We’re considering a cruise to Japan in 2024. Our previous cruise experience has been with Viking and we’ve enjoyed the “vibe” of the cruises. While we’re in our 30’s, we’d prefer to avoid kids, casinos, large crowds, and the partying atmosphere. We loved the smaller ship of our Viking ocean cruises as well as the emphasis on cultural learning in our excursions.

While we’d love to go on the Viking Japan cruise (Far East Horizons) we just can’t justify shelling out 15k for the trip.

Our options we’re left with are Princess cruises (Diamond Princess) or Norwegian cruises on the Norwegian Sun. Both appear to be slightly dated ships but otherwise relatively in line with what we’re looking for.

Does anyone have any insight with these cruises/ships that they can share? Is there a better one for what we’re looking for? I’ve looked at reviews online but they largely seem to indicate that both ships are close to what we’re looking for, with neither coming out “ahead” in our assessments. Thank you in advance!