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Departing next Tuesday for a long planned trip to Japan to see 
. Well, that's the plan, Mother Nature likely has other plans.
Of course we have to overnight in Sydney and where else but? I checked their drinks prices the other day. It's going to be a quiet night that night.
The trip arrangements have been loosely based around a cruise, but which one! Looking back through emails over the last 18 months I had plans with 6 cruise lines but still waiting on our preferred cruise line (Celebrity) to release the dates we wanted. And knew we had to act immediately as the cruise sells out quickly at this time of the year. Finally it opened and booked our required date.
Next, the flights. Tracked the release of JAL award flights on Qantas, accumulated points, and was hoping for an F experience. Alas, at the release minute there were no F award options. But snared J and was able to select the forward F cabin last row. Then rinse and repeat for the return flight and again obtained the J award seats back. JAL a few weeks ago changed aircraft on the way out and the F cabin disappeared as a result. We were allocated middle seats. Ah nup. Logged in and immediately changed to window left side. Because of course we are going to see Fuji sans on the flight in.
So this is the itinerary of the cruise. A nice circumnavigation. Many of the itineraries we discarded visited more unique ports, but as it's our first time then we simply wanted a broad tourist experience this time.
We didn't particularly want to visit Busan in S Korea. During the 1988 Olympic Games it was called Pusan and was the location of the Yachting events. MrP was with the Olympic team that year but stayed central in Seoul although was able to visit the demilitarised zone with a bunch of officials. Like the US, Japan cruises require an external country port. It's usually either Busan or Jeju. Sometimes Taiwan.
. Well, that's the plan, Mother Nature likely has other plans.Of course we have to overnight in Sydney and where else but? I checked their drinks prices the other day. It's going to be a quiet night that night.
The trip arrangements have been loosely based around a cruise, but which one! Looking back through emails over the last 18 months I had plans with 6 cruise lines but still waiting on our preferred cruise line (Celebrity) to release the dates we wanted. And knew we had to act immediately as the cruise sells out quickly at this time of the year. Finally it opened and booked our required date.
Next, the flights. Tracked the release of JAL award flights on Qantas, accumulated points, and was hoping for an F experience. Alas, at the release minute there were no F award options. But snared J and was able to select the forward F cabin last row. Then rinse and repeat for the return flight and again obtained the J award seats back. JAL a few weeks ago changed aircraft on the way out and the F cabin disappeared as a result. We were allocated middle seats. Ah nup. Logged in and immediately changed to window left side. Because of course we are going to see Fuji sans on the flight in.
So this is the itinerary of the cruise. A nice circumnavigation. Many of the itineraries we discarded visited more unique ports, but as it's our first time then we simply wanted a broad tourist experience this time.
We didn't particularly want to visit Busan in S Korea. During the 1988 Olympic Games it was called Pusan and was the location of the Yachting events. MrP was with the Olympic team that year but stayed central in Seoul although was able to visit the demilitarised zone with a bunch of officials. Like the US, Japan cruises require an external country port. It's usually either Busan or Jeju. Sometimes Taiwan.
. 
) fans of Japan so if anyone could jump in for the next two days and suggest things I've forgotten. 
