cowgrrl

I did this a few years ago for the same cruise & I'm a plus size gal. Wore my boots & a pair of jeans on the plane along with my coat. I'm a dresses girl but I did wear some leggings with long tunic tops. I brought sample sizes of makeup that I could toss after I was finished with it.

It can be done & honestly its my preferred method of travel.

I've been to Busan. We did the tour with the temple on the coast. Its a beautiful temple but there are a lot of stairs.

I wish we had taken the 'Busan on your own' option and just gone to the last stop on the tour which was an area with street vendors and unique shops.

We were on a cruise around Japan this summer. They typically do the trivia at different times in different languages. AFA the movies, they were subtitled except for the animated ones that were dubbed and shown at different times. Shows either had a translator on hand or there were two showtimes.

How was embarkation? Did they actually enforce staggered boarding times?

We were traveling with some Elite members so we had no problems.

I may be doing a one week out of Singapore on her next February.

 

Was there trivia? :)

Yes. Usually 2 sessions; one in English & one in Japanese.

Thank you so much for the information posted. I'm looking forward to my cruise next June but I have 4 others first, all on Princess. I was apprehensive about the language barrier but not any more.

We didn't find the language barrier to be a problem at all. The one issue we had I realized later was due to my misnaming of something. I was asking for the Champagne Afternoon Tea & once they put it in the Patter it was called English Afternoon Tea.

Thank you so much for posting! OK if I reference this post in our Roll Call? It has been really slow, but yours is the best post I have seen about the Diamond. Where did you stay before the cruise? Any tips for Yokohama?

Referencing is fine. Thanks for asking.

Our cruise left from Kobe so we flew in & went straight to port. Afterwards we did stay in Tokyo for a few days. We rented an apartment and the guy we rented from has a shuttle option we took advantage of.

We really didn't do much in Yokohama except get on the bus & drive into Tokyo for a shore excursion. This was 2 cruises back to back & the second cruise round tripped from Tokyo so we picked up a lot of people there.

Thank you for offering your experiences.

 

In the staterooms, were the new type of flat screen/entertainment on demand TV's fitted, or were these still the old set time programming systems?

 

Did you see a way to plug an auxiliary/HDMI source into the TV, and select it?

 

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Craig :)

We had a flat screen. We were in a balcony on the Aloha deck.

IDK about the HDMI source. I'll ask my husband. He tends to notice those things.

Thanks for posting. We are on the grand Japanese trip next July. I just was wondering what they offered cultural wise onboard ship. Did they talk about the ports and did they have origami or other things Japanese to immerse yourself in their culture.

I don't remember port talks but they did have videos in the room. They had a Japanese Tea Experience (that unfortunately we didn't get registered for in time) and traditional performers throughout the cruise.

We are sailing on a 16 day itinerary in August. Do you have opportunity to interact with the Japanese passengers? I enjoy cultural experiences, and I am looking forward to this.

How was formal night?

What was your favorite excursion? Any other your would recommend? We do Princess excursions, too.

Weather? Husband is worried about the summer heat.

-We had a few opportunities to interact with the Japanese passengers but we found many didn't speak English & we speak little to no Japanese so that made it a bit difficult. Everyone was very polite though, despite the language barriers.

-Formal night was AMAZING!! There were some women in kimono but even if they were not, everyone we saw BROUGHT IT!! Gorgeous dresses & a good number of the men in tuxes. It was the most formal Formal Night I've attended.

-Favorite was probably Takatomi Island (in Ishigaki), Highlights of Taiwan or the Okinawa one that had you going to a distillery (can't remember the name) Least favorite was probably Best of Busan.

-It was VERY humid. I'm from TX and I'm use to heat but the humidity was terrible. Definitely bring your own water bottle and coins for vending machines (Pocari Sweat & Aquarius are both sports drinks).

ETA: Movies are in English and subtitled except for a few. I know Finding Dory was dubbed and there were a few more than were dubbed but if they were they did an English showing later.

Definitely English language programming & a lot of it. I don't remember if CNN was specifically on there but I know BBC was as I watched it a few times.

How does the dining room work? I don't think princess is going to have too many japanese speaking wait staff?

Anytime Dining is not available. You have a set time and I assume they assign staff based on who is needed for Japanese-speaking and English speaking.

Our waiter apparently spoke both English and Japanese (& maybe other languages, IDK) as there were Japanese at tables around us & he spoke to them fluently.

Were announcements done in both English and Japanese?

Were the menu's mostly Asian foods?

Were the Princess shore excursions in English or both languages?

Were your table mates English speaking?

Were the signs (like at the International cafe) in both languages?

 

I'm booked on the June 8 circle Japan cruise and am wondering if I'll feel like an outsider based on the percentage of English speaking passengers you stated.

-Announcements in both languages, typically English first.

-Asian foods on the 'Anytime' side but the changing menu was 75% typical Princess dinner items. The Horizon Court skewed a bit Asian as well but there was still plenty. Room service was all American except for 2-3 items.

-Shore excursions in English or Japanese. You choose which language when you book.

-We were a large group so all tablemates were English speaking.

-Signs in both languages. In the elevator landings & elevators signs in both languages. Patters printed in Japanese or English.

We definitely felt in the minority but didn't feel like outsiders. We met other English speakers on the shore excursions and as we were a large group, we tended to just hang with each other.

Great, we board her on Oct 1 and will be on for about 40 days. Lots of questions (we don't gamble and do drink, but not more than a drink or two a day), starting with 1. the general condition of the ship. Your impressions please. 2. Dining, fixed seating only, so which dining room were the US and Aussie people in, and how was the menu and service, which I know is highly subjective. 3. Who was the Captain, CD and Executive Chef? 4. Entertainment, mostly in Japanese probably? or offered in several languages? 4. Port calls and immigration getting on and off the ship for tours, et al, especially if you had a stop in Busan, South Korea, smooth, time consuming, etc.? 5. Did you ever have to surrender your passport for a port call? 6. How were the Princess excursions - quality, guides, any highly recommended or any to really skip because they just were not worth it? 7. Age of passengers? 8. General comments and things to know, including did they actually enforce the boarding times?

Thanks so much for offering to provide info, it has been in short supply and any tidbit will be greatly appreciated.

1. Felt the condition of the ship was fine. It was in dry dock a few months ago & I know at the least they replaced the carpet in the Theater. They also apparently varnished our railing one day in port.

2. Dining: We had early dining (5:30). There were still a mix of Japanese & 'others' in the dining room. The tables surrounding ours were Japanese speaking. Our waiter apparently spoke both (he was from the Philippines). We found the service fine. Everything came quickly & the quality was very good.

3. I don't specifically remember the Captain, CD & Executive Chef. This was technically 2 cruises back to back and we switched CDs mid-cruise from an English gentleman to an American woman. Both were fine although I personally preferred the English Gentleman a bit more. If I find our Patters in our luggage (still unpacking) I'll post them.

4A. Entertainment. Normally in both Japanese and English. Occasionally one time in Japanese & one time in English or some performers did their own translations. For the Princess shows they were only in English but any announcements afterwards were made in both English and Japanese. Most everything was translated.

4B. Ports. In general no trouble. Ishigaki is a tender which I highly dislike due to issues with motion sickness but it couldn't be helped. There were times we had to go through immigration before we left port but it was pretty easy. You just went down to Club Fusion with your passport and room card and it was simple. The biggest problem was getting people to actually go down there. They normally had to make an announcement for a few people specifically to come to the Club.

5. We had to surrender our passport after Okinawa for Taiwan. They gave us copies to carry into town and we got them back the following night.

6. In general we liked the shore excursions but please know that this was our first trip to Asia so everything was new. The only one I thought was pretty 'meh' was the Busan one (Highlights of Busan IIRC). If I had it to do again, I'd of done 'On Your Own' because really all we wanted was to do some Korean Beauty shopping and eat some street food. I really liked the Ishigaki one we did (Takatomi Island). Water Buffalo cart ride and some gorgeous beaches. Also, Best of Taiwan and Best of Okinawa were favorites as well. What we saw in Tokyo was great but our guide was terrible IMO. Can't recall her name but she pretty much just read a script monotone as we drove from location to location.

7. 65+ I'd say. I'm in my 40s and I was definitely one of the younger ones on board. IIRC, there were only 32 teens on board total & probably about that many (or fewer) younger than 13. Its a very 'mature' cruise IMO.

8. The Diamond is one of only 2 ships that does a special English Tea in Sabatinis. Its $10 each or $20 with Champagne. If you like the tea they do almost every day on the ship, I highly recommend this tea. Only a limited number of tickets are sold and the food is great.

Boarding times were enforced but people were very prompt.

Ask Me Anything

Hello! Just returned from 13 days on the Diamond Princess cruising Japan. I don't see the exact cruise I did but its very similar to this one:

http://www.princess.com/find/cruiseDetails.do?voyageCode=M818A

Since there's not a lot about these cruises on here, I wanted to open myself up for questions. A few things to know:

-I don't gamble or drink so I can't really speak to those.

-This cruise is 90%+ Japanese cruisers. On our trip IIRC there were over 2100 Japanese & the ship holds about 2600 passengers. I don't have a complete passenger breakdown but I do remember about 160 Americans and between 250-300 Australians.

-We only took Princess excursions.

So, ask me anything!!

With my teen we do dress pants & polo or other shirt with a collar on regular nights & dress shirt, tie & dress pants on formal night.

I don't think its possible to get a discount. I prefer pre-booking because I get the time I want.

IIRC the Diamond just got out of drydock for some TLC. How does she look? We'll be on her this summer.

I plan on packing mostly Carlys & leggings for our cruise this summer. I'm more of a skirts & dresses gal than jeans anyway so its what I would choose to wear at home as well.

We did this cruise in 2015. We did all Princess tours & we were very happy with all of them. The Old City in Aarhus, The Church of the Spilled Blood in St Petersburg & the Vasa in Sweden were the highlights for me.

Urban Decay has a great one called Naked on the Run.

I like bringing some little electric tea lights. You can get them at Dollar Tree in a package of 2 or 3. They can make the cabin a little less dark so you don't break your leg on the way to the bathroom.

We cruised with our kids on a closed loop & got passports for everyone. One thing I noticed was that it made getting through customs & other ports so much easier. We were in line with our passports & next to us was a family using IDs & birth certificates. We were done before them because everything was having to be matched up & double checked & they just scanned our passports & we were off.

My son was in the teen age group when we did Alaska and he loved it so much that we had to practically beg him to spend family time with us.

I'm already planning on getting breakfast one AM from the Horizon Court & taking it back to the room for a balcony breakfast on a sea day on our next cruise. Do what you have to do.