A Quick Stop In Shimizu!

     What a difference an overnight sleep makes! After a day of looking and acting like zombies, a good night's rest was all we needed although by the end of the day we began to drag again. As we came alongside, Mt Fuji was very visible but still a long was off. Finally we could get a photo of it!

Mt Fuji

    We had breakfast with some world travellers (Britain and New Zealand) . We also ran into a couple that we met in the airport. They are still waiting for their luggage which ended up in Hawaii! His name is Richard Alan same as mine. The only difference is that I had on fresh cloths! They hope to get their luggage today. The day was warm and sunny so shorts and light clothing was in order.   

Game Museum

Shimizu turned out to be an interesting little port. Since we had an early afternoon sailing, we decided to walk around the area. Along the dock were the usual shops found in every port. We headed to the local fish market which had the usual unusual items. However, little in the market was fresh. All had already been put into wrapped packages unlike what we will see in Busan. There were very few shops in the “downtown” area. The S Pulse mall seemed to be the key game in town. It was not the usual type of mall, having souvenir type shops. The eateries were a bit different. They have a vending machine where you order and pay, then take the printed slip to the counter where they serve the foods. We had never seen that before. I guess it makes ordering and handling money a lot easier. The mall also had a large play zone called a Game Museum filled with “vending” vs action type games. A high school band was also giving a concert along the waterfront. In all a pleasant few hours on a warm sunny day.

Food machine

Mt Fuji

One of the highlights had to be seeing Mt Fuji. It was only visible 5 days this month. It was covered in clouds the last time we were here. The downer of the day is that I “lost” my camera case. I lost one on an earlier cruise while in Shanghai a few years back. It must have something to do with being in Asia! I guess that I left it at security when we came back because it was in the lost and found.

    After the sailaway, we had a quiet afternoon. We seem to still be feeling the effects of jet lag. In addition Judy has come down with a sore throat. I hope that it is a passing thing. There was little of interest on the programme. They have the usual offerings – a movie, art talks, detox talk, diamond sales etc. I did go to the port lecture but it was probably the worse of any we have attended. He seemed to promote the ship tours, rambled on but never got to the things that independent travelers needed to know – like where is the subway station, downtown, etc.

Now that the mini bar is set up, we can enjoy a drink or glass of wine in our cabin when Judy feels a bit better. The Elite lounge specialty tonight was beef steak tartar in Skywalkers – the deck 17 lounge at the aft of the ship. Someone remarked that it makes the ship look like a big shopping cart because of the way it extends out the aft!

The Australian comedian was very entertaining with an off beat show. He used slides and video to make the point. We finished dinner and decided on an early night. Tomorrow we are in Osaka!

Forever Flying!

   I guess you could say that we arrived fresh and ready to go but after the long long trip to the ship I think we are ready for a nap!

    We arrived at the Toronto airport at noon on Wednesday having already checked in. 2 hours later we finally had cleared inspection and were ready to board the Cathy Pacific flight to Hong Kong. Cathy had my name as 1 word and it needed to be changed on the manifest . That only took a minute but it took an hour to get to the counter. Inspection also was very slow.

   The 15 plus hour flight was as comfortable as you could expect. Wider seats, leg room and a full entertainment slate. Judy and I watched 3 movies each. They did have a menu with the lunch and dinner selections and wine was available. We flew directly over the pole and the shapes and configuration of the ice and snow were something we had never seen before. We did not get much sleep arriving at 7 pm. Is it morning or night? Now that it is night here but day back home we can't seem to figure out what to do. We did get some sleep in the 5 hour wait in Hong Kong.

The 4 hour flight to Tokyo (overnight) was smooth and easy but we were wide awake for most of it. Customs and immigration went quickly and we met the Princess rep around 7 am and then had a 2 hour wait for the 2 hour bus trip to the pier.

   We were among the first to arrive but the ship did not started boarding until noon. This seemed to be one of the poorest boarding that we have been through probably because the venue was not that good and they organization left something to be desired. Having been up all night we were tired but glad we had finally arrived.

Drum Ceremony

We lunched in the dining room with a couple from Hawaii. We were ready to eat after the airline food for the past 30 hours! A walk around the sun deck and a small nap before the life jacket drill followed in quick order. Luggage was in our room and stored quickly. We fought the need to sleep all day! As we left the dock, a group onshore performed a traditional drum. We have seen it before but the crown waved yellow towels. The sailaway party was a bit of a bust but the band was lively and the line dancing woke us up.

   Our assigned dinner time is 7:45 pm. We are sitting with 2 other couples, one from San Francisco and one from England but are Canadian. We decided to retire immediately after dinner. Tomorrow is a port day but it is a small port with little for us to do. We can sleep in if we choose as we need to get our energy back. A long tiring 32 hours of travel finally comes to an end.

Japan and North Pacific Crossing

       After a winter season in Florida golfing, biking, line dancing and hanging out, we are headed back to the Princess cruise line. The “Japan and North Pacific Crossing” cruise of 16 days starts in Tokyo. We sail around Japan with 5 stops and a side trip to Busan Korea. After the 9 days near Japan, we then head north east for the 7 day Pacific crossing to Whittier Alaska. On the crossing we do have 2 Mondays as we get back the day `lost` in our flight to Japan.

    We have been to Japan before but 3 stops are new. We will explore some new places in Osaka and Muroran and just wander through Busan , a place we have stopped at “many” times. Shimizu, Sakaiminato and Hakodate are new ports.
    The Golden Princess carries 2600 passengers and was updated in 2015. It will be our 5^th time on this ship. We have a cabin on the Aloha deck about mid ships forward and may get another “upgrade”! The ship has an International Cafe, the small food bar in the atrium which is where we like to gather for daily tea and small meals .

   The map and chart shows our itinerary.

We have not booked any ship tours. Having been to the area before, we have already taken tours of city sites, temples, volcanoes , etc. After doing the research on all the stops we think we can just wander which is our style. We will wait to see what the on board port export has to say before deciding on any ship tours.

   As frequent Princess passengers, we are ready to enjoy the perks of being “Elite”. Free laundry, on board credits, internet, mini bar and wine tasting are part of it! Anyone that has cruised will appreciate the free laundry luxury. Thanks to Stacey our agent at the Automobile Association, we will enjoy dining in a specialty restaurant!


     We leave Wednesday afternoon April 25 from Toronto with a non stop to Hong Kong arriving at 7:00 pm. on Thursday night. We lose a day crossing the International date line sometime during the 15 hour flight. We are flying Cathy Pacific for the first time and have heard good things about them. After a 5 hour layover, our second leg (over 4 hours) will get us into Tokyo early Friday morning for the 2 hours bus trip to the ship. After more than a day travelling we will be ready to start the cruise!

            I hope to post each day. With the time difference it should be ready sometime after noon. At the bottom of each post is a small icon that looks like an envelop. If you open it, you should be able to send us an email. If you have a gmail account I think that you can leave a message on the blog. It is always nice to read the comments. More Later!

Going Home On Canada's Birthday

We were up early day was of the ship by just after 7:30. The departure from the ship was relatively easy. The luggage seemed to be arranged much better than in our past departures. We did not need to fill out any customs declarations and there was no passport control. Perhaps that was because we were only in Norway. In any case it was a very easy departure. At the airport we ran into the same problem when we left Canada. The ticket had |Judy's middle name and her passport does not. Thus no quick check in but the line for special assistance was long. It only took a few minutes to get it settled but the wait was long enough. Good thing we were 4 hours early. The boarding was quick. The plane was only 3/4 full. We had an empty seat besides us which made the flight much better than the last time. Even Judy said it was “way better”. Clearing Canadian customs was easy as usual. We had finally arrived back in Canada . We really had a good time on this cruise. With the 11 stops in 14 days we had plenty of time ashore. We rank it up there as one of the best cruises that we have had. It was a place that I have wanted to visit and I am glad we had a chance to do so much. The weather was outstanding with only 1 day of showers. All the guides remarked at how nice the weather was. Until our next cruise. Cheers!

A Lazy At Sea Day

Today was a sea day and the final one of the cruise. We have been up and down the coast of Norway and are currently in the English Channel. It continues to be beautiful sailing with no white caps to be seen. It has basically been that way all cruise. The last day always means packing all the stuff that we have collected in the past 2 weeks. The clothes are the easy part since you just take everything. We started the morning with the zumba

Calm Seas

class. The 30 minute work out was easy again compared to some of the classes we have done on other ships. Later we saw the display of Diana's most memorable outfits. They were all replicas. She was the godmother of the Royal Princess when it was christened. The display included photos and a short note of the occasion when she wore the dresses. The centre piece was her wedding dress. Packing followed – always a chore on the best occasion. The room stewards have a luggage scale which we needed! We didn't want to be repacking on the floor at the airport. We have seen this happen before. The final line dance class was today. He did Sweet Home Alabama and the Tush Push. That is a new one for Princess cruises. This instructor was much better than some of the ones we have see. Still please put the Electric Slide out of it's misery. Many of the people at the class could do the Tush Push. We were among the the Asians who knew how to dance. Actually it was fun. A light lunch and more packing followed. Again the schedule looks full but filled with bingo (twice), Effy sales (over and over) and spa specials none of which have any particular appeal. We did attend the pre dinner lounge for some sushi meeting some people we have gotten to know on this cruise. Then off to dinner. The food has been consistently excellent. Little things have changed but the quality of the food has remained excellent. This ship did not have the crew talent show as we have seen on past cruises. Instead they had a Royal variety show. Apparently it is a “British” tradition. It was a mixed bag with some of the entertainers taking part. Actually it was quite entertaining. Luggage out and has gone already. We do gain back an hour tonight which is a good thing since we are leaving at 7:40 tomorrow. We will be landing in the afternoon of Canada Day. Happy 150 Canada.

Bergen -A Short Visit

Bergen was our last port of call on this cruise. The ship needs to be in Southampton before they begin a yacht race so our stay here was cut short. The ship required us to be back by

Bergen

12:30 and since we had a long tour scheduled, we were up at 5:30. The first part of the tour was a drive around Bergen. We have been here 3 times before and had always just wandered around. It was good to see more of the entire city and learn about it. The main part of the tour involved a long bus ride along some very narrow roads through the valleys with a number of stops along the way, none of which were of any great interest. The guide was Italian who spoke with a very heavy accent which was difficult to understand. He was very knowledgeable about Norway and the places we were

The Falls

At The Falls

traveling through but at such an early hour a number of people we sleeping. We managed to stay awake. The final stop was at a waterfall about 60 kilometers from Bergen. The waterfall we were at yesterday was much nicer. However the one today had the added feature that you could get to it along a short paved path and that you could actually walked under the falls. That was a new experience. Then back on the bus and the 90 minute ride back to the ship. We just got back and the ship was ready to sail. With the very early morning wake up, we needed down time in the afternoon so a rest was in order which basically filled the entire afternoon. The last formal night was tonight. We saw a comedy singer that

The Town From The Falls

we missed last night. We thought she was funny but others were so so. I guess it depends on your sense of humor. We had lobster for dinner and saw a good production show later. Actually the shows are much better than they have been on previous cruises. The party balloon drop in the piazza followed the show. Sea day tomorrow as we get ready to depart early Saturday.

Skjolden – Not To Be Missed!

From Our Hike

Today we were in Skjolden. It is in the same fiord system as Flam, a port we visited

The Skjolden Fiord

earlier. It is at the end of Skjolden fiord, the longest navigable fiord in the world. It is over 4000 feet deep. A few years ago they trapped a submarine in it but never made it surface. We entered the fiord last night around midnight. As we entered a Holland America ship was just leaving. It took 8 hours before we finally came along side. Princess did their planning as this is picture perfect postcard town itself has only about 200 people. Not much of a town but the scenery is spectacular. Hands down it is the most beautiful of all the stops we have made. If planning a trip to Norway, it must be on the list of places to stop. The steep valley walls, the abandoned farms, the fields of hay and the continuous

At The Falls

greenery add to the beauty. We did not have a ship's tour 
today. We booked a bike tour with Adventure Tours. We were off the ship early for a 2 kilometer hike to a lookout. There were lots of people making their way up the hill. It afforded wonderful views of the valley below. The weather was warm and sunny with partly cloudy very blue skies. After the hike up to the lookout, we met our guide for the 7 kilometer ride through the Morkid valley to Drivande Waterfall. There were 4 other bikers and a wonderful guide. In fact he started the company about 4 years ago. 40% of their business comes from the 15 cruise ships that stop here. The bikes we very new and the ride easy, except for a few ups. No harder than the Clearwater

The Falls

bridge. The bikes were different from our bikes and as Judy tried her bike out in the parking lot, I could see another tumble coming. Once we had the helmets (mandatory in Norway) a level of comfort set in. The only problems were coming down the gravel road from the falls. Our guide stopped along the way to explain the features of the area. At the waterfall we had about 40 minute hike up 1000 feet to the falls. Wonderful with a cool spray from the falls. We had a snack of flat bread, cured meat and cheese while listening to the sounds of the waterfall. Just a wonderfully relaxing place. There were very few people at the falls which is in a national park. An easy bike ride got us back to the ship close to the time that we needed to be on board. The 3 hour trip was definitely one of the

The Fiord

highlights of this cruise. We sailed out of the fiord at a slow pace, enjoying the sheer cliffs as we went. Alaska has the glaciers but this has a different kind of beauty. We stopped at the Effy store for our “free gift” and a glass of champagne. We did not buy any of the thousands of dollar jewelry that they have been really hustling during the cruise. After dinner we stopped in at the country western night. We have an early tour tomorrow so lights were out quickly.