Live From Diamond Princess 11/27/22

[Shelly97060]

I am on Diamond now and we are enjoying the ship which is currently about 50% occupancy with about 1200 guests.  I know this isn’t good for the Princess bottom line but it’s great as a passenger. No lines, you can easily get a deck chair by the pool anytime ( no chair hogs in sight), very fast bar service. One of the entertainers said he hoped we were all enjoying our private yacht experience lol. We are!  

 

So far everything has been going well for us and we are really enjoying our mini suite stateroom,  the ship,  and the great (some very new) crew.   The stateroom bidet looked a bit intimidating but after I scanned the control panel ( which is in Japanese) into Google Translate it was easy to operate and I can see why people like having one in their homes.
 

There have been reports of toilet issues on the aft section of the ship. The captain made an announcement yesterday reminding people not to flush things like wipes- only toilet paper and we all got a reminder in our stateroom last night. One couple we know has been dealing with a thermostat stuck on the highest AC level - hopefully they got that fixed yesterday.  I also ran into a lady who was in the aft section that had no hot water in her shower- she was using the Spa to take a shower while she waited for maintenance to fix it.  We have had no issues with our toilet or anything else in our mid aft section of the ship.  

 

I toured into IZUME on the first day and it looked wonderful but the person who gave the tour said they wouldn’t sell a single day pass or a 5 day pass. Only a full 20 day cruise pass of $599 per person.  That was more than I wanted to spend to try it. I will likely check back in a couple of days to see if they have any day passes to sell now that everyone has had the chance to buy the full cruise pass.  
 

The onboard entertainment has been good, I feel bad for them when some are playing to a room full 6-8 people but they are still giving it their all and we clap twice as hard to show we appreciate them. We went to  the Wheelhouse and listened to a mariachi band  and then to Skywalkers for the DJ - there where about 20 people there- it was very fun, 

 

We have been eating in the International dining room at 8:00 pm and the food has been very good. Dining room is not crowded at all when we dine. 
 

Pre-cruise we ordered flowers through the TA booking software and they were delivered the first day as requested. Beautiful dozen rose bouquet  with some baby’s breath and  greenery $59. I think it was worth the money. 
 

Sadly our ship is headed to Cabo San Lucas this morning to disembark a person with a medical emergency. It’s always sad to hear that someone is so sick that they must be taken to the hospital.

 

I am hoping others onboard will contribute to this thread.  If you have any questions let me know and I will see if I can answer,

[Shelly97060]

Here is are pictures of the translated controls just in case anyone has an interest: to get the whole thing translated I had to do it in two scans so there is a little duplication ( sorry). 

 

[XBGuy]

OP, can you give us a quick overview of your itinerary?  We know you made what sounded like an unscheduled stop in Cabo San Lucas.

[Shelly97060]

31 minutes ago, XBGuy said:

OP, can you give us a quick overview of your itinerary?  We know you made what sounded like an unscheduled stop in Cabo San Lucas.

 
Our itinerary wasn’t impacted by the short stop in Cabo. Here a screenshot of current itinerary.

 

[riffatsea]

Thanks for writing

Strange that toilet directions are only Japanese without at least pictures to explain the functions!

I never had to use Google translate at hotels in Japan!

[Shelly97060]

I would sail on Diamond again in a heartbeat.  The full promenade with the padded teak lounge chairs, large wheelhouse bar, covered pool, large balconies ( compared to Royal Class) all are selling points for me.

 

Any  ship can have an outbreak of Noro or Covid. Something that happened years ago with a completely different crew and different understanding of the Covid virus would not impact my decision to sail Diamond but everyone has to do what is best for them.

[Shelly97060]

22 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

Thanks for writing

Strange that toilet directions are only Japanese without at least pictures to explain the functions!

I never had to use Google translate at hotels in Japan!

There are some pictures, but I couldn’t figure out some of the things like which way made the water hotter vs colder etc. Here is a picture before translation.

 

[SKCruiser007]

3 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

Here is are pictures of the translated controls just in case anyone has an interest: to get the whole thing translated I had to do it in two scans so there is a little duplication ( sorry). 

 

 

Thanks SO much! We'll be onboard shortly and this is going to be so helpful!

[treesah]

@Shelly97060  Thanks for posting.  I assume the internet is decent?  We were on the Ruby in Alaska and it was worthless.  Should have asked for my money back.

[Shelly97060]

6 minutes ago, treesah said:

@Shelly97060  Thanks for posting.  I assume the internet is decent?  We were on the Ruby in Alaska and it was worthless.  Should have asked for my money back.

So far internet has been fine for me. Sometimes the pages are a bit slow to load.  I haven’t tried streaming anything so don’t know how that would be. 
 

Alaska  cruise WiFi can be terrible. When we sailed the inside passage in May the internet was pretty much non-existent!

Edited November 29, 2022 by Shelly97060

[VacayAddict]

Thank you for your post! We are on the next cruise, boarding in SD on 12/17.

[Shelly97060]

We are in Manzanillo today.  It’s sunny and warm (87).  We didn’t go ashore as we have been here before.  But here’s a picture from our balcony.

 

[Shelly97060]

odds and ends:

 

Internet continues to be pretty good. We are at sea and I am able to stream movies on my iPad with no buffering. 

 

Bathrooms have liquid hand soap ( no bars) and the lotion in a refillable pump bottle and there are no Elite toiletries offered - so bring your own nail file and lip balm 😄

 

food in the dining room has been good to very good.

 

buffet is 100% self serve with no more small grab and go type cups and dishes.  No one is handing out plates as we enter buffet or encouraging hand sanitizer or hand washing.  Buffet is operating as it was pre-Covid. 
 

[Shelly97060]

It’s Dec 1 and the ship is decked out for Christmas.  There will be a tree lighting this evening.

 

 

[tonit964]

29 minutes ago, Shelly97060 said:

It’s Dec 1 and the ship is decked out for Christmas.  There will be a tree lighting this evening.

 

 

This is the tree on the Discovery now.

[Shelly97060]

You just can’t beat a sunset at sea.

 

[Shelly97060]

Princess Rose Bouquet $59 really brightens the cabin.

 

[Shelly97060]

Our mini suite only has one TV remote for the 2 TV so every time you turn on the one by the bed the other one turns on too and as you make selections on one, you can accidentally make selections in the other…  We didn’t have anything to block the sensor so DH got creative and hangs his tie over the TV sensor! Works like a charm  Hey whatever works!😂😂

[cruzin4us]

1 hour ago, Shelly97060 said:

Our mini suite only has one TV remote for the 2 TV so every time you turn on the one by the bed the other one turns on too and as you make selections on one, you can accidentally make selections in the other…  We didn’t have anything to block the sensor so DH got creative and hangs his tie over the TV sensor! Works like a charm  Hey whatever works!😂😂

we've used bandaids before 🙂

 

[Californian]

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

[Shelly97060]

In Huatulco Mexico today. It’s sunny and 93. There is a beach area to the left of where we are docked. 

 

[Shelly97060]

here’s a but about entertainment:

 

Last night we attended the ABBA party.  It was really fun and it looked like people who attended the line dance class must have worked on a number for the ABBA party because they did a fun dance to Dancing Queen.  ABBA is popular on the ship - so far there was the ABBA Party last night, ABBA trivia and ABBA disco party in Skywalkers. 

 

The musicians have all been good to very good so far.  The piano player in Crooners. - Gavin Burke is very entertaining and we will likely go hear him again tonight.   The Cats duo is the strings group and they play very well.  Los Brilliantes is a mariachi group and they have been fun.  The house band has made a number of appearances to play jazz and big band music ( of course they are always good). 
 

We have also heard from others on the ship that the comedian is very funny but we haven’t made it to see him yet- will report back on that! 
 

overall there was been plenty to do to keep us busy and entertained at night! 

[Shelly97060]

The shipmate chat feature in the Medallion App now gives you a tone notification when you have a message!  This is a good improvement. 

[Oakman58]

5 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

The shipmate chat feature in the Medallion App now gives you a tone notification when you have a message!  This is a good improvement. 

 

That's good to know.  We will be on the Diamond in Jan for the Hawaiian cruise with my sister and brother-in-law.

[fpx]

8 hours ago, Shelly97060 said:

The shipmate chat feature in the Medallion App now gives you a tone notification when you have a message!  This is a good improvement. 

That’s great! We’ll be on the cruise 12/27.  Can’t wait!