Anyone just back from an Alaska cruise on Diamond??

[FunForUs]

Hi everyone,

 

We are leaving next week on the Diamond for a 14-day Alaska cruise round trip Vancouver.

 

Would be very interested in reading any information that you would like to share about your 2009 Alaska Diamond cruise (menus, activities, entertainment, weather, the ship, pre/post stays, etc.)? Also any fun/interesting port things to do on your own.

 

Thanks, Shirley

[Ken076]

Shirley - We are doing Diamond Princess Northbound from Vancouver in August - Will be looking forward to anything (photos?) that YOU post after your return!!!

 

We're staying at Sutton Place (Thursday nite Chocaholic Buffet!!!) several days prior and doing HoHo Tour those days. Lumberjack show and walking tour in Ketchikan, White Pass Bennett Lake in Skagway and Mendenhall & Whale Watching in Juneau. Don't forget your binoculars and Memory Cards!!! thanks, Ken

[designsbyjuju]

We just returned from a southbound cruise May 16-23 with Diamond Princess. We had a fabulous time!

 

I found our cabin, E722 was perfect. It was immaculate and our steward was fantastic. He greeted us with a glass of champagne and while we didn't see him a whole lot, his presence was known as our room was perfectly serviced twice a day each and every day. My only issue with our cabin, and it's nothing that can be helped, is while we loved the view and all, it is directly above Club Fusion so every night we could hear the music and feel the vibration from the night club. Our bed would shake. LOL Hubby and I just joked and compared it to putting a quarter in the bed. I will take this into consideration for future cruises.

 

The food was pretty good. I have nothing to compare it to as it was our first cruise. It really was nothing to write home about. The buffet has many choices, but was a typical buffet. What I was very happy with is that they will not let you enter the buffet without cleaning your hands with hand sanitizer..and for that, I was very glad. There were 2 formal nights. Lobster was served on one of them. One of the nights, I believe, had crab legs, but unfortunately, we went to Sterling that night so I missed it. The only wonderful thing about Sterling I will report is it is much quieter atmosphere than the other dining rooms, and their shrimp cocktail has great jumbo shrimp as opposed to the dining rooms have really small shrimp. We ate in Sante Fe, Pacific Moon, and Savoy. Savoy was our favorite and we got the best, most consistent service there. We had one horrible waiter in Sante Fe. No napkins, butter, took at least 15 minutes just to get water. I am positive that was extremely isolated and am fairly certain he was new.

 

There were some special buffets during lunch time like "Taste of Alaska" which really was nothing more than some small shrimp and salmon, a chocolate extravaganza, sushi lunch, english pub lucheon in the dining room.

 

There seemed to be a good amount of activities onboard. It was a rather "older" crowd. We are in our upper 30's. One lady we befriended had been onboard since Bejing and said until Whittier the average age had to be around 70. (perhaps she was exaggerating) I was told prior to our vacation that Princess attracts an older or errr more "mature" crowd. Frankly, it was nice not to have tons of kids or teens around.

 

We did the wine tastings and those were fun. Personally, FYI, unless you want a big advertisement and to be told for over an hour why you must shop in only stores on their map, I would skip the shopping show. I got a beautiful gold quartz ring and pendent for literally 1/3 the price of one of the princess sponsored shops, and a AA grade Ammolite pendent for the same (a fraction of what the ship was charging for similar pieces). We got fabulous service shopping for the jewelry at Sockeye Sam's in Ketchikan. I really liked that shop. It's near the ships, owned by a local alaskan family, and the owners were wonderful to work with.

 

The entertainment was good! We enjoyed the opening show, Piano Man, Do You Wanna Dance, and there was a really funny comedien onboard.

 

Our naturalist, Ann, was wonderful! We were on portside, which is the side to be on on a southbound cruise, and with our TV on and leaving the slider open a touch, we could hear everything very well. We had PERFECT weather every single day. They kept saying "this never happens"...it really was delightful.

 

We purchased the soda package for each of us, and a coffee card for each of us, but didn't even fill up one coffee card.

 

In Skagway, we did a 7 hour 4x4 Yukon Adventure tour with Frontier Excursions and it was fabulous! A highlight of our trip.

 

In Juneau, we did a private charter whale watch with Chris of Rum Runners and again, that was just beyond words fabulous. We saw tons of whales and dozens of eagles. He was really top notch. The service was outstanding, he was so informative and friendly, and funny.

 

In Ketchikan, we did the Hummer tour and again, it was great. Our guide, Bryce, took us all over the place. This was the only excursion we booked through Princess. The others we booked on our own.

 

Prior to our cruise, we used Alaskan Splendor car service to drive us from Anchorage to Seward and from Seward to Whittier...they were awesome! We stayed in Seward at "A Cabin on a Cliff" for two nights. It was lovely! We did an all day Kenai Fjords tour with Alaska Saltwater. During our stay in Seward, Renee from PJs Taxi took us all over. We visited Exit Glacier while there also..saw three black bears that day! Lots of moose on the Seward Highway drive.

 

After our cruise, in Vancouver, we stayed at Westin Bayshore and did a 4 hour city tour with Land Seas Tours..that was really great as well..both the hotel and the tour!

 

We found the service on Princess overall to be really very excellent! There were a couple of people that weren't overly enthusiastic to assist, but in general, 99% it was great. My husband and I were amazed the very first day how extremely hard the crew works! I mean, they work HARD..you'll see waiters from dinner working breakfast the next morning.

 

My only "complaint" and I guess it probably happens everywhere, is the photographers. Everywhere you go they're in your face to take your pic. They were friendly and all, it's just getting on the ship, getting off the ship..sometimes twice. Every single dinner, formal nights, etc. The last couple of days hubby said next time he was gonna pull a paparrazi thing and put his hand out to block his face, but he never did. They were pushy though! Also, of all places, "Passenger Services" desk was not overly friendly and was all business. Other than that, no matter where you went, there was someone offering you something or willing to get you whatever you needed.

 

Bring LOTS of memory cards. You'll be surprised how many you can fill! I know I was. My husband had 2 4 gigabyte high speed cards and filled them both in one excursion. Thankfully, he brought his laptop to dump pics onto at night. I will add that he takes his pics in .raw format and that takes up a lot more space.

 

We bought the "Reflections" DVD which I thought "oh, we'll probably never watch it" and I'm so glad we got it! A couple that we met on board and plan to stay in touch with had been on since Bejing and they were in the DVD a lot. Hubby and I were on the DVD waving from our balcony. It's kind of a cute souvenir. My father told me that is such a "first time cruiser thing to do" LOL

 

Anyway, sorry to write a book! I think I'll just copy and paste this and use it to tell my family about the trip too.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!!!!!!

 

Julie

[Cruising Carol]

Did the b2b on Diamond in 2007. Be sure to do a small boat excursion on your turn around day in Whittier. There are 3 companies that you can choose from. We did a 6 hour excursion that went to glaciers and through Esther Passage.

[nmg222]

Julie,

 

As we will be sailing S/B on the Diamond, can you tell me which nights were the formal nights?

 

Thanks.

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Can you tell me what there is to do on the sea day and on scenic cruising day? We've always done the Caribbean thing and so laying by the pool is what we do there.

 

Our College Fjord scenic cruising starts at 6:30pm. What do we do during the day?

 

We are also leaving NB on the Diamond next weekend. We can't wait!!

[designsbyjuju]

Julie,

 

As we will be sailing S/B on the Diamond, can you tell me which nights were the formal nights?

 

Thanks.

 

Our formal nights were Sunday and Wednesday. I guess they had to do Wednesday instead of thursday as our port time on Wed was shorter than Thurs. I thought they were too close together but I'm glad we participated in both. The second one was the one where lobster was served. However, that did not excite me since I live in New England and our fresh lobster cannot compare to the lobster on a cruise ship on the west coast. :)

 

Julie

[designsbyjuju]

Can you tell me what there is to do on the sea day and on scenic cruising day? We've always done the Caribbean thing and so laying by the pool is what we do there.

 

Our College Fjord scenic cruising starts at 6:30pm. What do we do during the day?

 

We are also leaving NB on the Diamond next weekend. We can't wait!!

 

There are tons of activities onboard on sea days...all day. Your Princess Patter will be delivered to your stateroom on the evening prior and will outline everything. There are usually naturalist presentations, all the "scholarship at sea" stuff, various presentations. We were SB and our college fjord was 6 AM-9 AM

 

I can't believe my memory is this poor, I'm only in my 30s and it was only last week, LOL, but on our sea days, I'm fairly certain they had the special luncheon buffets. We met some great people and one day we spent the afternoon on their balcony having cocktails with them. We had lounged on our balcony most of the morning. It was really relaxing! It's hard for me to "do nothing" and relax, and I even surprised myself! On the glacier bay day, I was in the lounger on my balcony and said to my husband "I just cannot believe how completely relaxed I am!"

 

Scenic Cruising in Glacier Bay was fantastic. We tried to get a window seat during breakfast and lunch.

 

There is something to do for everyone!

 

Julie, fellow huge "Sox Fan"! :)

[Sox Fan Cruiser]

Thanks!

 

We don't ever eat the lobster on any cruise as you just can't get it any better than we do in New England! :cool:

 

I swear I'm going to bingo this cruise even if my husband doesn't want to go!!

 

I'm looking forward to all the nature this cruise as opposed to the tan! :D

[Colo Cruiser]

Great comments, thanks.

[FunForUs]

WOW Judy, that was a wonderful!! thank you so much for taking the time. DH was very happy to hear about the sushi. Really enjoyed reading it and it was so informative. Shirley

[designsbyjuju]

Thanks!

 

We don't ever eat the lobster on any cruise as you just can't get it any better than we do in New England! :cool:

 

I swear I'm going to bingo this cruise even if my husband doesn't want to go!!

 

I'm looking forward to all the nature this cruise as opposed to the tan! :D

 

Hey! You can buy the tan for $30 at a local salon before you go. LOL I, who NEVER tan, made the ridiculous decision to get one of those bronzing spray things the day before my cruise. I was soooo tan. My daughter was in hysterics..."mom, you're going to ALASKA....you're going to be the only suntanned person on the ship!". Our first night of the cruise, the comedian made a huge joke about people tanning and these new "spray on" tans. My hubby and I will laugh about that for a long time.

 

They had a HUGE bingo tournament. Someone won $1700 on the last day!

 

Julie

[Tom/Nancy]

Julie, thanks for taking the time to post your trip and answer questions. We look forward to our trip this July.