Diamond Princess 02/12- 02/19

[Toledosfinest]

just returned from the Diamond Princess, and we had a wonderful time. The ship is spotless and everything was wonderful.

 

We arrived at the dock at 11:30am after staying the night in a nice hotel near the port. We used Prime Time shuttle and they worked out fine. Booked them on line and for two persons, round trip was $59.92. Dropped off the luggage with the many porters (Tip $1.00 a bag at least), and went inside. You will receive a numbered card from a person when you walk in. You will have to sign a release form stating that you are not sick.... Once inside, they separate the lines by the floor you are on. (Except Platium and Elite menbers). We got our room key in 5 minutes, then proceeded to a waiting area. At 12:00pm the Elite and Platium members were aloud in along with wheelchair people and their families. Next, the numbers on the cards were called. They went by 100 at a time. We were 623, and it only took 20 minutes, and we were onto the ship. We booked a guarentee balcony room, and were given room Lido 232, which was on the top floor, towards the front. It worked out nice, because we were on the same floor as the Horizon food court, and the pools. By the way, yes the minisuites are open for anyone above to watch.

 

Recommend: Puerto Vallarta: Do a Canopy Tour. Highly Recommended

Mazatlan: Pay $1.00 at the harbor (Walking distance), and spend the day at Stone Island.

Cabo: We spent all day in town .. lots of shopping and great restaurants. Real nice shopping Mall.

 

The weather: Expect mild temperatures from the time you leave LA until you get to the Mexican waters. It was in the High 60's to low 70's on Sat, and Sunday. It was 80 the rest of the week until we returned to LA, where it was raining and 65.

 

The shows: They were good, but two of them were repeated the following nights. We were use to a different show every night.

NOTE: Get to the Princess theater at least 20-30 minutes before show time, or you might not get a seat.

 

Food: No complaints at all. Every restaurant was very good. Stearling steak house is free, and the NY steak is very good. Santa Fe has a good steak or chicken fahita. On thursday night, all the restaurants (except the Horizon) has lobster.. They will give you two lobster tails, but will bring you as many as you wish. They seem to expect it.. ** Free icecream from 3:30p - 4:30p in the Horizon Court every day. Pizza, and hotdog/Hamburg/chicken grill was very good, but both close at 7p.

Soda card: $22.00 plus gratuity per person if you don't want the small metal "coke" container. (I don't recommend the container, because its only holds about 12oz of soda). Just show your "Coke" sticker which they will attach to your room card, and order any size soda you want. The large have to be about 30oz cups.

 

Going home: The "GOLD" elite tags were called first at 0800 along with the "Brown #1 tags. ( All brown tags are for people that purchased Princess transfers.) Next was RED 1,2,3, then purple tags. Princess does go by floors with the Lido deck passengers getting off 1st. Claim your bags downstirs after 10 seconds through customs, and off to the trip to LAX. Prime time shuttle was outside the terminal, and as soon as they filled up with 6 people, we were off. We arrived at LAX by 0925 am.

 

If anyone needs more info, feel free to write.

[AZPam]

We will be on the Diamond March 12, so are counting the days!

 

Just wondering how rough the seas were? Any problems with sea sickness? I am usually fine in the Caribbean, but am a bit concerned for this trip.

 

Thanks!

[nancyrg]

We were on the Diamond Feb 5th & it was a very smooth ride the whole week-there were times that it was difficult to tell that we were actually moving!

If you are fine in the Caribbean, you will be fine here too!

Have a great trip!

Nancy

[bleuseas]

Glad to hear about the seas not being too rough. That's one of my concerns too, never having cruised the Pacific before. We're up high in the front too, and I've heard it's worse up there.

 

Glad to hear you had a good time on the Diamond. It's nice to read a decent review before we go. If any negative ones pop up, I don't think I'll read them...We leave in 12 days YAHOO!

[nsimeri]

Toledo - Your review made me feel a little better. We are sailing the Diamond on 4/2/05. I wasn't thinking when I booked my air fare. Our return flight out of LAX is at 10:35am. We declined the princess transfers and opted for express shuttle. I hope they will let us off 1st or there is no way we are going to make our flights. I've contacted Hotwire to see if they can change our flight to a later time.....

[sailinglisa]

Thanks for the information, but the brown tags were probably for people who booked a post cruise excursion through Princess, not just the Princess transfer. I have usually bought Princess transfers and those people are let off according to flight time and then by deck.

 

I have a noon flight on 4/30 after my Diamond cruise, I am hoping and praying that I will make it!