Jewels of the Orient - Day 19, 3 Nov 2019 - Debark Day, Spectrum of The Seas and Sydney

Debark day is always a sad day but today is even sadder as it means our amazing holiday is over and we're leaving China tonight (well technically tomorrow as our flight is 12.05am 4/11/19). We've been counting down our holiday for almost 6 months and now it's almost over. Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

Today was going to be a long day due to the lateness of our flight back home. We had grand plans of leaving our bags at the airport and then catching the train back into Shanghai and spending the day there before heading back to the airport in the evening. This did not happen. More on that later...

There was a big delay getting off the ship. We had a late debark time which meant we could have a relaxing morning before facing the lovely customs people both at the port and at the airport. We didn't mind having to wait longer than expected to get off the ship as we weren't in any rush to get to the airport.

Once we finally got off the ship we had more queues and waiting in the terminal. The Chinese take security very seriously. Fingerprints were scanned once again and passports checked numerous times. Finally making it through we found our suitcases no problem and headed for the taxis in the hope of being able to explain where we wanted to go, Pudong Airport terminal 1. We got a taxi easy enough but trying to tell the driver where we wanted to go was another story. I used my phones translate app but for the first 30 mins we thought for sure we were going the wrong way (not that we had any idea where the airport was!). We weren't, the driver knew where he was going :-)

At the airport we ran into people from our tour which was to be expected since we were all flying back home today and there aren't too many flights. They'd gone to terminal 2 so had to catch the shuttle to terminal 1. As we were at the airport so early we couldn't check in so, as mentioned, had planned on leaving our bags in storage. Nope, this wasn't going to happen. There was some sort of expo on so the storage facility was closed starting from 8am today due to 'security issues'. What ever that meant. Bugger. This meant we were stuck with our bags until check in at 5pm. We were given quite a few different times but it ended up being about 5. I did try and see if we could get an earlier flight, we could but it would cost us $800 each, no thanks.

I had planned that once we dropped our suitcases off we'd catch the Maglev train into Shanghai. The Maglev is a super speedy train from the airport to Shanghai that runs on a magnetic track, so have the time it's hovering above the tracks! We decided we'd still catch it and just drag our bags along with us, not fun at all and the train only got up to 300km/hr instead of the 400km/hr it's meant to. What a jip!

After dragging around our bags and going through all the scans and security checks getting on and off the train I'd had enough. I bought some lunch from a super busy place, sort of like a bakery, and we caught the Maglev back to the airport. I also bought a can of beer for dad but in the end this got taken off me a the very last check we went through. We'd been through about 5 before this so don't know why suddenly I couldn't take it and my two tiny cans of coke. Disappointing and annoying.

The time dragged on and on at the airport. We did fill in a little bit of time by having a yummy dinner using the very last of our yuan. We had to calculate what we could afford before ordering, didn't want to embarrass ourselves by not having enough yuan when everything was so cheap.

The airport is massive, as you would expect, but there weren't many people at all. I thought it would have been so much busier.

Our plane was on time so that was good we definitely didn't need a delay when we'd been at the airport for hours and hours already. The flight was loooong and uncomfortable. I seriously do not know how tall people go! Dinner was served as soon as we reached flying altitude, it was 1am in the morning, who wants food now. Many people apparently, the lady next to mum also got a glass of wine. That's the last thing I wanted I just wanted to sleep. Not going to happen. Breakfast was served a few hours before we arrived back in Sydney. A very well cooked egg, shouldv'e gone with the Chinese brekky, noodles.

After finally making it to Sydney and getting through customs (such a breeze compared to China) we had to get a transfer over to the domestic airport for our flight to Port Macquarie. One good thing was we could check in and leave our suitcases so didn't have to drag them over to the domestic terminal. Next time we'd see them was Port Mac airport.

We had a little bit of a wait but only about 1 1/2 hours so not too bad. We left on time, had a cuppa tea and nibblie things, and arrived in Port Macq right on time. Dad was there to pick us up so once we got our suitcases we were in the car and home, well mum and dads home. What a looooong day. A shower was definitely needed before a nice glass of wine. Dinner wasn't far behind and then straight to bed. we were tired.

What an amazing trip we had. We didn't know what to expect and were both pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed our trip. We were both over the bus and the airports but what we did and saw definitely out weighed any negatives we had. China is certainly a very different place to Australia as are the people. We learnt that you need to just accept that Chinese do not queue or have personal space so just 'elbows out' and go. I found this hard to deal with at times but you gradually get use to it.

I would highly recommend doing a trip to China especially when the trips on offer at the moment are so cheap it is so worth the money. Value for money that is for sure. The quality of our hotels where top notch even if the locations may not have been the most central and the food, so cheap and, for the most part, so yummy. We'd go back just for the food!

I'm not sure if I would do a bus trip again but never say never. The cruise was awesome as always but to be able to go to Japan was something I hadn't ever thought I'd do especially on a fabulous ship. I would love to go back to Japan and see more of it especially Tokyo as I wasn't that impressed with it but have heard how amazing it is so obviously I missed a lot of it. We were only there for a few hours!

Where to next???

Jewels of the Orient - Day 18, 2 Nov 2019 - Sea Day, Spectrum of The Seas

Emma's 20th birthday, Happy Birthday Emma!

Our third sea day and our final day on the beautiful Spectrum of the Seas. This cruise sure went fast, even faster than normal!

We had some yen left so we left this for Jesman our wonderful room steward.

We didn't got up in the North Star as we had done it on the Ovation even though we didn't get to go over the edge of the ship. It wasn't included on the Spectrum and was an extra cost unlike the Ovation. The same thing with the Flowrider and iFly although we think they may have made the Flowrider free on the last day as it was super busy unlike earlier in the cruise. Maybe people just didn't want to go on it before they'd seen Japan in case the injured themselves!

Tomorrow: Shanghai

Jewels of the Orient - Day 17, 1 Nov 2019 - Sea Day, Spectrum of The Seas

We left Yokohama at 11pm last night and are now making our way back to Shanghai. We've got two sea days before we get back so plenty of time to eat and relax.

We went up to the library and found a scrabble set so we could play speed scrabble while eating our yummy cakes.

We'd asked Jesman if we could get some more tea bags to get us through to the end of our cruise. When we got back to our room there were enough to last this cruise and another one. Maybe we should have booked back to backs!

We checked out the robot bartenders and watched then do their thing. We didn't order anything but I definitely will next time!

Lunch in the Windjammer today with a spot of dessert. A glass or two of wine on our balcony and then a delicious dinner in the dining room.

What a great sea day.

Tomorrow: Sea day

Jewels of the Orient - Day 16, 31 Oct 2019 - Yokohama (Tokyo), Spectrum of The Seas

Another relaxing morning as we weren't getting to Yokohama until 12.30pm. Room service breakfast enjoyed on our balcony. We spent most of the morning in our cabin enjoying the view while having the tv on with the ship cameras so we could see what was happening around the ship.

We went up to the top deck to watch our sail into Yokohama. The captain did an amazing job spinning us around to dock. We were heading straight for a bridge which we were thinking 'we're not going fit under this' we didn't that's why we had to spin around before it and park just in front of it. Welcome to Yokohama. There were lots of buses waiting so lots of people where doing ship tours. As this port was a working port and not near anything we had to get a shuttle to the main part of Yokohama.

Originally we hadn't planned to go to Tokyo but then decided as we were so close we should. I hadn't research Tokyo, thinking we weren't going there, so didn't know what to do or where to go. We'll just have to wing it!

After getting off the ship and catching the shuttle we made our way to the station. It wasn't far from where the bus dropped us. Unfortunately we had run out of Yen so needed to get some out. I had read that 7 Eleven atms accept OS cards but we didn't know where one was. I did try using the train ticket machine and bank atm but no luck. A lovely Japanese lady came up to us and asked if she could help (obviously we looked a bit lost). She took us around the the money exchange place (we had been here but couldn't get any money) and she kindly asked the lady where a 7 eleven was. It was pretty much just on the otherside of the street! It was slightly hidden but we did feel a little silly but very grateful!

Finally with some Yen we managed to get our train ticket and sort of work out which train to catch. We had to change trains so we were a little worried about if we'd actually make it to Tokyo!

We jumped on a train we thought was heading in the right direction and then jumped off when we got to the station we thought we needed to change to get a train to Tokyo.

While standing on the platform we thought was the right one but weren't 100 %  mum asked a young guy if we were on the right platform. A train pulled in on the otherside and he pointed to it to. We jumped on and hoped for the best. It ended up being the right train but the whole trip we weren't sure. Even the lady on the train didn't look sure.

Tokyo station, unsurprisingly, was busy. Not knowing where to go we found an information desk and mum asked a few questions and got a map.

We headed out of the station, walked around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the station and back to Yokohama. Tokyo wasn't anything like I had expected. It was quiet and not busy or quirky or weird at all. I said to mum we must be on the wrong side of the station for the 'real' Tokyo. As it turned out we were, oh well. Maybe next time.

The train to Yokohama was an express train, thankfully, as it got very full! They just kept on getting on. Two people would get off and about 30 would get on. Squishy!

Back at Yokohama our mission, well my mission, was to find the Cup Noodle Museum. This was somewhere I had really wanted to get to while we were here. Things don't always go to plan though. When we did finally find it, quite by accident in the end, it was already closed. Bugger.

Another place I had wanted to get to was the Ramen museum, we didn't get to this but we did find Ramen food hall. We had dinner here. So many choices and thankfully they had a menu in English which was helpful. To order you did it yourself using a machine, we just watched what everyone else was doing first and then followed them. When our order was ready I went over to get it and was told, in Japanese, to get some boiled eggs. It looked like you could have as many as you wanted. I just took one. So odd.

We had a delicious meal and even managed to order a glass of white wine. They're not really big on wine so the choice was pretty simple. White or red? You have to order from one place and then collect it from another spot and then dropped your empty glasses at another spot. Very organised.

After our yummy dinner we walked back towards the ship but first I had some shopping to do! I just wanted to get a few weird treats before we left Japan. I managed to get some :-)

We caught the shuttle back to the ship. We were back on board at about 8.30pm. We had tickets for the 9.30pm show in the Two70 theatre so had just enough time to freshen up a bit and have a relaxing glass of wine on our balcony.

The show was awesome. So much going on we didn't know where to look. They were coming down from the ceiling and up from the floor and out from the side of the stage. Silk Road was the name of the show and it was based around the trade route on the silk road in a very arty way. The acrobatics were amazing. This was the only show we ended up seeing on the ship. We had wanted to see Showgirls but missed out on that one.

Tomorrow: Sea day

Jewels of the Orient - Day 15, 30 Oct 2019 - Osaka (Kyoto), Spectrum of The Seas

We had breakfast out on our balcony as we sailed into Osaka, arrival was 7am. This is the way to enjoy sailing into a new port, in our jarmies, nice and peaceful! It's always exciting going to a new port. In front of the ship was a large bridge and on the other side of the river was Universal Studios. We could see a very wild looking roller coaster, maybe another time!

What we couldn't see from our balcony was on the other side of the ship, where we were getting off, was a giant ferris wheel! Mum just loves ferris wheels. I had asked her to go on the one yesterday at Kobe and she said a definite NO so I had no hopes with this one. It was much bigger and was actually listed as one of the tallest in the world. Imagine the views mum!

We grabbed our Yen and passport copies and off we went. No delays getting off the ship today. I think lots of people must have being doing tours or had gotten off as soon as we docked and had the all clear.

As we were walking passed the giant ferris wheel mum says, if you want to go on it I'll go. OK. I didn't give her a chance to change her mind! Straight to the wheel, bought our tickets and on we go. They did ask if we wanted the all glass cabin but mum gave a definite NO to that, I didn't want to push it. Any cabin on the ferris wheels was good enough for me!

 

The views were incredible and mum did really well even if she did sit on the floor the whole time. The ride went for about 15 minutes and gave me plenty of time to get some awesome photos of the ship and the surrounding area.

After we got of the wheel and mum got her jelly legs under control we decided to get a train and see if we could find Osaka Castle. We did manage to get our tickets and find the right platform plus a couple from our China tour saw us and asked where we were planning on going. They'd been there yesterday doing a ship tour so knew which station to get off at. It's always a bit comforting to know that you're on the right train and going in the right direction!

After a 20 minute train trip we found our way to the Osaka Castle exit and even managed to find some toilets. They were heated too, very fancy.

Osaka Castle is a very popular place and the grounds are massive. We didn't actually go to the castle itself but saw a lot of it's walls and moats and got a photo of it through the trees. We came across a couple of food stands and bought a sweet red and white bean paste and custard waffle/pancake thingy. Good. 300 yuan, about 60c.

Back to Osaka train and hopefully we'd get off at the right station. We did but it was an accident, we actually thought we were getting off a station earlier than the one we'd got on but nope, it was the one we'd used earlier. At least we knew where we were!

We headed back towards to ship and went into the shopping centre near the dock. We didn't end up buying anything.

Back on board and time for something to eat. We went to the Two70 cafe and just had something light to eat. That pancakey thing was filling.

Halloween is tomorrow and the ship was being decorated ready for the party tomorrow night. They did a great job although I wasn't a fan of the huge spiders!

We left Osaka at 4pm, it was a beautiful sailaway with the sun setting as we sailed out.

Another yummy dinner in the main dining room.

Tomorrow: Yokohama, arrival time 12.30pm

Jewels of the Orient - Day 14, 29 Oct 2019 - Kobe, Spectrum of The Seas

Kobe is our destination for today, arrival time 1pm and we don't leave until 4am tomorrow. Seeing as we didn't have to get up early to watch us sail in what should we do but have a lazy breakfast in our cabin, well on our balcony.

The sea was super calm. A little overcast but no rain.

We had pizza for lunch in Sorrentos. They do good pizza, very good pizza. Freshly made. We also indulged in a dessert or two before leaving the ship to explore Kobe.

We had to take the photocopy of our passport with us to get the stamp of approval from the Japanese officials. We were told that this could take awhile but wasn't too bad in the end. Maybe 30-40 mins and we were through customs and security with our passport copy and sticker. We needed this for each port so made sure we put it somewhere safe in our handbags.

While researching each of the ports we were going to in Japan I saw that there was a red tower fairly close to where the ship was docking. This was in Meriken Park along the waterfront. We could see it from the ship so decided we'd try and see if we could find it. We actually had more trouble trying to find our way out of the terminal than finding the tower! We ended up getting on the free shuttle which took us into town, near Chinatown. As we'd just spent 10 days in China we didn't bother having a walk through Chinatown.

There were maps dotted around the place so we kept checking them out as we walked around. We found Meriken Park and the Red Tower. We didn't go up to the top, mum hates heights and stairs :-)

There was a memorial for a massive earthquake that hit this area about 20 years ago. It had photo's and a model showing where the earthquake hit and all the damage that happened. There was also an area they had kept showing the damaged caused along the waterfront. It's amazing that an area that has earthquakes still has multi level roads. I guess they're designed and built to withstand earthquakes but I think I'd prefer to be on the ground than up high.

We found a supermarket, I always like looking at supermarkets of our countries just to see what weird (to me) and wonderful things they have. I also wanted to get a razor as my legs were getting a tad hairy :-) We were thinking about getting a thermos for our final day in Shanghai so we'd have a cup of tea on hand but in the end we decided not to get one. (as it turned out this was a good decision) I did buy a couple of things but unfortunately the tiny cans of coke I bought got taken off me at Shanghai airport.

We walked a lot today so decided we may as well walked back to the ship (if we could find the right road/path to get to it) instead of getting the shuttle back.

After much walking and climbing stairs to go over the roads (they like overpasses) we managed to find the right walkway and found our ship.

Back on board we'd missed our 7pm dinner time although they did say we could still go into the dining room as they were going to stay open a bit later than normal due to the timing of our arrival in Kobe but we decided to just go to the buffet. I wasn't too busy. I had a yummy beef stirfry with noodles.

Next stop: Osaka 

Jewels of the Orient - Day 13, 28 Oct 2019 - Sea Day, Spectrum of The Seas

We love having a balcony and we love having a kettle in our cabin and we love room service breakfast! What a life.


Today we're heading for Kobe, Japan but have a day and a half at sea before we reach land. We spent most of the day exploring the ship, eating, relaxing, taking photos, watching people on the flow rider and ifly and did I mention eating.

This ship is very similar to the Ovation and just as beautiful. It has a lovely flow to it so never felt crowded.

We went to the Splashaway Cafe for lunch. They just have light meals and serve the same thing each day. They had chicken tenders, french fries, salad bowls, flatbread wraps (I had a shrimp one) hot dogs and a weird flat burger thing.

Before dinner in the main dining room we had a drink on our balcony. Dinners was good and we had the best apple pie we've ever had for dessert. So good!

When we got back to the cabin we had a panda towel animal waiting for us. We think it was a panda anyway.

Tomorrow: Kobe (arrive 1pm)