u/Lacielady

My mom booked herself and my grandma on a 2027 August-September cruise to Japan. She said I could join her reservation for $1000 or less but after calling, she was told the only way to add me without increasing their costs by quite a bit would be to wait for the room assignment and join the reservation then if they get a room with an additional bed. The agent made a note that they wanted a room that would fit 3 but obviously thats not a guarantee.

So not starting off great. I guess biggest oncerns is:

-This relies on them getting a room with 3 beds and getting the assignments early enough that I can be added to the reservation. Is that realistic to hope for?

My other 2 concerns are:

-Would booking close to sailing raise the cost by a lot? I have no idea where she got $800-1000 from, so I dont even know if that was realistic in the first place. I think she was going off the cost per person of a reservation for 4 people. I dont know if costs typically go up a lot closer to the sail date either. So im worried that even if I save the money to go just in case, itll be out of my price range (I know I have a year to save, but Im also saving for a friends wedding and moving, plus if I went id need plane ticket money saved so its already a little tight). Booking an international flight last minute apparently wouldnt be an issue because the pricing in my area to Tokyo seems to be extremely consistent, even if I flew out tomorrow.

-Are the ports in Japan easy to visit without an excursion booked or can you typically book third party excursions pretty late? I had been looking at viator. I assume excursions would be booked through the cruise but I wanted to visit shrines in Toba, see the castle in Kochi, or take a tour of Sakurajima while stopped in Kigoshima. Im open to other things too, those were just my top options. I know Japan's public transit is better than the US but im not sure how accessible these are to people only taking public transportation or how much the language barrier would set me back.

Im okay with being told im SOL. I dont want to get my hopes up but I also dont want to miss out if im being pessimistic and this is all actually very possible. I know thats a lotta words, so thank you to anyone who took the time to read them

Are there any of the places here that offer private rooms let you use youtube for karaoke? Im taking out my husband and one of our friends for a joint birthday outing but a lot of the songs they like arent available at most karaoke places. Just wanna make sure they have the best time and can hopefully sing some songs they usually cant :)