Vacation dilemma (non Disney)

[Neoshoegal]

Back in June last year we booked a vacation for April 2009. I know this is early but with my job it pays to sort out vacations as soon as possible.
We booked 2 cruises, back to back, a 6 night one and a 5 night one, going from Shanghai doing a few places around there and eventually ending in Tokyo. We received a letter yesterday to say that the first cruise has been chartered so we can no longer go on it. We are now wondering what to do and need to make a decision asap.

Option 1:
Keep the 2nd 5 night cruise leaving from Shanghai to Tokyo and spend some extra time in Japan. Staying the extra time will probably be quite expensive as Japan as is so expensive driving up the cost of the holiday. Also, we’d probably always be disappointed that we couldn’t do the back to back cruise. On the other hand, we would both love to visit Japan and I’ve been taking Japanese language classes for over a year now (starting doing this before we even considered a trip over there).

Option 2:
Book a totally different cruise (this one). 14 nights going around South America. Advantages: looks amazing, great itinerary. Disadvantages: it’s not what we originally wanted. Flight prices look fairly similar to the Shanghai/Tokyo ones so total cost seems to be in the same area.

Option 3:
We have some friends who have cruised with before who are going on a cruise at that time to Mexico (this one). We really had a great time with them so it would be nice to sail with them again. The other advantage is that we could combine that cruise with a stay at a ranch we stayed at before as we’d love to go back there. And all in all it would probably turn a fair bit cheaper. However, the itinerary on that cruise is somewhat lacking, it just seems to go the typical touristy places.

So it’s a choice of places versus people.
Which would you choose out of those 3?

 

[CustardTart]

Probably switch to the South American cruise - it sounds awesome and you'd be seeing a whole different area of the world - and save the Japan/ Far East cruising experience for when you can do exactly what you want...

My DH would love that South American cruise so I'm going to bookmark that page...

 

[Minniespal]

My first choice would be Option 2 closely followed by Option 1. The South American one looks great. Option 1 although slightly more expensive would be offset by the fact that you know the language and I'm presuming the culture.

All 3 options look amazing and I'm sure you will have a brillant time and whatever one you eventually decide upon.

 

[gilld]

The S.American cruise....I have visited some of those places on a cruise myself, and they are great.

 

[Chilly]

I'd go for option 2. Save option 1 for when you can do what you really want or it'll be a waste of money and by then you'll be even better at Japanese.

Also i'd only go on holiday with friends if it is something both sets really want to do or else you could put a strain on your friendship if it doesn't all go to plan.