Diamond Princess - April Flowers 4-20 departure last day

It is our last day on the Diamond Princess Japan April Flowers cruise which departed Yokohama on 4/20.

This cruise is from 7 nights going from Yokohama, Kanmon Strait, Busan (Korea), Sakaiminato, Kanazawa, Aomori, sea day then back to Yokohama.

Embarkation - was really fast. The line wasn't very long at about 11am and there were 13 positions to check you in. This was a transit cruise in that there were back to back people on the cruise but still impressive. Only drawback was the embarkation photographer who rushed us through. Make him take another picture (different pose) if you feel you are being rushed because you probably are.

The weather at most of our ports was cold and wet -- Sakaiminato was not really rainy but Kanazawa and Hadokate was. Very foggy weather. Aomori was great as the weather cleared very nicely to end the ports.

There were shuttles to the ports:

Busan $10 lets you off near BIFF Square/Jagalchi Market/ Starbucks.

Sakaiminato $5 lets you off at the Sakaiminato Station

Kanazawa $10 lets you off at Kanazawa Station

Hakodate $10 lets you off at Hakodate Station

Aomori $5 lets you off at APSAM a short walk to Aomori Station

As most of our departures were late - there was a lot of anytime anywhere dining.

The immigration on board ship to go to Busan seemed unprepared and took long (about 1/2 hour wait) before they figured things out. On shore - then there were stations for immigration which was another wait of about 1/2 hour.

The immigration on board ship to go to Sakaiminato was much better organized as they gave you a specific time to go to a station to wait to get off and then there were 13 stations for immigration.

All in all both going and coming seemed to have gotten much better than our last cruise 2 years ago.

The highlight was the Hirosaki Sakura Festival - OMG well worth all the horrible weather we had during the other ports of call. Made the trip worth while.

Gotta consider doing it again in hopes that the weather is better, but the people were always friendly and helpful. Nice trip.

Thanks for the report.

In the past Internet access was not allowed when in Japanese waters. Was that true for your cruise?

A big thank you for posting the review.

Very helpful information on the shuttles and where they drop you off at.

Hopefully we will soon do a Japanese cruise. :D

Many thanks for posting. Can you tell us about the Diamond Princess please. Just a couple of questions :D Did you have issues with your stateroom air con? Did you have a kettle in your stateroom? What about the toilet seat?

And Have they repadded those bench seats in the MDRs yet? Or do you still sink so low you can't reach your plate?

Did you have anytime or traditional dining? We're there lines? Was there the segratation that others have mentioned?

Thanks for your responses.

Thanks for the report.

 

In the past Internet access was not allowed when in Japanese waters. Was that true for your cruise?

I used the princess internet and sometimes it seemed to work and sometimes not. British airways did nit work that sea day i posted and all the brits on the ship trying to print boarding passed were not happy. I didnt hv too many problems but it was slow.

The princess ap is great on the ship as it saved internet minutes but allows u to txt other people. Bad thing was the stateroom account did not show the shore excursion charges only ship related charges in the stores or bar.

I was on the prior Diamond Princess cruise, from April 13-20.

Internet service was horrid on our cruise, on the 2nd half, when we were mostly cruising off the coast of Japan, but service at beginning, going south around Japan thru Kanman Straits to Busan worked great.

Busan immigration was slow on our visit. Delays at the start. We also went to Sakaiminato, and although organized, Japanese immigration was slow, especially if you were in the odd number lines where the desks were farther in. If you got into what appeared to be same length lines with the even number line, you were 3 people farther back.

Air conditioning was fine in my cabin, which was an inside one on the Plaza deck. Sometimes I had to make it warmer in the cabin because it worked well. The weather was rather cool (40s to 60s) so A/C not as important.

Late ports were also open seating in dining room. During traditional seating nights, Pacific Moon was assigned as Japanese. Went there on an open night, it seemed to still be primarily Japanese. Servers seemed to be a little surprised to see a Westerner in their.

There were only about 600 Japanese out of 2600 passengers in this cruise. Although many Aussies stated on after prior cruise (crew called it a “crossing”) from Sydney, there were were also a lot of UK, Americans, Canadians, as well as others from other nations and languages spoken.

Ship announcements were in English first, then Japanese.

On Demand TV early on didn’t work (then was great-due to jet lag causing early wake up, watched 5 movies).

Wake show was often not posted on day it was intended on TV. Also, they ended up having 2 versions of Wake show with English version and Japanese version, as Japanese CD told me it would take too long if she translated.

Trade my elite mini-bar for coffee cards, and got paper card copies of coffee cards. Late in the cruise, one of the bartenders replaced an unused one with an official real card with a 12/31/18 expire date. The paper copy one had 4/20 expire date (last day of cruise) stamped on back card.

It was an enjoyable trip. But I missed a few things that are “normal” Princess things, including the International Cafe. And also missed the always available Shrimp Cocktail, Caesar Salad, and Fettuccine Alfredo that were not on the nightly MDR menu.

May I ask what internet package was offered on the Diamond Princess or were you using cellular data?

Read somewhere on the forum people were able to pick up signal from the shore during some part while at sea and saw Japanese passenger were using their cell phone on the ship that appears to be pick up from their service provider from shore.

We will be going onto the Diamond in July any help or advice will be very much appreciated.

The Diamond is apparently due to go into dry dock soon. Does anyone know whether it's refurbishment or just general maintenance?

Many thanks for posting. Can you tell us about the Diamond Princess please. Just a couple of questions :D Did you have issues with your stateroom air con? Did you have a kettle in your stateroom? What about the toilet seat?

And Have they repadded those bench seats in the MDRs yet? Or do you still sink so low you can't reach your plate?

Did you have anytime or traditional dining? We're there lines? Was there the segratation that others have mentioned?

Thanks for your responses.

sailco

I can answer some of your questions as I cruised Diamond Princess last year in Japan.

Yes,there's kettle as well as Green tea bags in cabin. They also provide slippers (typical Japanese hotels supplies)

Toilet seat in cabin is the same as what we used to. Some toilet seats in the public area are changed to Japanese style.

There's no anytime dining in Japanese cruise, only fixed dining. However, if the port day finishes late after 6pm, it will be open seating as most cruisers return ship late.

Hope the info is helpful to you.

Regards

Fanny

The Diamond is apparently due to go into dry dock soon. Does anyone know whether it's refurbishment or just general maintenance?

Where do you find this information?

Just checked their website apparently she still sailing between now till December may be next year perhaps?

Sorry I didn't finish the reply - was at the airport and then called our boarding in the middle of the response.

But Yup - CubFan63 also summed up the rest of our cruise and I concur with most of what was said.

I did ask for shrimp cocktail and caesar salad every night - no problem, but I had to ask.

On our cruise there were a lot of Aussies and Brits, on my deck and dining were also a lot of Russians. Most of the Japanese passengers ate in the other dining room.

Internet and Phone

We use verizon and when I tried to use it even on land I got a $25 charge, even though I signed up for the international monthly plan at $40. So I gotta check with them what was happening.

I am sorry I don't know the cost of the Princess Internet as we get minutes included now but I did purchase an additional amount at $40 and used it my almost 400 minutes on the last two days of the cruise - evening of Aomori, sea day and morning of Yokohama debarkation. I had about 16 minutes left.

The internet service was very slow and in some cases didn't connect with some sites. We did get a WIFI at the airport but this was mostly for data and not for telephone calls and didn't use it on the ship

As we were doing a 20 night cruise and then additional vacation time in Japan, we purchased a 60 day sim card for an iphone at the airport. That provided us with internet everywhere except Busan as well as phone if needed. The cost was about $50. Internet service on the Diamond was better than on the Caribbean Princess, but having service easily in each port was great.

Where do you find this information?

 

Just checked their website apparently she still sailing between now till December may be next year perhaps?

I usually go by the dates given for deck plans, but I was also told by a recent cruiser. There's a June 2018 changeover date for the deck plans and I thought that might be it.

I usually go by the dates given for deck plans, but I was also told by a recent cruiser. There's a June 2018 changeover date for the deck plans and I thought that might be it.

The June 2018 change is probably just a reclassification of some mini-suite cabins to be Club Class mini-suites.

As we were doing a 20 night cruise and then additional vacation time in Japan' date=' we purchased a 60 day sim card for an iphone at the airport. That provided us with internet everywhere except Busan as well as phone if needed. The cost was about $50. Internet service on the Diamond was better than on the Caribbean Princess, but having service easily in each port was great.[/quote']

 

Thank you for your information.

 

Were you able to connect to the internet via phone's data with your 60 days sim card on the ship without being using the ship's wifi?

 

I was told by some friend traveled in Japan before you can rent pocket wifi in the airport its relatively inexpensive and it works pretty much everywhere and was wondering if that will work on the ship or not because basically it just use cellular signal through some Japan cell phone service provider.

Thank you for your information.

 

I was told by some friend traveled in Japan before you can rent pocket wifi in the airport its relatively inexpensive and it works pretty much everywhere and was wondering if that will work on the ship or not because basically it just use cellular signal through some Japan cell phone service provider.

We flew into Narita Airport - there are a lot of wifi locations that you can pick up that are relatively inexpensive (even better if you are able to reserve online) and yes works everywhere. The one we had also provided a customer service contact number if we had any problems. We used it mostly for data and txt not phone calls. Sorry don't remember how much we paid. Picked up our first day there and dropped off before we checked in for our flight. No problems.

We are scheduled to sail on the Diamond December 7th 2018... sailing south from Tokyo to Singapore (with various stops along the way) My question is... with the exception of when the ship is tendered in port... what's the best side of the ship to be on, starboard or port? We typically like to be dockside to watch all the activity (i.e., people running to catch the ship etc) but for this cruise we're wondering if one side is better than the other for the views when pulling in or out of port?

EleanorNoway - There is no way to know which side of the ship will be to the dock side.

Various reasons can cause the normal side-to to be changed.

sailco - Ships always go to drydock for maintenance twice in every 5 year period from building date.

Any refurbishment is fitted in to the drydocking period.

There is a gap in Diamond Princess's cruise list from 19th Jan. 2019 to 2nd Feb. in Singapore.

Singapore is the usual drydock port for Princess in Asia.

EleanorNoway - There is no way to know which side of the ship will be to the dock side.

Various reasons can cause the normal side-to to be changed.

 

sailco - Ships always go to drydock for maintenance twice in every 5 year period from building date.

Any refurbishment is fitted in to the drydocking period.

There is a gap in Diamond Princess's cruise list from 19th Jan. 2019 to 2nd Feb. in Singapore.

Singapore is the usual drydock port for Princess in Asia.

Thank you so much! We have a booking on the Diamond after that date so it's a relief to know some of the issues might be fixed. We're quite prepared to cancel as we've sailed on her before and it was not all that comfortable. The dates you've given leave us enough time to decide.

EleanorNoway - There is no way to know which side of the ship will be to the dock side. Various reasons can cause the normal side-to to be changed.

Good point, thanks. You mention things can cause it to change from the "normal side". So if I rephrase the question I'm hoping someone who is familiar with this specific cruise could identify what the "normal side" is even though it is subject to change depending on various circumstances. We were also hoping someone who is familiar with this specific cruise could identify which side of the ship was best when under sail. We heard rumors that it follows the coastline which would seem to indicate the starboard side might be best for viewing purposes.

Thanks for the report.

We heard rumors that it follows the coastline which would seem to indicate the starboard side might be best for viewing purposes.

Except when approaching or departing a port, the ship is too far from land to see it, so both port and starboard cannot see land while at sea.

Cruising on Diamond's August Japan cruise. Can I assume they have the "Lido" dining opened for dinners? My husband prefers that to going in the Dining Room.

Cruising on Diamond's August Japan cruise. Can I assume they have the "Lido" dining opened for dinners? My husband prefers that to going in the Dining Room.

Lido buffet is open as well as pizza and the Trident Grill.

There was mention of mobile phone service in in port Japan (and high charges by Verizon). I turned on my iPhone 8 Plus with Sprint service, expecting the free 2G service and a text to upgrade for $25 a week.

Instead I got LTE (from SoftBank who currently owns most of Sprint) with text saying I was getting free high speed data and free texts, and 20 cents a minute for calls. Was a very, very pleasant surprise.