[Almost as I would disembark in Singapore and not Yokohama]
It is a Japan-based NGO that organises round-the-world voyages. Unlike other cruise ships, there is no casino or scheduled artiste performances/entertainment but instead guests/passengers are invited to give talks and performances. The boat was built in 1995, and was retrofitted in 2019 to replace the old Ocean Dream.
There are two wifi plans available: (i) 2100 yen for 100 minutes, (ii) 20000 yen for 1000 minutes. [.... ouch... not cheap... 😑]
There is daily housekeeping for the cabin, laundry services at 800yen for a bag, self-serviced laundry and dryer room, a convenience store (I called it the shopping centre), hair salon (reservation preferable), a smallish gym, a spa and a clinic (with x-ray facility).
The grill station offers western fare such as hamburgers, fried chicken, hot dogs or fried fish, etc for lunch. [One selection per day only... let it be fried chicken please 😋]
[Generally healthy meals ...hmmm is it good or bad for me?! 😶]
Snack/Pizza/Ice Cream Kiosk
Deck 5 - International Corner : serving cookies and sandwiches
Deck 8 - Share (10am - 4pm) : Pizza (two types to choose from)
Deck 12 - Vanilla Ice Cream (2pm -4pm)
Payable Food and Beverages
Kai Japanese Restaurant, deck 7 (Lunch and Dinner) - Sushi and other selections
Ikazaya , deck 14 (evening) - grilled food and a selection of other japanese food
Beverages (hot/cold, including alcohol) are sold in all lounges, restaurants and at Deck 14.
EVENTS/ACTIVITIES
There are many events and activities organised by both the Peace boat crew themselves as well as the passengers.
A daily Onboard Newspaper for the next day would be delivered to the cabin after 7pm. Through it, the ship crew disseminiate administrative information including details about the various activities' venue, hours and organisers held the next day.
Peace boat Events/activities
The ship organises both paid and free classes. The paid classes include painting, languages (GET), dancing, and more. There are also regular free language classes (basic Japanese, Chinese and Korean), exercise classes (Taichi, Salsa, yoga, dance) and informational sessions ('ABC of Port-Call', current affairs, etc) by the staff, invited guests or passengers.
The majority of the events and classes are in Japanese. For talks, there are English -> Japanese, Chinese or Japanese -> English, Chinese transltions.
The boat also organised events such as Christmas and New Year's celebrations, a Sports Day, star-gazing evenings and Movies under the stars (in addition to regularly scheduled screenings of movies in the theatre).
Self-Organised Events (SOE)
Passengers are encouraged to organise events. Probably due to the diverse experiences, expertise and interests of the passengers and the ample time on board, there were many interesting and unique SOE classes and talks being organised all the time 😍😊👏👏.
The events ranged from talks, language lessons, singing, exercise, dance lessons, poetry reading sessions, and more.
.... I slept rather soundly on my first night 💤... and second night too 💤...and...
[I would like to attribute it to my bolster and not the rocking of the boat?!]
After a few days of checking out the different activities, and as I familarised myself to the environment, I established a simple routine of alternating between meal times and attending classes/events and other free time activities [with less cabin time and more 'outdoor' time]. Still, as many events were conducted in Japanese => inaccessible to me.
Events that I usually attend
. Talks (Travel, health, interesting topics type)
. Zumba classes by Ai-Chan and Midori-chan [My favourite 😍💖]
. Wooden puzzles - Brain Training by Uncle Puzzle
. Documentary screenings / Onboard movies/concerts
. Taichi by Peaceboat/SOE - DaveHK, morning Salsa
. Adhoc events that caught my attention
My Free time activities
. Catch the sunrise and sunset (daily)
. Go 'shopping centre' (daily)
. Take a photo of the sailing information on the notice board (daily)
. Walking round the deck and within the boat [3 rounds on deck 7 = 1 mile]
. Self-learning/with Riko of simple Japanese
. Sitting at the Deck 8 free space to observe/check out the various ongoing activities
. Tea/coffee/water, Pizza/cookies/cakes breaks
. Cabin for toilet breaks, Netflix, surfing the internet, doing laundry and just lazing around
My usual daily routine
Morning
Light Breakfast -> Sunrise -> 7am - 7:30am Taichi (by Amama "Iris & Kanno" -> 7:50am - 8:20am "Wake and Shake: Salsa for a Healthy morning "Tamura Muwako"-> breakfast.
In between Lunch and Dinner
At about 11am and 5pm everyday, it'd be time to check the meal selections at both Deck 14 and the Western/Japanese restaurant. Unless the restaurant has good options, the default lunch and dinner venue is the buffet on Deck 14.
[It can be troublesome to change to proper attire (no sandals / shorts) - 😆]
After lunch and a short walk around the boat, I would usually prefer go back to my cabin to relax - make a cup of coffee, watch drama or staring into the sea and wave. If not, weaving events and tea-break into the afternoon, before long, it's time for dinner.
After Dinner
I would take a walk around the boat after dinner, before going back to the cabin sometime after 7pm so that I could pick up the daily newspaper. If there's no movies scheduled that day (especially if there's no movie under the stars planned), I would usually shower (and maybe do some laundry too), log onto internet for a short while (it's expensive!), watch some dramas I downloaded to my iPad, take in the view of the sea from the balcony, and then go to sleep.
[On occasion when the sun sets after 8pm, I would go to Deck 14 for sunset and a bowl of noodles 😬]
The food
Both restaurants and the buffet deck serve relatively healthy and good food.
I preferred Deck 14's buffet easy DIY process:
(1) a smiling staff reminding me to wash your hand
(2) take a tray and load it with a plate and utensils
(3) Load the plate with food as I walked through the buffet table
(4) get a drink from the drink station
(5) Find a table and start the meal.
[Meal should be the usual - it's lunch time, it's dinner time. But, but... ]
There's always a bit of anticipation of what's available. There would be dishes that evoked a smile/'Wow', but some of course, would made me think 'hmmm, this again?!'
Thus, there were moments of 'GOOD' or 'BAD' whenever I walked through the buffet selection 😊😁😋
The GOOD
It's GOOD when there's chicken rice, baked salmon, fried chicken, rendang and grilled/fried chicken. The daily grill station's western fast food is usually tasty and I like it when the noodle option is soba.
[one-time Japanese's New Year lunch was delicious but only once 😮]
The pizza, cookies and sandwiches are tasty too, and were especially nice for afternoon tea breaks.
The BAD
After a number of days of having buffet, there would sometimes felt like most of the dishes seemed combined into a 'one-pot-dish' of similar-tasting types of 'stir-fried', 'simmered', 'stirred-fried-with-bacon/tofu' , 'grilled' or 'roasted' vegetables and meat, and equally similar-tasting different-labelled curry 😕.
[Salad 🌿 is not considered a meal for me. I am not a rabbit 🐇or goat 🐐... 😐]
The sailing
The longest stretch of sailing is across the Pacific Ocean, and happened at the beginning of the cruise. 😯
Even with attending events and free-time activities, there was more than ample time to look out at the ocean stretching (really) in all directions, and seeing the sea meet with the sky across the horizon.
[There was only a sighting of a cargo ship and an island near Tahiti in the 29 days of sailing]
At times, the sea is so blue and inviting, and then also grey and forlorn. It could be so calm sometimes that I forgot that I was sailing, while sometimes the waves got choppier, causing the ship to rock and sway. [Glad that I did not have seasickness 😊]
The cloud formations were amazing to observe too - thick and dark with rain at times, and fluffy-white like cotton candy on sunny days.
On the south pacific stretch, the night skies were completely clear and filled with so many stars that it truly makes you wonder what other life there is out in the universe.
At times, I lost track of the days of the week when the boat sailed multiple days without stop. I created a sailing calendar to mark the current day, past days (a triangle) and data on number of days left of sailing, etc. 😜
HIGHLIGHTS
Sunrise/sunset
I was always impressed with the view of the sunrise / sunset far in the horizon.
It makes one wonder how the sun appears at the 'other side' where it had sunk into.
I am glad that I kept to my routine of waking up (at times very early) in the morning, with anticipation and strolling purposefully to the deck to wait and watch the sunrise. 😍
Arriving and departing from the ports of call
Arriving - There's always anticipation and excitement as the boat draws near to a port.
Departing - Although it may signal another long stretch of sailing, it also meant moving forth to the next port and sailing closer to the final destination.
As the land gradually retreated from sight, it meant there was another destination to look forward to. 🌐
Changing of the time zone and the international dateline
The Passengers
There are about 1700+ passengers. The majority are Japanese (~1100). [Heresay, unofficial - 60+% are solo travellers]. The other 500+ passengers are mainly from [unofficial, heard over coffee] Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Korean. There are a few (not more than 10?) from Thailand, Canada, US and France. Most were retirees(?).
At the beginning few weeks of sailing, it was quite common for passengers to share tables and to strike a conversation.
I was a bit surprised that a fair number of solo passengers were sharing cabins. I guess friendship can be formed over similar interests and lifestyles but there were also stories of quarrels and unhappiness. There was one passenger who disembarked and ended the cruise in Hawaii (reason unknown?).
[Hearsay, there's also a case of a fist fight (probably uni-directional) in a cabin shared between two guys]
I asked a few of the passengers whom I chatted with about their reasons for embarking on this trip. Many cited the attraction of travelling to South America and Africa. Other than travelling, a few cited being bored or 'to reset life' after retirement. There were also a few that took the opportunity to travel to Antarctica too. From some, I learned to my amazement that they were 'repeaters' - having been on the boat's voyage before. One of them was on her eighth trip!
Medical attention (Code Alpha)
Medical emergencies (Code Alpha) were announced several times. There were a few cases where the passengers needed to disembark for further medical attention at the port of calls.
A surprising find
One day, I checked the Health app and was astonished that I climbed more than 30 storeys of stairs daily! [Not bad at all 😍😊 ]
END of PACIFIC OCEAN CROSSING
On 18 January, after 37 days, the boat arrived at Callao, Peru.
Yokohama - Hilo : 9 days
Honolulu - Tahiti : 6 days
Tahiti - Easter Island : 7 days
Easter Island - Callao(Peru) - 6 days
