Buzz’s comments on his cruise from
San Diego on the Crystal Symphony January - February 2020
Before the cruise, I spent one night in San Diego. Since I had only been to San Diego on
business before, this gave me an opportunity to explore the Little Italy, the
harbor area and the Gaslight area.
The cruise was from San Diego to Guam stopping at three Hawaiian
Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands and Pohnpei, FSM before my departure in
Guam. The most of the lectures were
excellent on the several sea days. After I left the ship at Guam, I flew to
Tokyo for four nights.
Food onboard was very good; the same as my last Crystal
voyage. I continued to like the
specialty restaurants. I enjoyed the
Vintage Room for the second time and it was an amazing experience. For the menu and a
description of the wines click here.
Crystal continues to be my favorite high-end cruise line because:
Great lectures
Dining variety
every night
Multiple
entertainment options
Reasonable single
supplements if booked early
In Tokyo, I
stayed at the Akasaka Excel Hotel Tokyu
hotel. It had an excellent location
surrounded by many restaurants of all price ranges. It was directly across the street from a
subway stop and was one of the stops for the airport limousine bus. The room was small and the space for hangers
was only 12 inches, but it was clean comfortable and safe so I would stay there
again. I booked there tours and rated
them all excellent. After my first tour,
I learned how to effectively use both the Tokyo subway
and the JR above ground railway.
Tokyo
Private Custom Walking Tour with local friendly guide – Before booking this private tour was customized to my desires. My guide was Yuki Deleon
who was very knowledgeable in the cultural, historic and horticultural items on
the tour and explained how all of those aspects interrelated.She
showed me Hamarikyu Garden, Ryogoku
area/Sumo Museum, Statue of Shogun Ieyasu, Eko-In Buddhist Temple (former site for the Sumo Stadium),
lunch at Gonpachi, for hand-roll (Temaki)
Sushi, Meiji Shrine, established 1920, Shinjuku,Toyoiwa
Inari established in 1828, God of good business, for the special bean throwing
ceremony. She also walked we me
around the restaurants near my hotel and made suggestion of foods to try.
Experience
Old and Nostalgic Tokyo: Yanaka Walking Tour –
This tour was booked as a small group tour but since I was the only one to book
it, it was a private tour with the itinerary slightly adjusted to my
desires. My guide was Yumi who built on what I had learned the day before. This tour mostly focused on the many
important Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the Yanaka
area, passing by many others. We also
walked through a very nice neighborhood and down a very interesting shopping
street on the way back to the starting point.
Asakusa Cultural & Street-Food
Walking Tour- This tour
was booked as a small group tour but since I was the only one to book it, it
was a private tour with the itinerary slightly adjusted to my desires. The tour included a rickshaw ride, some tasty
treats and lunch (I tried Okonomiyaki that I really enjoyed). We met at the Kaminarimon
gate and explored the shops leading up to Sensō-ji,
an impressive Buddhist temple with an adjoining Shinto shrine then explored the
surrounding neighborhood. We finished
the trip by going to the observation deck of the tourist information center
across from the Kaminarimon gate.
We had many sea days so the
lectures and entertainers were a very important part of making this a great
cruise. For a listing of
the Itinerary, Staff, Entertainment, Lectures and programs click here.
More information on Crystal Cruises click
here.
To return to my non-SCUBA
Vacations page click here