Advertisement
Published: November 19th 2023
DISTINCTIVE VOYAGES HOSTS
Getting into our Asian mode.After leaving Dutch Harbor it was a five day passage across the Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean to our first port of call in Japan. Every night we added an extra hour of sleep as we crossed multiple time zones and then lost a day as we crossed the International Dateline.
There was plenty to do on those sea days as Silversea packed the daily schedule with interesting events and activities. The Assistant Cruise Director gave iPhone lessons and he even set up my phone with a SIM card so it would work in Japan. There were two Arts and Crafts instructors on board offering jewelry making classes, water color painting, dot art and origami folding classes. There were dance and bridge lessons available. We played ping pong and in the process met some lovely couples from England and Australia. Every sea day we had a chat time desk set up to meet with our guests to exchange ideas and travel stories. There were several interesting guest lecturers on board ready to share their knowledge and experiences. There are plenty of quiet spaces to read and gaze out at the endless sea and catch a glance of a
BERING SEA SUNRISE
We never get tired of our ocean view. breaching whale and soaring seabirds. We had excellent internet service even in this remote part of the world. This is small ship cruising at its best. I almost forgot to mention the dining on board. There are numerous choices of restaurants with Asian, Italian, French, a nightclub jazz bistro, Japanese, a seafood cafe, international cuisine restaurant, arts snack cafe and our two favorites, the hot rocks grill poolside and the fabulous Spaccanapoli Pizzaria. The pizza restaurant is open all day and they produce some of the best made to order pizza on the high seas. There is something to fit everyone’s tastes and moods.
Another great thing about cruising are the people you meet on board. They show up on a cruise several years later. But in this case it was 20 years later. On a world cruise in 2003 we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. Donald Cant was the star entertainer. He is known as the “Phantom of Australia” since he was the Phantom of the Opera over 400 times. On that cruise he serenaded us with the love song from the show “All I Ask of You.” On this cruise he did an encore of that
DONALD CANT and PARTNER ROBIN
“The Australian Phantom of the Opera” song for our 50th. It was a very special moment.
Ordinarily on this route ships would call in Petropavlovsk on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula. But given the world situation, our Captain chose to stay 45 miles offshore of Russia. We stopped in two ports on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. Kushiro and Muroran are small port cities both of which are gateways to some of the most interesting geological features of Japan. Being on the Ring of Fire, this part of Japan is filled with volcanos and sulphur springs and mud pools. Here the famous snow monkeys can be seen enjoying a soak in the hot springs. Smart guys, those monkeys!
All too soon we were packing up and bidding farewell to our new found friends as we approached Yokohama and the end of our voyage. It was time to iimmerse ourselves in a nostalgic return to where it all began for us back in 1969.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0224s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Linda & Tom
non-member comment
Loved hearing about this wonderful cruise. Have a great time in Japan!💕