and leave all your souvenirs and jackets in the taxi!) Happy to post names of the specific guides here if anyone is interested (I hired for Koyasan, Kasama, and Naoshima day trips).