DaKahuna

Actually, if you wanted you could use a padlock to lock the door closed using the chrome hardware. The hole should line up when the door is closed. Great way to keep kids off the balcony if that was a concern.

You can count on it. The one you kept winning on never treated me well the whole cruise. Then again, I did not fare any better on any of the others. The roulette wheel was the only one that paid off for me.

Thank you buy do not go through any trouble. I have never seen it at Costco but I know I can buy it online as I ordered some as a present for a friend of ours. I actually discovered this while vacationing for a long weekend on Maui while I was stationed on Oahu. I have a friend that one of his hobbies is roasting beans. He buys green beans from all over and then roast them at home. I have two 1/2 lb bags of his latest batches at home that I need to work my way through before I think of buying any new coffee beans.

Me and you both and I am a couple of days away from embarking on Millennium again. Going to see how your favorite slot machine treats me.

Good morning. It’s not jet lag, or at least I do not think it is but I stayed up until 11 PM last night but still woke up after five hours of sleep. It always takes me a day or two to adjust to a new bed. Anyway, today’s plan is to do a lot of shopping and eating mainly in and around Yokohama train station. But in the mean time we are just taking it easy in the room, waiting for the hotel breakfast buffet to open. We’d like to thank everyone who is following along on this journey with us. We have been looking forward to it ever since we booked the cruise a year ago. We hope to we can make it interesting for you and share with you our experiences.

All this talk of Hawaiian coffee has me strongly considering ordering a bag of Kona Peaberry from my favorite Hawaiian coffee brewer — Bad Ass Coffee. They use to have a store front in Manassas, VA but was closed the last time I looked. It’s been a few years.

It will be a while before I start getting anxious for Power Up points. We make Elite + on our upcoming cruise and since the gap between Elite + and Zenith is so huge, we’ll never make it to that next level.

This is what you have to add extra sausage gravy — to soften them up !!

I think any post about Japan would be remiss without the following, taken during our approach to Haneda this afternoon

I wish we had flown ANA instead of United. The food on ANA has always been better than United’s. Lesson remembered for our next trip.

Absolutely. I welcome anyone on this cruise to add their comments, observations, etc. to this. It’s good to see the same thing from a different pair of eyes. Also others are going to have different excursions from the ones we are taking and the more pictures the better. We are going both pre and post cruise stays in Yokohama. It’s a lot more convenient for some of the personal things we want to take care of on this trip.

We arrived in Tokyo at Haneda airport about 4:43 pm. I think the walk from the gate to baggage claim took longer than it did to get our bags, clear immigration and customs and get to the bus ticket counter. We only had to show the Visit Japan QR code one time but had to show our passports multiple times for customs and immigration. I think we were through in under 40 minutes from the time we got off the plane until we were in line to purchase bus tickets. There was only one other flight in there with us from what I could tell. BTW, our flight was only slightly over half full in Polaris, lots of open seats, which I guess is how we got upgraded, and even six or more empty seats in Premium Economy. Never checked how full the Economy seating was but pretty sure from a glance at the seat map it was not very full. We had about a 50 minute wait for the bus, and then about a 50 minute bus ride. Both were uneventful. We got checked into the hotel, received our bags from the bell service, and then walked to a train station nearby, in the Queens and picked up some light fare for dinner. Here’s a little nighttime view of the harbor from our hotel, on the 20th floor.

It is comfortable. We have a harbor view room so will be able to get up early and watch Millennium enter port and dock It was a little windy and around 72 degrees under cloudy skies. When we took a walk to get some light food to bring back to the room it was breezy and felt like it was in the mid to upper 60’s. Will have to wait until after we board and have been on the ship for a couple of days before I can answer that question. I will try and remember.

Greetings from the InterContinental Yokohama Grand Hotel. We arrived at Dulles for our departure around 0945 on Sunday. Due to having to use her passport which scans as her maiden name and not her married name, her KTN was not associated with her ticket so no TSA Pre. This only added 10 minutes or so time as the airport was not busy at all. After clearning TSA we caught the train to C-Gates and proceeded directly to the Polaris Lounge. This is our first time flying Polaris Business on an International flight, our other Polaris Business have been to/from Hawaii which does not give you lounge access. We had a little over an hour in the lounge and took advantage of the buffet and I gave me recipe for a rum old fashioned to the bartender. He said this was the first time he had ever made an old fashion with rum. He did make one change - instead of sugar water, he used maple syrup. He put very little in and the drink did not turn out overly sweet as I had initially feared. We had the smoothest boarding I have encounter on a United flight in years. Very few needing additional time, no children under two — under a dozen Global Services and 1K. We were quickly in our seats and having a welcome sparkling wine. Then things came to an abrupt halt. Our 1235 departure was delayed 3 times and we ended up taking off around 1330. Once airborne it turned out to be a long but comfortable flight. After dinner service, I had the beef with barbecue sauce, with a a glass of champagne to go with the shirmp appetizer, and a glass of Pinot noir to go with the beef. For dessert, I had everbody’s favorite ice cream Sunday - with chocolate, nuts, and Bailey’s. It was delicious. I watched two movies starting before, during and after dinner and then layed the seat back and had a nice 5-hour nap. They served half of a grilled cheese sandwich and soup, I passed on the soup but liked the grilled cheese. About an hour and a half before arrival they served breakfast, sorry no photo’s. It was okay — I had the egg dish with a sausage and potato’s. Nothing to write home about. I have to say, I have joined the ranks of those who think the food is okay but believe it should be better in First Class/Business Class, especially on long intercontinental flights.

We are both really looking forward to this cruise. It will be my first time back to Japan since 1990 and my wife's first time since 2019. Expect lots of picture of food !!

Just wanted to get this live review start and today is our travel day. We will be departing Washington Dulles today around 1225 and are scheduled to arrive in Haneda at 1525 4/29. We will be staying at the InterContinental Yokohama Grand pre-cruise and at the Westin Yokohama post cruise. I encourage my fellow travelers to share their experiences here with me as our experience has been that what we like or dislike may be different from someone else's experience.

thank you Jim. I'll be sure and see what I can arrange with our sommelier. After a number of wonderful experiences in Luminae, the number of the wines that had their price increased is concerning.

Yes, there is a form, called Additional Gratuities, you can obtain from Guest Services / Retreat Concierge where you can assign gratuities to crew. It comes out of your OBC and if you exceed OBC it is charged to your credit card. I use it a lot to prevent having to deal with a lot of cash.

That is also where I am looking. There is a Breakfast, sometimes Lunch for sea days, and Dinner pull downs and then a separate one for Wines in the app under Luminae.

I am looking forward to that lamb dish. It does look delicious.

This is my fear. I know I should not really trust the app before we board but it is interesting that since my initial post, one additional wine was added in Luminae. Blu is still showing more selections. I just am not looking forward to an upcharge every time I want a glass of Elegance. Real world problems right!

We both prefer the dark variety. We really enjoyed this coffee. We purchased it at the gift store at the plantation we toured. These two photo's are an indication of how close the side of the ship comes to the walls of the locks Even with the mules, I am surprised there are not more instances of ships brushing against the sides.

You should have saved the ones from your United Polaris kit. I find them very comfortable. I plan to keep mine for use on the cruise, if needed. Not many sea days.

i am not allergic but no mango in my margherita either. i like mine with lime and either with or without the spice.

My DW had covered the one on Reflection with the bath mat but that just hid it from me and i managed to step right on the thing as I got out of the shower. I late hit my toe on it going to the bathroom early one morning. I found that I had to be very careful getting out of the shower / tub as it seemed to be exactly where I want to plant my foot.