Read on to see how we handled it.

Day 15 – Hakodate, Japan

We arrived alongside at 7AM and it looked as if we were a long way from downtown. Shuttles had been arranged and were first come, first serve until 8AM, after which time you would need a ticket. Let’s face it, most people on vacation want to sleep in. However….at 7:15AM the Captain came on the loudspeaker and dropped a bombshell. 

Super cyclone Halong, off the coast of Japan, was tracking towards Tokyo. Its projected path would be right along the ship’s route to get to Yokohama. The Ship’s Officers, in consultation with Royal Caribbean’s (RCL) head office, made the decision to extend the cruise by two days. This would let the storm pass and make it safer for the ship. There is a full write up at Cruise Hive

https://www.cruisehive.com/typhoon-delays-royal-caribbean-ships-return-for-two-days/188231

Arriving in Yokohama on Saturday vs Thursday

These two sea days would bring the ship into Yokohama on Saturday, October 11^th, vs the planned arrival of Thursday October 9^th.  RCL would cover some change fees for flights and offered to extend beverage packages for a price (no freebies here!). Unfortunately, we had tickets for Expo 2025 in Osaka on Friday October 10^th. The tickets are not changeable. Our travel from Yokohama to Osaka for the 9^th and additional tickets for Osaka to Kagoshima on Kyushu Island on the 11th were also non-refundable. 

We considered what to do and decided to leave the ship in Hakodate. We made a hotel reservation for one night in Hakodate, booked Shinkansen tickets to Yokohama for the next day and found a hotel for one night in Yokohama. Had it not been for Expo, we likely would have opted to stay on the ship. There were many people who had flights home the day we were scheduled to arrive as well as other plans. In all, around 500 people, out of 3,900, departed early. 

Of course, most passengers stayed on including 100’s who were doing a back-to-back cruises ending in Singapore. That next cruise will now be two days shorter as the next cruise will obviously not start until this cruise arrives. It must be a huge logistical challenge for the ship. We had noted they were running low on fresh fruit and veggies as the cruise carried on. Portions were getting smaller every day – with some strange substitutions for ingredients they’d run out of. 

Making our Escape from the Ship

Leaving the ship was easy, although time consuming. Our hotel, the Toyku-Stay Hakodate, had an onsen and was well located. The bed was comfortable and although the room was small, it was functional. We wandered around town for a few hours in the afternoon once all the cruise ship passengers had left and it was very peaceful. Dinner was a quiet meal followed by the onsen which was spectacular.

It was on the 18^th floor and there was an open-air portion, providing a sweeping view of the ocean complete with a full moon shining down. It was a great way to relax before heading to bed. 

Day 1 of Interruption or Day one of our land based tour?

Once we got up and updated our families on the changes, we headed over to the train station to catch the train to Yokohama. The first part was on a local train and then a transfer to Shin-Hakodate, where the Shinkansen (bullet train) left from. Being Japan, we expected all the trains to be on time, but one was about five minutes late – shocking. It also meant we needed to move quickly, not run but not dawdle at the next station, which was Omiya, to catch our third of four trains.

Checking into the Hyatt

We arrived at our hotel at 4:30PM, it had been a seven hour day, but it did not seem as long as flying would have been. Our hotel tonight was the Hyatt in Yokohama, there was a shortage of hotel rooms in Yokohama as up to 4,000 cruise passengers for the next cruise needed extra rooms on short notice! We were very glad to come to this brand tonight, a large room with very comfortable beds.

The hotel is only 200 metres from the water, so a sunset stroll helped us shake off the time spent sitting on the train. The sky was a lovely colour, there were very few clouds and the water was calm. Unless I had seen a weather map, I would not have believed there was a typhoon out there.

Having Local Knowledge is Helpful

There is no way we would have tried to pull this off if we had not been to Japan before. Understanding the trains, the culture et al was the key to us having the confidence to leave our cruise ship on our own and make this work. The bulk of the credit for making it work is my bride of almost 38 years. She pulled pretty much everything together and did a great job. I had a key role too, it all went on my credit card!

Thanks for reading, feel free to share any trip interruption you may have had. We’d love to hear about what happened and how you got around it. 

Remember, attitude is the difference between adventure and ordeal!

Cam and Meg