You're listening to the Cruise Tips TV Unplugged Podcast.
Today, it is part one of our Diamond Princess Cruise Review.
Welcome to Cruise Tips TV Unplugged.
I'm your host, Sherry, and we invite you to join our cruise loving family
as we travel the world creating cruise videos and vlogs.
In this podcast, we talk tips, tactics, and strategies to help you
make every cruise your dream cruise.
All right, so we are back at it.
I'm back.
You are perfect.
It seems like it's been a while.
Yeah, it has been a while.
You're doing good though.
You were, I don't remember why we didn't have you on the podcast last week.
I think you were busy with the projects I went solo
and did a little flight tips topic, but I'm glad to have you here.
I think you had a couple of guests on to...
Yes, before our cruise, but we are back in action
and had just an amazing cruise on Diamond Princess over in Japan.
For those of you who did not hear our pre-cruise announcement
or catch our social media coverage while we were gone,
we just returned about a week ago from the Diamond Princess 10-night
Itinerary, which was a summer festival's cruise to Japan.
And it was absolutely incredible.
Now, this was Junior's sort of bucket list,
but really, it was something that we all wanted to do very much.
This year was returned to Japan, and we're so glad that we did.
We're going to talk all about that today,
but Junior's perspective will also be shared.
I've had several requests to hear his point of view on this voyage,
and I have a number of questions that we've gathered from our community for him,
specifically on the teen experience,
and just really the Japanese culture experience
that we're going to address with him next week.
So, if you've been looking forward to that one, it is coming.
And he's looking forward to it too.
He's been asking me, he's like,
Mom, when are we going to record it?
I was so much to say.
So, that'll be fun.
And a completely different take on this cruise,
but we really feel like this cruise
deserves two episodes and two different perspectives.
So, we're going to talk about a lot of different things today.
We're going to talk about the Itinerary.
We're going to talk about the weather.
There were two typhoons.
While we were in the area, that was wild.
We'll talk about the ship.
Our cabin.
Our pre and post cruise fun in Yokohama.
We're going to talk about excursions.
We're going to talk about food on and off the ship.
And then lastly, kind of the Japanese flair.
Cruising time in Princess is very, very unique.
It's one of the most unique cruises in the world.
And then, lastly, Mr. Cruise's CB and I will both share some highlights.
But before you get into that,
you know, you throw out this thing about
you've been doing all the social media stuff.
But, you know,
mention how people can get to that.
Okay.
And of course, I don't know because I don't do social media at all.
Well, then I will back right up and tell people how to get to that, Mr. Cruise's CB.
Well, I know.
I mean, I say that because I know you've been doing some crazy things and people are really
starting to like this and I feel like they may be missing out if you don't.
Absolutely.
So for those of you, there's a bunch of people out there who are like
hey, we miss the vlogs that you guys used to do where you do video coverage of every single day
of your vacation.
Well, here's the, here's the rub.
We actually do miniature vlogs every day when we're on a cruise and we post them on Instagram
and we save them to what's called a highlight.
So what that is is underneath my profile, there's this little circle,
these little circles that live there forever.
They're like little mini vlogs.
And they're also on Facebook, but they don't save on Facebook.
Unfortunately, I don't think Facebook has a story highlight.
So what you want to do is go to Instagram.com slash cruise tips TV.
Even if you aren't an Instagram user, you can still view these in perpetuity forever.
And then just look along the bottom there and you'll see a bunch of different highlights.
And look for the one that says Japan, you can't miss it.
And you can basically see a spoiler of our entire trip from start to finish.
And of course, there's photos and there's reels and all kinds of stuff too.
But really, the stories are where the story is at.
And what is, you said it's a spoiler.
What is it?
Spoiling the whole cruise.
Like literally the entire thing.
You can see our hotel room.
Oh, I see it.
It's giving something away.
Well, we did do a vlog a day one vlog.
So they're going to get a little spoiler.
They're going to see, they're going to see what they would eventually see on YouTube.
Thanks for stomping me, Mr. Cruise.
I don't know.
I mean, I thought maybe I was supposed to be working on a feature film or something
that I didn't know about.
No, well, it's cool.
You can see a lot of different things there.
For example, you can see the unique Japanese cocktails that we enjoyed.
Did the Japanese cocktail menu?
Well, now see, this is a spoiler to your spoiler.
Yeah, I'm spoiling my spoilers.
Don't give any more.
Just tell them where to go.
Well, they can see the pizza.
Everybody likes princess pizza.
Just, just point them there.
All right, some kind of social media.
Some kind of social media thing yet because you're a real connoisseur of the social media.
What would happen if you had to take over the social media if I suddenly like
vanished into thin air and you had to take over?
It would wither and die.
Okay, well, let's hope that doesn't happen.
Let's hope.
Let's hope.
Oh, my goodness.
Okay, so backing up a little bit, why did we choose this cruise?
Well, this is our big year of, gosh, milestones, right?
Accidental milestones.
We did not plan for Mr. Cruise to have Stevie and I to both have decade birthdays.
We didn't plan for junior to turn 15 and also have our 25 year wedding anniversary.
Every sort of, everything sort of has a round number to it this year.
And we have all these milestones, but this was one of those things where we thought, you know,
if we could do anything this summer while junior is still off school and we could escape the
summer heat where we live, what would it be?
Well, that didn't work out so well.
Another spoiler who is hotter there than it is in the US, hotter in Japan.
Anyway, what could, what would be the dream?
And we all really looked at each other and said, we just want to go back to Japan.
And we want to go back and we want to go back for a while.
We don't want to do a seven night cruise.
We need a little bit more.
So we booked this 10 night Japanese sort of, it's kind of a circle.
Japan cruise didn't turn out to be a circle.
Japan cruise because of some various weather factors.
But really, it's a summer festivals cruise where in many of the ports, in fact,
really all except for what was supposed to be South Korea,
which we couldn't end up going to because of a typhoon.
There was a festival happening and those festivals are extremely
popular with the locals and with travelers alike.
And what happens during a summer festival in Japan is that the entire town
just converges in the main, you know, you could call it a square,
you could call it a main street, whatever that town has.
They have everything from lantern festivals to musicians to dancing to floats,
to fireworks.
I mean, you name it.
They do it.
And it is just absolutely spectacular.
You know, I think it's one of those things that you kind of have to,
yeah, you kind of have to experience it.
It's difficult to describe.
I mean, yeah, you can, you can describe it and you can say,
oh, okay, well, it sounds, sounds cool.
But it really is crazy when you're there to feel the energy.
It, I want to do it again.
Yeah, but do you really want to go back in that heat?
We have to talk about that weather in a few minutes.
Everything has a trade-off.
Everything has a trade-off.
Everything has a cost.
Yeah, I would, I don't think it would be the first thing.
The first time of year you want to go there.
I wouldn't say, oh, let's go back and do the exact same cruise.
Because I think we need to do fall or winter now and, you know,
complete it and then loop back around and do the festivals again.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the seasonality of cruising in Japan,
there's the seasons are very distinct.
So you have what most people kind of think about when they think about Japan,
that you have the spring flowers, cruises, right?
Where the Sakura or the cherry blossom types of blooms,
there's actually many different blooms, but those are just some.
They're all out and you see this gorgeous pink flowers
and people kind of hop around Japan to see the spring flowers.
And then the summer is all about the festivals,
whether it be the Nabuta or it's the fireworks or just whatever they may be.
It's all about festivals for several weeks there.
And then in the fall, there's another bloom season
where there's a fall foliage kind of a thing, not really blooms everywhere,
but you get the fall almost like a can of New England,
foliage kind of an experience, but with another bloom season in some areas.
And then the interesting thing about winter is that a lot of times in the winter,
the diamond princess specifically goes from Japan down to Southeast Asia.
So you can do both Japan and Southeast Asia at that time of year,
whereas the other seasons they tend to stay up a little bit more in Japan proper.
So that's the seasonality of it.
We wanted to do something different, but we also went during a time
when junior was just straight up off of school,
where he didn't have to stress out and worry about school.
Because that's another added thing for him.
He's in high school now.
It's getting a lot harder for him to be away.
So we were gone for a full two weeks here,
if you included how long it took to get there,
which was crazy of itself.
And then the pre-in post-cruise time that we spent in Yokohama.
So long trip.
But gosh, where were we Mr. Cruz?
It's to be why we chose the Cruz bucket list for everybody.
Junior's dream.
He's actually been studying Japanese for a couple of years.
Since we went on our first cruise to Japan,
it's been his dream to go back and practice his Japanese.
And we're going to talk about that more next week.
He did well though.
Didn't you think, don't you think he did well with his Japanese?
Yeah.
We had to push him a little to kind of try.
Well, I think that's normal.
Yeah, very much so.
I think that was exciting for him.
So atenorary.
We started and ended our cruise in the port of Yokohama,
which is also known as Tokyo.
It really isn't Tokyo per se.
It's not the city of Tokyo.
It's the coastal area that is about 40,
50 minutes away from Tokyo.
So we flew 13-hour flight from the United States.
Direct, wonderful, excellent flight experience.
On the way over, it was great.
It was long, but it was excellent.
And then we spent one night pre-cruise in Yokohama.
Really enjoyed that.
And then got on the ship.
And we were scheduled to go to Akita,
Almori.
Oh my goodness.
Busan, South Korea.
Takashima.
And I've forgotten the rest of it.
Takashima.
Oh, Kochi, that's right.
Yeah, and then back to Yokohama.
But unfortunately, due to two different typhoons in the area,
we had to change course.
I should say, unfortunately, I should say,
fortunately, because I really feel like these types of
itinerary changes usually end up being some kind of a blessing.
I've completely changed my tune on them.
And usually I'm so ready for a sea day on these port intensive cruises.
While I would have loved to have seen South Korea,
the port entirely closed.
The port of Busan due to the hurricane.
It was, excuse me, typhoon Kanun.
And so obviously, Captain Stefano Rivera
was doing what he had to do to keep us safe.
And we couldn't have docked there if we wanted to.
So that was canceled.
And then Takashima ended up having to be canceled as well.
Because there was another typhoon
that was approaching close to the Yokohama area.
So what happened is we actually had to come back to port early.
And we didn't have to get off the ship.
We were actually invited to get off if we wanted.
They said, hey, if you guys want to fly home,
anyone who wants to fly home and kind of avoid this incoming storm,
depending on what your plans were in Japan,
they didn't know really how it was going to impact that area.
So there were a lot of people who just wanted to get off the ship and go home
because of the typhoon.
We opted after checking the weather to stay on the ship and enjoy that day
as basically like a port stop in Yokohama.
And we loved it.
Had the time of our lives acted like tourists in Yokohama.
We didn't even bother to go in to the city of...
We weren't acting.
We weren't acting.
No, it was real fun.
We were tourists.
We were tourists.
Even though it was raining, right?
We were tourists.
It was great.
We didn't even bother to go into Tokyo, though.
We've heard it's wonderful and great to go in.
But it's also stressful to get around.
And once you're there, Tokyo itself is so huge and overwhelming.
We just decided to really enjoy the coast
and it was so hot, you guys.
We're talking 95 degrees and up every single day
with extreme humidity.
Just absolute drenched sweating through your clothes, humidity.
So being a little closer to the coast
certainly had its appeal.
Turns out it didn't matter.
It was still 95 degrees and hot
and you were just dying to get into this
American conditioning matter where you were in Japan.
But it was beautiful.
That was really our experience the entire time.
It was sweltering hot.
Now, I say this to educate people, but not to discourage you.
You just have to know yourself.
If you are the kind of person who lives in the desert
or if you live in a hotter state,
maybe you live in the south or in Florida,
maybe you live in Texas or the Carolinas or Georgia
where you're kind of used to some more heat.
Maybe you live in Arizona, even California.
You might be used to this heat
and you might enjoy traveling to Japan.
But there are also people who this may not be safe.
Literally may not be safe for you
to be doing short excursions in this kind of heat.
You could pass out.
So please know yourself and do not hesitate
to visit Japan during a cooler season.
If you are sensitive to the heat
because it is a phenomenal area,
but you must be prepared if you're going during the summer months.
It's like, it's the Caribbean plus 10 degrees,
10-15 degrees plus more humidity.
If you can even imagine that.
But you're not hanging out at the beach
cooling off in the water.
It's not that kind of a place.
You're going into the cities
and you're seeing these festivals on concrete
and out in the black top.
But it is a phenomenal cultural experience.
It is unlike anything you'll ever experience
in the United States or Canada or in Europe for that matter.
It is just absolutely life altering.
As our experiences in Japan typically are,
there's just a whole world out there for you to experience.
And we do recommend it.
OK, so we talked about the weather.
We talked about our itinerary.
And let's talk a little bit.
Let's kind of back up a little bit
and talk about the ship and how it's doing.
I believe Diamond Princess is 19 years old now.
And she's in good condition.
Obviously, 19-year-old ship is not one of the brand new ships
in the Princess Fleet, right?
Doesn't have all the bells and whistles that
enchanted and regal and royal and the newer ships
sky have.
But it's got an incredibly attentive and talented crew
and staff.
It does have good hardware.
It was renovated in, I believe, 2019, 2020.
After the pandemic sort of situation happened over there,
they went through and they replaced a lot of furniture.
They replaced a lot of carpeting.
And I think the ship is in good condition.
I would say that if you like, though, that class of ship,
you're going to be very happy with how they're caring for it.
It's extremely clean.
And it has some charm.
You know I love covered pools.
And this was a real blessing in Japan,
because people were really using the pools.
They were getting cold off and swimming.
And there were lots of kids and teens who were enjoying them.
So having your choice of an outdoor pool
or a covered pool was a blessing.
And where in the winter time, you might have been going
in that covered pool because it was cold in the summertime.
You might have been in that covered pool
because you didn't want to be out in the hot sun.
So it was kind of a protective thing as well.
And it was just really nice to have those pool choices
plus an aft pool plus the hot tubs on the top of the ship.
And Izumi, the Japanese Olmson.
Now you have to mention that diamond is medallion class.
Now or nothing.
Yes.
Medallion ready anyway.
Medallion enabled.
Yeah, all those things are correct.
Medallion class, yeah.
And honestly, I think that when you're going to some place
like Asia, does this ship really matter?
Right.
It's the experience.
Maybe that's just me.
But I mean, I think diamond is phenomenal.
It's probably my favorite ship.
Wow.
Mr. Cruz's TV call out a fave.
Well, I mean, there's a lot of history there.
There is a lot of history there.
It was our first cruise together, you and me.
Indeed.
It is definitely and boy, the fact that it is now
medallion enhanced makes it so nice.
If you've never been on a princess cruise
and you're not familiar with medallion class cruising,
everyone who goes on princess gets medallion class.
It's not like it's a different class of cruising.
Sometimes that name can be a little bit misleading
for people who don't know what it means.
But basically, what it means is that you are going to receive
either at the check-in day or mailed your home.
You're going to receive a little medallion
that replaces your cruise card.
And you're going to use that to open your door.
You're going to use it to order stuff by stuff.
And it's going to be kind of your ticket
to a comfortable technology that makes your cruise better.
And once you get a little taste of the medallion,
like when you walk up to your state room
and the door opens for you without you having to do anything,
just because you're wearing your medallion around your wrist
or clipped to your belt or on a necklace.
However, you want to wear your medallion.
You get spoiled and you go on another cruise line
and you're like, ah, where's my medallion?
Why isn't the door opening?
I have to get this card out and stick it in this lot.
Well, the medallion is cool for sure,
but let me sidetrack for just a minute
and see if you can answer this.
Given that it does have medallion or is medallion enabled,
what else really could you want on a ship?
If you had to say, well, diamond princess
is lacking in this area, where would it be?
What would it be?
Yeah.
Well, I think that there are some people
who really like the newer design.
There's also some people who don't like the fact
that the diamond princess is missing
the international cafe, which is, you know,
but no, it's a big one for that, that ship.
Okay.
But I'm personally, I'm with you, but we're weird.
There are really people who like all the bells
and whistles of the new ships,
like the bigger retreat area with a dedicated pool
where you can go and have some quiet adult time there, right?
Even though they do have a sanctuary on this one,
it doesn't really have a pool.
It's not, it's, you know, it's kind of different.
The pool is actually part of the spa.
So it, I mean, it's, it is, it's,
and obviously it's smaller.
For us, that's actually a plus.
We like smaller ships.
But, you know, it's the bells and whistles.
It's for people who would want a newer ship.
Diamond, any ship that's 19 years old,
you mean it's just really people who want the latest
greatest and newest, I think are going to be?
Yeah, I was just trying to figure out what those bells
and whistles would be.
And the only thing I could think of would be like shops
or something like that.
But I suppose, you know, more, more room,
like in the sanctuary or the retreat or whatever.
I guess.
To me, there's actually downsides to the newer ships.
Like sometimes the cabins become smaller on any fleet, right?
You see balconies become smaller.
The rooms themselves become smaller, right?
And this ship actually has some fun charm too,
because remember, you guys, this ship was built in Japan.
It has, it has Japanese toilets.
So they have basically beday toilet seats on some
of the rooms, not all of them.
But I think many suites, I believe balconies,
not sure about outsides and insides,
but they actually have beday toilet seats,
which is super cool and fun.
And part of the Japanese experience,
like when you go to a restaurant in Japan,
where anywhere pretty much you go,
even I think in the airport,
they all have beday toilet seats with, you know,
everything from seat warmers to a variety
of different beday settings, dryers, it's just crazy.
They all have high-tech toilets.
It's a thing over there.
Yeah, it's cool.
Speaking of sidetracks, wow, sorry.
Well, I think it's good to explore stuff like this,
because I don't really know myself sometimes,
but I know on some of the newer ships,
it feels a little overwhelming.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I don't know if there's just so much to see and do,
or if it's because they're so popular
that there's so many people on them.
Right.
But a lot of the bells and the whistles,
you know, if there's so many people there
that you can't take advantage of it,
what does it matter?
It kind of detracts to, I think,
from the crew's experience sometimes.
And for us, I think the thing about our family
that's always been interesting is for us,
the ship usually isn't the destination.
The destination and the experience and the ports
and what we're going to be doing on the crews
are kind of more the point of it for us, right?
Well, I don't want to say that necessarily
because in a way, it is, but it's not the features
of the ship that are in the destination.
It's more of the experience, you know,
the crew and the crew.
The total experience, yeah.
But anyway, I've thrown you off way too much.
So let's get back to it.
I think your next thing is the cabin.
Yeah.
So we talked about the ship.
We booked into a mini suite on Diamond Princess.
Love the extra space since we're traveling
with three people.
It's just nice to have a sitting area,
a second TV and a bathtub, as well as a larger balcony.
Could we have done a balcony very comfortably?
Yeah, for sure.
Totally would have been comfortable,
but we use the bathtub.
We use the sitting area.
We use the larger balcony.
We loved all of it.
So it was great to have a little bit of extra space.
And that was a highlight.
It was a highlight.
We really enjoyed that.
There is a room tour on our Instagram Reels.
I made a really quick, less than one minute reel
where you can tour the entire cabin.
So you would go to Instagram and just click on the Reels tab
and you'll see it there if you'd like to see
what those features are, including the Japanese toilet.
I do show that at the end.
You know, they made a couple of updates on the cabins too.
They're really, when you mention them,
it seems like a big deal.
But it actually does make a big deal.
Do you know what that is?
The tiny thing that they did?
I do remember one thing.
And it's not the medallion.
It's, is it the night, the night light things?
The sensor lights?
Okay, don't forget to talk about it.
Yeah, that drives me crazy.
Yeah, that wasn't your favorite enhancement.
No, what it is is they move the TVs
from that little storage area in the center.
Oh, yeah.
And put them up against the wall.
We had they mounted them on the walls, right?
They mounted them on the wall.
And what that means is now those two storage areas
are free for storage.
Yes, right.
And since there were TVs there, there are outlets.
Oh my gosh.
So now you have storage and outlets on either side of that.
What?
Yeah.
You know, it's funny.
We barely use that storage.
There's so much storage in a mini suite
that you probably don't need at all.
And you probably won't use it at all.
Especially if you're packing current.
It's a small thing, but it would, it turned out to be a big thing.
And I really like it.
Okay, cool.
So let's talk about the motion sensor lights.
Because that was another feature that they added feature,
a feature, quote unquote feature.
So when you would stand up out of bed in the dark of night,
there were motion sensors on the floor
that turned on a light next to the bed and in the closet.
Well, let's get specific here because I know where they are.
They're at the bottom of the night stands on either side.
So you have a light on one side and a light on the other side.
But then there's a sensor in the hall that leads to the bathroom.
So I mean, it's, it's too much.
I understand why they're doing it.
It's, it's a safety thing.
But you're like waking up the whole family every time you get up.
Yeah.
And Lord knows we get up to go to the bathroom a few times
and then I, no, that's probably too much information.
But it is, it is a lot and it's overkill in my opinion.
Yeah, it was a bit much.
And at first, you're like, what is going on?
Why is there a light coming on?
We didn't know it was there.
But I think safety wise, it was good.
We had something like that on seaborne
and we asked him to shut it off.
Do you remember?
No, I forgot about that.
Where was it?
It was, there was a, in the hall, there was like a vanity
and that light would come on and stay on and light up the whole room.
Do you remember that?
Yeah, I do.
That's funny.
And they were able to disable it.
Yeah, they had no problem turning it off for us.
Oh my gosh.
That is crazy.
Well, anyhow, is it a good safety feature, though?
For most people, probably, yeah.
You don't want to, you don't want to have to pack a night light
and you don't want to be tripping or bruising yourself
when you're going to the restroom and the night.
But it turns on a little, a few too many lights in my opinion.
I think we could have done with one just a little teeny tiny light.
I think, I think what they need to do is,
is turn off the one in the hall.
Yes, by the bathroom, it's just too bright.
Yeah, it just illuminates the room and it wakes you right up.
You're like, okay, I was just trying to go to the restroom.
Okay, enough about that.
Otherwise, the cabin was a 10 out of 10.
Phenomenal, comfortable, everything was great, loved it,
had a mini fridge and the fridge was actually cold.
It was not a mini slash cooler
that doesn't really keep things cold.
It was great.
Let's talk now about our pre and post cruise kind of activities
and then our excursions.
So pre and post cruise, we did exactly the same thing, guys.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Yokohama one night before
and then we went back and stayed there again the night after our cruise
and it was again a 10 out of 10, both times.
If you're wondering how much it costs, if you're thinking,
oh, that sounds, is it expensive?
Is it pricey?
Absolutely not, in my opinion, for what you get.
The first night, I think we paid about $230 for a nice room
and guess what, it had three beds.
So we all had our own bed, which is amazing
when you're traveling with a teenager,
nobody who wants to sleep with a teenager.
I mean, I'm sorry, I love him, but like,
he's still kind of kicky.
He doesn't know how to like stay on his side or anything.
It's like, no, I love this.
I wish we could always travel and have three beds.
So that alone was phenomenal.
Then the bathroom was so tricked out,
you wouldn't even believe it.
The toilet seat, as you approached the toilet seat,
as you walked up to it, it opened up,
did a little water prespray thing and like prepared for you.
I'm surprised I didn't sing a song and say like,
welcome to the potty room.
Like it was amazing.
Then they had a drawer full of amenities.
You know, usually you go to a hotel
and this is what you get.
You get a little bar of soap
and you get a little bar,
you get a little thing of shampoo
and a little thing of conditioner and a little thing of lotion.
No, not at the higher agency in Yokohama.
For $235 for the night, you got toothbrushes,
a drawer full of toothbrushes,
razors, shower caps, sewing kits,
facial amenity kits that included everything in them
from some kind of facial oil to moisturizer,
like 15 different kinds of face stuff.
And then we all had our own pajamas in a drawer and slippers.
And in the bathroom, separate tub and shower and closure.
It was absolutely wonderful.
And we totally made the right decision.
So big huge thanks to Karen and John Clay
for that recommendation.
That was wonderful.
So we toured around Yokohama the day
before the cruise and the day after.
And we did the day after the cruise
when we kind of had that little sightseeing time.
We went on this little, what was that thing?
A tram?
What is, it was like a little,
it was like a sky ride.
We went on a sky ride in Minato, Midaya.
What was that thing called?
Cannot remember to save my life.
I don't know.
Don't know.
Well, hopefully we'll show that maybe a little snippet
of it in the vlog eventually.
It's gonna show up somewhere.
It'll show up somewhere.
And I need to get it posted on Instagram too.
I still have some stuff to put there.
And otherwise, the hotel was fantastic.
If you're going to go on this cruise,
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Now let's talk a little bit about the ports
and the excursions.
So our first port was Akita, our first day
and we did not book an excursion there.
Instead, we just took a bus,
princess charges you like 25 bucks
to take a bus into town
and then you just do your own thing.
It was extremely hot,
but we got to see some of the festival preparation,
we got to see some of the lantern ceremonies
where people, they stack these lanterns
on a pole and balance them.
Were they balancing them on their head?
No, they were balancing on their hands.
On their hands.
It's one of those things again that you have to see.
You have to see what they're doing
because it's hard to describe, but it is very cool.
And since I have the mic here,
when you're not doing an organized excursion,
it's liberating because you can just decide
what you wanna do, where you wanna go,
how long do you wanna spend there?
When you're ready to move on,
it's not always a bad thing to not have an excursion.
I agree and I think in that case,
it worked out well for us.
We were worried we were going to be too tired
to do an excursion because it was like
the first or second day of the cruise
and I'm glad that we did
because we just basically milled around
with the locals for hours
and went and bought like shaved ice
and bought some snacks and went to a local grocery store
and just kinda hung out
and it was really fun and we were tired.
We just got back on the bus and went back.
We also walked up the hill to this beautiful area
that had a shrine and they also had a temple up there
and they actually had some akita dogs.
You guys know, what is junior call those dogs again?
They have another name, Shiba Inus.
They had Shiba Inus or also known as akita
and they had them in like a viewing area
and you would like sanitize your hands and wash your feet
and then you could go in and see them
and take photos with them for a short time.
So junior was thrilled because he got to see the akitas
and that was great.
So then we had some C-Day time
because of Busan got canceled due to the typhoon
and then after that we had another port stop in Amori.
And Amori is absolutely beautiful.
That is where we did an excursion on a tram
that went up a mountain side
and then we did a cruise around a lake,
both absolutely beautiful and it was wonderful
to hike at the top of the mountain because guess what?
The weather was about 20 degrees cooler.
So we were up in 70 degree weather with fog rolling
and finally experiencing some relief from the heat.
So we hiked up there and you'll find a lot of really
great footage of that experience on our Instagram story
that I think reflects the beauty of the area
and the kind of the fun of the lake cruise
and then we had a traditional Japanese meal
prepared by a local restaurant right on the lake
and then went on a lake cruise and that was fantastic.
Now after that, I'm trying to remember,
was that Amori?
Is that where we did that excursion?
Where did we do the caves?
Which port was that?
No, I'm trying to remember.
I don't think it was Amori.
It wasn't.
I'm gonna look at our itinerary really quickly
because I think I just got a little,
I just got a little forgetful there.
Where was it?
Oh, you know what it was in Kochi?
So our next port because Busan got had to be canceled.
We went to Kochi and that excursion that we chose
was the Ryugato Cave and the Katsu Harama Beach
is what we did for the day.
Now the Ryugato Cave is another beautiful experience
because again, it gives you a break from the heat.
You get to go into this beautiful cave system
and hike through and experience stalactites
and stalagmites and flowing water.
It's just great.
It's a lot of exercise, but it's cool in there
and feels really good.
Then we went to the beach.
That was really pretty, but you aren't allowed
to swim there.
Extremely hazardous rib tides
and you would never even want to get near the ocean.
They don't let you near it.
So again, you're hot, but you can't get in the water, right?
But it was beautiful.
And we had a wonderful local lunch there as well,
kind of did our own thing and just had a great experience.
And then after that, it was just Yokohama
because it took Ashima got...
Wait, we didn't, we went back out.
You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't.
I forgot about that.
But that was in, was that...
What were you talking about that?
No, that was in Kochi.
It was in Kochi.
But before you talk about that, I have to say
with regard to the beach, if you want some place
to take pictures, that's where you go.
Because it is beautiful there,
but there's not a lot to do.
So if you're thinking, where can I go
to just take pictures all day?
There's your spot.
And that is called Katsurahama Beach,
if you're wondering what Mr. Kursusu is talking about.
And there's food and there's drink and it's fun.
But so you have to set this up
because it was one of my favorite parts the night time.
Yeah, because they were,
I wanted to see the festival at night a little bit,
but we were, I don't know,
we were slow to get going on things.
And we didn't book any festival excursions
because we didn't want, we didn't like the idea
that you had to go sit and organize seats
on some of the festival excursions.
We wanted to do it on our own.
So we had to wait for an opportunity to do that.
Yeah, and it was kind of, I don't know,
there's something about pain for like a little slice
of road or something, I don't know.
It just didn't, it didn't seem worth it.
But I still wanted to get out there and get in
and among the crowd.
And we started heading out.
What was it about?
I think I started talking about it at about eight minutes.
I said, I'm gonna go out with that.
I'm leaving without you guys.
And finally, you kind of got on board with it.
But Junior's like, no, I'm gonna go hang out with my friends.
But then he started kind of getting a film all about it too.
And he decided that the last minute,
we were literally walking off the boat.
We were off off the ship, that is.
We just scanned our medallions out.
And he texted us and said, don't go without me.
So then we had to wait for him.
Meanwhile, everyone's coming back.
And we're like literally the only people getting off
while everyone else is trying to get on.
Yeah.
Keep in mind, you can stay in Coachy on this one.
You could stay there till midnight.
So we knew we had tons of time.
It's like eight o'clock.
We knew we had four hours to get into town.
So we went down and tried to figure out
how we were gonna get to town.
Do we take a taxi or do we do the Princess Bus again?
Where you pay $25 per person and they take you in.
And then you know you're gonna get safely back
or do you take a cab.
Well, we had a hard time getting a cab.
I don't know why, but just a little,
maybe a little too late in the night or something.
I think it's because we missed the tourist rush.
You know, they were bringing people back.
They didn't wanna take people out.
And one of the things with the bus
was the last one came back at 9.30.
Yeah, so we knew we only had like an hour and a half.
Do you wanna tell the rest of it?
You go.
Okay, and then you step in when you're ready.
Okay, so ultimately we ended up getting
on the Princess Bus that took us in.
Now we're talking maybe 10, 15 minutes into Cochie.
It wasn't very far at all.
And this was supposed to be a really special location
for the festivals.
And we were the only people on the bus.
Everybody else is coming back.
It was in the wrong direction.
And the driver, he didn't seem to speak any English.
And so, but he did look at us like,
are you people crazy?
Where are you going?
At night.
Why are you going in?
So we get to the bus depot where they drop you off.
And we're like, we didn't know what to do.
We just knew from like kind of going to the port talk
that you could pretty much walk
to some semblance of a nighttime festival.
And we also knew that you had to be back
on that bus by 9.30.
So we didn't have that much time.
So we got on the bus, we took the 15 minute ride in
and then we got off the bus
and we're greeted by a bunch of locals.
They have all kinds, think of it like a tourism board
like standing there waiting for you.
Very sweet.
They were handing out snacks, information booklets, maps.
You will never be greeted in such a warm capacity.
I is just amazing.
So here we are.
We got our snacks, we've got our map.
And we kind of just tuned in and followed the sound.
Yeah.
And why don't you tell them what happened after that?
Well, it was just crazy.
It's really hard to describe.
But there were people everywhere and music and colors
and dancers and it was just crazy.
So we kind of, it was kind of like being part of a parade
but a very musical parade.
It's hard to describe.
Like a lot of bass, thumping.
And everyone was happy.
But it was elbow to elbow.
And we were just kind of going with the flow.
Yeah.
It was really cool.
It was really cool.
So we crossed the street and we had heard what sounded
like an active parade going on.
And we're like, OK, we've got to go there
because we need to see this whole festival thing at night
because we had seen a little bit of a festival during the day.
And it was wonderful, but it was also just extremely warm.
So now we've got this opportunity
to be more like 80 degree conditions
and to be able to enjoy it a little bit more.
So basically we went over across the street
and in between two buildings in this ginormous passageway
sort of like a street, there were these big, massive floats.
And in between the floats, there were hundreds
and hundreds of dancers and musicians
wearing the most beautiful ornate Japanese garb,
colorful, gorgeous waving flags, playing music, dancing.
And each set of dancers had a different look.
They had like a different theme.
Like some of them will be wearing
like these gorgeous red kimonos.
And then up ahead, there would be some,
there would be like a marching band
in completely different garb, doing different things.
You have to, you have to, I don't want
to get people the wrong impression here
because it's not like marching band
like you're going to see it like the Thanksgiving day.
Right, right, right.
And it's not a float like you'd see it like the Rose Bowl.
No, it's more like a like a base truck, you know what I mean?
It was like a base truck.
Just thumping base with some dudes on it, swinging land
or something like that.
Yeah, yeah.
But I had to give people context.
I had to call it a float in a marching band
so that they can have some sort of context, right?
Like you guys, I don't, if I, a base truck is maybe not going to.
I'm trying to help paint the picture.
I don't want people to have a picture of this not accurate.
Okay, well, go to my Instagram stories
and you can see, you can see the real picture.
Anyway, that ended up being probably
your favorite part of the cruise.
It was, it was really exciting, yeah.
It was cool.
He didn't want to leave.
I did not want to.
But we had to get back on the bus.
And we were like, it's getting late.
I was all straight.
I was like, forget the bus.
Let's just take a taxi because I want to stay.
Yeah.
But I did not win that hard.
No, didn't win that argument.
Sorry.
It was, it had been a very long day.
So that was, that was great.
All right.
So that was our last excursion.
Let's, let's talk about the food because the most, I think the, the most frequent
question I'm getting from people about this particular cruise is what is the food?
Like, do I have to eat Japanese food on the ship all the whole time?
You know, or what's it like?
And the truth is, is absolutely just like any other princess cruise for the most part.
So imagine your normal North American fare, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It's all the same stuff you'd get on princess.
But if you want Japanese food, you can have it.
They will add a Japanese section to the menu at every meal.
And it's optional.
Same at the buffet.
The buffet has everything you could normally get on a princess cruise.
You have your carvery, your salad bar, your, you know, all of those American things.
You've got out, out by the pool, you have your burger joint in your pizza place, right?
You can get all that.
But then there's always a few Japanese things.
Like for example, when you go to get ice cream at swirls, they have chocolate, they have
vanilla, and they also have green tea ice cream, right?
It's just there for you.
They also have a dedicated sushi restaurant called Kai, sushi that you can go and have
all a cart sushi.
It's beautiful.
And the dining room every night has a few Japanese specialties.
The buffet has a wonderful Japanese specialties.
You could get, you could do your own ramen bowls during the lunchtime hours where you get
fresh ramen noodles and then get to don the ramen yourself.
And they also had Japanese breakfast items, miso soup, things like that.
So the food was amazing, but do not fear.
If you don't want that experience, if you're like, I don't like sushi, I don't like raw
fish.
Guess what?
I don't eat raw fish either.
I love Japanese food, but we really ate most of the stuff we would normally eat.
On land though, we had some really good Japanese food throughout the cruise.
And it was an excellent experience.
It's also, I want you guys to know, don't be afraid to go to Japan and order things.
The locals are so friendly.
They will help you through menu selection in any way that they can.
If it's through a series of pointing and affirming with nods.
If they know a little English, they will definitely try to speak English with you and many
of them do.
But you can always figure it out and you should not be afraid to go.
Well, that's how I order things here anyway.
I just point and grunt.
No, they do, they do make you eat your hamburger with chopsticks.
That takes some getting used to.
You're so funny.
Speaking of hamburgers, I think it's important to share with people that we have a funny
guilty pleasure when we travel.
And that is we love to go to McDonald's and foreign countries.
Well, they don't have the same things.
I think that's something that you need to let people know.
Well, I was getting there, yeah.
Because it's not like you're going there and getting a quarter pounder.
Nope.
Can't get one.
They don't even have a quarter pounder.
They have a big Mac.
You could get a big Mac, but they have unique menu items.
Now, of course, anywhere you go in the world is going to have a different type of a McDonald's.
Right?
If you go to India, that's one of the things that's so cool.
That's the whole point.
Go be surprised, right?
Remember in France, they had the croque McDonald and in Spain, they had the McRoyle.
The McRoyle.
God.
The best hamburger on the planet.
And in Japan, they had basically like a fried shrimp burger.
It's very hard to describe with these beautiful, like Polynesian kind of sauces on it.
So good.
They did have a traditional Big Mac, but then they also had hamburgers that had like teriyaki
on them.
Yeah.
A lot of different things.
Different things.
So fun.
But I got to tell you the quality is so good.
Don't expect to go refill your own coke, though.
You're not going to get coke machines where you go get an extra large diet, Dr. Pepper,
which we would have loved.
They're going to give you smaller portions of everything.
That's just because in America, we supersize everything, right?
Over there, not so much.
But friendly service.
In those fast food restaurants, too, typically I found there was always someone who spoke
English.
We tried not to use English.
We tried to do everything we could to order in Japanese or like, you know, do some pointing
in things and kind of honor the process as much as we could, but it's fun.
It's fun to go to different McDonald's.
So that's our guilty pleasure when we travel.
You guys can don't judge me.
So good, though.
We had some weird spicy, remember the spicy pies they had, too, the spicy potato pie.
You guys, you know, how you can get a fried apple pie at McDonald's, they have spicy potato
pie.
Yeah.
And it was really, I think I would skip that.
You didn't love it.
I thought it was fun, but I wouldn't order it again, either.
And it was like face of the sun, spicy, too.
Like if you're hot and you're, you know, sitting outside eating, you're going to be sweating
when you, but it's fun.
It's fun to try new things, even if you don't like them.
Yeah.
So let's talk.
I know that we've gone really long on this podcast and we need to wrap it up.
But let's just talk about the Japanese flair here for a moment and what really makes this
so special.
I mean, not only are you traveling to Japan where you're going to be going to amazing
ports and experiencing the Japanese culture, but they do their best to bring it on to the
ship as well in many different ways, whether it's the, the dual cruise directors.
There's an American cruise director and a Japanese cruise director and that really adds
to the experience or whether it is the addition of some more Japanese staff around the ship.
It's fun.
You could talk to them and learn a little bit more about them.
There's also the onsen on board.
The Japanese bath called Izumi, which we talk all about in one of our Instagram Reels
where you can go and enjoy a true Japanese bathing experience.
And then of course, there's other things like the Bone Adori Dance Festival that they
had, the Summer Festival that they had out on the deck where they played amazing traditional
Japanese music.
And they taught you all the Bone Adori dances.
And it is so fun.
You guys.
It's so cool.
So explore this opportunity if you're interested in Japan.
It's a wonderful way to get a little taster of the country.
Now, I'm not sure that they're going to do that festival thing on all jibis.
Yeah.
I don't know either.
Because I think they were just trying to kind of meet with the time, map at the time.
Maybe.
Go ahead.
I don't know.
But it was really cool.
Yeah.
It was amazing.
So it was like a festival.
And I also had Japanese sing-alongs in the atrium.
And there were probably literally over 1,000 people there.
There's a lot of participation on these cruises.
The Japanese people love to get involved.
They love to get out there.
They're going to do it all.
They're going to sing.
They're going to dance.
They're going to do it.
And they're going to have fun.
And you are going to meet some amazing people.
Next week, Junior and I are going to talk even more about the kid experience.
Because this is a phenomenal region to take your children and your teens.
He had the time of his life.
He never saw the guy.
He was off in the teen center the entire time.
And you know him.
You know he doesn't always do that.
In fact, he usually doesn't.
But there's something very unique for kids about meeting other children from around the
world on these cruises.
And it's one thing that he likes and that we really enjoy too.
So we'll talk more about that next week.
Hope I didn't miss anything.
How do we do?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Don't know.
All right.
Covered a lot.
All right, guys.
Thank you very much for listening.
If you have any questions about this cruise, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
And until next time, we'll see you on the high seas.
Thanks for listening to CruiseTipsTV Unplugged.
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