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

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Have a great voyage. Have enjoyed your Live Froms for years! Thanks.

[jhannah]

Business class is the way to go on flights that long. Hopefully you can get some good rest enroute and arrive ready to roll.

[ger_77]

Hopefully you're now safely tucked into your bed in the hotel, enjoying a good rest before you hit the ground running!  Oyasuminasai (good night in Japanese).

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Ohayōgozaimasu 

おはようございます

Good Morning from Tokyo, it’s now 6:15 m as I start to write this, I woke up about 5 am because my back was killing me. That is probably the only thing we dislike about the Keio Plaza and that is beds that feel like your sleeping on a concrete floor. 

 

Let me start back back from where I left off. 

Flight was good but of course very long. We were really impressed with the service on Air Canada and the food was excellent. I forgot to take pictures of the main dinner entree and the breakfast but did of the Lite snack which I chose Dim Sum and Noodles 

The beginning of the flight I watched the movie Rocketman, which was better than I heard it was. 

Over all the flight was good with just small amount of turbulence. 

I had honestly thought I would sleep more but did not and either did Tom so having gotten up Wednesday morning pacific time the time not sleeping we were starting to feel really out of it.

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We arrived arrived In Tokyo at 3:31pm Friday and while landing I turned on my phone to immediately get “Welcome to Japan your Verizon Travel Pass has started”

its just like being at home wiry my phone except it’s costing me an extra $10 a day 😉 lol

We got off the plane and before going to Immigration and retrieving our luggage we stopped at the Bathroom. Let me state I LOVE Japanese toilets 😜👍🏻 I learned to use them last time, so it was a welcome sight.

 

We lined up to go through Immigration like most things in Japan efficient. Then went to the luggage carousel and our luggage was already there, then one last stop to hand in our Declaration Card, last time they stopped us to search my suitcase but it was actually Tom’s that I had. But this time they passed us right through. 

 

The first thing we saw was the Tokyo 2020 sign so of course I had to take a picture. 

Then next was people waiting to greet people and right in the middle was a lady with a Princess Cruises sign, I smiled at her and she said Welcome to Tokyo Mr and Mrs Laffin. Then she point at her clip board with our names and said this is you and we said yes.

she then explained that the bus we were taking would be there in 20 minutes so we sat down for about 10 in an area that was still inside but very and humid. 

From the time we got off the plane it looked totally different than last time so I believe we were in a different terminal than two years ago.

Princess places you on the “Friendly Transfer Bus” we would be the second stop with it going to Shinjuku. The time to get to the hotel too 2 hours because the traffic was nothing but bumper to bumper snail pace through the tunnel freeway.

Finally we arrived at the Keio Plaza Hotel it looked just like it did 2 years, lots of people were checking in as we were. 

We were given a South Tower room like last time but facing a different direction but if I look to the far left I can see the Metropolitan Building that we were facing last time. 

By the time we got to our room we just dropped stuff off and we had already decided we would just eat dinner at the Glass Court Buffet here at the hotel. YES everything thing in the hotel is expensive with the exception of the gift which I will get to in a bit. 

The Buffet was good I love Japanese food but Tom is very picky but he still found plenty to eat as a hotel guest you get 10% off but they gave us the senior price lol so 2 Senior Dinner buffets were 13200 yen which is about $123.45 US then they had my favorite sake Dassai which the menu stated 2600 yen but the only charged me 1100 yen and Tom had a Asahi beer which was 1450 yen. Our total charge was 14175 yen, they asked if I wanted it charged in US or Yen. I told them US. I probably should have said Yen because we have we have a Capital One Venture card that does not charge us a foreign transaction fee because then I saw the hotel charged a 3.5% mark up for converting. Oh well at this point I am seriously not working with all brain cells lol so it was $138.29.

We then rode the elevator to the 45th floor to take a look at the Sky Lounge called Aurora. It look nice it was truly time to go to bed. So we headed to the room but stopped quickly at the gift store near the elevator. Tom got three plastic bottles of coke I believe they are 16 oz and I got a bottle of green tea. So each were about $1.12 which to me is a bargain.

Ok think I will get shower and dressed for the day. We are going to return to do the Breakfast Buffet since we remember that was really good last time. Then we have reservations at 11:30 here at the hotel for a Japanese Tea Ceremony. Then SHOPPING 😜

 

 

[ausbod]

We and are friends from Los Angeles are booked on the 17 night Diamond Princess voyage on 1st September next year so will be following you with interest.

Enjoy your vacation. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Kon'nichiwa, from Shinjuku, it is 4:30 Saturday afternoon and we are exhausted. Sadly I am not in near as good of shape since we were here 2 years ago. But the very high humidity that this person from the Las Vegas desert is just not use to. 

We enjoyed our morning with having the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Then we did the Japanese Tea ceremony to my surprise we were the only ones so it was basically a private session. The lady who did the Tea ceremony was great and she was going on her 6th Princess Cruise next month. 

After the Tea ceremony we took off walking, looking at some of the side street near the hotel and decking where we might have dinner tonight. Then I dragged Tom shopping in the Keio Department Store. I bought both a pair of earrings and a necklace. We also went to the 8th floor where there were numerous restaurants. We found a Tonkatu Restaurant that was quite good. 

We are now back in the room feeling like we could crawl into bed.

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Then this is a picture of our hotel room and then a street few looking toward the hotel. 

[jhannah]

Looks great! Interesting that the beds are so hard.  We found the same thing in Russia. Ouch!

 

Thanks for taking us along. 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Greetings, this evening we went walking the little side streets of Shinjuku looking for where we might have dinner. This is normally a bit of a challenge finding something that Tom will like. I would be more than happy to go into any Noodle shop or pick a place that serves nothing but sushi 😉

tonight we found a interesting little hole in the wall actually down under that you went down these narrow steps to a place called Kingdom of Teppan. I have to admit it was not very good. It was an interesting experience though lol

Afterwards we went back to a shoe store I saw earlier today that I liked these Nike Air walking shoes, I have a hard time finding a size 5 at home, a 22.5 fit perfect for walking shoes. Definitely a good price at $70.

Then came back to the hotel gift shop and got some Haagen daz ice cream, I got a Green Tea and Tom got Strawberry 😃

Tomorrow will be another interesting day, we will be with the wife of a very good friend. He is not currently home because he works on a cruise ship but we are excited to spend the day with her.

 

 

[kazu]

Great pics Lisa

Your hotel looks nice as does the tea service.

Glad you were able to take advantage of the Signature Class with Air Canada.  You’re correct that Toronto is the only one with this lounge (so far).

 

Enjoying your posts and will be following as always, but with extra interest since Japan is on our list for next year 🙂 

[riffatsea]

Hi,

It is interesting to read about your experiences in Japan. I look forward to reading about the cruise as well. I have been to Japan twice on solo land trips and really love my time there! I am considering a cruise as DH would be more comfortable on a ship than on land!

In my experience Tokyo has wonderful restaurants of all sorts.They actually have more Michelin *places than any other city in the world!!

I usually plan ahead of time where I'll eat with help from Trip Advisor forums and eating web sites like chowhound or eater.

There is also a great local experience you can book if you want to eat in a Japanese home with a family.  You can pick either lunch or dinner .

https://www.nagomivisit.com/

It is a wonderful experience if you have an extra day in any Japanese city!!

 

Thanks for writing so much detail!! Looking forward to the rest!!

[Kenswing]

Can't wait to read your report.  We'll be on the Diamond for 18 days in April.

 

Air Canada has a great Business Class product.  We flew them to Sydney and will be flying them again to Tokyo.

 

Have a great cruise!

[sassyredhat]

Living vicariously Lisa.  Following on Facebook too.  

Thanks for such details. 🙂

 

Patti

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Good Evening from Tokyo, it was another full day. We got up this morning and had the Hotel Buffet again, then about 10:30 a wife of a good friend of ours came to meet us at our hotel. Two years ago when we were here in Tokyo we spent three days with them seeing most of the must see sights such as shrines, Shibuya, Ginza, this time we did not do quite as much touristy things  although did do a lot of walking like today was almost 5 miles. One thing I wanted to do was walk down Takeshita Street in  Harajuku which is quite different, then we went to a Brazilian Grill Restaurant which was excellent. Then we went to the huge Bic Camera Store which is far more than Cameras, more like a Fry’s Electronic but far more. I wanted to purchase a hair dryer like the one we have in our hotel which is a Panasonic and Tom wanted the clock like we have in the hotel room on the night stand that is a Seiko. We found both and actually lower priced than I expected. 

The one thing interesting is on all of these purchases we have made they offer to sell them with the tax exemption. 

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

We will finally be boarding the ship tomorrow, we were originally told check out time and assemble to transfer to Yokohama would take place at 10:45 then depart at 11 am which we were thrilled because it will take at least an hour to get there, but now it states to assemble for the transfer at 12:15 and we will not depart till 12:30.

We are very excited to return to the Diamond and to what we consider is our Suite. 

Two years ago we were very fortunate enough that we had book mini suite E731 but about 8 weeks prior had an Upsell offer to B751 Owners Suite , we loved it. This cruise we again had booked mini suite E731 and kinda of hoped for an Upsell offer, but we were told they had closed all cabin categories several weeks ago to allow for the Asian market to sell. 

Well about 3 weeks ago I got the email for the Upsell offer 😃 I was shock and excited did the usual calling and leaving a message, well about 90 minutes later I get the return call, well to my total shock and amazement we were offered B751. I could not believe it. So we will return to our favorite suite..

 

Tomorrow we are thinking in the morning of the day is not cloudy that in the morning we would up to the top of the Metropolitan Government Building to see Mt Fuji but only if it is clear.

 

I think I will call it a night. 

 

 

[san diego sue]

Lisa,

Last week on a Princess cruise I asked a friend who cruises Holland a lot if she knew who you were and she didn't.

I told her about "the Wave" from San Diego and about you. I wondered if you were sailing and with which cruise line.To my big surprise, there you are on Princess.Have a wonderful time on the Diamond(one of my favorite Princess ships).

Regards

Gloria (san diego sue)

[ger_77]

We love the Bic Camera Store - it's an electronics playground!  I bought the greatest little travel hairdryer there, and take it with me whenever we go on trips!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[Gaznjo]

We have friends on the diamond who said they missed their last port so they could get in front of a Typhoon....  they arrived in Yokohama a day early and are bunkered outside the harbour as it is closed....  probably why embark has been delayed

[LAFFNVEGAS]

8 hours ago, san diego sue said:

Lisa,

Last week on a Princess cruise I asked a friend who cruises Holland a lot if she knew who you were and she didn't.

I told her about "the Wave" from San Diego and about you. I wondered if you were sailing and with which cruise line.To my big surprise, there you are on Princess.Have a wonderful time on the Diamond(one of my favorite Princess ships).

Regards

Gloria (san diego sue)

Hi Gloria, yes I am still around , I took a break for a while from Cruise Critic so have not posted much on the Hal board, although was on the NA this past March and 6 weeks after this Diamond Cruise we are on the Eurodam, then excited to go on the Royal in February, those were fun cruising days when we did the Web Cam Wave, it was a great way to meet fellow Roll Call members. If there was a good web cam in San Diego or even LA for Princess I would it organize to do it again.

Glad you are following along.😃

[LAFFNVEGAS]

8 hours ago, ger_77 said:

We love the Bic Camera Store - it's an electronics playground!  I bought the greatest little travel hairdryer there, and take it with me whenever we go on trips!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Ger, yes one could spend days in the big store in Shinjuku, I thought prices were great. 

[mthomp5]

Thanks for your live report!  Can’t wait to see pics of the Diamond Princess and read about your journey.

 

Bon Voyage!

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Evidently there was a Typhoon that hit toward Yokohama last night and there was a storm here in Tokyo, I thought I heard lots of wind last night.

They have now changed out departure time from the hotel a third time, it’s now at 1:50pm we’re being told the current passengers were not disembarking till after 11 this morning 

Also all of us were receiving the text message.

 

PRINCESS CRUISES UPDATE: Check-in for your Diamond Princess cruise will now begin at 2:30 PM rather than 1:00 PM due to the ship's delayed arrival. Guests may drop off their baggage and enjoy the surrounding area until check-in begins.  

 

I am assuming our 5 pm Sailaway is also being delayed not sure what time will be sail away.

 

We have checked out of the hotel, so now we wait, there are two full bus loads of passengers that were staying here at the hotel. From the conversations it sounds like many are from Australia. 

 

The weather forecast shows partly cloudy now in Yokohama and into tonight so should a bit nicer but could be some rough seas.

 

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Update: we are close to boarding the bus but hearing there are some road out and closed near Yokohama so getting to the ship will most likely take longer. Unknown when sail away will be tonight.

They did just say it will be at least 90 minutes to the pier and that it is very crowded at the pier since they have not started check in.

[travelnap]

Bon Voyage Lisa & Tom, now that you two are finally heading off for your cruise.  Congrats for getting the upgrade to your favorite suite.  Great pictures of your time in Japan.  I hope the typhoon is all gone now and you have some decent seas for your cruise.