Although I was looking forward to the cruise in Japan, it lacked the sparkle that makes a cruise memorable. There was a lingering odor of sewerage at least on deck 10 the odd number cabins. They appeared to be working on the problem, at on point thy had a fan or dehumidifier going . It was acknowledged by crew that something was up but no detail provided.
The shore excursions were lacking, on our last Princess cruise, they split the full bus into groups for the tours . The guides either met up at the destination or were on the bus. But in Japan there is one guide for the entire bus with no microphone ... 90% of us could not hear. So disappointing. Often we traveled far to a site, and them were told we had 20 - minutes as 'we were running behind.'. mostly because of bathroom breaks.. the lines were long and we all waited.
Although there were often long lines to re board the boas at the end of the trips. (unloading multiple bus at the same time creates lines) the staff would decide to close on line - and ask people on line to move to the other line - unbelievable with hours left to board, they were closing the line and asking people ALREADY on line to move to a longer line. If they had to close the line. at least close behind those already on line. We refused once to move. all 5 of us... thus they pushed us as they started to close the line as were were boarding .