Hi there!
Below I will show you in pictures and video a bit of what it’s like to be on a nearly one month transpacific cruise.
My transpacific cruise started from California in February 2023, made stops in Hawaii and Guam, and then arrived in Japan in March.
With so many sea days to show you, you might start to feel like you are looking at the same pictures over and over. 😂
Well, that is the reality of a nearly one month long cruise that sails across a massive ocean!
The cruise from California to Japan took nearly a month.
On the day of arrival to our final cruise port in Japan, the captain came over the speakers and made a final announcement:
For your information, curiosity, and knowledge, we completed a transpacific voyage of 7,545 nautical miles from San Diego to Yokohama, transpacific, North Pacific crossing.
It was a 25-day cruise with 18 sea days! (!!!) 😂
There will be a LOT of days where all you see around you is the ocean!
But I assure you, every day (every hour) that you see the ocean in person, you will be like wowwwww.
Well maybe the wow factor will wear off a little bit so instead of wowwwww it will be woww 😉 but still, it’s the vast Pacific Ocean in front of you!
👆 Maybe you will see a rainbow during your cruise across the Pacific Ocean!
Okay so actually, maybe I can’t assure that, because actually, I guess not everyone can handle so many sea days.
During the cruise after many (many) sea days had passed, I actually did hear someone in the elevator say that they were getting bored.
So the question is… will that be you?! 🤪
I was just fine doing a whole lot of nothing. 😂
My whole lot of nothing included watching a lot of TV shows. 😂 The TV in the cabin had a surprising number of shows and the ship internet ($) was good enough to watch broadcast TV shows online, so… I did. 🫢😂
Also the cruise director and entertainment staff might be a bit hurt to hear a comment about boredom on the ship! 🫢 There actually were a lot of cruise activities on the schedule! Once again, it depends on what type of person you are, if you want to partake in the organized sea day activities or not!
Every day I watched the “wake show.” It’s a “morning show” that you can watch on the TV in your room.
The cruise director and assistant cruise director talk about the day’s activities and other general ship life talk.
It usually lasts around 30 minutes.
I say “morning show” in quotes because it was pre-recorded the day before and so I actually watched it every night as a nightly routine. 😂
It was Sophie (cruise director) and Elle (assistant cruise director).
They occasionally had on guests from different departments to talk about different things going on around the ship. (photo, jewelry, art, spa, etc.)
You can do a cruise from Japan to Alaska across the north side of the Pacific Ocean!
The 25-day transpacific cruise itinerary (repositioning cruise for Diamond Princess)
👆 Map of the scheduled transpacific cruise ports. The transpacific cruise itinerary was scheduled to include California, Hawaii, the North Mariana Islands, and Japan, with the cruise ports of San Diego, Honolulu (Oahu), Maui (Lahaina), Kauai (Nawiliwili), Guam, Saipan, Osaka, Toba, and Yokohama (Tokyo).
👆 How many sea days does a transpacific cruise have? A lot! This transpacific cruise was scheduled to have 17 sea days! It ended up with 18 sea days! Our longest stretch was 9 straight sea days from Hawaii to Guam!
The differences between the scheduled itinerary and the actual itinerary were Lahaina (canceled), Saipan (canceled), Osaka (change of port to Kobe), and the day we crossed the international date line. So it goes on a cruise!
👇 Actual transpacific cruise itinerary.
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- Day 1 | Feb 12: San Diego, California
- Day 2 | Feb 13: sea day
- Day 3 | Feb 14: sea day
- Day 4 | Feb 15: sea day
- Day 5 | Feb 16: sea day
- Day 6 | Feb 17: sea day
- Day 7 | Feb 18: Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii
- Day 8 | Feb 19: Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii (Lahaina canceled – Maui)
- Day 9 | Feb 20: Nawiliwili (Kauai), Hawaii
- Day 10 | Feb 21: sea day
- Day 11 | Feb 22: sea day
- Day 12 | Feb 23: sea day (cross the international date line – skip a day!)
- Day 13 | Feb 25: sea day (yes that is correct, we had no February 24! I listed out all the dates just so I could say that 😂)
- Day 14 | Feb 26: sea day
- Day 15 | Feb 27: sea day
- Day 16 | Feb 28: sea day
- Day 17 | March 1: sea day
- Day 18 | March 2: sea day
- Day 19 | March 3: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands
- Day 20 | March 4: sea day (Saipan canceled – Northern Mariana Islands)
- Day 21 | March 5: sea day
- Day 22 | March 6: sea day
- Day 23 | March 7: sea day
- Day 24 | March 8: Kobe, Japan
- Day 25 | March 9: Toba, Japan
- Day 26 | March 10: Yokohama, Japan
The last day of the cruise doesn’t get counted when cruise itineraries display how many days the cruise is. So this was a 25-day cruise, and on day 26, it was off the ship.
And so the cruise begins…
Well, not quite 😉
First, need to get to the cruise.
Pre-cruise: Days before the cruise in San Diego
Now about how your cruise costs can start to add up. (getting to the cruise port + arriving to the cruise port at least a day early)
I had a 5 hour flight on Delta from Detroit to San Diego. I bought the flight less than a month out, and it was $438.
I made it a direct flight since I did not want to miss any transfers.
I got to San Diego 2 days before the cruise to give time in case there were any delays.
This was not that long after the Southwest meltdown that happened over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays in which there were several days of canceled flights, so that was still fresh in my mind.
I did not want to risk missing the ship!
I also did carry-on only because I wanted to make sure my luggage made it to San Diego.
I stayed at a hostel in downtown San Diego for 2 nights. I booked a dorm but I had a room to myself. (Yay!) The total cost of 2 nights in San Diego was $89.
It was relatively simple to get from the San Diego airport to downtown San Diego by bus. It was $3.
It’s the same bus that also goes from the San Diego airport to cruise port too.
So in case you’re a risk-taker and showing up on the day of your cruise out of San Diego, it’s simple enough to take a bus from the airport to cruise port. Or… you can get an uber to make it easier on yourself. It’s a 10 minute drive.
So I had one full day in San Diego before the cruise.
I really didn’t feel like doing much, but I walked to the cruise port from where I was staying.
It also gave me a chance to see where to go the next day on embarkation day for my cruise.
The San Diego cruise port is pretty easy.
It’s right in the downtown area, and it’s no problem to walk to it.
You don’t need to know exactly which pier your ship docks at, because once you show up, you will see your cruise ship and then you will know which one to go to, and then you can go.
The day before my cruise, a Disney cruise ship was in port. It was the Disney Wonder. That seemed to be a Disney cruise to Mexico.
US to Asia by boat: California to Japan cruise
Watch the sea day videos from a nearly one month cruise!
👆 Watch the transpacific cruise playlist to go day-by-day on the 25-day transpacific cruise from California to Hawaii to Guam to Japan! Or… continue on below!
Day 1: San Diego cruise port, California
EMBARKATION DAY!!!
I walked to the cruise port. It was a 30 minute walk dragging along my suitcase. 🥵😂
Around half way there, I found a spot to sit, which turned out to be in front of a federal building, and out of curiosity I looked up how much an uber was.
I don’t remember what it said, but it wasn’t that much.
It was probably like a 5 minute drive from there. At that time, I had the feeling that I couldn’t bring myself to get an uber when I can walk there for free. 🤪😂😅
Okay, so I arrived at the San Diego cruise port, and everything was pretty easy!
👆 Princess medallion received before the cruise began! This served many purposes on board the cruise ship, including as a room key, to make payment for various services, and to know whether or not you are on the ship.
👆 Day 1 of cruise: San Diego cruise port video
Now… 5 sea days before seeing land again! First stop: Hawaii!
Day 2: Sea day
Overnight I could feel the sway of the ship slow rolling from side to side.
It didn’t bother me (aka I didn’t get sick from it) and I got a pretty good night’s sleep.
But then… when I got up, that’s when I started to feel like maybe I was feeling a bit queasy or nauseous.
Apparently the seas were quite rough.
The captain came over the PA and announced that there were were 15 foot swells. Not that I know what that means 😅 but he made it sound like a lot, so it seems that the seas were quite rough.
We were told it was going to be rough over the next couple of days.
But this first sea day was the only time I felt any sort of sickness on the cruise.
Maybe it’s because the seas were never as rough as they were on the first day, or maybe it just took that initial getting used to… or maybe it’s because of the ginger pills I took. 😂
“They” say that ginger helps with seasickness so as a sort of prevention tactic I had ginger every day.
Does it work?! Who knows, but I don’t think it can hurt, so might as well take it. 🤪 Ginger is good for you!
You can get a bottle of ginger powder capsules at Walmart for example.
👆 Day 2 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from California to Hawaii)
Day 3: Sea day
👆 Day 3 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from California to Hawaii)
Day 4: Sea day
👆 Day 4 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from California to Hawaii)
Day 5: Sea day
👆 Day 5 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from California to Hawaii)
Day 6: Sea day
Well, if my videos are any indication, finally on day 6 I went around to explore the ship a bit more! 😂😅😂😅
👆 Day 6 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from California to Hawaii)
Day 7: Hawaii! (Honolulu cruise port, Oahu)
If you’re going to Honolulu it means you’re going to the island of Oahu!
Oahu has a bus that goes around the island, so as long as you have time and patience then you have lots of options for things to do during your time in Honolulu cruise port!
There is a bus stop a few minutes walk from the Honolulu cruise port, so it’s easy to catch the bus too. See how to take the Oahu bus.
You will want to have cash in dollar bills for the bus. No change is given.
Or, depending on how many times you plan on taking the bus, you might find it worth it to take the time to go to a store that sells a HOLO card.
Oahu’s most famous are is Waikiki. There are lots of things to do in Waikiki that come with amazing views. It’s an easy bus ride from the Honolulu cruise port to Waikiki.
As I was leaving the cruise port, it looked like there was a shuttle to Waikiki. I think I overheard that there was a cost associated with this, although I am not sure how much it was.
You can also go snorkeling in Waikiki. While it’s generally not considered the best snorkeling on Oahu, I have had fun snorkeling experiences in Waikiki!
If you are in Honolulu on certain evenings, there’s also a free hula show in Waikiki.
I ended up going to the east side of Oahu to go to Lanikai Beach (quick stop), Kailua Beach (quick stop), and the Lanikai Pillbox hike (not quick 😆). I ended up hiking the Kaiwa Ridge Trail one-way instead of making it an out-and-back hike. I went by bus.
The most popular Oahu hike is the Diamond Head hike. You need to make a reservation before you go. When I checked, it was possible to still buy tickets the day before we arrived in Honolulu, but it’s still best to buy in advance to avoid disappointment.
👆 Day 7 of cruise: Hawaii Honolulu cruise port video
Day 8: Hawaii (Honolulu)
It was an overnight in Honolulu because Maui was canceled the next day.
We received the news with a letter to the stateroom the day before. The letter was there when I got back to the ship.
I think I recall that the captain also came on over the speakers at some point when more people would have been back on board. The stated reason was because of the weather forecast, and because it’s a tender port, it would have been difficult to operate the water shuttle safely.
I was looking forward to Maui more than I was Honolulu.
Although I have been to Maui before, and have done plenty of things in West Maui where the Lahaina cruise port is located, it was still a disappointment to have Maui canceled.
On the wake show, they were also talking about how they saw whales from the cruise ship on a relatively recent cruise so I was hoping to be able to do some whale watching from the cruise ship too!
Maui is considered the best island for whale watching in Hawaii, and along the western shores of Maui is where the best whale watching on Maui is. Whale season is generally speaking winter months.
Lahaina is a tender port which means that there is no spot for the cruise ship to dock, and instead the ship will anchor out at sea, and then you’ll take little boats to get to shore.
I thought taking the “water shuttle” (as Princess calls it) to Maui would be a fun thing to do.
You can take a bus from Lahaina to Kaanapali and Kapalua.
In Kapalua, you can do the Kapalua Coastal Trail and go snorkeling at Kapalua Bay.
Kaanapali is one of the main resort areas of Maui, and there is Kaanapali Beach. One of the best snorkeling spots on Maui is here, called Black Rock, located at the north end of Kaanapali Beach.
Since you are basically right there, you must not miss seeing the massive Lahaina banyan tree! It’s said to be the largest banyan tree in Hawaii.
And, as it goes in Hawaii, the weather in Honolulu turned out to be quite fine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was fine on Maui too! (I am pretty sure the original forecast for Honolulu was not good too.)
But well, the captain can only make the decisions based on forecast!
I used the opportunity while near land to use good internet through my t-mobile hotspot. (For general internet browsing, the ship’s internet was just fine, but for editing of posts on my website it was terrible.)
And by the way, if you travel internationally often, t-mobile is GREAT!
International data is included in their normal t-mobile plans which means that you have data while traveling abroad without any extra fees.
I have used it in many countries and it works!
While we are at it, another amazing perk to have when traveling abroad is free ATM fees, right?! (And even in the US!)
I have had a Charles Schwab debit card for years, which gives you free ATM fees anywhere in the world! You just need to have a Charles Schwab checking account. The only “catch” is that you need to open up a brokerage account alongside it, but you don’t need to use it.
Once again I have used it in many countries and it works! (Well, you do get charged for the ATM fees, and then you are reimbursed in full at the end of the month.)
Day 9: Hawaii (Nawiliwili cruise port, Kauai)
👆 Day 9 of cruise: Hawaii Kauai Nawiliwili cruise port video
Now… it’s 9 straight sea days before seeing land again! Next up: Guam!
Day 10: Sea day
👆 Day 10 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 11: Sea day
👆 Day 11 of cruise: sea day video with Zumba on a cruise ship!
There was zumba almost every morning of the cruise. If the weather was bad (which happened a lot early on in the cruise), it was moved indoors, in this case to Club Fusion.
There was tai chi on the schedule every morning too.
Day 12: Sea day
On day 12 on the cruise across the Pacific Ocean, the next overnight is the crossing of the international date line!
What does that mean?!
It means we skipped a day!
👆 Sailing west on day 12 of the cruise… watching the sunset on February 23…
👆 Cross the international dateline overnight! Sailing west across the international date line means you skip a day!
👆 Sailing west on It’s day 13 of the cruise… watching the sunrise on February 25… Where did February 24 go?! 😂
👆 Day 12 of cruise: international date line cruise video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Read about it: Crossing the international date line on a cruise ship (a bucket list item?!)
Day 13: Sea day
👆 Day 13 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 14: Sea day
👆 Day 14 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 15: Sea day
👆 Day 15 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 16: Sea day
👆 Day 16 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 17: Sea day
👆 Day 17 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 18: Sea day
👆 Spot the rainbow on the Pacific Ocean!
👆 Day 18 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Hawaii to Guam)
Day 19: Guam cruise port
And after 9 days at sea… arrival to Guam!
Guam is a US territory.
The license plates on cars in Guam even say “Guam USA.”
Similar to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Guam is perhaps best known to Americans for World War II.
The Guam cruise port was really annoying!
On the ship we were told that because the port is an active U.S. military base, we can’t leave the port on our own.
We were told the only way to leave the port is by taking the (free) shuttle out of the port.
This shuttle would then take us to Micronesia Mall.
From Micronesia Mall, you can take a taxi or walk to the Guam resort area of Tumon Beach (map) or Gun Beach (map).
Based on this information, I had decided to go to Gun Beach that is said to have good snorkeling.
After waiting in line for the shuttle at the Guam cruise port for 40 minutes or something 😒😒😒, I went to go talk to the Guam tourism people who were at the port.
They were super friendly and nice. While we were standing in line, they actually handed out a shell lei to everyone which was really cool! They were also there to hand out maps and such.
I asked the Guam tourism people if I could leave on my own and they said I could. (Really? 😒)
Although they also told me that it’s a long walk to anything.
There were taxis, or you could just walk out.
From my previous research, I saw that there is U.S. national historical park site around 3 miles from the cruise port, so I was originally thinking I’d walk there and that would be my Guam cruise port activity.
That plan got scrapped since it was supposedly not possible to walk from the cruise port, and the Guam cruise port shuttle doesn’t go anywhere near there.
But now again, since we can… well, I decided I would go there.
It was the War of the Pacific National Historical Park. (World War II.)
The park has several different “units” which are spread out around the island, and the one that I was looking into was specifically the Asan Beach Unit.
Once I started walking out from the secure area of the port, there were some people hanging around, and I think someone asked me if I needed help or something. (Since you know, it looked like I didn’t know what I was doing. 🤪)
At that time I asked where to find a taxi.
I started walking that way, but then I decided this guy seemed like he was willing to help, so I went back to him and asked the way to walk out of the port.
He pointed in the direction, and then asked where I wanted to go.
I said I wanted to go to Asan Beach.
And then he offered to drive me there! (!!!) (for free!)
While on the cruise ship, I had also just learned that the native people of Guam were the Chamorro people. (Princess has “destination expert” talks that included the history of Guam.)
I thought maybe he might be Chamorro, so as we were walking to his car, I asked him if he was Chamorro. And… he was! Crazy! (I didn’t think I would actually meet a Chamorro person.)
Once I got to the Asan Beach Unit, I walked around the coastal area a little bit.
Then I found a shaded area to spread the travel-sized pocket blanket that I brought along in my daypack out for a bit of a quiet rest. (Pocket blankets are perfect for grass and sand aka a perfect daypack essential!)
There weren’t that many people around.
At the Asan Beach Unit, there is also the Asan Ridge Trail, so I did that after stretching for a bit.
There were so few people around I actually just decided to leave my backpack near the start of the trail (which is also where the shaded area was) and hope for the best. 🤪
My backpack was there upon my return.
So if you follow the Asan Ridge Trail, you’ll eventually come to a set of stairs that goes down.
That takes you to remnants of a WWII era site. It turns out it was a WWII gun emplacement.
That was basically right along the coast, so I also walked towards the shoreline too.
And then I walked back to where I started the trail.
Then, I walked along some more of the shoreline of Asan Beach that I hadn’t before.
And then, I decided to start walking back to the cruise port.
I also saw that there was a Piti Guns Unit as part of the War of the Pacific National Historical Park, so I was thinking I would check out another park unit. That was a ways away closer to the cruise port.
So I started walking along the main road.
Well, at that point I was even more happy to have gotten a ride to Asan Beach from the cruise port!
It was a main road, and there really wasn’t any safe walking area.
There was a shoulder and that’s it.
The posted speed limit was 35mph, but it sure seemed like cars were going faster.
In an effort to be better seen, I decided to put on my bright neon yellow swimming t-shirt. (I had this in my daypack for snorkeling, so I can be seen while in the water.)
I was quite happy to have my bright yellow shirt on. If anything it made me feel a little better like I could be seen by drivers!
As I was walking back, I passed by the Fish Eye Underwater Observatory $. (map) I had read about how next to this was a good snorkeling spot. (The snorkeling is free.)
The water did look quite inviting so I was tempted to go snorkeling here since I did bring my snorkeling gear. There was also a bathroom facility.
But I was so hungry that I did not feel like putting in the effort to go snorkeling, and I kept walking.
I was on a mission to find the convenience store for food that was up ahead!
I spotted it, and it was on the other side of the busy road which was not easy to cross. (And of course there’s no pedestrian crosswalk.)
As I was waiting for a good time to cross the road, a car came along and slowed down next to me.
It was Ken, who was the one who gave me a ride from the cruise port!!!!
He asked if I wanted a ride back to the cruise port, and I happily said yes!!!
I was so tired, it felt like such a relief to not have to walk all the way back!
So then I just went straight back to the cruise ship!
👆 Day 19 of cruise: Guam cruise port video
Day 20: Sea day
We were supposed to have a day on an island just north of Guam, the island of Saipan.
Saipan is another Pacific island with WWII history.
The captain woke me up by coming on over the speakers in the morning.
The fact that he came into the cabins was not a good sign!
And in fact, he was making the announcement that Saipan was canceled.
He said he attempted to sail the ship into the port, giving measurements of this and that (small area to cruise into and ocean conditions, I do not know the technical terms 🤪), and said he did not think the ocean conditions would allow to safely dock. It sounded like he was saying because the area was not that wide, and because of the possible rough waters, there was little room for error and would have been a risk to stop at Saipan.
So the ship left Saipan without docking.
Now, because I was sleeping when this announcement first came on, it took a minute before I suddenly thought to check how close we were to Saipan.
I then ran out onto my balcony to look behind us and I could see land!!!
That was my only chance to see Saipan!
I quickly got dressed and then ran (er… walked fast) out to the back of the ship so I could catch a glimpse of land as we sailed away from Saipan!
While out on the back of the ship, there was a lady who said that we were practically in the port and she saw the ship was turning around. She thought that the ship was going to attempt to dock elsewhere so she didn’t get a picture. She mentioned regretting not taking a picture!
So it seemed like we got quite close to Saipan.
And indeed, the rest of the day, the waves did seem to be a bit on the rougher side.
👆 Day 20 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Guam to Japan)
Day 21: Sea day
👆 Day 21 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Guam to Japan)
Day 22: Sea day
👆 Day 22 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Guam to Japan)
Day 23: Sea day
👆 Day 23 of cruise: sea day video (sailing from Guam to Japan)
Day 24: Japan! (Kobe cruise port)
Princess provided a free shuttle from the Kobe cruise port into town. The drop-off was near the Chinatown in Kobe.
👆 Day 24 of cruise: Kobe cruise port video
Day 25: Japan (Toba cruise port)
Toba was a tender port which means the cruise ship was anchored off shore, and then we had to take a “water shuttle” to get to land.
Although the wait time for the water shuttle was a little annoying, once you got on the water shuttle, it was fun!
Once on land, the Toba tourism people were there handing out maps and other handy items.
The top thing to do while at the Toba cruise port is to go to Ise City.
You can go by train on your own. Use google maps to guide your way for public transportation in Japan.
I had been to Ise before right after my trip to Kumano Kodo and Nachi Falls so I didn’t go there during my time in Toba cruise port but instead got a train to a former G7 summit location, and island called Kashikojima.
I would not recommend Kashikojima if it’s your first and only time in Japan since there wasn’t exactly anything to do there (there was a small G7 summit museum at the train station), but it was a nice quiet outing for me!
👆 Day 25 of cruise: Toba cruise port video
Read about it: What is a Princess cruise water shuttle like?
Day 26: Final destination in Japan! (Yokohama cruise port!)
Aside from having to wake up really early and wait around in the lounge to be able to get off the ship (which actually wasn’t that long), getting off the cruise ship was easy!
Princess provided a free shuttle to a subway station, and from there you can get a train to Tokyo. Once again, use google maps to guide your way!
So to get to Tokyo, you can take the local trains.
You can also take a long distance bullet train (aka shinkansen) from Yokohama to Kyoto, Osaka, or Hiroshima.
👆 Day 26 of cruise: Yokohama cruise port video
Healthy food on a cruise ship
I will start off by saying I am not a foodie.
In fact, I don’t even really like to eat. I only eat because it’s a necessity. 🤪
I think food is just so much effort. You need to think about what you want, then you need to buy the ingredients, make it, eat it, and then you need to clean up. So much effort. 😂
Seriously…
At home, sometimes I would just rather not eat than prepare food.
Which made being on a cruise ship with free unlimited food amazing!
I didn’t have to think about anything.
I just had to make the effort to leave my room and walk a set of stairs to go get food! (I was located a deck below the deck the buffet was on.)
The cruise includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The buffet is available every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you can have fruits and vegetables with every meal if you want.
You can also eat at a “main dining room” (for free) for every meal.
At the buffet, you get your own food. At the main dining room, the food is served to you.
There’s free tea (hot water and tea bags) all day long (and I think overnight too) in the buffet area.
I don’t drink coffee so I didn’t pay attention, but I think the coffee was there all day long too.
The fruits that were available at every meal at the buffet were pineapple, cantaloupe, green melon, and watermelon.
I think there were almost always apples too. I didn’t eat the apples but I think there were always red apples and green apples. (“They” say green apples are good for seasickness too.)
Occasionally there was kiwi, but that was more of a rare occurrence. If you wanted a banana or orange, you would have to ask for that, but it was available.
I feel like they might have made that on-request so everyone doesn’t grab like 5 bananas and keep it in their room?! I only realized this was an option after I started seeing people here and there with bananas!
For vegetables, there was always a salad bar at lunch and dinner. For dinner, you can expect there to be grilled vegetables too. Sometimes there were steamed vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower.
Sometimes they had a section of chips, salsa, and guacamole which means you can have unlimited avocado (guacamole) too.
There was always a vegetarian option, which tended to be Indian food. This means that occasionally there were lentils and beans available too.
Occasionally there was also “caribbean rice and beans” too which seemed to be rice and black beans.
How I ended up on a one-month transpacific cruise…
At the end of 2022 or beginning of 2023, I got it in my head that I wanted to do a transpacific cruise to the South Pacific.
But this thought of doing a cruise to the South Pacific wasn’t very serious… at first.
I had found in my online searches that Princess had cruises to the South Pacific.
And from then on, in the first days of 2023 I had started obsessively searching cruises on the Princess website.
And that’s how it all began… 😂
And then at some point I had decided that I wasn’t going to do a cruise to the South Pacific in the immediate future, which in this case would have been April.
I decided I would go to Japan. At that point, there was no question I was going to fly. Because that’s what you do when you want to go from the United States to Japan.
But then…
I was still looking through the Princess website (for some reason I really don’t know, maybe I hadn’t totally given up on the idea of a transpacific cruise 😂) and then I saw that there was a TRANSPACIFIC CRUISE TO JAPAN from California!!!
I remember laughing when I first saw it. It seemed like such a ridiculous idea to take a boat to Japan. 😂
But then… it soon became a serious idea. 😂
I contemplated for a few days.
I had never spent $5,000 in a single transaction so I had to convince myself to spend this much money!
For a number of reasons, I had decided I was going to get a balcony cabin. The cost for the cheapest balcony cabin for single occupancy was $4,400. (That was just the base rate that was displayed when you search, so the final cost would have been more.)
The price that was showing up was actually $2,472 for the cheapest inside cabin and $4,346 for the cheapest balcony for solo occupancy.
But well, as I’ve learned in looking for more Princess cruises, I probably won’t end up going for the cheapest cabin 🤪
Because once you start the booking process, you then can choose which part of the ship you want to be on… and then you decide what’s an extra $100 to be on this deck or this side of the ship… and then you’re like what’s an extra $100 to be here… and so it goes… 🤪
And then there are the port fees and taxes. (Which does show up in small print when you’re searching for cruises, but it’s easy to ignore that when you’re trying to convince yourself to book the cruise. 🤪)
And then there’s the add-on cruise insurance. (This is not required, but I did get it.)
So I had convinced myself that I would book the cruise to Japan and spend $5,000 for a balcony for single occupancy that it was showing.
So I went to the princess website ready to book at the base price of $4,400.
And then… OMG there’s a price drop!!!
It was now showing up as a “drop and go” cruise.
The balcony was showing up at $2,648 for single occupancy. (Inside cabin showing up at $2,074 for single occupancy. For reference, the double occupancy was showing up as a cost of $1,449 per person. I don’t have any more double occupancy numbers. Sorry!)
From $4,400 to $2,700?!?!
Well, I had taken a screenshot of the prices, and I went back and see that I have a screenshot from January 11 (more expensive price) and January 12 (cheaper price). For reference, the cruise started on February 12. Coincidence?!
👆 On January 11, the cost of a transpacific cruise for solo travelers was showing as $2,472 for the cheapest inside cabin and $4,336 for the cheapest balcony.
👆 “Drop and go” Princess cruise: A day later on January 12, the cost of a transpacific cruise for solo travelers was showing as $2,074 for the cheapest inside cabin and $2,648 for the cheapest balcony. That’s a $1,700 price drop for a balcony cabin!
👆 “Drop and go” Princess cruise: The cost of a transpacific cruise per person for double occupancy was showing as $1,449 for the cheapest inside cabin. (It was $2,074 for the cheapest inside cabin for solo travelers.)
It was kind of crazy. I could ONLY find the lower price on my phone.
I usually like to make bookings on my computer, but the lower price wasn’t coming up on my computer so I booked on my phone.
I was rather afraid the price was going to disappear since it wasn’t showing up on my computer. It was a little stressful!
But I was able to complete the booking at the lower price! phew!!!
And as it turned out, I tried searching again in the following days and that lower price didn’t return!
So all in all, with port fees, taxes, with the cabin type, deck, and ship position I chose, it was $2,990 for a 25-day transpacific cruise in a balcony cabin as a solo traveler. This works out to $120 per night for a balcony cabin with single occupancy. Good deal if you ask me!
👆 The cost of my transpacific cruise as a solo traveler in a balcony cabin was $2,990 without insurance.
The Princess cruise insurance for a 25-day cruise was $223. This makes the total transpacific cruise cost $3,213 with insurance. This works out to be $130 a night.
So then I was booked on a transpacific cruise to Japan from California!!!
👆 You can skip the option of choosing your cabin and simply go with the lowest price available.
👆 Or… you can choose what you think will be the best cabin location for your cruise!
👆 The price of the cabin will vary depending on which part of the ship you want to be, front (forward), middle (midship), or back (aft).
👆 The price of the cabin will vary depending on which deck you want to be on.
I also later paid for cruise ship internet which was $250 for the whole cruise. That works out to $10 a day. I think it has since gone up to $15 a day.
👆 The cost of internet for the whole cruise for this transpacific cruise was $250. Since it was a 25-day cruise, this means internet was $10 per day. I bought this a few days before the cruise started. You can buy it on the cruise too. It may or may not cost more. (I think I read on forums they say it does, but I am not sure.) You can switch between devices. So I paid for one plan, and I was able to use internet on my phone and computer.
You will also automatically pay $15 a day for tips. It will be charged to your account. So for a 25-day cruise, that’s an extra $375.
I also tried acupuncture sessions for the first time on the cruise ship along with buying Chinese herbs $$$ 😂😂😂😅😅😅 This is part of the Lotus Spa.
I’m not going to count the money I spent at the spa, but with the added costs of insurance, tips, and ship internet, now the total cost of the 25-day transpacific cruise is around $3,850. Now this is just over $150 a night.
And of course this doesn’t include the cost of the flight to get to the start of the cruise, and the accommodation before the cruise as well.
After booking the cruise, I learned that this was the cruise ship that made international headlines in the early days of covid.
It turns out that this cruise ship (the Diamond Princess) was designed to be based in Japan, and it was returning to Japan for the very first time since it left Japan due to covid.
So yes, there are Japan cruises and there are Asia cruises!
It doesn’t seem like Princess will be offering transpacific cruises between the US and Japan anytime in the near future, since the Diamond Princess is now back “home” in Japan.
It seems like it had been doing round-trip cruises from California during the time that cruises weren’t allowed in Japan.
One-way cruises between California and Australia are more common than cruises between California and Japan.
The one-way South Pacific cruises happen during the “changeover” of a season typically in the spring and fall.
Think about when it starts to get cold in the US (fall), and that’s the season that there are one-way cruises from the US to Sydney.
Think about when it starts to get warmer in the US (spring), and that’s the season that there are one-way cruises to the US from Sydney!
California to Japan cruise in August 2024: Carnival cruise from Los Angeles to Japan cruise
This is not the cruise from California to Japan that I did, but I came across this.
There is an 18-day cruise from Los Angeles to Japan in August 2024. It is a cruise from Los Angeles to Alaska to Japan.
When I searched, the cost of the cruise from Los Angeles to Japan was $2,069 per person for double occupancy. This price was found in April 2023 and subject to change! This does not include taxes and fees.
The cost of a solo cruise from Los Angeles was Japan is $4,138 per person.
These prices were found in April 2023 and subject to change! This does not include taxes and fees.
You can search for current price and availability at carnival.com. Go to “view sailings” and then look for “18-Day Transpacific from Los Angeles (Long Beach)” in August 2024.
US to Japan cruise in October 2023: NCL Norwegian cruise from Seattle to Japan cruise
This is also not the cruise from the US to Japan that I did, but I came across this one as I was searching for Norwegian cruises to Alaska!
👆 There is a cruise from the US to Japan in October 2023! It is a cruise from Seattle to Alaska to Japan.
👆 The cost of the cruise from Seattle to Japan is $900 per person for double occupancy. This price was found in March 2023 and subject to change! This does not include taxes and fees.
👆 The cost of a solo cruise from Seattle to Japan is $1,800 per person. This price was found in March 2023 and subject to change! This does not include taxes and fees.
You can search for current price and availability at ncl.com. To filter the search results, for the destination you can select “Asia cruises” or “Alaska cruises,” and for the dates you can do October 2023.
Compared to my cruise, this feels like a short cruise 😂 but it’s still a lot of sea days, and you will be crossing the international date line on a cruise ship!
HAPPY CRUISING ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN!
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