Gilded Pagoda Circuit – Busan, Kyoto & Hakodate

About this cruise

This is the kind of cruise where you actually have time to go back to a port highlight you missed the first time. 21 nights from Yokohama on April 8, 2027, visiting Toba-Mie, Nagasaki and Busan, with additional stops along the Japan, Korea, China & Taiwan. The itinerary clusters several port calls together. Fast-paced for a few days, then the sea days hit and you can catch your breath. Tokyo's neon at one port, Kyoto's temples at the next. You cover centuries in a few days. You get around 10 hours in each port, which is enough for an excursion, lunch, and some wandering around on your own. When you're not ashore, You won't go hungry on Diamond Princess. 7 restaurants come with the fare, plus 5 more when you feel like treating yourself. Longer sailings have a different energy. People relax into it, stop rushing, and start actually talking to each other. An April departure catches that sweet window of warm-enough weather before the summer rush. Hard to ask for much more than that, honestly.