Review Diamond 8/28-9/4/2004 Part 1 (LONG)

EMBARKATION:

Seattle airport wasn’t very crowded. We didn’t see any taxis at the curb. We called Executive Towncar service and he picked us up within 5 minutes of us calling him. It was $35+tip. The trip took less than 10 minutes (I think the driver took a shortcut). We were at Pier 30 by 10:30am. People were arriving already.

We had Platinum check-in. We sat at a row of chairs nearby while DH checked in.

2 lines were formed for one door from the check-in area to the security area. That gate opened promptly at 11am. Then from the security/luggage holding area, there were at least 10 lines formed to get through 2 doors. That gate opened at 11:30am. More walking until we got on the gangway to the ship. We boarded the ship on the Promenade deck (7th floor). Right at the door, the photographer took our first “portrait”. Then we were at the door where they took our security photos and had our cards scanned.

We were in our cabin (Caribe deck, 10th floor) by 11:45.

SHIP

Very similar to the Star Princess layout wise. We didn’t get lost this time. We also didn’t waste any time exploring the ship.

CABIN

We had an inside cabin. This time the bunks came down from the ceiling. We chose to move the 2 beds together to one side of the room so one side of the bed is against the wall. The 4 of us slept together in this “king size” bed. Not too bad since we sleep like that at home anyway.

The sheets/pillow cases won't be changed for the entire week unless you ask the steward to change them.

SERVICE

Cabin steward was nice enough. Polite and friendly and very efficient. The dining room waiters and wait staff are very good at what they do. They don’t really go out of their way to make things special. They took the orders (usually very complicated since we have small children) very efficiently and served us quickly. It’s a tough job to keep track of so many people and what they ordered. They deserve their tips even though the effort is not there to do more. They simply do what we ask them to do. It’s nice to be served though.

Room service was prompt and efficient. We got 2 extra orders of lobster tail and souffles after a show and it was delivered to our room in less than 15 minutes.

I only had 4 unpleasant incidences on board the Diamond:

1. Trying to get a soft drink sticker without the mug for $20. No one would sell it to me. It took me 30 minutes to buy it for $20.

2. I was trying to get Annali (woman in charge of the Captain’s Circle’s Hospitality Desk) to change my dad’s Platinum room card to Elite room card. My dad had his Elite card which he received from his last cruise. He showed his Elite card to Annali. It still took her over ½ hour to manually change the status on the computer. I don't know why she's so reluctant to do so. She also did not deliver my dad’s “second most traveled cruiser” award to his room as promised. My dad got me to go to the Hospitality Desk with him on the last day of the cruise to ask her for the gift. She said, “oh, you weren’t in your room and so I couldn’t deliver it if you weren’t in your room.” She then fished something out of a bag on her desk and handed over a small blue box and said, “here is what you would have received.” It’s not the same if you have to ask for the gift. She can very well ask my dad’s room steward and have him put the gift in their room with a small note. I think she just forgot to do so.

3. My mother sent a silk dress with a matching sweater top, a silk top, and a silk pants in for drycleaning. It was free for her since she is an Elite member. The dress came back OK, but the sweater came back looking like it was in a washer, rather than being dry-cleaned--not only did it shrink, the surface had “pilfered” (not sure what the term is). The silk top and bottom had 3 nicks on them. It looked like a gadget or the surface of the drycleaning machine caused the nicks. We talked to the Passengers services people on the 6th floor and we filled out a claims form (which took an hour to do that). My mom made a mistake of talking to her room steward which had the drycleaning staff come down to look at the damaged clothes. They took the sweater top back for a wash. I don’t know why my mom let them. If a wool sweater is ruined, it’s not going to be any better after a second wash. Of course, the second time around, the sweater changed colored --from a faded pink/peachy color to a faded grayish pink color. Then my mom got a message from the passenger services people again and asking to see the damaged clothes. That took another hour to sort it out. In the end, we still had to fill out another claim form when my mom goes back to Vancouver.

So don’t get anything drycleaned on the ship unless you can spare that outfit in case they ruin it.

4. Jillian, the lady in charge of open booking on the Diamond, said I need $200 to reserve a cabin (1 open booking). I couldn't argue with her with what I learned on this board--$100 should be able to do the open booking and I can add another person later on. She looked at me like I don't know what I'm saying. Anyways, DH said just pay her $400 for 2 open bookings and stop arguing with her, so we can go enjoy something else with the time I spent arguing with her. I finally gave up and she took our forms and said she'll give us 4 reservation numbers. I thought it was one open booking number for a cabin. I am just so confused after I talked to her. She said if I wanted 2 open bookings I can put both names on the same form. It seems to me that the form is for 1 open booking only. She confused me and not only that....she looked at me like I was crazy.

So you’ll be better off not talking to her and just fill out the form(s) and drop them off at the box.

FOOD

We enjoyed all the soufflés (the grand marnier one was the best), the raspberry crème brulee, flans (pudding), and the sorbets. The HC had this crème puff with a crispy sugar glaze that’s to die for. They had it at lunch one day (around noon), but by 2, they were all gone. I must say that the HC buffet was very enjoyable for breakfast and dinner. Certainly there were more varieties at the HC than in the dining room. The lunch/dinner menus for the HC are posted, so you can look at them before deciding whether to eat at the HC or the dining room (International Dining Room 6F AFT). DH and I preferred to eat breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms, but my 5YO wanted to go to the buffet all the time. She said this way, she can see what she is going to eat. She has a point there. I ended up eating most breakfast at HC because I love their French toasts and the unlimited supply of watermelons.

I tried all the cold soups at dinner. A lot should be grouped together with the desserts, not the soups. I like cold soups, but there are some strange ones on the menu.

My kids had the alphabet soup every time we ate in the dining room. The chicken fingers on the kids’ menu is by far the best chicken fingers around. They use real, large chunks of chicken breasts to make this dish. The crust is light and the meat is tender. I would recommend you order it to try if you like chicken fingers.

I overheard a lady talking in the elevator on the second day of our cruise. She said the food served on this ship gets weirder and weirder! I couldn’t believe her, especially nothing was “strange” on the menus those first 2 days.

But if you feel adventurous, you must try the farfalle (wide egg noodles) with rabbit and the frog’s legs dishes. Those two dishes are 2 of the best dishes on the Diamond in my mind. The Ossobucco in the Vivaldi was great. I was surprised that the Prime Ribs on the International Menu and the Sterling Menu weren’t the best prime ribs I’ve tasted (go with medium rare if you can), but it was still good. Sterling had the best New York steak I’ve tasted though. You can’t go wrong with the French fries in the dining rooms. They make them to order, so it’s piping hot and crunchy when served. Santa Fe’s chicken fajitas is very good. The beef fajitas was average.

We didn’t have the time to try Prego pizza and the Trident Grill. DH did try the fish BBQ one day 2 hour before our dinner reservation. I just couldn’t stomach a piece of fish at that time, but he said it was good salmon. So there is no need for you to paid for Salmon Bake at one of those tours offered by the ship.

PORTS

We didn’t do any paid tours. We just did our own walkabouts. Kids determined our hours, so we played by ear.

JUNEAU. Sunny and 50ish F. For a while we were in t-shirts. We didn’t have time to shop while we were in Juneau, but a lot of people were carrying around red shopping bags from the Alaska T-Shirt Company that day on the ship. We left the ship after lunch and walked over to the area where they had shuttle buses to the Mendenhall Glacier. We asked around and found out they were charging $5pp to get on those buses. We didn’t buy the tickets at the booth because we wanted to get on whichever buses that came first. We just paid the drivers directly. He let the kids (2 and 5) get on the bus for free. We didn’t buy the return tickets either. Mendenhall Glacier park was great. We were trying to walk over to the small waterfall, but the tide came in and unless we take off our shoes and walked across a small stream, we wouldn’t be able to go over to the waterfall. With 2 strollers, it was difficult to cross, so we just took photos of the glacier and walked around different paths. We left the park around 3ish. Waited 20 minutes for the first bus that came by the bus stop. Paid the driver and got on. Others who bought roundtrip tickets had to wait for the right bus to get on. This way, we saved some time.

I couldn’t find a mailbox anywhere near the port to mail some postcards, but the lady at the visitor’s bureau said she’ll mail them for me on her way home.

SKAGWAY. Sunny and warm enough to only wear a t-shirt. The town has an old gold rush town feel. The free Ranger talk was really good. I highly recommend it. I think it starts at 10am, then again at 11am. We didn’t do the White Pass Train because it was sold out. We had to make sure that the kids were up to the trip, but the cruise lines bought out all the train seats. When I saw the Alaska T-shirt Company in Skagway, I couldn’t resist going in.

I bought the 5-animal hand puppets for $4.99 (really cute); kid’s t-shirt (Alaska) for $1.99; baseball cap (Alaska) for $3.99 (I’ve seen stores selling some caps for $2 each). Postcards $0.20 each. Wooden Train whistle $1.99. Ulu knife ($6.99 made in China). Magnets for $0.99 each. I bought an Alaska ABC writing book that is erasable with tissue paper for $6.99. That book was great during dinner and it kept my 5YO busy. She might as well learn to write her letters better while we ate.

I never liked souvenir shopping when I travel, but I must admit it was fun shopping at that store.

TRACY ARM. The commentator was Michael Modzelewski and he was great. He narrated everything we saw along the way. He talked non-stop and gave us great insight of this area. We saw Sapphire sailing by around ½ hour after we entered the area. We spent a lot of time in the HC, then out to where the bridge was. The weather was so great. DH even took his shirt off and I took a photo of him bare-chested next to a piece of ice berg floating by.

KETCHIKAN. We walked along Creek Street and up to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center. We saw lots of salmon jumping upstream. We didn’t have too much time as I wanted to go back to town to do more shopping. I bought a Christmas ornament for $0.99 (it was 50% off) to remember our visit to Ketchikan and an unfinished bear claw salad mixer for $3.99. We got back to the ship with 10 minutes to spare.

VICTORIA. I didn’t get off the ship. I’ve been to Victoria a couple of times before and my youngest was sleeping, so I decided to stay onboard to pack. DH took my oldest and they took a bus US$5pp to get into town. They saw the Empress Hotel and the Parliament building.

KIDS/KIDS ZONE

I would recommend that you take your stroller with you. The umbrella stroller is the best for all ports of call and to maneuver down the corridors on the ship. The ship corridors are wide enough, but it’s not when the service carts are parked along the corridors. I have a Combi convenience stroller and it’s narrow enough to pass those service cars, but my sister has a Graco Cirrus Literider lightweight stroller and it’s impossible to push it down the hall without moving the service carts.

The kids’ menu is printed on a large sheet of paper with activities printed (a lot like Denny’s kid’s menu but bigger). The thing is, they don’t provide crayons in the dining rooms, so you’ll have to bring your own writing instrument to make use of those kids’ menus. The only thing we tried on the kids’ menus are the alphabet soups, chicken fingers, and fries.

You can get apple juice in HC if you ask them, but usually during morning hours. It was hard looking for juices during dinner unless you go to a dining room. I bring sippy cups and stock up on juices in the morning so I don’t have to run around the ship looking for a glass of juice (for free that is).

If your kids like to snack during the day, I would suggest that you take some boxes of cereals in the morning at the HC and store them in your room so you can have them available throughout the day. HC only carries Kellogg’s cereals. Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes are popular, so they usually run out at the end of the cruise.

The age groups are divided up into 4 groups: 3-5, 6-9, 10-13, 14-17. I have patters for each age group, if you have questions about the activities offered of each age group, just ask me.

I think the kids' patters for the Alaskan cruise will be different from Diamond’s Mexican sailings. The port days will be different, so the schedules for those days will be different.

According to the 3-5 Pelican Patters, Kids dinners was offered 4th day (Skagway), PJ party on the 5th day, and Pizza Pasta night on the 6th day. Kid’s zone is closed between 5-7pm everyday for dinner. My 5YO preferred to eat with us on formal nights so she can dress up as well and have formal portraits taken, so we don’t know how many kids stayed in Kid’s Zone at night.

My 5YO didn’t go to kid’s club everyday, but she doesn’t have anything bad to say about it, so that’s a good sign.

You don’t need to go to the registration that first day. Just register your child when you have time. Ask for a free t-shirt so your child can color/paint it. They only have one-size (6-7) for the 3-5 age group.

MISCELLANEOUS

For the last day (Victoria), you should book your dining room reservation at an earlier time. We made the reservation for 5:30. Also for the 2nd formal night, if you are holding a gold, platinum, or Elite card, they have the Captain’s Circle cocktail party from 7:30pm-8pm. Since it’s free drinks (you can order any drinks you want), go there promptly at 7:30pm and drink and mingle. They stop serving drinks at exactly 8pm. So make your dinner reservation for that day at 8:15 or something or eat earlier at 5:30, so you can make it to the party at 7:30. The captain made a speech doing promo for Princess, Anneli made small talk and gave gifts to top 3 cruisers, Lillian from future cruises also did a small talk.

Photoshop: Do formal portraits on the second formal night. You can choose the background you like based on the portraits others have taken on the first night. I think there are about 6-8 different backgrounds to choose from. The large 8x10 photos are $21.95. 5x7 costs $9.95. The photos taken at your table during formal night dinners and photos taken on deck during Tracy Arms are 5 x7s. If you don’t want to spend the money on these photos, don’t take them…because if you take them, you’ll want to buy them.

DISEMBARKATION

The beginning of disembarkation was slow. My sister’s flight was at 11:30am and their color/number weren’t called until 8:30am. We were Navy 1 and our number was called around 10:15am. We were in a taxi by 10:50am (we dawdled a bit in the luggage area). The taxi cost $23.30 (by meter). We were at the airport in less than 20 minutes. The trip home was easy and uncomplicated….unlike my parents’ and my sister’s flights to Miami which took them 2 days!

About food and ice cream on board the Diamond....

All sorbets are great, some frozen yogurt are good, but the ice creams are not so good. They are artificial tasting for some reason. I did not find any pistachio in the pistachio ice cream and it tasted minty for some reason. It does have the required light green color. So unless you really like a certain flavor of ice cream, don't order it. The only ice cream you should try is strawberry ice cream. I would recommend that you try other desserts.

They do serve ice cream between 3:30-4pm in the horizon court. Vanilla and chocolate ice creams are served. One guy will do the scooping and the other guy does the topping. My kids skipped the ice cream, they went for the sprinkles topping instead.

The afternoon tea service is nice. You get small cakes and sandwiches as well as tea and coffee served to you. But you get more variety if you go up to HC for your afternoon tea. My kids enjoy this service. I keep forgetting that they get hungry around 3pm since they don't gorge themselves during lunch.

ENTERTAINMENT

I enjoyed going to the movies with my kids. We saw 13 Going on 30 the afternoon of the 2nd day. Then Shrek 2 middle of the week (Tracy Arm). Both of these movies were shown in the Princess theatre. They replayed 13 Going on 30 on TV the last day of the cruise. They did not show Shrek2 on TV though. They also show movies in the Explorer's Lounge which I thought was pretty neat. The seats are comfortable and you can have drinks while you watch the movie. I saw Starsky and Hutch one night.

The 1st stage show "Piano Man" was very nice, but the sound system is a little jarring. The singers were really loud, unnecessarily loud. I don't know what the technical term for that is. They had 3 showings of this show so when we went to the 3rd show, we had seats. This was not so for the second stage show "Curtain Up". They only had one showing and the theatre was packed to the max. After a tiring day (Ketchikan) and formal night, I was not about to carry a sleeping child and stand there to watch this show. They should have 2 or 3 showings of this show as well.

Bert Stratton is popular. Every time he is playing, that side of the room is packed with people. They should give him the Explorer Lounge!

CASINO

DH wanted to play blackjack, but he didn't bring enough cash and didn't want to pay the 3% charge, so he stayed away from the casino. Good self control I would say.

WINETASTING

Platinum members get to go to the first winetasting for free. Others pay $7.50, but you get $5 off the winetasting fee if you purchase a bottle of wine. DH and my father went. Each got a small shot glass for free.

Thanks for taking the time to post this detailed account of your journey.

Thank you Merela for the detailed review. I learned several years ago to not have drycleaning done at all while abroad when you don't know the cleaner. I once had a sweater shrunk to the size to fit a 10 year old when we were staying at a 5* hotel. It was so tiny we had to laugh. Looked like a doll's clothes:D Talked to the hotel manager and it turns out it was the employees first week of employment (of course). So we learned our lesson about dry cleaning while away.... Again, thanks for the trip report!

I'm going to try the "open booking per person" idea too. I think my strategy will be to show up without hubby and then send him to the future cruise desk later in the week.

Merela,

Thank you for your great review! Enjoyed reading it, as we go next year!

BTW, did your family get to their next cruise alright???

Merela,

 

Thank you for your great review! Enjoyed reading it, as we go next year!

BTW, did your family get to their next cruise alright???

Yes, my parents arrived in Miami Monday morning around 8:30 EST and I talked to them around 12:30EST and they were still waiting around for check-in. At least they were in an air-conditioned area....my dad said Miami is hot and muggy.

Both my sister and my dad emailed me from the Explorer this morning. The ship is trying to avoid the Ivan by altering itinerary from Eastern Caribbean to Western Caribbean, but I think Ivan is heading towards the Western Caribbean. I hope my parents will be able to escape the wrath of Ivan because they have another flight to catch next Sunday night to Frankfurt. But that will be my sister's problem....she'll be the one who is responsible for getting them on that flight. I'm too far away to be of any help to them. :)

Hmmm, I'm confused now about the open/future booking issue. We sail in Oct and had intended doing as you describe you attempted to do. Is that possible or not? I think it was sphinx that posted how to do the $100 for a booking with second person TBA.

So can this be done or not?????

for $400, 2 in my husband's name and 2 in my name. Does that mean I have 4 open bookings?

Maybe you can ask SRPHNX how he filled out the future cruise form and then just drop the form off at the box provided near the Future Cruises office. You don't ever have to talk to that lady. I'm sure she knows what I was talking about because another person on this board had mentioned that she had to deal with her as well. But I didn't know that until much later.

HTH.

Jennifer

You mentioned that you used the drop down berths and pushed the two twins together. We sleep in a family bed also but the CSR at Princess told me that we could not push the twins together if we also want to use the bunk. That was supposed to be against safety rules. Did you have to tip your steward extra to get him to look the other way or was it just a non issue? :o