LIVE from the Diamond Princess - 35 days Singapore to Vancouver

[DonahCBrown]

Hi Pia - hi Donna!

 

Don't foget to do the "No Packing Day Dance" today!:)

And enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Cheers - Dee

 

Aloha Dee & John - see you in Hilo pretty soon - no packing dance for sure!!

[Dorinda]

Pia and Donna - Just a note - if you are touring in Tianjin hope you can get to China House. We were in a taxi and stumbled on it the day it opened and it is a sight to see. It's a large old French style house filled with Chinese antiques...but it's the outside that is fantastic. It's covered with shards of china.

 

But whatever you do - have fun!

 

Dee

[Pia1913]

Welcome to Tianjin (for Beijing), where we will meet our private tour at 8:15. Our ship docked at about 4:00 AM and hallway hustle and bustle began shortly thereafter. We sort of heard them, but we fell right back asleep.

According to the Patter all officers remain the same, including our CD Kelvin Joy and our port lecturer Hutch. First days are usually all alike, and happily we won’t have to repeat muster. We could if we wanted to, but we don’t. ;)

　

Schedule is of course the welcome aboard show at 9:30, which will feature a ventriloquist, and Captain America on MUTS. Hutch will even be able to squeeze in a port talk on Dalian, which is our port for tomorrow.

Outside temp is coldish; for us. And the fog is still here.

Dee, will ask our guide to take us there if possible. Actually, it may already be on the schedule. When Donna does bookings, I have complete faith and just go with the flow.

Time to get a move on. See you all later. BTW, we are almost at 20,000 hits for this segment; always good to see so many people interested in chatter. :D

[wineforhealth]

Pia

 

Glad to hear the wine fits your palet, remember a glass half full is never enough

[Pia1913]

Back from our Tianjin tour; very interesting day. I will not embellish, since I have elected Donna to do a complete narrative. Suffice to say, lunch was excellent. Time for dinner. Just a hint. Not alway good getting lost. Not us, the driver. :rolleyes:

See you tomorrow.

[Raamo]

Back from our Tianjin tour; very interesting day. I will not embellish, since I have elected Donna to do a complete narrative. Suffice to say, lunch was excellent. Time for dinner. Just a hint. Not alway good getting lost. Not us, the driver. :rolleyes:

 

Nicely baited... now we'll have to keep checking back until Donna posts :cool:

[DonahCBrown]

Sorry about the wait - couldn't get online last night - lost minutes waiting for anything to load and will have to check with the internet person today - I think we have a new one - at any rate here goes:

 

 

Tianjin – we did a tour to the city of Tianjin. Vehicle was comfortable enough if a little awkward for getting in and out of from the rear seats, our guide’s English was easily understood and lunch was really good. I found some of the things I was specifically looking for in the ‘Ancient City’ arts and crafts market. Those were the highlights.

 

Tianjin is an unremarkable modern city approximately 1.5 hours (or so the Princess port guide said) from the new port facility (which is very large and very modern- duty free shops are very pricey, other shops were closed by the time we got back) The areas we visited were the Jiefang Bridge – also known as the Revolutionary Bridge – it was the site of a battle between forces supporting Mao – they won – and those supporting the Nationalists. There is also a very interesting large clock – our guide didn’t seem really clear on what this was supposed to have been created for, but it had 2000 marked on it, so I’m guessing it was the millennium. Anyway – it was very interesting looking and made a better photo op than the bridge.

 

Then we visited the Ancient Culture Street – an area of pedestrian streets containing numerous traditional arts and crafts shops – cloisonne, embroidery, calligraphy and painting, jewelry of all kinds and the usual sorts of inexpensive trinkets found in most big city US Chinatown areas. We shopped for about an hour, I found a couple of things, and then we went to the Food Street for lunch.

 

Located in a former railway station – the Food Street consisted of two levels of store fronts, restaurants and food booths offering everything imaginable, and a few that aren’t – chocolate replicas of the peeing boy statue in Brussels aren’t something I would have imagined at any rate – nor were the pretty much still wiggling shrimps/prawns on sticks that were flung onto an hibachi to order. There was a lot of other stuff that was utterly unidentifiable to us.

 

On the other hand, there were some fascinating vendors making sugar and ginger ropes that evolved into some kind of candies and a guy melting sugar and making foot high lacy candy art works that were exquisite (and to judge by those enjoying them, pretty delicious as well) It was packed with people, noisy, colorful, and fun. We went upstairs to a local restaurant that clearly didn’t get many (any) western customers – no forks – and with our guide’s assistance ordered lunch. Service was a little odd, as main dishes kept coming to the table one by one, and, in spite of multiple requests, no rice – finally the rice arrived as the last or next to last dish – evidently rather than ‘regular’ steamed rice, which was delivered to the adjacent tables along with the food, we got fried rice which counted as a separate entrée. Oh well, it was still very good and one of the best meals we’ve had on the trip – great kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork, fried pork, some kind of vaguely spinach-ish vegetable with black bean sauce, cashew chicken and a local beer – and our tardy but tasty fried rice, of course.

 

After the meal, it was around 1:30 or so, and we were scheduled to take a walk around Wudadao – sort of a ‘Europetown’ area with western style buildings that is a tourist attraction for the local Chinese. Didn’t see much that we were taken with so cut short our visit there and decided to get an early start back to the ship – by now it was around 2 PM – good thing too. Our driver didn’t seem to know how to get us back to the port. We would start on a toll road, get to the toll taker’s booth and the driver would converse for a while, hand over money, then make a u turn, go back in the other direction, to a new toll road, new toll collector, another u turn – I asked several times if we were lost, or if they needed the directions – in Chinese – that I brought from the ship, or the number of the ship’s agent to call – each time, we were told no, and that we’d be at the port in 20 minutes, or 15 minutes – around an hour or so later, after some additional wrong turns and a venture along some surface streets we finally were approaching the port and the ship.

 

Still, I have to say, I really enjoyed the Culture Street, the lunch was great, and it was an adventure!

[Pia1913]

See, I told you Donna would tell all. :D

 

 

Good Morning from Dalian(almost), the last China port and just before we get to Busan again. The day looks clear and I think we’ve finally gotten rid of the fog. We are scheduled to arrive at 9:00 and 8 of us will depart as soon as we clear for our full day private tour. Princess has complimentary bus service from the pier to a Friendship store for those not doing any sort of tour.

 

　

The only offerings for those staying aboard is the Charlie Chaplin movie Gold Rush on MUTS in the morning and the movie Beginners in the theater at 2:00 PM.

 

　

On stage tonight in Explorer’s is comedian Rikki Jay, who we really like and saw twice last cruise. I’m afraid however, that the show tonight will be a repeat, and since Lovena Fox is still around and in the theater, that about does it for our choices. MUTS will be showing Johnny English Reborn, but it’s really too cold to watch an outdoor movie.

　

 

That about does it for now. See you later. Oh, Kelvin announced this morning that 900 Canadians boarded yesterday

[ccrain]

China has a real pollution problem. Wow, this was worst than anything I’ve ever seen in LA. Where to start. The great wall and people watching made the trip completely worth while. The driver, the guide and the food made it less so. After the guide finished telling us of all the experience this particular driver had, he turned the wrong way and we had to back down an on ramp. Of course we heard a couple of other busses had to turn around due to the road being closed and drive the wrong way back down the roadway. Our driver definitely had a horn blowing issue. Blew the horn every chance he got. Just nod off to sleep and HHOOONNNKKKKK.

 

The guide’s English was limited, but understandable. His problem was delivery and lack of enthusiasm. When a guide starts out telling you how long he’s been in the business and how experienced he is, you kind of know you are in trouble. We miss Herman, or Mr. Lee or Mike. While their English may have been limited, their enthusiasm telling you about the subject area more than made up for any communication difficulties.

 

But anyway, we made it to the great wall in one piece. It was worth the trip to see it and interact with the various people in the area. (People watching is one of our hobbies.) We went up on the western side as far as Judy’s knees would allow – about one tower from the end. The steps are very steep, very uneven and extremely tricky for anyone with mobility problems – heck even mobile people would have trouble. Great photographs except for the smog in the air that limited visibility.

 

This part of the wall is restored, not everything is original. In fact most of it is relatively new, but they did keep with the construction methods and designs. This part of the wall is due north of Tienjen just inside the mountains. Not the part that has the terra cotta warriors which is to the west of Bejing.

 

Our guide was pretty knowledgeable about the area, he was from Tianjen. We spent about 2 hours wandering around the wall and investigating the various shops and vendor offerings. Got the mandatory T-shirt and magnet, sat down in one of the local shops with a couple from Canada and had some water. Watched as a family got some really interesting dishes in the shop. Smelled wonderful and made us hungry. Unfortunately lunch would really disappoint.

 

This lunch made Panda Express taste gourmet. The egg drop soup was really gross. The chicken with peanuts and the rice were about the best things. We actually got a plate of French fries as well – shades of our “gourmet” French lunch in Monte Carlo last November – pomme fries! With Heinz no less!

 

But still, to be able to see the Great Wall and watch Chinese people at play was rather interesting. They are more westernized than one might think – or at least the vehicle mobile class is. The rest stop, squat toilets and all, reminded me of a scene straight out of the 60’s and road trips with my family. Mom, Dad, mother-in-law, child stopping to eat fruit and sandwiches, drinking a coke, arguing about the time, saying hurry up, hurry up, and then driving away in a cloud of dust. It was a strange case of déjà vu!

 

We got back to the ship and had a wonderful time skipping muster drill and going straight to the dining room. The Savoy’s signature dish is a grilled pork chop and I had to try it. It was delicious. The menu was sailaway and we’ve probably had it several times over, so the pork chop was a nice change. I also had the spring rolls and the cream of porcini mushroom soup. Both were excellent as well. Judy had the fettuccini alfredo, which she really likes on this ship, the mushroom soup and the texas chili. All of which she liked as well.

 

For dessert I had the carrot cake and the Eggnog ice cream. The carrot cake was absolutely fantastic. The pastry chef on this ship is one of the best. The desserts are not too sweet, but sweetened just right.

 

We topped off the evening with dancing in Explorer’s to Nightwatch and with Dailan the next day, we hit the sack.

[lovevacadays]

Pia

 

Glad to hear the wine fits your palet, remember a glass half full is never enough

 

Thanks for a nice laugh.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

 

 

[Pia1913]

What a beautiful day. Weather supposed to be cool; turned out to be warm and sunny. No traffic problems today. No fog/smog problems today. No problems at all today. Again, as yesterday, Donna is the designated narrator.

Stay tuned.

[bcnvcanada]

We found a mcdonalds behind the Pheniox hotel. We also saw a starbucks, but not sure where. Korean RS has one of the best internet systems in the world, very fast. Love the reports. If you see Leo again, say hi from the "girls". Thanks

[Johhno]

Welcome to Tianjin (for Beijing), where we will meet our private tour at 8:15. Our ship docked at about 4:00 AM and hallway hustle and bustle began shortly thereafter. We sort of heard them, but we fell right back asleep.

According to the Patter all officers remain the same, including our CD Kelvin Joy and our port lecturer Hutch. First days are usually all alike, and happily we won’t have to repeat muster. We could if we wanted to, but we don’t. ;)

　

Schedule is of course the welcome aboard show at 9:30, which will feature a ventriloquist, and Captain America on MUTS. Hutch will even be able to squeeze in a port talk on Dalian, which is our port for tomorrow.

Outside temp is coldish; for us. And the fog is still here.

Dee, will ask our guide to take us there if possible. Actually, it may already be on the schedule. When Donna does bookings, I have complete faith and just go with the flow.

Time to get a move on. See you all later. BTW, we are almost at 20,000 hits for this segment; always good to see so many people interested in chatter. :D

 

Hi Pia,

We were on the Dawn last year and Kelvin was the CD.Is he still using his famous quote.

 

"WINNER WINNER - CHICKEN DINNER"

 

Funny Man!

 

Thanks for the live posts,enjoying them all way over here in Aussie Land.

Cheers,

Johhno

[ccrain]

Finally a great Chinese port with fun guides, good food, great sites and a wonderful day touring. Started the day with our latte’s at the lobby bar while the Diamond slipped into Dalian harbor. We ended up backing into the slip and with our balcony on the aft we enjoyed a great view of the harbor and all the people watching us as we docked.

 

Our guides were Allyson and Winter. Two young, energetic, smiling and cute local girls – and as we would find out later, they could sing as well! This would be the city drive, community center and polar exhibit tour. Our tour 105.

 

It was a whirlwind tour of Dalian with a senior/community activity center first. Don’t get the wrong idea – it was anything but an ‘old folks home’. They had a series of dance troupes do some traditional and more modern dance routines. And there were absolutely stunning displays of painting and paper art. They even had a dance troupe outside on the sidewalk welcoming us with a Chinese style drum corp. Needless to say, we ran our camera batteries down during this session. With only 45 minutes there, we didn’t get to see all of the different dance routines, but the rotation of busses through the area at least allowed most of the people on tour to see a couple of routines. After the routines, the performers would come out into the crowd and take pictures with us. So friendly, all smiling, all having a great time. It was a great welcome to Dalian and a great start to a day long tour.

 

After the center we went to a park (People’s Square I think) near the center of town and the seashore with a lot of great Olympic art, an interesting horizontal sculpture consisting of footprints embedded in bronze stretching about 100 yards towards the seashore ending in a couple of children pointing to the sea. And then there was the giant skateboard ramp at the end. The Olympic art was unique. Every Olympic event was depicted in an action figure in three separate poses. For example the javelin statue would have the thrower in wind up, at the release point and then in the follow through with the javelin taking flight. There were several dozen statues around the park reportedly showing each and every Olympic sport. Again we really didn’t have time to see all of them, but it was a great taste of the town.

 

After the park we drove along the sea coast back toward the ship. The bus stopped in the middle of the street to let us off to walk across a bridge – lover’s bridge – apparently. A nice stretch of the legs and some great photos of an old windmill. Too bad the air was smoggy. Not as bad as Tienjen, but not exactly blue sky either.

 

After the bridge we did a short stop at another park with flying tiger sculptures. Very nicely done and with some interesting vendors at the park. There were toys for kids to ride and one was a rickshaw with a robot child pulling it while an adult sat in the chair. Of course the robot only walked along as the drive train moved the wheels, but the effect was pretty convincing that the robot was pulling the rickshaw.

 

After the park we went to lunch. Finally a good Chinese food lunch. Not too westernized, tasty and plenty of variety. We had 45 minutes to eat, but unfortunately the woman’s bathroom was backed up as there were only two stalls. (This was a common problem on all of our tours in Asia. In most cases, we ended up standing guard while the ladies used the men’s restroom stalls.) In any event, lunch was good. Eggplant, stir fry dishes of chicken, beef and pork, spring rolls and a pretty good soup. We were not disappointed in this lunch.

 

After lunch we did the polar aquarium and show. Really nice exhibits. Think seaworld on a smaller scale. The Chinese apparently have a growing middle class, and based on the cars seen around Dalian, they have money to spend. Entertainment is a growing industry in Dalian and this park is apparently expanding its offerings. Exhibits of seals, walruses, a polar bear cub, penguins and a beluga whale were in the park. The show was about 30 minutes, and it was packed to the gills with people, of some routines with the Beluga whale, and five dolphins. Pretty standard tricks, all narrated in Chinese, which was a hoot, we couldn’t understand the words, but we got the meaning and the gist of what was going on. It was kind of fun and great for people watching and totally killing our remaining battery power.

 

But then I did a faux paux in translation that I just have to talk about. Winter, one of our guides, had never seen this particular show before. So I told her that if she liked it she should come to the states and see Sea World in CA or FL. I told her about the Orca shows, but made the mistake of calling them “killer” whales. Somehow she translated this as the whales were “killed” during the show! Oh jeez, major international crisis when she lamented on the bus going back to the ship about how the killing of these animals made her so sad! (Please just shoot me now!) Needless to say I had to pull her and Allyson to one side and explain to her that we call Orcas killer whales, not that we kill the whales during the show!

 

Open mouth, change feet. No wonder wars are started for much less!

 

(Oh and speaking of stupid Americans, I found out that the loud mouth in Japan was NOT an American! Two couple on our bus was on his bus before and after the incident. He apparently was taken back to the ship. Unfortunately, he is still on the ship.)

 

After the polar show we headed downtown to the friendship mall for shopping. But it was a more upscale shopping center with no cheap souvenirs. We were unable to snag our fridge magnet for this port! However, the staff and the people were actually quite friendly and even smiled at this invasion of about 1000 foreign shoppers. The wine in the grocery store was going like hot cakes. Apparently it was on sale!

 

So we returned to the shop about 430pm, having started out about 0930. It was a great day with two wonderful tour guides and a really nice town, nice people.

 

After the tour it was a quick shower and a prep for dinner. We decided on the buffet, which really had some tasty offerings. I really like the cold salads. Judy, unfortunately with her mayonnaise allergy, can’t eat most of them. The lamb was a good medium rare and seasoned well. We had a great dinner conversation with a couple and their brother that we had Chef’s table with last week, or was it last month, oh, well, who cares.

 

After dinner it was dancing in fusion for a couple of hours and then off to bed. We’d seen the comedian and the entertainment, so no need to fight for seats in those venues. Time went forward an hour, so it would be an early day in the morning, but a sea day and we plan to do Zumba with Kim at 0945.

 

Have to research some more on Busan since we will be on our own for the entire day.

[Pia1913]

Move it forward; move it back. Every other day our clocks are moved. We lost an hour last night and at this point I’m no longer sure where we are in relation to EST. I think we are at 13 hours ahead. Anyhow, Good Morning to all on this lovely Thursday morning at sea. Sun is shining, but a bit nippy outside.

　

Today we start with a Busan lecture, followed by a non-surgical face lift seminar, a documentary Shark Therapy on MUTS and arts and crafts which will allow you to make a little doll. These are just a few of the morning offerings that I won’t be doing. My choice is trivia and a little zumba. Oops, almost forgot. A sushi demo will occur too, as a prelude to the sushi buffet on deck at lunchtime. Neither one of us does sushi.

　

Afternoon movie in the theater is Descendants and on MUTS, Slumdog Millionaire. Tonight is formal night with the Captain’s Welcome Aboard “party” in the atrium, and also the champagne waterfall.

　

Entertainment tonight is the production show Ports of Call (no, we will not see it again), Phil Hughes a comedic ventriloquist in Explorer’s and Midnight in Paris on MUTS. Not sure if we’ve seen Phil Hughes previously; will give it a try.

Johhno: yes, winner, winner, et al is what he's using. Last time we sailed with him it was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

BCNV: Starbucks was just across the street from McD's. You just missed it.

Breakfast time.

[DonahCBrown]

Dalian – had a private tour for 8 of us. Pick up at the port was uneventful this time, with our guide Max waiting on the pier to escort us to our really nice 16 passenger van. Our itinerary for the day was to visit Xinghai Park, Tiger Beach Square, People’s Square, the Beida Bridge, and the Russian Street, and lunch was included. At $60 per person, it was quite reasonable.

 

Max filled us in on the relatively brief history of Dalian – it is a city of some 6 million now, but was established only a little over a hundred years ago, and in that time hs been ruled by both the Russians and the Japanese, the first by agreement with the Chinese Empire and the latter by conquest. Max said his grandfather grew up speaking some Russian, and his father spoke some Japanese. The layout of Dalian was created by the Russians in the late 1800s, and it was their intent to create a city modeled on Paris. However, the city was lost by Russia to the Japanese in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese war, and the majority of the construction of the city was done by the Japanese, who controlled Dalian from 1904 to 1945. Under the terms of the Yalta Conference, post war Dalian was occupied by the Russians again, until 1953. Since then, Dalian has grown and it is now the largest port in China’s northeast.

 

We drove around People’s Square, then proceeded to Xinghai Park as our fist stop. It was constructed in 1997, and is larger than Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. In the center of the square is a large carved column called a huabiao. Max explained that these types of columns developed over time from simple cross roads markers (this way to Beijing, this way to Dalian) to more and more elaborate columns that contained mythological references, sometimes statements of philosophy, and so on. This particular one is topped by a dragon – I wasn’t quite clear on the full significance but the dragon columns at the entry of the Forbidden City, Max said, had two dragons looking into the Forbidden City to keep watch on the Emperor and make sure he was working hard and doing his best for the people of China, and two looking outward to make sure that the people were working hard and were loyal to the Emperor. Somehow the dragon in Xinghai Park was performing a similar function, but I wasn’t sure who he was keeping an eye on.

 

All around the perimeter of the center floor are carved representations of the Chinese Zodiac signs, and Max had worked out for each couple in our group what our various signs were so we could join the local people in locating our signs and having our pictures taken next to them. It turned out that this square is also on the ‘circuit’ for Chinese wedding parties. May Day and the week following are popular ones for Chinese weddings, and both in Tinajin and in Dalian we saw numerous wedding parties. It is considered auspicious and is also convenient for couples to marry during the national holiday as more people are able to attend the wedding and the more of your family and friends who attend, the better, as all contribute money to the new couple to aid them in the start of their new life together. According to Max, it is basically an investment for the attendees, as reciprocity is expected on their marriages.

 

We drove around to the far end of the square and had a brief look around at a small amusement park and a huge concrete sculpture – we initially thought it was a skateboard park – that represented a book of the history of Dalian – I couldn’t see it, but there were lots of people walking up and down the steep sides and in the middle was a casting of the feet of 100 citizens of Dalian – again, not clear on the full significance of this.

 

From the square, we then proceeded towards Tiger Beach, a rapidly developing resort area on the far side of the peninsula on which Dalian is located. The drive along the coastal area was beautiful with parks and plantings and very upscale housing along the way, as well as breathtaking views all along the coast. The Beida Bridge is on the way to Tiger Beach, and we stopped and those who wanted were able to walk over the bridge, take some pictures of the coast. It is a ‘lover’s bridge’ in local lore, and newly married couples come here to walk over the bridge, although we didn’t see any there.

 

The beach park is fairly small, but clear signs of development were all around the small bay and a large sign showed the future view that indicated this area will be a very high end resort soon. At present, there are some huge tiger statues and a lot of amusements for children and lots of family groups in the area.

 

We went on into the town and made a stop at the local mall to do some shopping and then to lunch, which was in a restaurant that was a buffet and a micro-brewery with a German theme. It was rather odd, to say the least – from the décor and servers’ outfits (think Heidi) – one would have assumed sausages and sauerkraut – but it was in fact a Chinese buffet with grilled meats served at the table. All in all a strange mixture that was further enhanced by a sixties classic rock (in English) sound track that featured the Beatles and Stevie Wonder among others, and a large screen tv with classic cartoons from the 40s and 50s no sound and Chinese subtitles.

 

The buffet had salads and fruit, some noodles, fried rice, potato salad, veggie hot dishes, an assortment of pork and seafood dishes both hot and cold, a variety of desserts and a number of things that weren’t easily identified. Periodically, servers would come by with huge shish ke bob skewers with various grilled meats that were sliced onto common plates on the table – these included pork, chicken, sausages, duck, and fish balls. I can’t say I was thrilled with the lunch – it wasn’t nearly as good as the one we had in Tianjin, although it was an interesting experience. Huge mugs of beer were also provided, with choices of dark, medium and light beers. Not a beer drinker myself, but the beer drinkers in the group liked the dark and found the lightest of the three beers unimpressive. I don’t think anyone had the ‘medium’ one.

 

After lunch, we went to the Russian Culture Street, which is a pedestrian mall area with Russian style buildings and street vendors with nesting dolls, and other Russian themed merchandise. Hutch had suggested we wait for Vladivostok to purchase anything of this nature, so we just walked, took pictures and then returned to our van. We had extra time, so Max suggested that we visit a similar pedestrian street that featured Chinese merchandise, which we did – and it also featured lots of food vendors and the food looked a lot more appealing than our lunch had…oh well…

 

We returned to the ship a little earlier than scheduled, after a very satisfying day. In overall summary, Dalian is the prettiest area we have visited in China, with better air quality and more open space and parks than other cities we have been in on this and other trips. The location is scenic and the city is very clean and modern with a resort feel, and, in spite of the population of 6 million, it does not feel crowded and the traffic is less frenetic than that in other Chinese ports. Our guide was helpful, with more than adequate English, and the vehicle was great for our group of 8. The only disappointment was lunch, and even that was 'an experience' - and, I forgot to mention - was served with 'regular' flatware - knife, fork, spoon - not a chopstick in sight - I'm thinking it might be the local equivalent of 'going out for Chinese??' Anyway, it was interesting.

[IECalCruiser]

This trip is on our bucket list. I have a question for those on this cruise. The Diamond does a similar route in the fall from Vancouver westbound. Westbound you would be adding hours to many days rather than losing hours on this eastbound cruises. Why did you choose the Spring cruise rather than the Fall cruise?

[ccrain]

This trip is on our bucket list. I have a question for those on this cruise. The Diamond does a similar route in the fall from Vancouver westbound. Westbound you would be adding hours to many days rather than losing hours on this eastbound cruises. Why did you choose the Spring cruise rather than the Fall cruise?

 

You will be adding hours, but then essentially lose an entire day when you cross the dateline. Not sure if it would be any easier going the other way, ask me in about two weeks!

 

Why this one?

 

1) To avoid weather in September/October. Typhoons and such. so far the weather has actually been perfect. Even with the heat of vietnam and Thailand, it was been smooth as glass and quite nice in the ports that should be colder.

 

2) We wanted to make the long flight first rather than last and wanted to fly into Singapore, not out of Bejing - although I guess we could have stayed on until Singapore.

 

3) The price was right at the time, and we had our choice of a cabin, airline prices were good and we got both hotels and tickets on ANA with all of our points. We had to jump on the savings while we could...

 

4) The itinerary was attractive with only one port repeated. Spacing of ports was good. With no more than 2 ports in a row.

[IECalCruiser]

You will be adding hours, but then essentially lose an entire day when you cross the dateline. Not sure if it would be any easier going the other way, ask me in about two weeks!

 

Why this one?

 

1) To avoid weather in September/October. Typhoons and such. so far the weather has actually been perfect. Even with the heat of vietnam and Thailand, it was been smooth as glass and quite nice in the ports that should be colder.

 

2) We wanted to make the long flight first rather than last and wanted to fly into Singapore, not out of Bejing - although I guess we could have stayed on until Singapore.

 

3) The price was right at the time, and we had our choice of a cabin, airline prices were good and we got both hotels and tickets on ANA with all of our points. We had to jump on the savings while we could...

 

4) The itinerary was attractive with only one port repeated. Spacing of ports was good. With no more than 2 ports in a row.

Thanks for the prompt feedback.

[Pia1913]

Hi folks:

Just dropping in with some ancillary information. Today was our M & G and in attendance were the Captain, Staff Captain, PSD, Hotel Manager, CD and Deputy CD. Great turnout at Skywalker’s, with the Captain speaking to the group far more than he has ever done before. He gave some logistics of the bridge/safety procedures, and that there is always a staff of four officers at any given time.

Other info: Cutoff for most traveled luncheon (Monday, May 7th) is 371 and since numbers one thru three are still on from the last cruise, and no other heavy hitters boarded in Beijing, we are again #4.

　

If I haven’t mentioned it previously, I will now. Kelvin Joy has to be the best male CD in the Princess fleet. I specify male, since Sammi Baker is by far the best female. Also, Matt Thompson as the deputy on this cruise (even though he aggravates me with his riddles), is definitely CD material for the future.

　

Nothing more to say. See you tomorrow in Busan.

[Bowie MeMe]

You will be adding hours, but then essentially lose an entire day when you cross the dateline. Not sure if it would be any easier going the other way, ask me in about two weeks!

 

Why this one?

 

1) To avoid weather in September/October. Typhoons and such. so far the weather has actually been perfect. Even with the heat of vietnam and Thailand, it was been smooth as glass and quite nice in the ports that should be colder.

 

2) We wanted to make the long flight first rather than last and wanted to fly into Singapore, not out of Bejing - although I guess we could have stayed on until Singapore.

 

3) The price was right at the time, and we had our choice of a cabin, airline prices were good and we got both hotels and tickets on ANA with all of our points. We had to jump on the savings while we could...

 

4) The itinerary was attractive with only one port repeated. Spacing of ports was good. With no more than 2 ports in a row.

 

Thanks for this reasoning. It is funny that we went through the same type of reasoning and chose to do Bangkok to Beijing in late Oct. because we thought the weather would be better :rolleyes: and we wanted to NOT be in Beijing around the Oct. Golden Week. We chose to go to Beijing roundtrip because we could do so nonstop from Washington DC on United cheaper than open jawed. We wanted to spend time in China in October so our major tour is before the cruise and we fly home from Beijing the day of disembarkation. With any trip there are so many factors that go into the decision and I am thankful for the folks here on CC that give me bits and pieces to make a decision that is custom to my traveling party. Good luck on your choices.

[mjd]

Pia, do you know what ship Sammi is on now? I worked with her on another cruise line years ago and last I heard she was generally on one of Princess' smaller ships.

 

thanks, Mary Jo

 

Hi folks:

 

<SNIPPED>

 

If I haven’t mentioned it previously, I will now. Kelvin Joy has to be the best male CD in the Princess fleet. I specify male, since Sammi Baker is by far the best female.

 

<SNIPPED>

　

[dottiedef]

She was on the Star when we were but got off when we did in San Francisco--March 19th--was going to Fla where her new husband lived for her break. She is the greatest--was talking about retiring. Thinks her days are numbered!

 

Dottie

[Bowie MeMe]

Sammi was on the Star in Jan. 2012 having just joined the Star from the Ocean Princess in the South Pacific if I remember it right. She did a wonderful job as CD and her assistant CD was really busy with the large Spanish speaking population and did the alternative cruise morning show in Spanish. Another staff member backed up Sammi on the show as did one of the entertainment staff on the Spanish side. There was a large group of Germans, many Canadians, a number of English and some Europeans. Probably the most diverse cruise I have ever been on. Sammi and Captain Perrin made it a happy ship and we had good weather, no noro and no missed ports (all those things were not true of the early January cruise). If Sammi is your CD, your cruise is in good hands.