Diamond Princess Japan

[Brisbane41]

I have filled out a review of my recent Japan cruise to Hokkaido with Nebuta Festival on the Diamond Princess. It has been published on the reviews page and is now visible for all to see if people are interested.

 

I was very happy with Princess and enjoy sailing on the Diamond Princess and am right now trying to find another sailing on the Diamond Princess for next July to Japanese ports that I have not been to. They really are doing a good job in that area and it is a welcome treat to enjoy Princess as it should be with no changes or deterioration to the service.

 

One issue I did encounter despite disembarking on the 4th August there are still pre-authorisations on my credit card which is really annoying. I had 15 pre-authorisations on disembarkation day which makes it hard to track fraudulent transactions on the credit card.

 

I am not going to take this anymore and for all future cruises I am going to load my on board account with pre-payment of everything I possibly can either by card pre-cruise or by loading cash onto it. If anything annoyed me it is this financial constraint on my card clogging up my access to credit funds whilst travelling.

 

Before my cruise departed I did pre pay for all my gratuities and loaded some funds in for on board credit. However by the end of the cruise I had such a good time that the card needed to be billed. I wont be making this mistake again in the future and with all cruise lines I travel with now all gratuities and even excursions will be pre-paid as this has really ticked me off big time not being able to see what authorisations will turn into actual bills 7 days after the cruise has ended. For a big company like them they should be more professional.

 

As for Diamond Princess it is still one of my favourite ships due to its size and it is well looked after in Japan making it hard to believe it is one of their older ships. In fact I would happily sail on Diamond Princess over their newer ships any day.

[hpeabody]

it is a welcome treat to enjoy Princess as it should be with no changes or deterioration to the service.

 

Yes! I felt the same way about my Feb/Mar 21 Day SE Asia Grand Adventure cruise on the Sapphire out of Singapore. I really loved that they did not have the abbreviated/blah menu used now on most ships. I don't think the Sapphire had any signs of Curtis Stone and did have the Norman Love specialties. They still served all the classics in the MDR we knew and loved. In general, just the overall running of the ship. Had great MDR service and room steward. Much more like the good ol' Princess days.

[Paulchili]

Thanks for the review. Very timely for us as we leave in 3 days.

Looking forward to it and I choose your review to the one from Mr Biz, who seemed to be a very unhappy camper. I am also hoping to have more of your experiences than those of Mr Biz :D

I am surprised by the multiple pre-authorization charges from Princess - we have cruised with them a lot (Elites) and have not encountered this situation (and hope not to this time either).

Edited August 11, 2016 by Paulchili

[Montrealais]

I have filled out a review of my recent Japan cruise to Hokkaido with Nebuta Festival on the Diamond Princess. It has been published on the reviews page and is now visible for all to see if people are interested.

 

I was very happy with Princess and enjoy sailing on the Diamond Princess and am right now trying to find another sailing on the Diamond Princess for next July to Japanese ports that I have not been to. They really are doing a good job in that area and it is a welcome treat to enjoy Princess as it should be with no changes or deterioration to the service.

 

One issue I did encounter despite disembarking on the 4th August there are still pre-authorisations on my credit card which is really annoying. I had 15 pre-authorisations on disembarkation day which makes it hard to track fraudulent transactions on the credit card.

 

I am not going to take this anymore and for all future cruises I am going to load my on board account with pre-payment of everything I possibly can either by card pre-cruise or by loading cash onto it. If anything annoyed me it is this financial constraint on my card clogging up my access to credit funds whilst travelling.

 

Before my cruise departed I did pre pay for all my gratuities and loaded some funds in for on board credit. However by the end of the cruise I had such a good time that the card needed to be billed. I wont be making this mistake again in the future and with all cruise lines I travel with now all gratuities and even excursions will be pre-paid as this has really ticked me off big time not being able to see what authorisations will turn into actual bills 7 days after the cruise has ended. For a big company like them they should be more professional.

 

As for Diamond Princess it is still one of my favourite ships due to its size and it is well looked after in Japan making it hard to believe it is one of their older ships. In fact I would happily sail on Diamond Princess over their newer ships any day.

 

To you this must be clear but I did not understand what this credit card issue was all about :confused:

 

As for the Diamond Princess she is our favourite ship and we have 3 cruises booked: Asia and Australia & New Zealand and Tasmania.

 

By the way, we were in Japan on the Diamond in September! :)

Edited August 11, 2016 by Montrealais

[caribill]

I am surprised by the multiple pre-authorization charges from Princess - we have cruised with them a lot (Elites) and have not encountered this situation (and hope not to this time either).

 

You probably have had pre-authorizations in the past and did not realize it. Even today only a few credit cards allow you to look at the pre-authorizations online.

 

Each night Princess will get authorization for any new charges you have made. This ensures that your credit card does have the credit amount needed. At the end of the cruise the actual charges are billed and the pre-authorizations will drop off according to the policy of your bank as to how fast this happens.

 

It really is no different than when you pay for gasoline at the pump by swiping your credit card. A pre-authorization for up to $150.00 is made to ensure you have enough credit. The actual amount will be billed and the pre-authorization will drop off, again according to the policy of your bank.

[Brisbane41]

I can see the list of pre-authorisations and know exactly why it is done. The issue I have is that once the card is charged the pre-authorisations remain for up to a week and it is a double hit to the availability of credit on your card.

 

If your final bill is something like $200, then you will lose a credit limit of $400 which is what happened to me. At the moment there are 2 pre-authorisations still on the card.

 

I have been cruising with this company since 2002 and it was only around 2012 and onwards that they started doing this sort of thing.

 

Yes I saw the reviews others had put. I did note a Mrbiz review and found it quite bizarre. Sounds like a high maintenance passenger if they feel the need to purchase two cabins on the ship. I ended up with C400 the Capri Suite and had no issues with it at all. Even walking around the ship everything to me looked in good working order.

 

I did notice another review making a "generalisation" that all the bubbles have been disabled in the hot tubs because if the Japanese passengers not liking them. I think this is a bit of a fabrication on the reviewers part as on many cruise ships I have been on none of the hot tubs blow bubbles even the brand new ships. When I first started cruising in year 2002 all the hot tubs had a strong flow of bubbles and jets in all the hot tubes. These days a person could pee harder than what the jets produce on the ship so perhaps some people do not cruise that often and cannot keep up with the changes over the years. On all the ships I have been on the hot tubs on Diamond Princess were in no different order to the other ships in service today.

 

As I said I was happy to be on a Princess ship once again that was not changed. When Golden Princess came to Australia the changed the entire wine menu and took things off the Princess Favourites main dining room menu. The New York Cheesecake dessert was removed from Australian based ships in favour of Pavlova. On Diamond Princess based in Japan there was none of this and I felt as if I was sailing on my second home once more. I knew the wine menu and my favourite drinks and I knew my favourite food would also be available so it was a great feeling that Princess had that welcome back feeling to it instead of trying to change to appease nationalities.

 

There was another review I read that complained about the lack of Japanese food. Perhaps this person does not know much about it as authentic Japanese food is hard to recreate and many of their sushi and ramen chefs are specially trained and treat it as an art form. I have eaten traditional Japanese food and if Princess were to introduce it the whole menu we are used to would have to go and probably the whole galley be redesigned.

[TracieABD]

I totally get this- it is frustrating.

 

On a side note- and as a warning to newer cruisers- You should never, ever use a debit card to pay your expenses. It can take weeks to release the holds- and that can freeze a bunch of funds used to pay for mortgages, etc...

[Paulchili]

You probably have had pre-authorizations in the past and did not realize it. Even today only a few credit cards allow you to look at the pre-authorizations online.

 

Each night Princess will get authorization for any new charges you have made. This ensures that your credit card does have the credit amount needed. At the end of the cruise the actual charges are billed and the pre-authorizations will drop off according to the policy of your bank as to how fast this happens.

 

It really is no different than when you pay for gasoline at the pump by swiping your credit card. A pre-authorization for up to $150.00 is made to ensure you have enough credit. The actual amount will be billed and the pre-authorization will drop off, again according to the policy of your bank.

 

I understand the process (including gas pump charges) and I did not have multiple pre-authorizations. Only had 1 pre-authorization when I checked in and signed a "blank" CC receipt.

I always pre-book (but do not pre-pay) my excursions but I did not have pre-authorizations every time I took an excursion.

Then at the end I was charged for the total and the pre-authorization disappeared in a few days.

[Colo Cruiser]

I can see the list of pre-authorisations and know exactly why it is done. The issue I have is that once the card is charged the pre-authorisations remain for up to a week and it is a double hit to the availability of credit on your card.

 

If your final bill is something like $200, then you will lose a credit limit of $400 which is what happened to me. At the moment there are 2 pre-authorisations still on the card.

 

I have been cruising with this company since 2002 and it was only around 2012 and onwards that they started doing this sort of thing.

 

 

 

Doesn't your CC Co cover you for any unauthorized transactions?

If you are worried about losing part of your credit limit temporarily why not just ask for a credit limit increase?

 

I have to say I never look at these listings on my CC account because it would probably drive me crazy as it is you.

We cruise alot and use our CC a bunch every year and have never had an issue. I guess I will worry about it when one comes up. It all works out in the end.

Happy Cruising!

[Pushka]

Our credit card cancelled because of the multiple charges RCL were making to it. Even though we had advised the card providers of travel. We were refused drinks service at dinner multiple times afterwards. I was furious with the cruise line for doing these small daily transactions - one big advance hit would not have triggered the 'unauthorised' transactions but the multiple small ones did.

Edited August 11, 2016 by Pushka