TIDBITS ABOUT THE DIAMOND

[sneekpeek]

Coke sticker is $22.50 plus tip. Can of Coke is $2.50. A glass of coke is $1.50

 

Bring a big water bottle that's not too heavy to carry. I made a big ice tea in the Horizon Court every day with lemons (it's good tea and it's free). Also there is a large bottle of water in your room. If you use it you pay $3.00 for it. I would just take my water bottle to the Horizon Court after dinner and fill it with bottled water for free. We used it to brush our teeth as well as to drink. Lots of people drink the tap water, but I just couldn't do it.

 

Before we left our cruise personalizer said "non converting twin beds". We had a large queen bed - I think just about every room had a queen unless it was one of those with the bunk beds for four people.

 

There are plenty of hangars and plenty of storage.

 

Muster is at 4:00 but you don't go outside. Our muster station was the casino.

 

Horizon Court gets crowded in the food area. They have 9 food stations and there is no order to it. People don't walk through in a line. Everyone just jumps back and forth from one station to another and the station tables are too close together. It needs to be reorganized. Condiments are hard to find. Deserts are everywhere. I heard someone say the tapioca pudding was good, but I couldn't find it. My husband said he saw it with the entrees. People are running in to each other with plates full of food. Try to go at an off time if you go there - the food is very good. We had steak for breakfast one day and it was very thin and cooked to perfection. We had rack of lamb and lots of great entrees and mini deserts so you could take 3 or 4 and not look like a pig. One lunch my husband ate 7 deserts!

 

There is a very easy to operate safe in the room.

 

We booked at the last minute and could only get an inside cabin - but they upgraded us to an outside "obstructed view". It was only obstructed about 20% of the window. I saw in other rooms and it was the same.

 

Shower head was fantastic - wish I could buy one like that.

 

Hair dryer was OK. I have medium long hair and it took a little longer than it usually does, but it was fine.

 

Laundry room is wonderful. Wash is $1.00 and dryer is $1.00 for 20 minutes, but you really need 40 minutes for a full load. They sell soap, fabric softener and bleach for $1.00 each.

 

Shampoo, conditioner, lotion and soap all good.

 

They have great games at the pool around 1:30 on at sea days. There were a lot of 18-20 year olds on our ship because of spring break. My husband especially enjoyed the game where the girls in very tiny bikinis had to dive in the pool that was full of plastic fruit and put as many pieces as possible inside their suits. One girl put a watermellon in her bottom half of her suit in the front. The guys did it too it was girls against the guys and it was a riot.

 

Casino has nickel machines and lots of quarter, and dollar machines. They pay pretty good.

 

Internet cafe - 35 cents a minute for going on line - but if you go there in the early afternoon they have the most wonderful sweets that are free. Try the double chocolate rum balls!!!! We tried to get online a few times, but they seem to have a lot of problems with it. You are charged the minute you sit down so if you can't get on the internet you need to go to the front desk and ask them to take it off your bill. We were charged about $3.00 total for times we couldn't get on the internet. And, it is very slow. I'm used to high speed. We saw so many kids in there I can just imagine how much their bill was at the end of the cruise.

 

Ice cream is $1.90 per scoop. If you get a sunday or a float or something other than a cone or dish of ice cream it is $4.00. They have about 5 specialty drinks made with ice cream and liquor for $5.00 each.

 

There is shopping at every port in Mexico. You don't have to go on an organized shore excursion. You can walk to Wal Mart in Puerto Vallarta. There are pharmacies in Matzatlan. I didn't see any in Cabo and I didn't go to the shopping center in PV. There is a pharmacy in Wal Mart. Also there is a Sam's club right next to Wal Mart. It is only a 1 block walk from where the ship docks. If you take a cab anywhere, don't pay what they first tell you. We were told $8.00 to go to a restaurant that we could have walked to if necessary. We told him $5.00 and he said OK.

 

Golf is $20 per 1/2 hour. They have putting contests, etc.

 

When you get your bill on Saturday morning it is a little hard to understand. They have a separate bill for each person who had a card. $3.45 is charged each day. (We expected to just see a charge for $140.00 for the two of us) They charge $6.55 per day for meal gratuity. These charges are posted every day and we were charged $1.73 per person gratuity for the dinner on the first night. If you are concerned about your bill you should get a copy of it on Friday, because there is a very long line of people on Saturday morning.

 

If you want to know more, just ask. I will try to post the entertainment and drink prices later or tomorrow.

[soprano]

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us all these great facts! My family is sailing on the Diamond this coming Saturday, and all of your information is so welcome!

[Hobie]

Is there any free ice cream?

[gcsmith]

sneekpeek,

 

Where did you find bottled water in the Horizon? Only water I can remember came out of a machine, probably attached to the same tap water in your room.

 

Oh yeah, the fruit contest in the pool . . . on our trip (inaugural) it was overweight 30, 40 and 50 year olds. Wish we could have had the tiny bikinis!

 

Greg

[sneekpeek]

The only free ice cream is on the desert menu in the dining rooms. We were told that the water in the buffet was not tap water. Maybe it was, but it didn't taste like tap water. I think they made some of the food - like grits - with tap water - I could taste it. Maybe we drank tap water all week - I guess what you don't know won't hurt you.

[Hobie]

Thanks sneekpeek

 

Disturbing to hear about no free ice cream. I'm used to the ice cream bar that is usually open from about 3:00p.m. until 6:00 p.m. providing free ice cream.

 

I guess it's a sign of the times...Have to start charging extra for all of those little things that we are used to receiving for free!

[Sandy R]

Sneekpeek... you certainly took careful notes! We were on the inaugural and the following was our experience with our shipboard statement... there is one billing statement for each of the passengers in a cabin, daily tips are added to each person's statement every day. A few days after we disembarked and the laundry was done, the clothes put away, I finally checked the items on each of our statements. (We keep all sales slip during our cruises, drinks, shop sales, etc.). I discovered that both my husband and I were charged twice for tips on a single day and also charged twice for things we didn't charge. I called Princess, was transfered to their billing department, left a message and the next day, received a call back. After looking at our bill, the Princess billing rep, graciously reimbursed our credit card for the double tips and the two charges. So, you don't have to wait in line debarkation day to have charges removed... a call to Princess billing will be sufficient. And, our 3/31 cruise on Diamond was wonderful!

 

Sandy R

[gcsmith]

Regarding invoices -

 

Did anyone find a way to check their bill before the last night? I didn't on the Diamond and I thought on my previous Grand and Star trips that you could check on the TV?

 

Greg

[DesertDaisy]

We usually check with the purser's desk about midway through the cruise. They are able to give you an accounting on a daily basic's if you want to bother checking. I have never seen it on the TV, but I'm sure that is coming!

[LV Artemis]

Just got off Diamond on 4/3/04. My best advice for Personal Choice Diners is to reserve the entire week as soon as possible. The four theme restaurants are really nice, but they fill up quickly at peak times. Friends who waited could only get reservations for after 10 PM. We booked immediately for the week and had no problems. Sabatini's was disappointing, however. Past experiences have been great. They don't have their act together and overbooked. Both times we reserved at 8 PM, we weren't seated until 8:45, with no sincere apologies (other than the Italian maitre'd waving his hands and telling us how busy they are because they "cook everything to order and don't rush." Everything leading up to entrees was excellent. The Sabatini lobsters were undercooked (and sent back). We're going again in August...we may skip Sabatini's this time. Breakfast bacon left a lot to be desired -- it was either hard as leather or so underdone it oinked! Ship is very similar to Grand Class. Staterooms are identical.

[tdf799]

We also were on the Diamond last week and saw the free ice cream and garnishments in the horizon court a few times after lunch. It might have been there every day and we just didn't notice.

[CassCruise]

Could anyone tell me whether any of the pools are heated and what the weather is likely to be like late November???

 

Thanks

 

Jane

[geoherb]

I'm sure the pools will be heated if necessary. We haven't been on the Diamond, but we enjoyed swimming on the Golden on our New England/Canada cruise and on the Star in Alaska.

 

I don't think any Princess ships have the capability of letting you check your bill through the TV. I think it was on a Celebrity cruise that we could do this.

[Pam in CA]

You can check your bill at any time, day or night, at the Purser's Desk. I usually check it a couple of times during the cruise, particularly when I don't see anyone else in line so I don't have to wait.

 

Song of Norway & Song of America, 1986-88; Royal Princess 2/99; Sun Princess 1/00; Ocean Princess 12/00; Royal Princess 4/01; Grand Princess 12/23/01; Sea Princess 2/9/02; Explorer of the Seas 12/21/02; Coral Princess 8/9/03; Nordic Empress 12/27/03.

 

-- Regal Princess (4/20/04) -- Roll Call

-- Caribbean Princess (12/26/04) -- Roll Call

-- Royal Princess (4/21/05)

[nycruise]

Isn't re-filling used glasses, cups, waterbottles, etc,. considered a health violation. When we were on the NCL Dawn, we were asked to always use a clean cup or glass for re-fills, less chance of passing on a bug.

[sneekpeek]

The ice tea, coffee etc was set up in such a way that your glass did not have to touch anything. You could fill a clean glass and then pour it into your water bottle. I also brought a big insulated coffee mug and we would get up very early, get a big mug of coffee and curl up in a lounge chair and watch the sun come up!

[Rat]

Sneekpeek,

 

Are there any VCRs in the staterooms?

[sneekpeek]

No VCR's but lots of movies on tv. New releases and lots for kids

[Rat]

Thank you Sneekpeek! We leave in 3 days!

[LV Artemis]

The weather in late November in Mexico will probably be in the low to mid 80's. We were on the Star in early November 03 and the temperature was very pleasant. The weather last week was perfect! Sunny in every port.

It's too bad that Princess doesn't use more of its empty TV channels to show more movies. We always write this in our comment cards, but it never gets acted upon. There are about four channels on TV that only have the Princess logo on them. We usually bring our laptop to watch some of our own DVDs late at night.

[thenewkid]

Good Info.

Thanks

 

Millie Med. Cruise

[tdf799]

Here is one additional tidbit/gripe, maybe because the Diamond is brand new, the door closers seem to be on steroids. We were awakened numerous times, Baha deck, by people letting go of the cabin door when they came and left. The result is quite a door slam. Do your fellow passengers a favor and try to hang on to the door when is closes behind you.

[Herzmel1]

This is great. I have had so many questions answered but I have one more.... Can my son bring his Playstation and hook it up to the tv. Then he can play his games and watch some movies.

 

Thanks

Melissa

[derf5585]

DIAMOND PRINCESS FUN FACTS

from

http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na654&submit=pk

 

(24,000 Rolls of Toilet Tissue)

 

USS Chilton APA-38 1966-1968

USS Guam LPH-9 1968-1970

Pacific Princess Oct 21 2001 Bermuda

Golden Princess Dec 7 2002 "Eastern Caribbean"

Coral Princess Dec 9 2003 "Panama Canal"

 

Carnival Miracle 17 Oct 2004

 

NOT UPDATED again 25 Feb www.geocities.com/fsbsdel

 

 

[sneekpeek]

Hersmel1

The TV in my room was very high up so get one of those extension cords for the controller I bought one at Best Buy. It looked like a regular TV so you should be able to do it. Also I don't know how old your son is, but I did notice one day that the kids program was having a Nindendo 64 tournament so you might want to check that out. The kids program had a "kids patter" every day. Someone on this board might have them.