Diamond Princess photo/video review Alaska

[Bimmer09]

 



 



 

We were being followed. Norwegian Jewel. I had moved to the stern to take photos of NJ.

 



 

[Bimmer09]

Once tied up at 7a.m I was off the ship in a flash. Carol was sound asleep. Here is the aft end where we make our home.

 



 



 



 

[Bimmer09]

I walked through a huge gift shop down on the quay-if I was a shopper I would have gone nuts and next time I might. Some nice warm, colorful-think Native American-clothes, rainproof jackets and a hundred ball caps with witty logos.

Really a marvelous retail store. No pics as I walked through it with the camcorder running.

 

I was going to get some close-ups of the Jewel as I am a card-carrying boat nerd.

 



 

Handsome ship.

 



 

[Bimmer09]

 



 



 

It was time to turn and head back to the Diamond....

 

[bsblady01]

more please

[Sumar76]

Great , great review and pictures and video!

[Bimmer09]

 

Berthed just in front of the DP was the Deadliest Catch excursion boat which we will go out on during a future trip. The year before on the Coral we saw the Cornelia Marie tied up at a dock here.

 

 



 

 

Carol was awake and waved from our balcony. (2 decks down, right of flagpole line)

 

 



 

And soon we were having breakfast in Sabatini's where they serve until 9.30 on port days (10.30 sea days)

 

[Bimmer09]

Bear watching excursion- video and photos.

 

Sunday night...

 

Norris

[CruisinLow]

Have been on the Diamond several times but in September, am taking some virgin cruisers on a 7 day land tour and then a southbound cruise. Your thread for sure will give them some idea of the ship as well as Alaska. Thanks so much for putting this together and looking forward to the next installments,

Edited March 3, 2013 by cruisin'low

[fireflymd]

The smoking lounge, complete with Pool Table stuck to the ceiling. There is a full bar in here in the evening. I usually had it to myself in the morning except for sharing it occasionally with Dan, the wacky Assistant Cruise Director.

 



 



 

There are some good black and white photographs of Winston Churchill in this room. One of my heroes, especially for his great writing style- a page-turner!

His "Second World War" is the best book I have ever read -but it helps if you are British and the son of someone who fought in it (at sea) when he was 18.

 

Oh, he is one of my heroes, too! And I am not British, (American), but my father also fought when he was 19. He turned 89 in December and he is also one of my heroes.:)

[cormike1]

I have been looking into booking this cruise at the end of June for my big ".o" birthday. I am enjoying your posts Norris. Where is the snow? I am amazed there is none! Please keep posting. Thanks.

[CruisinLow]

I have been looking into booking this cruise at the end of June for my big ".o" birthday. I am enjoying your posts Norris. Where is the snow? I am amazed there is none! Please keep posting. Thanks.

 

Normally no snoiw on the ground in the towns in the summer. Snow will be up in the mountains and on the glaciers in the summer months. Cruises only run in Alaska from May to September. Could still be some snow on the ground I guess in May but the rest of the sumer, probably not.

[58Piano]

Ship is nice but what about Alaska? Where are photos of Alaska and the lovely scenery there? What about showing people just having fun? A bar is a bar on any ship so what. Show the fun part and the land of Alaska!

[Deck Chair Queen]

<<Ship is nice but what about Alaska? Where are photos of Alaska and the lovely scenery there? What about showing people just having fun? A bar is a bar on any ship so what. Show the fun part and the land of Alaska!>>

 

58piano: Be patient! I feel there is plenty of Alaska to come. Remember this is also a ship review, not just a cruise review. But if you are looking for photos of people "clubbing" and stinking drunk with lampshades on their heads, you are reading the wrong thread. With all due respect.

[Bimmer09]

Ship is nice but what about Alaska? Where are photos of Alaska and the lovely scenery there? What about showing people just having fun? A bar is a bar on any ship so what. Show the fun part and the land of Alaska!

 

Hey 58..I don't know if you have realized yet that the review and photos are going in a chronological order. The most recent photos (today), from Monday August 20 2012 are indeed of an Alsakan town. I wouldn't be surprised if following days don't have a mountain popping up in them and later (if you can wait that long) you'll see glaciers,whales,bears and other critters that live in the scenery so it was hard to photograph them without some pesky scenery sneaking into the shot.

 

Come back in a few days and you'll see more scenery. The first two days of my cruise were in the waters of British Columbia, Canada so it was really hard to get photos of Alaska from there. From here on in it is Alaska.

 

As for photos of people having fun...I may have some-I'll look. I think the people on my excursions were having fun-seeing bears and whales, close up.

They weren't hootin' and a hollerin' and doing shots or dropping their pants-so maybe they weren't.

 

I try to take ship pictures when the ship has no people in it spoiling the beauty of the design and decor. I think some passengers wouldn't like to be in my shots.

I'm not the paparazzi of the high seas by any means.

 

If you like nature and Alaskan scenery, stick around.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

I have uploaded a couple of video clips of our bear-watching excursion in Ketchikan. The will be followed by some stills.

 

A couple of hints/tips if you go on one;

 

Be quiet, be very very quiet. That's if you want to see the bears behaving naturally. They don't have good eyesight-worse than mine actually but they can hear very well.

 

Stay still if they approach you. Don't run at them and try to wrestle them.

No-second thoughts- by all means do that but only after you have alerted me and given me enough time to prep a camera.

 

Don't try and use a camera and a camcorder at the same time, switching back and forth. You spend all that time waiting for a bear to appear and when it does finally show you start fumbling to put the camera back in the bag, boot up the camcorder, get your focus and while you are doing all that the bear comes out from a bush on a unicycle balancing a ball on his nose....and you missed it!

(ask me how I know)

 

I edited the video into manageable clips....there's a part 1 and a part 2.

Then some stills.

 

The first part of the video is taken from rope-bridges strung about 10 feet above the ground (at the sagging mid-point).The piers are at about 20 ft so very steep. The bridges swing and creak with a dozen people on them. The excursion is therefore not accessible to anyone using a stick or wheelchair, alas.

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2013 by Bimmer09
removing bad URL

[CruisinLow]

Hey 58..I don't know if you have realized yet that the review and photos are going in a chronological order. The most recent photos (today), from Monday August 20 2012 are indeed of an Alsakan town. I wouldn't be surprised if following days don't have a mountain popping up in them and later (if you can wait that long) you'll see glaciers,whales,bears and other critters that live in the scenery so it was hard to photograph them without some pesky scenery sneaking into the shot.

 

Come back in a few days and you'll see more scenery. The first two days of my cruise were in the waters of British Columbia, Canada so it was really hard to get photos of Alaska from there. From here on in it is Alaska.

 

As for photos of people having fun...I may have some-I'll look. I think the people on my excursions were having fun-seeing bears and whales, close up.

They weren't hootin' and a hollerin' and doing shots or dropping their pants-so maybe they weren't.

 

I try to take ship pictures when the ship has no people in it spoiling the beauty of the design and decor. I think some passengers wouldn't like to be in my shots.

I'm not the paparazzi of the high seas by any means.

 

If you like nature and Alaskan scenery, stick around.

 

Norris

I, for one, can hadly wait until the next installments

[cvpends]

Love, LOVE, LOVING your review! Keep it coming :D

[Bimmer09]

The 2nd Bear video installment is in the ovens at youtube and apparently not ready for Prime Time. I'll keep trying it tonight. Possibly too many people trying to upload Bear videos at once. I actually uploaded it this morning at 6 a.m....but I am patient.

 

Norris

Edited March 4, 2013 by Bimmer09
add text

[Jasperdo]

I try to take ship pictures when the ship has no people in it spoiling the beauty of the design and decor. I think some passengers wouldn't like to be in my shots.

I'm not the paparazzi of the high seas by any means.

I'm the same way when I take ship photos. I try and get shots of the various venues when they're fairly empty. I think it gives you a better idea what that particular area looks like. ( I don't get up at 4am to do it though.) The one exception is outdoor shots of the pool area. I feel that a sunny day with lots of people makes for a better shot there. I for one am really enjoying all of your wonderful photos. Edited March 4, 2013 by Jasperdo

[Countrygirl44]

I have uploaded a couple of video clips of our bear-watching excursion in Ketchikan. The will be followed by some stills.

 

A couple of hints/tips if you go on one;

 

Be quiet, be very very quiet. That's if you want to see the bears behaving naturally. They don't have good eyesight-worse than mine actually but they can hear very well.

 

Stay still if they approach you. Don't run at them and try to wrestle them.

No-second thoughts- by all means do that but only after you have alerted me and given me enough time to prep a camera.

 

Don't try and use a camera and a camcorder at the same time, switching back and forth. You spend all that time waiting for a bear to appear and when it does finally show you start fumbling to put the camera back in the bag, boot up the camcorder, get your focus and while you are doing all that the bear comes out from a bush on a unicycle balancing a ball on his nose....and you missed it!

(ask me how I know)

 

I edited the video into manageable clips....there's a part 1 and a part 2.

Then some stills.

 

The first part of the video is taken from rope-bridges strung about 10 feet above the ground (at the sagging mid-point).The piers are at about 20 ft so very steep. The bridges swing and creak with a dozen people on them. The excursion is therefore not accessible to anyone using a stick or wheelchair, alas.

 

 

 

Norris, I have absolutely loved your review. :) You certainly have a "way with words". Perhaps you are a writer by trade. :D Alaska is my favorite place to cruise and Princess the way to get there. Never been on the Diamond. You have done an excellent job of "presenting the Diamond Princess". I, for one, think your photos of the ship "without the people" displays the features so much better. I can hardly wait to see the rest of the instalments to come. I have been able to open all the other "youtube" presentations except this one. :mad: Can you please help?:confused:

[Gazelle2]

We are also enjoying the photos of the less populated venues. They make for a great preview of the ship. We have only cruised on the Emerald within the Princess line but we will be boarding the Diamond in about six weeks for the sixteen-day Asian cruise from Bangkok to Beijing. The Diamond Princess looks like a great ship. We are looking forward to the rest of your review.

[MilliesMom]

Norris .. the video is labeled as private. I know you said you had some issues with video earlier today. Just an FYI.

 

 

Enjoying all the commentary, photos and videos. We will be doing the roundtrip out of San Francisco in May so will see Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan along with Glacier Bay. Absolutely can't wait. Have been twice before but have never been to Glacier Bay.

 

Thank you for all of your hard work and willingness to share your adventure with us.

[Bimmer09]

Sorry for the error on my part. Private is the default.

Here is the link to save you scrolling back.

 

[Bimmer09]

OK....video II is ready. This was shot down from the rope bridges, on solid ground- a wooden boardwalk about 2 ft high. The group were some ways behind me,tightly packed so I couldn't get a good shot on some distant bears. I found some close by in the bushes and used zoom in the first half of this shoot. They were about 40 feet away.

 

The rest of the group saw that I had something in my sights and came up quietly behind. As the bears came closer I had to pull back the lens to get them in the shot. At the closest point they were 10 to 12 feet away, before heading down to the river by the salmon hatchery which is where the next photo batch is from.

 

Here's the video link....

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_74bWhjbZuM