Japan Cruises

[Prince-hulse]

HI all, just got back from the Diamond Princess (20th April Cruise)

Everything was as you would expect for such a cruise which is geared towards the Japanese/Asian clientel.

 

The ship is OK, looking very tired in deck areas though, none of the water features work in any of the pools and the ladies Sauna was broken and has been for some time.

Deck hands are out and about doing floating works as usual , sanding down handrails and painting everywhere to try and improve the view which is well and good but they don' bother to secure the area so expect dust, fumes and heavy power tools out on deck during these upgrades!!.

 

It cabin D714 was fine once we cleaned out the blocked sink ourselves and steam cleaned the shower area. There is very poor water pressure throughout the ship so be prepared to soap up under a dribbling shower head.

Cabin D714 had a high volume noise and rattling coming from below generally between the hours of 13.00 and 15.00. Sounds like a compactor but the noise is from the Electrical cupboard directly below on the deck below. Staff did resolve the noises once we complained so they obviously know what it is and can stop it if you contact them.

 

Food very basic but is obviously geared towards the Asians- plenty of noodles- breakfast by normal standards for a cruise line has a very poor selection .

 

Staff generally attentive but dont expect to see any Officers around, or Social Hostess for that matter. A very matter of fact attitude around the ship and I heard a few people had been double charged at the bars so check you bills regularly

 

Tours very expensive but again thats because of the Asian market who don't seem to mind paying high prices for a basic tour.

Ship to town transfer shuttles where charged as an extra - $10 seems to be the general cost - again surely when you cannot leave the dock and get to Town without using Transfer services you would include them in the Cruise Fare - just a nice little extra when theres 3000 plus guests @ $10 a head !!

The transfers where good and dropped you at the local JR train station, there you would walk to your destination or catch the train.

 

Carnival look to be rebranding the Cruiseline/Ship as a lot of the Staff wear Carnival Japan name badges and not Princess badges as you may expect.

 

The ports where great if you head into the fishmarkets, especially Busan

All in all a basic cruise at 3 stars from us, the best facilities where room service and the TV schedule which hopefully you will not need as we did as we picked up the dreaded Norovirus on the last day.

 

I believe the ship is going to be refurbished soon, let's hope they clean it properly too!!

4 days self confinement at home is not how to finish such a long trip :mad:

[moki'smommy]

I was surprised to read that there is now a charge to get into town. 2 years ago, free bus transportation was provided by the city in almost every port. Guess they figured they can't make money off us if we couldn't get to town to spend it. And $10 seems steep--SOME of those transports were 5 miles, but some were more like 5 blocks.

[sewgood]

Thanks for your report. Have you eaten any noodles yet since returning home? :D (Just kidding)

 

Interesting about the Carnival name badges worn by staff. I wonder what that's all about.

 

Besides the fish markets were there any other sites on land that you enjoyed or would recommend to fellow cruisecritic members thinking about doing a Japanese cruise?

 

Karryl

[moki'smommy]

We did 20 nights of cruising in Japan on a B2B, 11 +9 nights. There were some different ports, but some overlap. One of the cruises was called "Festivals" and was particularly interesting as there were parades and celebrations of the harvest at each port. Each community does this differently. Amori was particularly interesting as the floats were different than anything I'd seen before. We did a tour which took us to part of the parade during the day and to visit a museum that featured the floats from the previous year. We chose to return to the ship on our own and spent more time which (as a fluke) allowed us to see them moving the current floats into the garages. Then, from the ship, we saw the evening celebration where the floats were on the water all illuminated.

 

Other ports featured parades of stilt walkers, fireworks, etc.

Unfortunately I mix up a lot of what was in which stop...we visited a monkey sanctuary, a LOT of temples and shrines (the temple in Busan is huge and worth the trip...lots of stairs, but lovely and worth it), some historical fortresses, etc. We were there during the Pokemon Go phase, and had one guide who told us that a particular location was becoming famous for the "pocket monsters."

 

It was a totally unique cruise, and one that I'd highly recommend. One warning--almost every port offers an excursion to Mount Fugi. Do your homework and find out which one will involve the shortest bus ride--the transportation is typically hours. We actually did this as a day trip from Tokyo. There was an option of the bus ride back or the bullet train--take the train!

[Prince-hulse]

Thanks for your report. Have you eaten any noodles yet since returning home? :D (Just kidding)

 

Interesting about the Carnival name badges worn by staff. I wonder what that's all about.

 

Besides the fish markets were there any other sites on land that you enjoyed or would recommend to fellow cruisecritic members thinking about doing a Japanese cruise?

 

Karryl

 

Hakodate has a nice looking brewery very close to the JR station if thats your thing, it is closed all day Wednesday though.

Would recommend a Mount Fugi Tour, Bullet Train etc and Tea Ceremony too, all very interesting. We did our tours separately because the Cruise line tours where expensive any very long - most of your port time was spent on the bus if you're not careful . Viator.com are reasonable for tours but make sure you leave plenty of time to get back to the Ship as they don't wait for you!

[sewgood]

Thanks Prince-hulse and moki'smommy for your suggestions of what to research for our trip to Japan.

Sounds like good suggestions and a I missed the temple last time we were in Busan went up the tower instead.

 

Always good to hear what other people found interesting. Especially with doing repositioning cruises from Australia always looking for new things to do. :) :)