LIVE from the Diamond Princess - 35 days Singapore to Vancouver

[PathfinderEss]

Great live reviews from you all. Glad your all having a good cruise.

[Donyb]

We have friends on this cruise and I'm enjoying reading the narratives from Pia and ccrain. Please keep them coming. Bottle the heat...you'll need it later!

[seamwoman]

Hi Barbara, BowieMD, it's Karen from the South American Star. E-mail me if you want as we did the Bangkok to Beijing cruise two years ago and I can share some of our experiences: seamwoman@bellsouth.net

I'm from South Florida and thought I would pass out at the Grand Palace due to the heat! It does get better as you sail north. We were in Beijing in October and were freezing.It's a wonderful cruise - enjoy! Karen

[Pia1913]

A quick hello. Need to get to bed early to be up at 5:30 tomorrow. Answer to Maurizio; yes, he's here.

 

Will try to post in the AM, time and internet permitting.

[sunvalley cruisers]

oh yum, waffles! I'll be happy next year. :)

 

This must be your private excursion day with Cliff's group? Looking forward to hearing about it. Also, was there not enough time to talk about it at the M&G? sounds like you had another meeting to discuss the tour?

 

Anne

[generichandle]

I too am enjoying, except that ccrain brought us the bad news that the change in balcony furniture BACK to the full size has not yet happened on the Diamond.

 

I have been watching the weather in Beijing and it looks much more comfortable than they are experiencing right now.

 

Sounds like the ship itself is in really good condition, with service running very high. Hope these far travelers don't wear them down by the time we arrive.

 

Doug

[Kiwi Kruzer]

[Pia1913]

Good Morning Vietnam! Now where have you heard that before? ;) Yes, it’s hot; and getting hotter. Supposed to be in the 90’s and with comparable humidity. We are in Phu My, gateway to HCM City (formerly Saigon). We have been issued Vietnamese Landing cards which we are required to carry when going ashore and which will be stamped by Vietnamese immigration as we disembark.

　

Again, it’s very early and we are leaving on our private tour into Ho Chi Minh City at 7:00. This was arranged by someone on our CC Roll Call; more for less. We were last here in 2005, so will be interested in seeing what if any changes have occurred. I am looking forward to having a Tiger beer at the Rex Hotel and visiting the enormous Bin Thanh market where we bought Dockers for $8.00 and Ralph Lauren Polos for $4.00. Let’s see how inflation has reared its head in this country.

　

Not much to do for those staying aboard, other than two movies in the afternoon; Midnight in Paris in the theater and Adventures of Tintin on MUTS.

　

Bye for now. Will report back upon return or tomorrow AM.

Ann: I was excused from meeting. Seems Cliff thought I had travelled enough to know what to do. Very crowded at M and G and difficult to really do "business," :)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

 

 

 

[mema4]

Hi Pia,

I finally found your live blog and I love to read it. One day I will go on that trip. I leave on the Crown next week. Looking forward to reading the rest of your blog. Regards to Mike.

Alice

[windsor26]

"Again, it’s very early and we are leaving on our private tour into Ho Chi Minh City at 7:00. This was arranged by someone on our CC Roll Call; more for less. We were last here in 2005, so will be interested in seeing what if any changes have occurred. I am looking forward to having a Tiger beer at the Rex Hotel and visiting the enormous Bin Thanh market where we bought Dockers for $8.00 and Ralph Lauren Polos for $4.00. Let’s see how inflation has reared its head in this country."

 

 

Pia if you can will you let me have the name of the person who organised this tour as I would like to find details before our Diamond princess stop in Vietnam in November Thank you

[Kiwi Kruzer]

[Pia1913]

Phu My/Ho Chi Minh City (a/k/a a very hot and exhausting day).

This private tour was set up by Cliff, someone from our roll call. He contracted with Smile Tours for two large buses; each one had approx. 36 passengers, was air conditioned and comfortable. We had bus #1 which also had as our guide the owner/operator of the tour company. Thi (pronounced tea) is her name, 40 years old, a university graduate in English who usually doesn’t dp tours anymore, but did this one because our group was so large. We got very lucky. Total cost: $55/pp. We were on the bus and off to HCM City by 7:35. Our first stop was the Jade Emperor pagoda and then on to the Independence Palace, a/k/a Reunification Hall. This is now a museum and exhibition center, since the Vietnam War ended with the fall of the Palace in 1975.

 

 

We opted not to stop at the cathedral, some people ran into the post office (one magnificent edifice) and then on to a water puppet show. This performance was for our group only, so we had the entire airconditioned theater with stadium seating, while watching this very interesting show. Hard to describe, so I would ask anyone interested to google it for an explanation. Afterwards we passed the famous Rex Hotel where Pres. Clinton had stayed as well as the beautiful opera house. We had 2 hours for lunch and shopping; both were across the street from each other. Having been to the BenThanh market previously, we were able to get in and out quite rapidly. Bought some shirts for DH which was our intention. Lunch was at Pho 2000 a great noodle restaurant and very inexpensive. We had a chicken noodle soup (huge, with lots of white meat chicken), 4 spring rolls, Tiger beer and Diet Coke. Entire bill for two was $9.00. Returned to the ship at 4:45.

　

Some shopping available at pier, but nothing that interested us. Princess was running a free shuttle to a market, but I have no information as to where this market is located or how far away from the pier it is

 

 

I am typing this off line at approx. 5:45. We need to go to dinner shortly and if Mike would consider missing a meal, I could go to sleep right now. At this time there is no internet, so this will get posted asap. Hopefully tonight. No shows of any sort will be considered, but there’s nothing we like anyhow. Just the Australian male vocalist and the movie War Horse.

 

Got connected. Hooray. Hope it posts.

 

Yvonne, look on internet for website. Smile Tours has one and that's how Cliff found them. You can tell her we all recommended it from today's tour,

[Steve78]

Hi Pia thanks for the updates. My friends Ron and Primrose are onboard with you. They're from Australia. If you run into them tell them Steve says hi! :)

 

Cheers

Steve

[Eppe4]

Please post your itinerary for us to see your exciting ports!

Thanks

 

Franky, this cruise is also on our bucket list as well. We're looking at 2014.

[Eppe4]

huge, with lots of white meat chicken

Pia, are you really SURE it was chicken???????????

[aaerobear]

Any progress on Trivia????

[Lynda90]

Pia, thanks for sharing your cruise with us. I am enjoying the ride. See you on the Royal! :p

[Pia1913]

Good Saturday morning from the approach to Nha Trang, Vietnam. Skies are clear with temps expected in the 90’s. We roasted yesterday, so I suppose we’ll roast even more today. This is a tender port and since there are three busloads in our privately booked tour, Princess is going to take us ashore en masse. We are to meet in Savoy at 8:00. I love the CC folks who undertake these private bookings, inasmuch as we save money and there’s no thought involved. I don’t mind being one of a flock occasionally. This means I have no clue as to what we are doing today, but I love surprises and will let you know later.

　

For those staying aboard there is literally nothing to do except the afternoon movie “I Don’t Know How She Does It” in the theater and a Lionel Richie concert on MUTS. Princess will again have a complementary shuttle to a market which will commence at 8:45.

　

Tonight there’s a classical violinist (not our cuppa’) in the theater and “In Time” on MUTS.

LOL Joyce. Yes, sure it was chicken.:D

Ed: haven't played many, but won once.

See you guys. It's 6:30 and time for breakfast.

[dsawyer]

You are outdoing yourself on this blog. You are making us all feel we are right there with you...great descriptions. Thanks for taking us along. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Kiwi Kruzer]

 

From the bridge cam ...

Early morning , and at anchor in the bay. You can just make out Nha Trang in the distance.

[Eppe4]

Pia,

 

We're really enjoying your "live from", thanks for the effort from all of us.

 

Are you finding Viet Nam clean, I've heard some reports that make me want to take it off of my bucket list, but I think it's great for people my age (65) to return, just for healing. Lost a lot of friends there many years ago. Would like to see for myself that their loss was not in vain.

 

Looking forward to our South Florida Meet & Greet this summer.

[windsor26]

Thank you Pia I will google them and take it from there We are on the Diamond later this year :D

[ccrain]

At Sea Toward Phu May:

 

An at sea break is much welcome after the heat and bus rides of Bangkok. Love that shipboard A/C. Tonight would be chef’s table. They have raised the price of Chef’s table once again to $95. At $70, it was a bargain, at $90 it was border line. I think at $95 its too much. We did it anyway to see if anything has changed – it hasn’t – although they are a bit freer with the wine than before. This particular chef’s table was one of the better ones. The appetizers were completely different than any before with a crab ceviche (spiced completely differently), a faugra mousse and a prosciutto wrapped lobster tail. With the champagne, a very good start.

 

The seafood Risotto was absolutely fantastic, followed by the strawberry sorbet drowned in grey goose vodka. The main course was beef tenderloin, scallops, lobster and a lamb chop. Very good. The cheese course was the standard camembert with a port wine reduction and then the dessert course was the standard frozen mousse on a sugar plate.

 

As this was probably about 7 or 8 chef’s table for us, it will probably be our last. It is really good and I highly recommend it for first timers, but we’ve had so many of these things the shine has worn off. Especially at the increased price.

 

Speaking of prices, drink prices have increased again. From $6.95 to $7.50 from our last cruise in November. Still a relative bargain compared to other places around the world – how about S$25 for a long island iced tea in Singapore! Or $10 for a real Long island iced tea on Long Island!

 

One thing of interest I discovered during Chef’s table. While the dinner menus are set by corporate, the HC menu is set on board, and subject to the executive chef’s direction. And Reggie, our chef, is really good. The HC food has been really good and diverse. We’ve been there done that in relation to the dining room menus, so its good to know that at the HC we are getting some really creative stuff. And its pretty darn good as well.

[ccrain]

Lots of veterans on this cruise. I missed the war by about a year. When I turned 18, they had ended even registration. I work with several Viet Nam vets. So I had mixed feeling about visiting. We did not go to Saigon, we went instead to Vuc Trang and did a lot of local stuff including a rice wine distillery, a rice paper maker and a little orchard, along with a couple of temples, a local market, a seaside restaurant, a couple of parks, viewed the largest statue of Jesus in the world – yes it is here in Vietnam.

 

This was one of our better tours. The guide was great, the bus A/C worked, the food was not too westernized, but I didn’t get to try Pho, and the places we visited were real, not show.

 

The distillery, complete with pigs and having raised pigs when I was a kid, these were big hogs, was in the back of someone’s house. We were treated to Vietnamese Whiskey – which is rice wine mixed with a bit of Coca Cola. At the rice paper maker, we were taken to a little old ladies house where she sat and make rice paper. 500 pieces a day. Up to a 1000 if necessary. The orchard was again the back of someone’s house. A couple of acres of Mangos, Papayas, Durian, black pepper, bananas and pineapples. We sampled watermelon, jackfruit, banana, coconut and Asian pear. The jackfruit was our favorite.

 

It was really interesting to see the capitalist nature of the area we were in. A bunch of ladies on motorbikes carrying all kinds of souvenirs followed us from one stop to the other. And the prices got lower. Kimonos started at $20 each, ended up at $14 each – we probably still paid too much. Fans started at $5 each, we go them at 3 for $10, but one lady on the bus stuck to her guns and got 2 for $5.

 

The market was rather interesting and completely local. Locals swarmed around us trying to sell us everything under the sun. As we wandered through the stalls, we woke up more than one girl as she saw the lot of us trampling through the narrow aisles. Think flea market, then double the number of items, narrow the aisle space by 50%, extend the shelves up to about 10’, then double the number of items again. Now you have a Vietnamese market.

 

All of the girls riding the motorbikes are covered from head to toe. Only indoors do they uncover themselves. This is to prevent any skin tanning at all. Tanning apparently indicates a poor person that works outside.

 

The restaurant was a seaside affair with a Vietnamese buffet of food. Very good food. Some must have been pretty authentic since I didn’t care for it too much. (Fried baby fish?) Not as spicy as I’ve heard, but the BBQ’ed calamari was fantastic. Fresh and rubbery! The spring rolls were certainly memorable as well.

 

After lunch we spent a few minutes in a sea side park, dodging the ever present ladies on motorbikes. Then went over to see the largest statue of Jesus in the world. Up on a hill near the sea shore. Weird feeling.

 

A final stop at the Whale Temple, complete with whale skeletons and bones, one final bargain with a kid over a fridge magnet – and guess what, kids, whether whining “Oh MOM!” in English or Vietnamese, sounds pretty much the same.

 

(Now that is weird, as I type this from the Atrium a bunch of Vietnamese military just walked by on Deck 6 with cameras. Same uniforms, same fruit salads, different faces. Just one weird feeling. These are the most military I have seen at all. None while on-shore past the seaport gates.)

 

We got back from Phu May about 1600 local. Immediately headed for the shower and then up to the Lounge for some chips, guacamole and the special $3.99 margarita. That did me in for the day. I have apparently picked up an infection somewhere along the road and have a low grade fever as well. So it’s off to bed and hopefully I can kick this thing.