The Good:
The itinerary for this cruise was very interesting and took us to some locations not on the usual tour routes for Japan and Taiwan. Even though I had to pay a 100% supplement as a solo cruiser, the price was still fairly good. And since the beginning and ending ports were the same (Kobe), it was easier to get a well-priced round trip ticket to Kansai.
The cabins on this ship are not large but I found the storage was quite good. The television had an on-demand system which is wonderful as you no longer had to guess when a movie or ship’s video would be shown. There were also some “live” channels as well. It was nice to have MSNBC and BBC News to counter the idiotic Fox News channel. My cabin attendant, Lancy, was absolutely wonderful.
Small cabin but storage is quite good. It would have been rather snug though if I had been sharing with another passenger. The cabin attendant had added a pillow-top to the bed so it was wonderfully comfortable. Although the website floor plan shows an armchair in the interior cabins, this is not correct. The only chair is the desk chair. The location of this cabin is very quiet which is nice. It's just a short walk to the aft elevators and the laundry room. However, it does seem a bit of a hike to anything located in the forward part of the ship.
This is a great shopping town. There is a monorail, the Port Liner, that runs from the cruise terminal to the JR train station from where you can get a train or bus to many nearby areas. You can also pick-up the City Loop tourist bus there. The City Museum was especially good if you are interested in history.