Pre-Cruise: We spent 3 nights in Shanghai at Les Suites Orient on the Bund. Great hotel, and amazing views of the Bund from the 20th floor. If you stay there, I recommend a high-floor, Bund view Deluxe room. Shanghai is an amazing city. Very clean. Super modern. No horns honking ($30 fine). Chinese food and drink surprisingly poor with some exceptions, but we had a fantastic time. Did some private tours that really made the experience enjoyable.
Transportation: I recommend that you get around by taxi. We took a taxi to the port and it was maybe $25-$30 USD and a similar price from the port back to the airport. You'll probably want to have instructions in Chinese, as most drivers don't speak/read English, but this was convenient and the price was quite fair for the distances involved.
Embarkation: Kind of a disaster, really. No porter (we don't travel light), very hot, sweated like crazy, which is not the way I want to start my cruise. Huge lines and the staff outside of the port spoke very little English. They initially directed me to the "foreign passengers" line, which was so long and moved so slowly. Then I saw a line for suites and Jr. suites, so they directed me there, but sent me to the Golden suites line, then shuffled me around some more. A slow, long, hot, uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. Highly disorganized and needs substantial improvement.
Good sized, good layout. Very clean. 2nd bathroom was nice but took up some of the storage space. In-room amenities lacking (green tea bags only).
Wonderful time and amazing city. We did 2 private tours. One (Water Town) kind of boring. Shanghai full day city tour was great!
Osaka is great. Problem is, the ship gets in pretty late and by the time you go through immigration, daylight will be getting close to the end.
Hint: Do a ship's tour at your first Japanese port, so you clear immigration quickly and early. After you go through it the first time, the next Japanese stops go much faster. Don't forget to bring a photo copy of your passport. You'll need it!