Royal Caribbean Cruise

Matt, based on your presentation you do not need any kind of visa and you will be definitely eligible for 24 or 144 hour visa free transit in Beijing area. It will be 24 hour visa free transit if the entire time of your stay, from your scheduled docking until your scheduled departure is shorter than 24 hours and if it is just a minute longer than 24 hours, you will be covered by 144 hour visa free transit.

Just to reassure... It is important that your cruise does not have any additional docking within mainland China before your docking in Beijing (in reality in Tianjin). Also, since you will arrive to Beijing from Japan, it is important that your flight to Dubai does not have a change in Japan. In other words, it has to be:

Japan - Tianjin/Beijing - Dubai

If this is as presented, you do not need any kind of visa. Also you should use correct terminology because both 24 and 144 hour visa free transit schemes are not visas, but visa free transits, so there is no visa of any kind.