Day 17 -- Travel home Singapore to Tokyo to Los Angeles.
Overview:
Oceania:
Food: They bill themselves as the best cuisine at sea, and they deliver on this. The fine
dining was exceptional, the buffet was excellent and featured many items made to order. Even the simple
fare was great, with the bacon always crisp, and everything seasoned and prepared well. The two
specialty restaurants were even a cut above their normal,great fare. Special fare such as the Vietnamese
buffet were very well done.
Travel: Their travel department needs work. We couldn't get what we wanted booked through
them, so we made arrangements ourselves. They knew of our arrangements for over a week before they
came back at the last minute and told us we weren't getting to Tokyo in time. We ended up having to
rebook at the last minute for the day before, costing us about $1,000 apiece.
Entertainment: One of the highlights of the trip for us was a series of talks given by
a formal Australian diplomat who had been posted to Asia for many years. She gave us excellent
background and history on the various cities and countries.
Positives: All of the shipboard staff were excellent, always smiling and greeting and eager
to help. The onboard laundry room makes it convenient to pack lighter and wash a few things.
Negatives: I guess we're spoiled to our Mexican food here, but the only disappointing food
we had was for Mexican night; it was just underseasoned and boring.
Itinerary:
Japan: Hard to get too much of a read on Japan. The people seem very nice, but the tours we
had all just took us to a place or two and didn't give much description or background to go with it.
Like, we're sure there is more to see and do in Osaka, but they didn't bother to tell us. Maybe a
land tour would have given us a better sense.
Taiwan: Very nice place to visit, and we could probably spend more time there.
Hong Kong: Beautiful city-state, and we could spend more time there.
Vietnam: Because of weather diversions, we only got to stop in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
instead of the three stops we were supposed to have. There is definitely more to see here.
Singapore: Looks beautiful, but we just hopped off the boat and onto a plane, so we
didn't spend any time here.
