BruceMuzz

Japanese taxis are fantastic. Great cars, great services, great drivers. As many Japanese do not drive, there are taxis just about everywhere, all the time. They are also a bit expensive. There will be a long taxi queue at Haneda Airport, just outside the arrivals hall. Haneda to Yokohama Hotels by taxi will cost you around 5,000 yen, depending on the hotel location. That is about US$35 by today’s exchange rate. Japanese Taxi drivers do not expect nor accept tips. There are 6 Tokyo Cruise Port Terminals. 2 of them are actually in Yokohama, not far from your hotel. The new Tokyo International Terminal is located just North from Haneda Airport. The other 3 Cruise Terminals are in Tokyo City. You will need to sort out which Terminal your cruise is departing from. If you use Rome2Rio website, you can easily determine the cost to each terminal.

The ship I manage has no buffet seating at all. We have no buffets - except the Deck BBQ. All food is ala Carte, ala Minute, served wherever and whenever you like. No seating issues.

Panna Cotta - nearly the same thing, is served just about everywhere.

There are several major cruise lines that have very few working cameras onboard their ships - especially the older ones. Most HAL ships have only a few working cameras in the casinos - but there are no recorders and no dedicated crew to monitor those cameras.

My answer would depend on who is paying for the cruise.

Installing televisions on cruise ships has never been the problem. Most cruise ships, most cruise lines, and most countries do not legally allow television broadcasts to be picked up out of the air and showed to paying passengers without paying advertising and royalty fees. The only viable and legal way to do that - in most cases - is purchasing very expensive satellite decoding licenses. Until recently, satellite television broadcasting was just not very good, and quite limited.

The Best Tailors in Hong Kong moved to Shanghai right after the handover in 1997. Now the best you can find are either extremely expensive, or are Indian sweatshops with poor quality cloth, single stitching, and very little customer service. When I was living in HK, the local papers had a big story on custom made clothing. They claimed that the best quality and lowest prices could be found at Brooks Brothers in New York ?city.

One of the biggest secrets in the Cruise Industry is the amount of money each cruise line budgets to feed you onboard every day. The NCL feeding budget is about half of the Celebrity Budget. Many cruise lines spend more money feeding their crew than NCL spends feeding its passengers.

One of the biggest challenges the cruise lines face is one that passengers never consider. When we build a new cruise ship, we only install enough crew beds to accommodate what is needed TODAY. We know that there will be a need for more crew beds in the future - perhaps the very near future, as we add more concepts and ideas. But in order to keep overall costs down, we never build space for extra crew beds. So when a new regulation, or a new restaurant, or a new virtual pool idea requiring more crew comes along (and it always does), the biggest argument against it is “no available beds for required crew”. So how do we get around this problem? Easy. Replace non-essential crew with crew required for the new concept. That is when you start noticing that the cabin stewards now have more cabins to service and restaurant service is slower because the fewer waiters must take care of more tables. Even a brilliant concept that requires more crew onboard will not happen if the cost vs. profit calculation cannot overcome the inevitable guest satisfaction drop that happens when service crew are replaced.

Over the past 50 years on ships, I have received hundreds of “great suggestions” about what we could be doing. A few of them were brilliant and do-able, and actually were put in to practice. Most never made it due to: Flag State Regulations Port State Regulations US Coast Guard Regulations IMO Restrictions Safety Considerations Cruise Line Legal Department Objections Insurance Company Objections Captain / Safety Officer Objections Costs Competition for onboard revenue Logistical Issues But it costs you next to nothing to try.

There is a really nice, safe, clean beach very close to your cabin. It is right next to the ship’s swimming pool. No crime. No taxis to find. No problem getting food and drinks. No sand in your things. No pollution. No dress code. No crowds. Everyone else will be ashore.

Your friend is probably American. If so, he may be influenced by your US Food and Drug Administration, which sets the rules and standards for food and drink in America. The FDA maintains that it is dangerous and illegal to serve cheese at room temperature to paying guests. That standard has been passed to the local health departments in every US State. If a Health Inspector visits an American restaurant and discovers a cheese plate at room temperature, the Restaurant may be fined or closed down.

In Honolulu, all the cruise piers are in one location. You can easily walk between them, if you need to.

It would be helpful if you told us which passport you are asking about.

Razor blades…..

Very few - if any - Yokohama Hotels have a shuttle to the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal. If you ask the front desk at any Yokohama Hotel, they will arrange a taxi to take you to the Terminal.

The Peninsula Hotel Hong Kong

Has passenger quality declined industry-wide?

Technically - and legally - the Shanghai exemption is in place. You should not have to get a visa if you are a US Passport holder and your situation adheres to the requirements of the exemption. But there is a small problem. It seems that the Chinese Government has not fully briefed some of the Shanghai Immigration Officers about this exemption. There have been quite a few cases - some of them on my ship - where the Immigration Officials refused to honor the exemption. Then the Americans who were not allowed to go ashore tried to purchase a last-minute visa. Couldn’t be done. They missed their chance to visit China. Maybe it will work OK for you - maybe not. China is a very unpredictable place.

It is not “probably have an out clause” It is for sure that all cruise lines have many “out clauses” in the legally binding passenger contract that goes into effect the moment you pay for your cruise or board the ship. The cruise lines can legally do just about anything they want to with your bookings, but they are also very cognizant that the vast majority of cruisers are blissfully unaware of the passenger contract. How many experienced cruisers have ever read the passenger contract from start to finish? I will bet that the number is close to zero. The cruise lines are very aware that the average cruise passenger just is not interested in reading a document that can make or break your cruise.

When you pay a Walmart price for a Walmart cruise, on a Walmart cruise line, you get a Walmart experience.

US passport holders need a visa to go ashore in China. It is expensive. This is quid pro quo between China and the USA. Chinese people need to buy an expensive visa to visit America, so Americans need to buy an expensive visa to visit China. If you choose to remain onboard the ship in Chinese ports, you will not need to buy the visa.

It would be helpful if you told us which passport you carry.

It has already changed. We are seeing many more Americans loudly chatting on their mobile telephones in public areas, disturbing other guests.

NCL has become famous for cost cutting, and offering as little as possible in order to maximize profits