LIVE from the Diamond Princess - 35 days Singapore to Vancouver

[coo359a2]

We got home late Saturday night, after a crowded morning in the port of Vancouver which was the only chaotic moment of the cruise. We also enjoyed our cruise, I especially loved the snow day in the Bering sea. On the way home we sat next to the Safety Officer from the Diamond, he was interesting and we learned a lot about the soundness of that ship! My husband, Mr. Safety, finally met a kindred spirit, they gabbed much of the flight to Los Angeles! Thanks to Joyce and Tom, our time at the airport and on the plane was much improved, thanks for the seating tip and wonderful conversation.

 

We enjoyed meeting so many new friends, as well as friends we love cruising with. We miss you all already, sending special love to Pia and Mike, Gloria and Lew, Tina and Ken, Donna and Dennis, Kathleen, Kate, Joyce and Tom, and all our cruise critic friends. You all made the cruise better.

 

A big thanks to Heather for making my Birthday so very special, hope you are feeling better!

 

Love to you too.:) It was fun seeing all your "loot" from your many shopping expeditions. Hope we get to cruise with ya'll again.

[san diego sue]

We are safely home as well.

What a trip. Hated to leave Asia and all of our new friends (and old ones too).

Thanks to Heather for arranging the Mother's Day Tea and my Birthday Cake. So sorry Heather was ill and couldn't attend.

See you in LA, Amelia and Ken.

So nice meeting Tina and Ken, Donna and Dennis.It was fun sampling the strange liquors we purchased with all of you.

Pia and Mike, see you in SA next year(Tina and Ken too).

:D

[Dorinda]

Glad you are all home safe and sound....Reading your posts just made us miss you all - Donna, Dennis, Tina, Ken, Pia, & Mike. So glad you all had a wonderful cruise.

 

Cheers! Dee & John

[Pia1913]

Glad you are all home safe and sound....Reading your posts just made us miss you all - Donna, Dennis, Tina, Ken, Pia, & Mike. So glad you all had a wonderful cruise.

 

Cheers! Dee & John

 

We need to coordinate better so that you two can also cruise with us. At the same time. Up close and personal. ;)

[ibfern]

We also got home Saturday night. Retrieving our luggage was a nightmare. They had no color signs to tell us where the groups of luggage were. When we got outside to the taxi line, we took one look and thought "this is a two hour wait". There was a limo parked near-by and it looked like the driver was waiting for his passengers to arrive. But, when I asked him, he said it was available. They aren't allowed to solicit for fares and he had been waiting for 3 hours. Two other couples jumped at the deal and so the 6 of us were off to the airport. The cost was $107.00 for the group; $18 a person which was cheaper than the ship transfer.:)

 

It is really hard to get back into our everyday life! We had such a fantastic time and made lots of new friends!:D

 

Loved meeting you and Bob again, forget to mention you and a bunch of people because of jet lag, migraines, and too much to do in too little time! Can't wait to cruise with you in Europe!

[DonahCBrown]

We're home too - had a nice flight out on Sunday afternoon, although it left a little late, and we only had an hour and fifteen minutes to connnect to our interisland flight - and no boarding pass, although Air Canada DID check our bags through to Kona. Customs at YVR makes it really easy, since you are all cleared and don't have to add that to your arrival airport if you are doing connecting flights back in the US.

 

Good to be home, glad to be back in the warm, too! A hui hou to all our buddies and friends, old and new. Hope to see you all sometime after the Great Kitchen Remodel that will take the place of our 2013 travel plans...:eek:

[jinja0707]

A big hello to everyone who contributed to all the wonderful live posts I have been reading for the last 5 weeks. Loved every minute of your cruise and have learnt so much valuable information. I am doing the Beijing to Vancouver part next May 2013. Once question I would love answered, did you get the mini bar set up in your cabin for each sector or just the once for the whole cruise. Cheers Robyn

[DonahCBrown]

A big hello to everyone who contributed to all the wonderful live posts I have been reading for the last 5 weeks. Loved every minute of your cruise and have learnt so much valuable information. I am doing the Beijing to Vancouver part next May 2013. Once question I would love answered, did you get the mini bar set up in your cabin for each sector or just the once for the whole cruise. Cheers Robyn

 

One for each segment even though we booked as a 35 day.

[Pia1913]

A big hello to everyone who contributed to all the wonderful live posts I have been reading for the last 5 weeks. Loved every minute of your cruise and have learnt so much valuable information. I am doing the Beijing to Vancouver part next May 2013. Once question I would love answered, did you get the mini bar set up in your cabin for each sector or just the once for the whole cruise. Cheers Robyn

 

As Donna stated, didn't matter whether you had booked as a 16 and 19 (as we did) or as a 35 (as they did). I almost always book segments individually and have been getting double or even triple setups each time.

[generichandle]

Hello everyone;

 

We are back in Cincinnati. Sadly, first I got sick between Hubbards and Juneau, was completely out of it 3 days, then good ole antibiotics did good and revived me in time to help Joe, who got sick a couple days later, on the last sea day. Now we are both pretty much recovered. So;

 

The trip was overall fantastic. I must truly say, I never dreamed I would ever have such an opportunity. Thanks to Joe, who helped me both financially and trivially. {what? Trivially?]. Yes!

 

Told you Amelia! You should have asked Joe to join your team. We drank 3 bottles of champagne [admittedly not exactly high quality, but still prize for Joe's freak music memory]. It must be remembered that no one on our team had much sailing experience, and therefor had heard few of these questions, unlike many others on this very thread. But we mostly just sat, watched Joe write things down, and said 'yaeh! yeah!'. :D

 

We had great fun. Chinese people are the most friendly and laughing I have ever met [and their women maybe the most beautiful on the Planets, too]. Korea, built between mountains, was amazing to me. We saw a Russian girl so stunning I considered defection if she smiled at me. And the older lady who lead our tour in Japan was so full of charm I seriously took her e-mail and will try to keep in touch.

 

The small ship cruise into Kenai from Seward is a repeat of a longer one we took 1st time in Alaska. It is an absolute MUST, and I will repeat it endlessly every single trip to that state. Wildlife in natural habitat beyond dreams. Wow.

 

Sorry, I will do a complete revue in it's proper forum later, just wanted those who read this to know how much this itenerary pleases. We mostly keep to ourselves, but people were mostly very nice when encountered. For those of us less experienced, this was certainly a lifetime memory.

 

Doug

[ibfern]

Hello everyone;

 

We are back in Cincinnati. Sadly, first I got sick between Hubbards and Juneau, was completely out of it 3 days, then good ole antibiotics did good and revived me in time to help Joe, who got sick a couple days later, on the last sea day. Now we are both pretty much recovered. So;

 

The trip was overall fantastic. I must truly say, I never dreamed I would ever have such an opportunity. Thanks to Joe, who helped me both financially and trivially. {what? Trivially?]. Yes!

 

Told you Amelia! You should have asked Joe to join your team. We drank 3 bottles of champagne [admittedly not exactly high quality, but still prize for Joe's freak music memory]. It must be remembered that no one on our team had much sailing experience, and therefor had heard few of these questions, unlike many others on this very thread. But we mostly just sat, watched Joe write things down, and said 'yaeh! yeah!'. :D

 

We had great fun. Chinese people are the most friendly and laughing I have ever met [and their women maybe the most beautiful on the Planets, too]. Korea, built between mountains, was amazing to me. We saw a Russian girl so stunning I considered defection if she smiled at me. And the older lady who lead our tour in Japan was so full of charm I seriously took her e-mail and will try to keep in touch.

 

The small ship cruise into Kenai from Seward is a repeat of a longer one we took 1st time in Alaska. It is an absolute MUST, and I will repeat it endlessly every single trip to that state. Wildlife in natural habitat beyond dreams. Wow.

 

Sorry, I will do a complete revue in it's proper forum later, just wanted those who read this to know how much this itenerary pleases. We mostly keep to ourselves, but people were mostly very nice when encountered. For those of us less experienced, this was certainly a lifetime memory.

 

Doug

 

Hi Doug,

 

Sorry you and Joe got sick, we also had our bouts with sickness and I had to visit the doctor twice! We also won a few trivia's and since we don't drink we gave a few bottles of bubbly away!

 

I hope you enjoyed the Princess Caribiner I gave you at the M&G, won that in trivia too. :D

[CruzinNoony]

Well, I finally finished reading the ENTIRE "live from". It took several hours, but I loved it all. Excellent job, Pia and Charles!! Bob and I agree that this was our favorite cruise out of all that we have been on. The ports were outstanding and we had some fantastic tours, some private and others were ship tours. Having Kelvin as our CD and Matt as the deputy really made for a fun time. The staff and crew, as well as the passengers all "clicked". We had such fun playing trivia with Pia, Mike, Donna and Tina, even if we didn't win that often. We had a wonderful table at late traditional with Jerry and Kate and two other couples. Can't wait until the Royal 30 dayer! We met so many new friends and many will be on the Royal. :) Meredith

[ccrain]

Just put the review and revised travel log up on the main board.

 

I have scanned the Vladivostok walking map in color for those interested and I have scanned the patters (in B&W) along with some of the port guides.

 

The Vlad map is about 1MB in two pages.

 

The patters are in 4-12MB pdf documents.

 

Anybody got an ftp site or a suggestion? I'm going to try and reduce their size a bit in Acrobat, but it was a lot of patters and paperwork.

[gottagocit]

Just put the review and revised travel log up on the main board.

 

I have scanned the Vladivostok walking map in color for those interested and I have scanned the patters (in B&W) along with some of the port guides.

 

The Vlad map is about 1MB in two pages.

 

The patters are in 4-12MB pdf documents.

 

Anybody got an ftp site or a suggestion? I'm going to try and reduce their size a bit in Acrobat, but it was a lot of patters and paperwork.

 

What a great idea to post them for future passengers.

 

If you can't find a site to post them all you might post a selected few here, under the Princess thread or at the relevant port of call board for say vladivostok?

 

I'd suspect the ones that would be most read would be the patters on port days (or I suppose the day before as that's probably where disembarking info is posted. Especially interesting would be the one related to final departure.

[WendyG]

What does one average in weight gain (or loss) on a 35 day cruise? I have met so many people that say they gain 10 lbs on a 7 day cruise (whcih seems absurd to me) but I wondered on a 35 day??? You MUST get sick of eating so good/too much after awhile?

[mmwc]

Just put the review and revised travel log up on the main board.

 

I have scanned the Vladivostok walking map in color for those interested and I have scanned the patters (in B&W) along with some of the port guides.

 

The Vlad map is about 1MB in two pages.

 

The patters are in 4-12MB pdf documents.

 

Anybody got an ftp site or a suggestion? I'm going to try and reduce their size a bit in Acrobat, but it was a lot of patters and paperwork.

 

Have read with interest the "live from" beginning to end. Much appreciate all the work and time that goes into the postings by everyone. We are doing this cruise in 2013.

It may be too early for me LOL but I can not seem to find your review. Could you be more specific as to where to find it.

 

With thanks

[ccrain]

What does one average in weight gain (or loss) on a 35 day cruise? I have met so many people that say they gain 10 lbs on a 7 day cruise (whcih seems absurd to me) but I wondered on a 35 day??? You MUST get sick of eating so good/too much after awhile?

 

I actually lost weight on this cruise, but I have gained as much as 10# in a 14 day cruise and had a hard time fitting into clothes on the way home.

 

The average I've heard touted is 1# per day and I can believe it. The food is extremely high calorie and believe it or not, it does begin to get tiring. That's why the crew really likes their outside food, like Ramen Noodles. Its hard to burn off 3-4k calories on a cruise. Walking helps, anything helps, but you need really high intensity aerobic exercise (running, Zumba, aerobics) to boost your BMR to burn calories over the entire day.

 

I exercised every day, at least once with Kim in Zumba, sometimes twice by running in the gym on the elliptical, then we line danced, and then we danced most nights for a couple of hours, ate a sparse breakfast, only one trip to the buffett at lunch and only half of dinner.

 

So the only way I can keep from gaining weight is to restrict my eating and work out at least an hour or two every day, and dance an hour or two everynight.

 

But the breads are SOOOOO GOOOOOODDDDD!

[ccrain]

Have read with interest the "live from" beginning to end. Much appreciate all the work and time that goes into the postings by everyone. We are doing this cruise in 2013.

It may be too early for me LOL but I can not seem to find your review. Could you be more specific as to where to find it.

 

With thanks

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1641249

[Pia1913]

What does one average in weight gain (or loss) on a 35 day cruise? I have met so many people that say they gain 10 lbs on a 7 day cruise (whcih seems absurd to me) but I wondered on a 35 day??? You MUST get sick of eating so good/too much after awhile?

 

I can't speak for others, but I gained one pound; hubby gained 5. My friend Tina stayed even and her DH gained 7. Friend Gloria gained 3; already lost it. No stats on her husband, but I doubt he gained much, if anything. We who travel on long cruises and often have learned control. ;)

[mmwc]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1641249

 

Thanks so much for providing the link. You review is fabulous and SO informative. We will be making notes.

 

Hope all your cruises are as much fun.

 

Midge

[generichandle]

Well, when I got home I found I had lost 10#! Yep, lost. Advantage [so to speak] of being sick last 4 days. Still, I walked enough preceding my illness to keep from gaining wieght. We lived at the far front, and just walking across the ship takes longer that you expect. Plus Diamond has a nice Promenade when they don't lock the stairs.

 

BTW, most of that 10lb loss has since rejoined me. I cook quite well, actually. ;)

 

Doug

[gottagocit]

Just put the review and revised travel log up on the main board.

 

I have scanned the Vladivostok walking map in color for those interested and I have scanned the patters (in B&W) along with some of the port guides.

 

The Vlad map is about 1MB in two pages.

 

The patters are in 4-12MB pdf documents.

 

Anybody got an ftp site or a suggestion? I'm going to try and reduce their size a bit in Acrobat, but it was a lot of patters and paperwork.

 

Would it be possible to obtain copies of some of the patters and maps related to the ports of China, Japan and Russia. We're on the Diamond in Sept when she sails in the opposite direction as your trip only we'll only be onboard from Whittier to Beijing (Tianjin).

 

Thanks

[san diego sue]

Don't you want to be surprised.

I never would want to see the activities in advance.

[Susie51]

Thank you for continuing your "live" thread through out the cruise. DP is on my list of top 3 cruise ships. She didn't have muts when I cruised on her 3 1/2 years ago. Did adding MUTS interfere with the design of the forward adults only pool with the swim against the current machine. I really like this area on Grand class ships.

[ccrain]

Would it be possible to obtain copies of some of the patters and maps related to the ports of China, Japan and Russia. We're on the Diamond in Sept when she sails in the opposite direction as your trip only we'll only be onboard from Whittier to Beijing (Tianjin).

 

Thanks

 

I'll let you know the size when I get them reduced...