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)

Jewels of the Orient - Day 12, 27 Oct 2019 - Embark Day, Spectrum of The Seas

A relaxing morning before we head to Baosan Port. We don't leave the hotel until 10.30am so it gives us time to have a leisurely breakfast and then pack our bags and make sure we have all our paperwork ready for the cruise.

We so excited for this part of our trip. We've really enjoyed the China tour, it's been something completely different to anything trip we've done before, now it's time to say goodbye to the tour bus and hello to our beautiful ship The Spectrum of The Seas!

Hans explained what we needed to do once we got to the port and also said his goodbyes as we wouldn't have much time when the bus parked. The bus could only be there for 5 minutes before it had to move on. We all needed to get our suitcases so instead of them taking them off the bus and moving them down towards the front of the bus out of the way as there wasn't much space between our bus and the next one, no this is too sensible. People just pushed bags out of the way to get their suitcase even if that meant pushing them further away. Just as I went to grab my suitcase it got pushed away from me. Manners got out the window when you're on a bus tour. Everyone wants to be first. We were talking with an older couple who said that we always end up at the back but so far we've never missed out on anything so why push and shove. Exactly.

Anyway, we got our bags put our cruise tags on them and dropped them off before making our way into the cruise terminal. This was a lot different to any cruise we'd done before. Boarding took us about 1 1/2hrs. So many checks, so many queues and so many people. After worried for a bit when we got a form explaining what we needed to do and what paperwork we needed which said have a photocopy of our passport (which I have but it was in my suitcase which I'd just dropped off). It did say if we didn't have one there was a photocopier on level 3. In the end we didn't actually need it until we got to Japan, something to remember for next time I guess.

Finally made it on board, our cabin was yet ready they were all due to be ready at 2pm, so we found a comfy chair and I went and got us a cup of tea. I also ended up getting a couple of savoury muffins as I ended up in the Two70 cafe and it's always hard to resist yummy looking forward. The muffins did look yummier than what they were.

After we had our cup of tea we went down to the cafe looking for something sweet. Mum grabbed a pork roll and I grabbed a chocolate mousse, yum.

The announced that all the cabins were now ready so once we'd finished eating we made our way to deck 7 and looked for our obstructed view balcony cabin.

Beautiful room and happily there was no obstruction other than a slight overhang below us which just meant we couldn't look straight down the ship, we were very happy with that.

We love the layout of the RCI cabins. Spacious, airy and light and the balcony is a good size with a chair and foot stool each and a small round table. This would have been much better for the 3 of us when we did the NZ cruise.

Our suitcases hadn't arrived yet but would be there after we went and did our muster. Our muster station was in the Royal Theatre a few decks below our cabin. For the muster they actually showed us a mini movie explaining everything, it must be an Asian thing. Quite funny actually. It was also funny watching the Asians and how they just do what they want and sit wherever they want even with the staff trying to tell them what to do. The Chinese don't believe in queuing or waiting.

We unpacked our suitcases when we got back to our room, lots of storage space and our suitcases fitted under our comfy beds. Our cabin steward introduced himself, Jesman, so we asked if he could get us some English breakfast teabags. The cabin has a kettle in it but they only provide green tea bags. Jesman was lovely and remember our names everytime we saw him. I couldn't remember his name and for awhile there I thought it was Jose (that was the name of the head waiter).

After freshening up we went exploring the ship and checking out the drinks menu to see how much we were in for when buying our wine. We went to Vintages and bought a bottle of Australian chardonnay, the only Sav B was $50 a bit exxy for us, the one we bought was $33US + 18% gratuity so probs $40 aussie. We didn't like this wine so didn't buy it again.

Our dinner time was 7pm each night in the main dining room. This was different to the Ovation as it was a single restaurant over 2 levels where as the Ovation was 4 individual restaurants over the 2 levels. The restaurant was lovely and we did actually have a table for two although they had thought we were with the other couple also being lead to their table so they quickly split the table by about 5cm. The couple we sat near were lovely anyway so it didn't matter anyway.

We had a delicious meal even though we only had about 30 seconds to look at the menu before we ordered. Mum didn't even see what I had ordered on the menu, I had the roast beef, as we had to be so quick. We didn't mind too much as long as it wasn't like that each evening (it wasn't) and we didn't realise but we hadn't been given the every day menu until we saw it the next night. Not a big deal, this stayed the same the whole cruise anyway.

After dinner we headed back to our room for our first sleep on board the Spectrum making our way to Japan. Tomorrow is a sea day.

Jewels of the Orient - Day 11, 26 Oct 2019 - Shanghai

Yay, today we're going to the Bund. This was something I'd been looking forward to as I'd seen photos of the Bund and all the gorgeous buildings including the famous Oriental Pearl Tower.

The Bund is in the heart of Shanghai and separates the old and new, well the river actually separate it but the Bund runs along the river on the old side.

We had about an hour here and then were heading to the Shanghai Museum and then an optional tour. Mum and I weren't doing the option (this was a tour of Shanghai) as we just wanted to do our own thing. There were about half doing the tour and half heading back to the hotel to do some washing! Woo, there was free use of the washing machines at our hotel and people thought this was fantastic. I just thought it was a waste of a day in Shanghai as tomorrow we were off on our cruise. Whatever floats your boat (ha ha) I guess.

Mum and I spent about 5 hours wandering around Shanghai seeing both sides of the river. We caught a ferry across to the otherside, where the Pearl Tower is. The ferry was 2 yuan (40c ea) and was not what we expected when we walked onto it. There were no seats, well there were about 6 seats and then it was just all open. You just stand with nothing to hold onto. The trip isn't that long, maybe 15 minutes and it's only when you're docking that you need to steady yourself.

We didn't really know where we were going so we just headed for the Pearl. There was an enormous roundabout, both car and people, just near the Pearl so we got some great photos,many many photos! We also saw the tallest building and the bottle opener building. There were a few big shopping centres, now I say big what I mean is giant, massive, huge shopping centres. The one we went into still had a lot of empty shops that were due to open at the end of the year but there were still a lot of shops. We just wanted to get some lunch but all they seem to have were restaurants we just wanted a food court. Unfortunately we ended up at Burger King, our worst meal of the trip. Later on, back on the otherside of the river, we did find a fabulous food court, we needed that earlier! I did buy a pikelet oreo icecream dessert thing and it was good, so good.

At one stage mum thought there must have been a parade on as there were so many people but, we're in Shanghai, there are always so many people :-)

I really liked Shanghai and wished we had a few days here to do more exploring. Maybe next time ;-)

We were being picked up by our bus and then heading back to the river to do a night cruise. We were the only ones who ended up staying in Shanghai so we were the only ones waiting back at the museum (which we managed to find again!). While waiting we got hassled by a few beggars. One in particular pushed mum, I had a go at him and all he said was 'bye bye, bye bye'. I know he couldn't understand me but he could definitely tell I was not happy. No one messes with my mum!

The bus collected us and off we went to the river cruise terminal. We had an hour before the cruise to grab something to eat. Hans told us that there was a Maccas and a couple of other little places but not much else. There was a Starbucks which a lot of the tour group were happy about unfortunately it was closed for cleaning!

Mum and I walked around for a bit, we didn't want Maccas, and stumbled across a food court down some stairs. Busy food court. More dumplings for us. The lady who served us even came over and tried to explain how we were meant to eat them. Obviously we were doing it wrong. You're meant to suck the liquid out before eating them. We just kept squirting it everywhere :-0

The cruise was ok but I wouldn't do it again. It was just so busy with so much pushing and shoving and so noisy. The lights of Shanghai were stunning but I think I'd rather just walk along the Bund.

Back to the hotel, pack our bags ready for tomorrow as tomorrow is CRUISE DAY!

Jewels of the Orient - Day 10, 25 Oct 2019 - Shanghai

Before making our way to Shanghai we had a lake to cruise on. West Lake and what a lake it is, massive! This place was busy, so busy we wondered how relaxing this cruise would be. After parking the bus with a million other buses we followed Hans to our boat, it was about a 20 minute walk through parklands and along busy roads within the park. Popular place.

The cruise was so lovely. We sat outside as it was a gorgeous day, nice and warm with a relatively clear sky. Being such a huge lake the cruise ended up being very peaceful and so scenic. Beautiful.

Next stop was a tea plantation. Like all of these types of tours there is always a sales element to it. This was nice in the sense that the lady given the talk was a 5th generation of the plantation so her genuine love for tea, the process and history really showed through. We also got to taste some of their green tea, I really liked it and felt that it did help with feeling lighter, not so bloaty unlike the tea bags I use. After he talk she then started the sales pitch. If I hadn't of bought my pills I probably would have got some of the tea but it was a bit exy. I few people did buy some.

One of the guys on our trip had a big old rant about being taken to places where they sales pitched to you. It was clear in our itinerary that this is what they were for but they also were informative. He said he wanted to see people actually picking the tea, how exciting would that be!

Anyway, after the tea plantation we were headed for Shangihai. As it was a bit of drive, a few hours, we made a stop at a service centre so we could all get something to eat, stretch our legs and go to the bathroom. Western toilets, yay!

I think we got to the hotel at about 6.30pm. It was another lovely hotel but still not in town. There was lots around where we were in terms of restaurants and convenience stores so we didn't have any trouble getting our milk or finding something to eat. Well, we always have trouble finding somewhere to eat but that's just because we don't speak or read Chinese! Another yummy dinner, beef noodles and fried rice and to finish yoghurt with sultanas. So good.

Tomorrow - Shanghai and the Bund!!