Princess cruises on the Saphire princess does a few good itineries which include japan prices have been around £1300 inculding flights but not seen an advert recently.

Check out the itineries on http://www.princess.com/find/index.jsp

There is also Star cruise(who own NCL) do far east but I don't know if they include japan

http://www.justacruise.co.uk (voyana) have examples of both trips in .pdf brochures. Check other agents fror pricing.

Remember flight to far east especialy china are a lot cheaper these days(we pick them up for work under £500 sometmes as low as £350 with klm) so you may be able to DIY a package and extend the stay depending on the ports used since hotels arealso cheap.

Hi Odyssey. I have just booked a cruise on Sapphire Princess to Japan (Osaka,Nagasaki) Russia (Vladivostok) South Korea(Pusin) China(Shanghi,Beijing,Dalian) We set off on 12 Oct. 2006.
I was told on booking that there were only 4 cabins left. We have an inside cabin costing £1299...have to pay supplement air fare from Scotland of £120. I recon it is good value at that. The cruise is 12 nights and on arrival in Osaka we have a night in Hotel.
The cruise was advertised on teletext and booked via Cruise Classified...Tel.02085154999
email...sales@cruise classified.com
There maybe some outside cabins available, more expensive of course.
Good Luck with your search, Let me know how you get on.
Yours Aye,
Jopa.

That sounds a wonderful cruise Jopa. We toyed with the idea of a similar cruise last year, but I didn't fancy the long flights. We ended up doing the Med on the Sea Princess. Really nice ship.

Remember to post a review on your return.

luci

Hi Luci.
My longest flight so far has been Beijing...10hrs. from Heathrow. Got on well with that, sat next to a nice Chinese man and got some info from him about his country. I found that the time went in quite quickly...even did some Chinese exercises at 4am!
We were whisked off to Tianamen Square as soon as we got out of the Airport at Beijing and it was all go from there! A wonderful experience.
We have a 2hr. stop at Dubai this next trip so it will "Break" the journey for us. Really looking forward to all the destinations on the Cruise. I never thought I would ever get to Japan as it always looks so expensive.
I know this is just a "Wee Taste" of Japan, but if I like it I would DIY_IT the next time!
I will write a Review on my return.
Yours Aye,
Jopa.

The longest flight we've done is to Australia although we had a stop over in Bangkok. You could smoke on flights back then, about 13 years ago, so it was bearable. We will be doing an 11 hour flight to Las Vegas in November which is direct so should be OK.

Like you I have always fancied Japan as it seems so exotic and inaccessible so a cruise would be an excellent way to experience it, although I think the language could be a problem. Probably the place to take organised excursions.

luci

Any Japanese people I have met (last ones ...in Nepal) have had a fair grasp of English. I will try and master a few Japanese phrases though. We intend "Doing our own thing" on shore, maybe just have a few walking excursions. I will suss out the destinations on-line at leisure.
The ships excursions can be costly.
No-smoking flights don't bother me as have never indulged...but it must be nerve-wracking for smokers on long-haul flights.
Yours Aye,
Jopa.

Thank you for all this info, it is exactly what I am looking for but in 2007 and I don't think the brochures are out yet. Please post a review when you come back I will be very interested.

The cruise brochures are definitely out for 2007. You may even be too late for the early booking discounts. In fact you can even book for 2008. Check the Princess link in Windjammer's post above.

luci

FTR : cruise classified are part of Voyana they also trade under just a cruise.

A good trick when trying a new agent is check the Abta and atol web sites.

http://www.abta.com/scripts/edge/search2000_number.mv?+F5254

Booking are definately available for 2007.

http://www.princesscruises.co.uk/brochure.asp

Order the brochure and the dvd/video then get on the email alerts for deals.

DO this with every cruiseline you may use and some of the agents it is by far the best way to get deals on the decent ships, for uk operators Island,Thomson,OV then TXT still tends to be the best.

Hi,

None of the cruise websites are bringing anything up for late 2007 and the Travel Agents have told me the brochure doesn't come out till September

There are cruises for late 2007 and early 2008 in the Princess link. I was at a Cruise Show a couple of weeks ago and they had the 2007 brochures for all the cruise lines and some for 2008.

I don't know which travel agents you have been trying, but we've used http://www.scotlandscruisecentre.co.uk among others and found them helpful. They will also tailor make a cruise for you. You can search up to July 2008 on that site.

luci

Hi,

Thanks for info I have contacted the web address you gave me (very good web site enjoyed the live chat) and they have confirmed that the Princess exotic cruises brochure isn't out until September

Just looked at the Princess website and it does indeed say that certain 2007/2008 brochures are out in September. Didn't realise that some specific brochures were so late in being published when you could book other 2007 cruises months ago.

luci

As I didn't want to watch the feeding habits of our Transatlantic cousins, my wife and I are off to Singapore to try out cruising with Star Cruises on the Straits of Malacca program.

My main reason for going here was that when I was in the RAF, I put in for Singapore and they went and closed it down meaning I had to do endure 2.5 years in Cyprus instead.

We are really looking forward to it and I will post reports when I get back on the 19th September.

Hi John and welcome to HT!

Looking forward to reading your review. Please check that your ship is listed in Cruise Reviews otherwise I can have it added before your return.

Have a great cruise.

luci

The Superstar Virgo is a well run vessel with a multinational crew mainly drawn from SE Asia.
It is clean and comfortable and I recommend an Outside Stateroom (Balcony Class) as it gives you Dining privilegies as well.
Everything on board is cashless and all bills are charged through an Access Card which is your Room Key, Passport and Charge Card.

With Balcony Class you get a $200SGD per person Meal Allowance built in and this can be used for all Food and drinks not taken in the 3 Main Dining and Bar areas per person. All shopping onboard including cigarettes etc are separate, but are still charged through the card and you are billed at the end of your cruise prior to disembarkation. Drinks onboard are expensive and this will rack up your allowance fiercely. However; with the present strength of the Pound this allowed us to have a cheap time onboard as all prices are linked to the Singapore Dollar ($SGD) and we are not drinkers.
All prices onboard include a 10% service charge and a 5% Government sales tax and tipping is at your own discretion, not mandatory as on US Cruises.

The Entertaiment on board is geared to the Asian market and is a bit quaint with echoes of Butlins in the 60's about it i.e Line Dancing and Bingo.
The Cabarets and Shows are reasonable.
My wife and I were not impressed by the Gala Dinner with is heralded as the great event of the voyage and we found it very disappointing, but in fairness we did attend the second sitting, although on a later visit to the same restaurant, the food was very good.

The Shore Excursions were good, but if you go to Phuket wear trainers as you will need them to help you escape from the various souvenier sellers and hawkers about, including Wang Telang, a very upmarket jewellers who do not take no for an answer and follow you around the store trying to sell you everything.

You cannot buy Duty Free Cigarettes for consumption in Singapore and you will be fined a $1000 SGD if you have more than 20 on you at the time of disembarking as well as paying the tax on them.

The Ships Staff were friendly and courteous, although in some cases it felt a bit forced, particularly with the Entertainments Director who adopted an American approach which jarred a bit.
As this was our first cruise we were happy with the service we enjoyed but we would not sail with this company again because of the little things.

Star Cruises is also the parent company for NCL and Orient Lines.

Many thanks for your review John.
luci

We are going on the Princess Cruise to the Far East in November from Beijing to Bangkok. Stopping at Shanghai, Vietnam, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan (not necessarily in that order) and I wondered if anyone had done this cruise before and could give some advice on the tours available, either to say yes must do or no not worth it or can do this on your own.

Many thanks

I am going on the same cruise but the other way around and have just stated looking.If you reply with what you have found out I will do the same-len