Summary:
The ship is okay - we had a brilliant holiday, the ship was not an important factor in our decision, it was determined by the itinerary, we went to Japan and Russia (Japanese maritime law states that only vessels which are registered in Japan can sail around Japan without spending time 'abroad'. We had a day in Vladivostok which was enjoyable. The main reason for taking this cruise was the fact that - apart from the Russian trip - we had the maximum time in Japan to enjoy the cherry blossom. We loved every minute of the holiday, we had excellent guides, the excursions were great and we came back with wonderful memories. What we liked about the ship: our cabin was well appointed, we had a balcony cabin but if you wantred to save money, you could have done without the balcony. We spent so much time off the ship, we did not make good use of the balcony. The Lincoln Center classical music group was outstanding, so was the BBKings Blues band, we were looking forward to these performances every day, the stuff that happened on the main stage was not to our taste, we thought it was awful. The food caters very much to American travellers, there is a lot of stuff that I would describe as: death on a plate, I had a lot of food ashore, the fish ashore was wonderful and I would have preferred some healthy options like poached fish. The staff were friendly and efficient, no complaints. The ship looks a bit dated in places, we liked the modern reception area here. The gym is fine. There is nothing remarkable about the ship, I can't think of any 'wow' factors - but as I said, we were not that worried about the ship, we went to see the cherry blossom.