Live from the Diamond, July 10-27, 17-day B2B around Japan and Korea

Ken the cruiser · July 13, 2023

Day 5 - July 14 - Sakaiminato, Japan

Ken the cruiser · July 13, 2023

Here’s a description of the 8 1/2 hour excursion we’re going on tomorrow once we’re docked in Sakaiminato.

And the weather forecast looks like the rain may hold off until we’re back in the bus on our 2-hour ride back to the ship. 🤞

Steelers36 · July 13, 2023

On 7/11/2023 at 7:35 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Here’s a fun fact we learned yesterday at Guest Services. We wound up having to book our cruise with different booking numbers, as there were no M1 Reserve Collection mini-suites available on their advertised 17-day combined itinerary on the website. So the question we had was does our account balance roll over to the second leg’s booking on transition day, or is the account closed out?

Well, it depends. If you have any remaining refundable OBC from the first leg, it will carry over to the next leg. However, any leftover nonrefundable OBC will be lost. If there is an outstanding account balance at the end of the first leg, it will be charged to your credit card rather than being carried over to the next leg’s account. So if you were hoping to use any OBC posted to the second leg’s booking to offset any extra expenses on the first leg, forget it. OTOH if we had been able to book the advertised 17-day itinerary under one booking, then all would have been good as the shipboard account would cover the entire 17-day span.

We had always booked a combined itinerary under one booking number in the past, like our recent 21-day Med cruise last summer, which was actually three 7-day cruises. So we just assumed it was the same if booked as a separate B2B with separate booking numbers. Nope.

I don't see the above as a "fun" fact. This represents a change from our past experience. On our most recent multiple-cruise voyage (B2B2B) - also in Mediterranean and we were on Regal like you, we had separate bookings (normally I do it this way for various reasons) and our account was not settled until the final leg.

Makes me wonder if Diamond is an outlier or if PCL has changed procedure sometime in 2023. I suppose this could be viewed as a PCL "money grab" if they are erasing unused OBC earlier than before. It can be seen as potentially saving them revenue.

Ken the cruiser · July 13, 2023

24 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

I don't see the above as a "fun" fact. This represents a change from our past experience. On our most recent multiple-cruise voyage (B2B2B) - also in Mediterranean and we were on Regal like you, we had separate bookings (normally I do it this way for various reasons) and our account was not settled until the final leg.

Makes me wonder if Diamond is an outlier or if PCL has changed procedure sometime in 2023. I suppose this could be viewed as a PCL "money grab" if they are erasing unused OBC earlier than before. It can be seen as potentially saving them revenue.

I agree, it did seem odd based on prior experiences. But as they say, talk is cheap. When we start our second leg on July 19, we will check our “new” account to see if our outstanding debt from the first leg was transferred over to the second leg or zeroed out and subsequently charged to our CC.

Unfortunately, we won’t have any nonrefundable (or refundable) OBC left over to see how that is handled on transition day when a B2B has separate booking numbers.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

have2vacation · July 13, 2023

We don’t see any excursions for our 10 day in April 2024 yet. In your experience when will they be available? This is our first Japan cruise and we are eager to book excursions before they are sold out.

SimplyMarvie · July 13, 2023

29 minutes ago, have2vacation said:

We don’t see any excursions for our 10 day in April 2024 yet. In your experience when will they be available? This is our first Japan cruise and we are eager to book excursions before they are sold out.

I wouldn't worry to much... we board the Diamond 7/27 and there's still plenty of options available.

hozelovr123 · July 13, 2023

On 7/11/2023 at 5:43 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

We’re planning to go with our family to the White and Gold event, so I’m sure I’ll be posting pictures of it that night.

For us newbies, what is white and gold?

have2vacation · July 13, 2023

2 hours ago, hozelovr123 said:

For us newbies, what is white and gold?

I haven’t experienced it either. I did find this on the princess website.

Steelers36 · July 13, 2023

2 hours ago, hozelovr123 said:

For us newbies, what is white and gold?

From recent reports, it seems a minority of guests bother to dress in white/gold combo. You can enjoy events whether dressed or not in white & gold.

jawsbad · July 13, 2023

We will be on the July 27 - Aug 4 sailing and have booked Princess transfer to Haneda. Can you tell me at what time are they scheduling departures. Our flight doesn’t leave until 6:25 pm and plan to take the monorail back into Tokyo for a half day sightseeing on our own. It would be helpful to know how much time we might have.

have2vacation · July 13, 2023

26 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

From recent reports, it seems a minority of guests bother to dress in white/gold combo. You can enjoy events whether dressed or not in white & gold.

I was thinking Asia might be different and people may participate. We like to bring outfits for the parties if we know about them in advance.

DeeTO · July 13, 2023

5 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I agree, it did seem odd based on prior experiences. But as they say, talk is cheap. When we start our second leg on July 19, we will check our “new” account to see if our outstanding debt from the first leg was transferred over to the second leg or zeroed out and subsequently charged to our CC.

Unfortunately, we won’t have any nonrefundable (or refundable) OBC left over to see how that is handled on transition day when a B2B has separate booking numbers.

I am interested to hear what happens to you on transition day as we have 2, 7 day Med Btb different booking # cruises in Aug on Enchanted P.

charlie murphy · July 13, 2023

1 hour ago, jawsbad said:

We will be on the July 27 - Aug 4 sailing and have booked Princess transfer to Haneda. Can you tell me at what time are they scheduling departures. Our flight doesn’t leave until 6:25 pm and plan to take the monorail back into Tokyo for a half day sightseeing on our own. It would be helpful to know how much time we might have.

we just did this. you will want to walk off the ship as early as possible. We took taxis to the Haneda airport. We got luggage tags and boarding passes. We then stored our luggage. We tried to check in bags, in but they would not let us, they told us at the bag drop we had to wait until 12 noon. Finding storage is difficult, but there are 2 places and lockers , I do not know if this could be prearranged, but next time will try to prearrange storage. Then we took the train to Meiju Jingu shrine and shibaya crossing. They are close . we had time to spend at the shrine, we had to time to walk around the crossing / shop a bit , we had time to sit and have ramen and get boba. then return to the airport. We collect out luggage and made our way to the gate without rushing any part of the itinerary. We had a flight from Haneda to LA at 7ish, that i think may be the 625 flight. ( american airlines. ) .

We skipped the transfer ( ship to airport) (cancelled it on board) as it left later than we were comfortable with. I think 915ish disembark, and then not sure how long to collect out luggage and for them to collect everyone to fill the shuttle before departing.

good luck

you can do it!

Steelers36 · July 13, 2023

56 minutes ago, DeeTO said:

I am interested to hear what happens to you on transition day as we have 2, 7 day Med Btb different booking # cruises in Aug on Enchanted P.

Nothing special for B2B outside US ports.

charlie murphy · July 13, 2023

Jawbad: and others, with independent travel , get the PASMO (sp) card it helps a lot with the trains. You can also use this card at vending machines. it is not refundable so put $ on carefully. only problem is we could not figure out how to load card with anything other than cash.

Ken the cruiser · July 13, 2023

We have arrived in Sakaiminato! Since we will be leaving in a few minutes for our excursion, all add my two cents to the above dialog in the area where I might me of assistance when we get back. But please carry on. 😁

jawsbad · July 13, 2023

1 hour ago, charlie murphy said:

we just did this. you will want to walk off the ship as early as possible. We took taxis to the Haneda airport. We got luggage tags and boarding passes. We then stored our luggage. We tried to check in bags, in but they would not let us, they told us at the bag drop we had to wait until 12 noon. Finding storage is difficult, but there are 2 places and lockers , I do not know if this could be prearranged, but next time will try to prearrange storage. Then we took the train to Meiju Jingu shrine and shibaya crossing. They are close . we had time to spend at the shrine, we had to time to walk around the crossing / shop a bit , we had time to sit and have ramen and get boba. then return to the airport. We collect out luggage and made our way to the gate without rushing any part of the itinerary. We had a flight from Haneda to LA at 7ish, that i think may be the 625 flight. ( american airlines. ) .

We skipped the transfer ( ship to airport) (cancelled it on board) as it left later than we were comfortable with. I think 915ish disembark, and then not sure how long to collect out luggage and for them to collect everyone to fill the shuttle before departing.

good luck

you can do it!

How much did the taxi cost to Haneda? Good to know about having to store the bags. Where in the terminal are the lockers and what do they cost? Can you use a credit card or just yen. Will have 2 26” and a 19” pilot bag plus backpack.

SimplyMarvie · July 14, 2023

9 hours ago, charlie murphy said:

Jawbad: and others, with independent travel , get the PASMO (sp) card it helps a lot with the trains. You can also use this card at vending machines. it is not refundable so put $ on carefully. only problem is we could not figure out how to load card with anything other than cash.

I think the Suica cards are refundable, so I'm planning on doing that one. The "Welcome" Suica with the cherry blossoms apparently is zero deposit and refundable. Will report back on how that works, but agree with your main point -- you definitely want a stored value card for trains and vending machines.

Kellyansapansa · July 14, 2023

2 hours ago, SimplyMarvie said:

I think the Suica cards are refundable, so I'm planning on doing that one. The "Welcome" Suica with the cherry blossoms apparently is zero deposit and refundable. Will report back on how that works, but agree with your main point -- you definitely want a stored value card for trains and vending machines.

Yes, Suica cards are refundable. You can even get a personalised Suica card with your name on it which is a cute souvenir. You can do it all through the self service machines. If you Google 'Suica machine instructions in English' you will find plenty of step by step guides. Print one of these off and take it with you because the machines can be a bit confusing. And yes, you can only use cash to top up the card.

Ken the cruiser · July 14, 2023

Here are some pictures as we were cruising into the bay on our way to docking at the pier in Sakaiminato.

Finally got to see some more wildlife! 😂

The pier where we docked at.

Then we were off on our excursion!

Views of Lake Shinji on our drive to and from the various shrines we saw today.

Along the way, we saw more rice paddy fields, which got me to thinking, what does rice look like when it’s ready to harvest in the Oct/Nov timeframe?

Shimane Museum of Ancient Izumo, which was next to the Izumo Grand Shrine.

And a few photos from the outside garden area.

Izumo Grand Shrine

And finally I was able to see the elusive Izumo Pigeon sitting on top of one of the shrines! 😂

Lunch provided which also came with a free wine tasting area after lunch that offered 18 different wines to sample! The one in the blue bottle was the best, if you like sweet wines! 😉