China Oct. 2005 - Diamond Princess

[cruisinlivin]

Sue,

 

In Beijing we were originally going to stay at the Courtyard hotel. We contacted them about luggage storage, they said no problem. Now we are staying at a small guest house hotel instead and they also have secure lugagge storage. I don't believe there was a mention of a fee for this either.

 

I have a feeling that most hotels would store luggage just like our bell stands at major hotels. There is nothing that says you have to pick it up by a certain day or date.

 

We used points too for the air, the change fee is a pain but might be worth it for the comfort factor. Maybe the price of the hotel in Osaka vs Tokyo would offset the fee. This site has pretty good prices for Osaka hotels, cheaper than Expedia or the brand sites list. I don't know the site though. I'd be sure to do confirmations direct with the hotel after a booking. http://www.asiarooms.com/japan/osaka.html?stlcmpid=6995&OVRAW=osaka%20hotels&OVKEY=osaka%20hotel&OVMTC=standard

 

I see there are some pretty interesting sites about Japanese train travel. The pricing seems pretty complicated though. What sites are you working with?

 

Gail

[cruisinlivin]

Sue,

 

How are your plans coming along?

 

Gail

[Sumar76]

Hi Gail....thanks so much for the site for Osaka Hotels. I put it in my favoriteS, so I can get back to it easily. I really haven't done anything more about the trip. My son who lives in Phoenix, and works for Delta, would like to fly over to see us when we are in Tokyo..of course none of this can be definate, because with his scheduling, he never knows anything till the last minute. He is a pilot, but is not working for a commercial airline as yet, he is accruing hours...but works for Delta, part time, in customer service for 8 years..while giving flight instructions. So this sort of makes it complicated.....we may even go to Tokyo a day earlier, then go to Osaka for a day or 2 before the cruise....but the site you sent me does look good....

 

I thought I read somewhere that alot of places are closed on Monday in Tokyo? Have you heard of this?

 

Anyway where are you at?? Everything planned?

 

What happened to the lady who was cruising to Beijing with Crystal?? She was doing that trip before the Princess one.. thought she might have done it already. Do you know?

 

Let me know if you find anything out....Sue

[cruisinlivin]

Hi Sue,

 

I haven't heard that about Tokyo but if I see anything about it I'll let you know. We will be there Thurs-Sat.

 

All we have planned for Tokyo so far is the hotel. I think I will wait till we get there to plan touring. We have not been on that long a flight since we went to Tahiti. I don't know what the jet lag will be like. After our discussions about the trains I was trying to see if we could take a day trip on the bullet but I'm not sure it will work out with timing. I would really like to go to a Hot Springs but don't know which one would be best. There is one outside of Tokyo with a spring/pong at the bottom of a waterfall but you have to walk the stream to get to it. I will investigate this more to see if we could do that. Otherwise I think we might just hop the subway and go from area to area around Tokyo to see the culture and most of the city.

 

That's great about your son. My Dad worked with Air Canada, it's great to have the air travel but hard to find the time(the right time and available flights) to do it. Does Delta have buddy or family passes?

 

Our China is pretty much fixed so I am working on our Thailand and Cambodian tours now. I have the air to go to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat, Bangkok Airlines was great and reasonable to when I contacted them by email. From there we go to Phuket and then back to Bangkok for a couple of days before we leave for home.

 

Are you set for Beijing? I found a limo company for transfers from the port. I've been trying to arrange a mini bus for a small group of us we discussing rates with www.beijinglimo.com.

 

I don't remember the lady with Crystal. Maybe she will post after her cruise.

 

Have you read any of Hank's postings on shopping in Beijing. He has some great posts. The Pearl Market sounds like a must see!:)

 

Gail

[sylvia50]

Hi: I think I'm the lady from Crystal! Got back last Wednesday - Have had a raging sinus infection ever since.

 

China is wonderful. We had an extraordinary time - Crystal certainly did it up right for our post-trip. We even got a banquet in the Great Hall of the People - all 500 of us - the banquet was served with two wines and beer. Twenty-three food items! All wonderful.

 

We were busy the whole time - thenmy friend and I moved to the Peninsula Palace (from the ShangriLa) for two nights - and shopped. The Peninsula Palace is the most wonderful place to stay you can imagine - right downtown. It's rated #1 in Conde Nast. We had a room on the Club floor and this included breakfast. afternoon tea, evening cocktails & a ppetizers.In fact, we didn't have to buy any food at all. This kept us going! They were really wonderful. We were a little worried about the airport - having heard some pretty bad things - and Mary, the Club manager said not to worry - but we did. When we left we have hugs to our favorite bell boys, Mary and her help and off we were driven in the hotel's car. When we got close to the airport our driver made a phone call and when we arrived at our United building, the driver opened our door and there stood our bellboys that we had just said goodbye to (a 45-minute drive to the airport). They said that Peninsula Palace wanted to be sure we got off OK. They got redcaps for us and whisked us right through the lines - we were in the Red Carpet Club Room within 10 minutes. We were astounded! What wonderful people.

 

I can't wait to get back to China in October. My husband and I will board in Seattle - we are leaving a day early, and will stay at the Peninsula Palace after the trip till October 27th. I can hardly wait to get back to the pearl market. It is fantastic! I'm already making up a list of goodies. They have everything on the first two floors, then 3rd floor is regular pearls and 4th and 5th are very expensive pearls. The hotel will give you a discount card. We even bought new digital cameras for $50 under what we were told we would have to pay!

 

I hae a thread in another place regarding the Diamond. Will keep checking this thread also.

 

The one bad thing about Beijing is the pollution - if you have a sinus problem - bring your medicine! I didn't and am still under the weather.

[Sumar76]

Hi Sylvia50.......read your post. It all sounded wonderful!! Where is the Peninsular Palace again in Beiijing??? Wow, I can't believe they sent the bell boys there to meet you at the airport! What a surprise!!

How long were you gone all together? And do you feel Crystal was worth the extra$$? I bet! Thanks again, sue

[sylvia50]

Hi Sue: Tommie and I (my travel buddy) left February 24th from Los Angeles and arrived back in Sacramento March 30th. It was quite a trip. As for Crystal - well, I think the ships are very over-rated and not worth the extra money. They seemed just about the same as Princess or RCL. However, they did the most astounding job on our post-trip. It was included in the cruise price and it was really wonderful. Even to going to the Great Hall of the People for a banquet - no one gets to go there - it's like eating at the White House. In all their tours we were dropped off at the door - not 1/2 mile away as other "bus people" were. We stayed 2 extra nights and moved from the ShangraLa which was provided by the ship and way out away from everything - to the Peninsula Palace which is right downtown where the action is. That gave us two days to shop as we were so busy with the ship's tours that shopping was not an option - except at the Friendship Store - which was sky high. We did do shopping in Shanghai - we took a cab to old town - and that was wonderful - many bargains - but we found our best deals were at the Pearl Market in Beijing. Truly astounding.

 

We spent the day in Nagasaki which was easy as they have a wonderful street car system - you can get all over town by yourself, it's very easy. Things are very expensive in Japan and it's not our favorite place.

 

Sylvia

[director]

HI

 

We just did the Sapphire from Bangkok to Beijing and it has many of the same ports of call as the new Diamond itineraries.

 

Here are some tour tips for the cities we visited:

 

Nagasaki is a place to walk right off the ship. Many passengers were miffed to pay for a tour that they could have walked across the street to take on their own. (Glover Gardens)

We paid about $8 for two all day trolley passes. The trolley departs right across the street from the ship. The mall downtown is worth a stroll. So is Chinatown, but most everything can be seen by taking the convenient trollies.

 

Pusan has a bus that drops you off downtown and takes you back to the ship for a set price. I believe it was about $8 US per person roundtrip. The fish market is legendary and just across the street from where they drop you off. The subway is also right there for the adventurous who want to go farther. We found all the shopping and the downtown easily walkable from where the bus left us.

 

Shanghai is a long way from where the ship docks. Remember, that the size of the Diamond and Sapphire make it necessary for the ship to dock a long way from the city in most ports. This is especially true in Shanghai.

We decided instead of making the trip twice, because our ship overnighted in Shanghai, to stay in a hotel overnight downtown. It proved to be a very wise decision.

 

Singapore was our favorite port. It was clean and very western with a wonderful oriental flavor. The taxi's really had a rip off deal going on there, as they do at many ports. It was $35 for a ride downtown when the ride really costs only $15, but because you were in this remote container terminal where you were not allowed to walk, you were forced to pay this rip off price.

The same thing occurred to go back to the ship. Taxi's had special stickers to get back into the container port and charged a huge premium to get you back to the ship. If a taxi dropped you off at the entrance to the port, you could not walk to the ship and were force to try and find another to get you a ride inside. It was a scam all the way around, but what were the passengers to do. I have seen this type of robbery many times when getting off cruise ships. They have you and know there is nothing you will not pay to visit the port after you have traveled thousands of miles.

 

Hong Kong was also a round trip price to go into Kowloon. We docked far away from the city again but the ride was fairly short, maybe 15 min. into the city. Hong Kong was by far the most crowded and congested of all the ports we visited. You can go anywhere in Hong Kong without a tour.

 

We did not take any tours on the cruise except for when we were staying at the hotel in Beijing. We took the Great Wall tour and a Hutong tour (alley homes tour). The hutong tour was the highlight of our time in Beijing. The Great Wall was exciting but very steep and hard to climb. It is extremely commercial with very high pressure salesmen hawking your every step up to the wall and back down. You cannot even look at an item without a huge sales pitch. We found this throughout China.

 

The joke of the cruise were the fake Rolex and other designer watches. People bought them four for $10 only to find others that paid only $1 each. Many do not last two or three days. The joke was to buy them for all the people back home that you did not like. The salesmen of these watches loomed thousands strong at every port in Asia, but Beijing was especially bad. They would latch on to white tourists and follow them for blocks. They made just walking the streets a pain at times.

 

Our cruise embarked at Laem Chabang. It is about 15 miles from Pattaya, so we stayed there for five days before the cruise. We could have stayed there another week. While Bangkok is polluted and has tons of traffic, Pattaya is a beach resort where you can walk almost anywhere. If you wanted to ride, the local transportation cost only 25 cents per person to go anywhere you would want to go.

 

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel and loved it's central location on the quiet side of town. It was a wonderful part of the trip and it was not uncommon to be enjoying a beer in a bar there and have an elephant stroll by looking for tourists to buy him some snacks. We will definitely be back to Thailand.

 

We liked this cruise so much, especially Japan that we are booked to go back on the Diamond to Osake from Seattle in Sept. 05.

 

There were lots of quirky things about the ship but I will not get into them here.... if you are interested, I can go into detail, but lets just say that the Sapphire is too big for it's own good. Princess'es famous anytime dining does not work on this ship and the showrooms cannot handle the number of passengers on the ship as well.

 

It will not be near as frustrating this next trip, knowing going in what we will be faced with. Asia is a highly rewarding place to visit and by going on a cruise, you get to see so many more places than you could possibly see on a land tour.

 

Stephan

director@cts.com

[Sumar76]

Hi Stephen..thanks for the great review.

 

I am set to go on the Diamond...Osaka to Beijing Oct 12th. So the itinerary will not be the same as yours but some of the ports.

 

What did you do re: money exchange?

 

You did the post tour with Princess? Where did you stay in Beijing, and how was it handled in general?

 

Thanks for all the info.

 

Have you ever done transatlantic Greenland/Iceland?

[thuyronald]

Hello!

 

My husband and I will be on the Oct. 23 sailing from Beijing to Bangkok as well. Has anyone pre-booked their tours from Princess? I've looked at the tours and they seem rather expensive. We've cruised many times before to other destinations and have found that it's cheaper to get a taxi and share it with another couple and do the same sightseeing on our own rather than join a bus load of passengers on the cruise's tour. Is anyone interested in perhaps getting together to share the cost?

 

Looking forward to hearing from anyone going on this same cruise.

 

Thanks for the reply in advance.

 

Thuy

[JimC]

Thuy, the shore excursions aren't available for booking yet, although their description and prices are on the Princess website.

 

We are taking the pre-cruise Beijing and Terra Cotta Warriors CruiseTour and that is already booked. We'll probably stick with Princess' shore excursions as this our our first time in Asia and we feel more comfortable with programs which are organized (using the term lightly) by the cruise line.

[Chantal]

I am traveling on the Oct 12th Diamond Princess Cruise from Osaka to Xingang. We are staying in Beijing for a few nights after the cruise; however, not through Princess (hotel points). Does anyone know the best way to get from Xingang to Beijing. Princess does not offer transportation unless you stay at one of their designated hotels.

 

Thanks,

 

Cara

[Sumar76]

Chantal...have you made your res. for Beijing yet? Any other plans??

 

Get back to me when you have a chance...Sue

[Sumar76]

Chantal..there is a roll-call site For the Osaka to Beijing cruise Oct.12, ., besides the seattle-osaka,osaka-beijing...makes for alot of reading, and Great ideas!

 

Look it up if you have a chance..Sue

[edna@optonline.net]

Hi everyone,

I'm also taking the Osaka to Beijing Oct 12 trip and touring Beijing afterwards. we booked our tour through Princess so we'll be staying at their hotel. I've been catching up on all your posts and it made wonderful reading. Does anyone know what the dining will be the day we board? Is it buffets lunch and dinner? We're staying at the Rihga Royal Osaka before the tour. Is anyone else staying there? It's the hotel princess recommends.

When we toured Alaksa we didn't go through princess but we left our luggage at the hotel and picked it up a few days later.

Have a wonderful day

edna

[cruisinlivin]

Chantal,

 

Check out Beijinglimo.com they provide port transfers.

[Melyu]

Hello everyone!

We would be in diamond princess cruise this oct 12.

Well, i think the reason the cruise is booked up, its becasue they offer a cheap discounted rate. :) Maybe cheaper than internet price on our part

Anyway we are asian from Philippines. our group is total 5person. but i'm not sure if their would be a lot of asian people going.

Anyway, its our first time, and we hope to have a nice cruise.

We would also go to tokyo, kyoto and osaka before joining the cruise. Would arrive tokyo oct 4.

 

i had a good time reading all the message here.

 

happy cruzin!

 

mel

[edste]

Hi Melyu

I hope you enjoy your first cruise. This is our fifth:pand we love every minute of cruising. We're also on the Oct 12th cruise but we're not traveling with a group. again have a wonderful time

Ed

[Melyu]

Hi Ed,

We really hope to have a nice cruzin!

thanks

[CruisingRetirees]

We have just finished this cruise and here is our critique. This is part of a letter I have written to Princess Cruises:

We’re happy to report that all meals, all entertainment, accommodations and crew exceeded our expectations. We can cite LaToya from the Front Desk who approached us, cutting through a long queue waiting to talk to Front desk and solved our minor problem in a jiffy; our cabin attendant, Ricky Tayson, who anticipated our needs and whom we never found lazing around with nothing to do; the various waitpersons at the Horizon Court who were always on the alert to be of service to the passengers.

However, a group of my Philippine compatriots was disillusioned at the attitude of some of your officers, who, when they were trying to arrange for Roman Catholic Holy Masses for the voyage, were not inclined at first to be helpful. The fact that an Archbishop, Leonardo Legaspi,DD, was on board and was willing to lead the religious services may have helped convince the authorities to give us time and space for holy Mass. It smacks of religious intolerance when I see that Masons had their meeting place, and the Jewish religious services got a write-up in the Princess Patter while the ship authorities made it difficult to even get a venue for the Roman Catholic services. Other cruise liners always offer a chaplain, not only for the passengers, but also for their crew. Please note that a great percentage of your crew are Filipinos, not counting others who come from Latin countries, who would appreciate the opportunity to attend Mass while at sea. It is to your crew’s credit, however, that Club Fusion was arranged and decorated for a religious service in a swift manner. For your information, you also missed out on good public relations when the Archbishop arranged for a renewal of marriage vows for more than 16 couples during the Friday Mass. It was a beautiful and significant ceremony, one which would have been much appreciated by a greater crowd who would have participated it if only they knew about it. As I said earlier, even news about the Masses were kept to the minimum.

Tours:

The tours we took had competent and articulate guides. I can cite Anya of Vladivostok who was able to convey a lot of enthusiasm and information even about the most innocuous sites. However, the Dalian student guide was inept, slurred her words, did not do head counts on the bus ( thereby almost losing 2 passengers who got left behind at a park stop). She was so self-centered she talked incessantly about her life at the university instead of giving us information on the buildings around us. At the Art Museum fiasco where there was a definite miscommunication about opening hours, she could not decide on what to do with us. We had to wait while she dithered about bringing us to the Shell Museum or the Natural History Museum. Some of us wanted her to just drive around and tell us about the history and culture of Dalian and all the new buildings there. Some ladies just wanted to be dropped off at a department store. So with great relief she delivered us back to the ship. Please alert her supervisor about the need for historical background and more recent events since Dalian is an impressive example of economic progress in China today.

The Nagasaki tour on our own was the best one we had with the help of the Nagasaki volunteer guide, Mr. Magome. We were able to walk the streets and alleys of Nagasaki leading to the elevator street where a sort-of cable car brought us to the top of the Glover Gardens. It was a cinch walking down after that. We saw several of our fellow-passengers laboriously negotiating the up-hill climb of the regular tour. Most of the senior crowds were unhappy about this walk. With regard to the guided tour of the Peace Park, I did not like the way the guide pushed all the guilt buttons about the dropping of the atomic bomb. Who started this war anyway? And of course, nothing was said about all the atrocities, killings, tortures and massacres the Japanese troops inflicted on the other Asian countries they invaded.

Finally, your faulty debarkation procedures:

Our luggage were color-coded and left by the shipside by your staff. We were supposed to match up our stubs with our bags. This procedure does not make allowance for the stupidity of some passengers who can’t recognize their own bags and pick up other bags which resembled theirs. It took us more than an hour of frantic to-and-froing and asking around several agents from other tour groups before we retrieved one bag (color-coded aqua) between the yellow and the brown coded bags. The other bag remained lost until we saw it standing alone because by this time almost all the other bags had been taken. Worst of all, I had to run up inside the boat to be able to talk to a Princess representative and ask for help because there was none by the shipside! I never got that help. All they told me was that they were still unloading bags from the ship. How could that be when there were no more bags being brought out from the ship and instead, bags were being carted away already by the other tour groups. There was no member of the ship’s crew on the ship side from whom we could look to for help. It was as if the minute the ship off-loaded the bags, they then washed their hands of any accountability for them. May I remind you that the passengers who did not contract for the post-tour Princess program are still your passengers. The presence of a Princess representative would have helped us out, if only to soothe our fright and frustration over such a stupid mistake as swiping the wrong bag.

All the lovely times on board therefore are dimmed by the traumatic memory of our debarkation from the Diamond Princess. This is not the first time I heard criticisms of your debarkation procedures. I was told it was chaotic. I can tell them that I agree with them now.

We were talking to Jayne, the future cruise consultant , on board the Diamond Princess about a South American cruise in 2006. But after what happened to us in Xingang, we shudder at the thought of another traumatic departure from the ship in Rio de Janeiro.

So clean up your act. Passenger disenchantment has a nasty way of creating ripples outwards to include other passengers