Kon'nichiwa もしもし LAFFNVEGAS Live From The Diamond Princess

[ger_77]

Wow, that breakfast looks like it would be enough for at least 4 people!  I'm really enjoying following along with you and Tom - thanks for bringing us with you!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[BikeTreker]

My wife and I have been following and enjoying your posts.  They bring back many fond memories of Japan.  Japan is an interesting and exciting country and you are lucky to be visiting again.  We circled the islands on an Azamara cruise which we throughly enjoyed.  While we traveled, and following our return,  I blogged about our experiences and included numerous photos in my posts.  We stopped, from what I can tell, at few different ports than you have or will.  For those that may have an interest they can find my blog at www.travelswithcappy.com.  Just go to the Adventures page and look for “Cherry Blossom time in the Land of Geishas and Samurais, April 2019.”  We look forward to reading your posts and following you as you travel on.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

おはようございます

Ohayōgozaimasu

Good Monday Morning, Sabatini’s does not open till 7:30 for breakfast but Club Class opens at 7 so decided to eat there. We meet for our tour at 8:30 but will have to go through Japanese Immigration first. We do that because our last stop was Busan. Today looks to be absolutely beautiful.

Today

 

 

 

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We are at Miyajima Island, words cannot express how much I love this place, I want to spend at least a week here.

Unfortunately the Tori gates are under refurbishment. 

[MaryBethV]

I am really enjoying your "live from" - you have a great writing style and I love all the detail. I passed the link on to our 25yo son who is trying to plan a trip to Japan with his friends in the next year. 🙂

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Good Tuesday Morning from the Diamond Princess, 

We are sitting in the Explorers Lounge watching people walk by and chatting with fellow cruisers. I will say this has been one of the most friendly cruises we have been on.

We watched the Galley Tour walk by that was at least 150 + people I have never seen a galley tour that big.

We started the morning with a lot of rockin and rollin. I looked out had saw lots of huge white caps. 

We got up and went to deck 7 to Sabatini’s for our last breakfast in there for the cruise. Tomorrow we will have breakfast in Sante Fe in Club Class before we head to the airport. 

I stopped by the Fragrance Shop decided to purchase another fragrance. 

Yesterday at Miyajima Island we put a dent in our yen so it is good that we packed one small suit case inside a larger suit case to bring home lots of goodies. 

 

Tomorrow will be a very long day that will last about 40 hours I think from the time we leave till we land in Vegas it will be about 31 hours. 

Captain just did his noon time report so I think we will head over to see what will be served for dinner tonight. If nothing jumps out at us we may eat in Sterling. 

Signing off from the Beautiful and Friendly Diamond Princess.

[tompeter]

Thanks for the reporting. Sorry your trip is ending already.

[travelnap]

Hope you two have a safe trip home.  I don't envy you two for the long flights you are going to have.  I remember one trip coming back from Thailand years ago.  Flight left at midnight, then a 9 hour layover at Narita, and then a 4 hour layover at LAX, and then finally landed in Minneapolis late at night.  All in all it took over 36 hours and needless to say, very tired by the time I got home.  Look forward to meeting both you and Tom in November.  Thanks for your forum, it was really nice to travel along with you two, and your pictures were great.   Neil

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Good Afternoon from the ANA Businesses Class Lounge at Narita Terminal 1, we have about 90 minutes till we board our flight. It was rather sad leaving the ship this morning. I have to say that this was the first Cruise in a very long time that we met so many fellow passengers that I know we will be keep in touch as well as got to know many of the crew. Lots of hugs and farewells this morning. Last night I was surprised that when we went down to dinner at about almost 6 appeared most had their luggage out already. We thought that was strange but by the time we finished dinner they were collecting bags. We had dinner with some of the new friends we made which was really nice.

This has truly been a wonderful cruise that will definitely be memorable starting the cruise with a category 3 Typhoon is definitely one for the record for us. 😉 I think Princess did a wonderful job under the circumstances. Many thanks to the Captain and crew.

We had one final meal being breakfast in Santa Fe Club Class Dining Room. Many of the crew came over to us to-wish us safe travels.

Debarkation was the usual hurry up and wait. It was raining as we left the Osanbashi Cruise Terminal the same as it was in October 2017. This time we made great time getting to Narita, it took less than 2 hours.

It’s now about midnight at home and we will land in Las Vegas in about 21 hours. 

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I forgot to mention we had a good but rather expensive lunch here at Narita we wanted something Japanese yet Tom wanted Wagyu beef so we ate Yakiniku , Tom had the Wagyu and I had short ribs. I also had some amazing Plum Wine.

The first picture is last breakfast on Diamond.

[TorontoTL]

Thanks so much for taking the time and internet minutes to post all of your commentary and photos of your awesome Japan cruise.  It gives me so much to look forward to this November.  Have a safe trip home.

[Junebug624]

Hi. I just want to add that we free from Toronto to Haneda, took a $70 tax ridei to Hotel Monterey and walked to the terminal the next day. We liked the hotel very much and the breakfast was very lovely. Our cost was $146 for room facing the bay and the breakfast through   Japanican.com. We could have taken a less expensive transfer but hesitated to in new country and with our cruise luggage. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

2 hours ago, Junebug624 said:

Hi. I just want to add that we free from Toronto to Haneda, took a $70 tax ridei to Hotel Monterey and walked to the terminal the next day. We liked the hotel very much and the breakfast was very lovely. Our cost was $146 for room facing the bay and the breakfast through   Japanican.com. We could have taken a less expensive transfer but hesitated to in new country and with our cruise luggage. 

 

That is great, we saw where the Hotel Monterey was when we were on the bus to Narita, yes it is very close and really $70.00 is not that bad from Haneda. We have said that if we return to sail out of Yokohama we would do the same since we have now stayed in Shinjuku 2 times.

We are back home and feels like it's been weeks since we were in Japan, I will try to come back to this thread tomorrow evening to do a wrap of and also post some pictures from the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet.

[JWUC]

Lisa, we were on the cruise with you. I finally got around to reading your live from the Diamond Princess. We sailed her in Alaska about 8 years ago. I really enjoyed the Japanese upgrades. We also ate in Kai Sushi during the scenic cruising, We really enjoyed it. We also were entertained by the dual cruise directors: Brian and Ken. They got off the ship in Yokohama. "Frenchie" was the entertainment director. She was Brian and Ken's boss. She was telling me about the new cruise directors that were coming on in Yokohama.

 

We did a walk off in Yokohama and took a cab to Keio Plaza Hotel. We wanted to get to Tokyo Disney at a reasonable hour. It was dry when we left at 7 AM. We had a couple wonderful days in Keio Plaza/Tokyo Disney. We flew home on Friday. Managed to catch a 100+ MPH tailwind and the flight was just a little over 8 hours between Haneda and SFO,.

 

Dan stayed on the ship 5 more days. He said that over 2000 Japanese boarded in Yokohama after we got off. Probably made for a very different feel aboard ship.

 

Thanks for your post. Glad you also enjoyed the cruise.

[CruzinNoony]

On 9/22/2019 at 9:51 PM, LAFFNVEGAS said:

That is great, we saw where the Hotel Monterey was when we were on the bus to Narita, yes it is very close and really $70.00 is not that bad from Haneda. We have said that if we return to sail out of Yokohama we would do the same since we have now stayed in Shinjuku 2 times.

We are back home and feels like it's been weeks since we were in Japan, I will try to come back to this thread tomorrow evening to do a wrap of and also post some pictures from the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to do your "live from".  We live in Henderson, so are neighbors!  We are booked on a cruise in Japan the end of June, 2020.  I'm looking forward to seeing your "wrap up".