Cruising the East China Sea

Hong Kong to Kobe, Japan and Many Stops In Between

.
.
After our three days in Hong Kong it was time to join our ship, the Seabourn Sojourn.

This will be our sixth time sailing with Seabourn. And our fifth time sailing in this class of ship. We've sailed four times on sister ship the Quest (most recently to Antarctica) and we sailed on another sister ship, the Odyssey, just over a year ago in the Caribbean. This will be our first time on the Sojourn.

Our first Seabourn cruise was on the Legend which is now owned by Windstar.

Here's a map of our voyage.

The description says 21 Day Asian Seas Exploration - but if you count the stops there are only 13 including the last stop Kobe - where we leave the ship. Most stops are just one day but on this cruise we'll be two days in Shanghai, three in Tianjin (Beijing) and two in Hiroshima. Then there are the dreaded sea days - the days where we are just sailing.

Cruising is a great way to travel - unpack your suitcases once and repack at the end, same bed every night, never having to make too many tough decisions regarding where to eat or drink, what to do in the evening, etc. The downside is Sea Days. Some people we've met really like them but not us.

The first day of a cruise is always a lost day - get on the ship sometime after noon and then not much to do for the rest of the day except eat and drink. Sometimes the ship sails away at 5:00 PM and they have "sail-away" party on deck but not this cruise. This cruise we're docked until about 10:00 PM so no party.

When the ship reaches a voyage termination point - such as Hong Kong - most of the passengers exit the ship. Not all though - there may be people on a much longer cruise who are going through to the next stop - or even a stop many months away. On this particular cruise we met many people who were not getting off in Kobe (Japan) as we were but who were going all the way to Vancouver - another 23 days.

So on the day the ship docked in Hong Kong anyone who was getting off here has to be out of their room by 8:00 AM in the morning. They have an hour and a half to have breakfast and then to catch a bus or a taxi or a limo to their next stop whether it's the nearest airport, a hotel in the nearest town or where ever...the point is you have to get off the ship and pronto. Then the staff has about five hours to totally clean and re-equip all the rooms that have been vacated. Quite a chore.

It's not a big deal in our case..Terri and I do not leave a lot of misery behind for the staff but I'm sure there are many gruesome things to be cleaned up in some of the rooms.

Anyway we finally get access to our room about 2:00 PM and it's a beauty! Just as we were ready to fly from Vancouver to Hong Kong I received a phone call from our travel agent asking if we'd like a complimentary upgrade to an "owner's suite". Complimentary is the key word here because we have been offered upgrades in the past but they always want you to pay for the upgrade. So without too much thought we took the upgrade and the shots below show our cabin.

Large screen TV and couch.

Our own bar with stocked fridge and espresso maker.

And a separate bedroom. Life is good!

A couple last shots of Hong Kong as we sail away.

Kowloon side.

Hong Kong Island side.

All the stops are listed below and clicking (if they're underlined) one will re-direct to a separate page.

Kaohsiung
Keelung
Miyakojima
Nakagusuku
Zhujiajian
Shanghai
Yantai
Tianjin
Dalian
Fukuoka
Hiroshima
Takamatsu

Kobe was the end of the cruise and there is nothing to report as we took a car straight to Kyoto.

A new blog about our week in Japan will be created soon.

Frank