Live from the Diamond, July 10-27, 17-day B2B around Japan and Korea

[Ken the cruiser]

Here are some pictures from our transit day excursion.

 

 
Our bus was about 80% full with a very knowledgeable tour guide.

 

 

 

 

 

Our first stop was at the Great Buddha at the Kotokuin Temple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to head to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.

 

 

 

 
Once we climbed those 63+ steps, we turned around and this was the view.

 

 

 

We climbed another 25 steps off to the side of the shrine and found this.

 

 

Then it was time to start climbing down all those stairs and head back out of the complex by a different route.

 

 

 
Then we came upon a bunch of Water Lilly fields where we also found some of those elusive Kamakura pigeons! 
  

 

 

Here were two where one was actually grooming the other, similar to the ones we saw the other day.
 

 
Then there was one that was laying out in the 95 degree weather just soaking up some rays! 😂

 

 
There wasn’t too many places to see around the pond, but we found a square stone under some brush in the back where we chilled for awhile, as we had about 60 minutes before we could head back to the bus. 

  

 

 
As we started to walk back, the pigeons had finished relaxing and were flying low over the innocent folks walking across the bridge! One flew about a foot above my head. 

 

 

 
This was just a cool looking tree at the entrance.

 

 

 
On our walk back to the bus, we made a quick detour to the outdoor shopping area.

 

 

 
Then it was time to head back to the ship and get ready to start our second 8-day leg.

 

 

 
 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 10 - July 19 - Transition Day in Yokohama, Japan

 

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

I totally missed the sushi bar in the buffet.  Guess you need to visit the buffet daily for special tests.  Oops.  I think I went up there once!  

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off!

 

 

Next stop is Nagasaki day after tomorrow! 😁

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Having fun sitting on the balcony watching the sunset! 😁

 

The first, second and fourth photos we’re taken with my iPhone and the third one was with my iPad. 
 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Saw this on the @LACruiser88 Hawaii thread covering their Emerald Princess cruise, and just confirmed that this is now how to tell if a cabin has been quarantined on a Princess ship. 
 

[Coral]

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 When the 2025 dates start showing up, you can start getting excited. You can also monitor the CC Princess forum as some TAs like @Coral post advance information about various upcoming itineraries a week or two before they are posted to the Princess website.

 

Just clarification -I am not a TA.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

Just clarification -I am not a TA.

I apologize. If I might ask then, how do you get the advanced itinerary notices you periodically post on CC? 

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I apologize. If I might ask then, how do you get the advanced itinerary notices you periodically post on CC? 

Let's just say I know people (not at Princess).

[Ken the cruiser]

Tonight after a tasty dinner in the Santa Fe dining room, we first headed back to the cabin where we watched an awesome sunset as we were leaving Yokohama. Then it was on to watch a very talented juggler we saw on the last cruise, Tempei.

 

 

 
Then we were off to the Explorers Lounge to watch the Strikeout Game Show.

 

 
When we got back to the cabin, we noticed the cabin was a little wiggly which will be great for sleeping tonight. But when I checked Windy, I could see the cause as it looks like it’s going to be a little breezy tonight.

 

 
BTW here’s our current location at 9:15 pm. Ignore the itinerary as Cruise Mapper hasn’t updated it yet to the new one.

  

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, Coral said:

Let's just say I know people (not at Princess).

That’s cool. However you get them, they are well appreciated by many, including myself. 😁

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 11 - July 20 - Sea day

 

 

 
They announced at the evening show the breakout of the top 5 nationalities on the cruise.

 

USA - 741

Japan - 721

Taiwan - 135

Australia - 134

Canada - 96

 

All totaled, there are 2,582 guests onboard.

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Californian]

When on ship excursions, are tips/gifts expected?

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Californian said:

When on ship excursions, are tips/gifts expected?

In our experience rarely are they expected, but always highly appreciated! However, for some reason we’ve noticed on this cruise not very many people have tipped the tour guide, let alone the bus driver, on any of our excursions so far. But I will say we sure receive super big smiles and bows when we give the driver a $5 tip and the tour guide a $10 tip after each of the excursions we’ve been on.

[chubbypiggy]

@Ken the cruiser  For your 1st cruise (9 days), the picture you posted showed the cruise pass for the Izumi Bath is $99.  If you don't mind, when you have the time, can you kindly pass by Izumi Bath again (Sun deck aft) and ask what is the cruise pass for this 8 days cruise?  In Sept., we have a 7-days cruise, then 5 days land, then a 9-day cruise.  I am curious to know what is the pricing difference for a 8 day cruise vs a 9 day cruise?  Of course, it will be 7 and 9 days for us.

 

Thank you so much for your assistance! 

[Szekhely]

@Ken the cruiser This thread has been so informative, thx for posting and everyone's participation. I do have one question - in past cruises, we could either book excursions before leaving, book on the ship or take a punt and see if there were any excursions offered 'on land' by providers other than Princess - is that the case with Japanese cruises? 

[Ken the cruiser]

8 hours ago, chubbypiggy said:

@Ken the cruiser  For your 1st cruise (9 days), the picture you posted showed the cruise pass for the Izumi Bath is $99.  If you don't mind, when you have the time, can you kindly pass by Izumi Bath again (Sun deck aft) and ask what is the cruise pass for this 8 days cruise?  In Sept., we have a 7-days cruise, then 5 days land, then a 9-day cruise.  I am curious to know what is the pricing difference for a 8 day cruise vs a 9 day cruise?  Of course, it will be 7 and 9 days for us.

 

Thank you so much for your assistance! 

I just checked and it’s $99 for 9 days or less. When you get up there talk with Manveer, a nice Indian lady. She said she might be able to give you a discount if you’re on a B2B.

[Ken the cruiser]

16 minutes ago, Szekhely said:

@Ken the cruiser This thread has been so informative, thx for posting and everyone's participation. I do have one question - in past cruises, we could either book excursions before leaving, book on the ship or take a punt and see if there were any excursions offered 'on land' by providers other than Princess - is that the case with Japanese cruises? 

On our B2B, we pre-booked most of our excursions online before the cruise because we had Princess-provided OBC to use, such as SOBC, MOBC, and Princess promotional OBC. However, we did just book an excursion onboard for Kobe. However, most of the excursions (in English) were sold out on both legs before we boarded the ship, so I highly recommend you prebook the ones you really want as far out as possible prior to the cruise.
 

As far as waiting to disembark at a port and then hope to find someone offering local excursions at a cheap price, like you see in the Caribbean and other high cruise traffic ports, I wouldn’t think so. But other folks following this thread who have choose that option might have a better insight on those possibilities.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Today while at sea we plan on going to a couple of port talks to learn more about Nagasaki, Japan and later on Jeju, South Korea. We’re really interested in learning more about what’s available to see near the port at Nagasaki, as this will be the first one we’ll visit on our B2B that we will be walking around on our own.
 

We might be walking around Osaka as well if we don’t get booked on the sold out excursion to Nara. We’re currently on the standby list. The reason we like this excursion so much is because we would get to see the Sika deer roaming freely around the temple grounds. 😁

 

Hopefully enough people will sign up onboard between now and then to trigger another bus being reserved. 🤞

 

 

[cr8tiv1]

Nagasaki was very easy to navigate.  There was a small group of vendors in the terminal for gifts.  Check them out before you leave so you can shop around outside.  There will also be Japanese hosts that will assist you with transportation options.  I needed to transfer lines to get to the Peace Park.  The highlight of my day was the escalator at the park.  My movie is too long to post.  Found it!

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=nagasai+peace+park+escalator+video&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:81c0127f,vid:3_mWGs42o8s

 

Passengers I met at the Peace Park were stopping in China Town before returning to the ship.  There is free wifi in the terminal if you need to check on another cruise on your app (strangely, you can not monitor a second cruise while using Medallion Net). 

 

When you come out of the terminal, turn left.  Go past the first bus stop and take the tram stop after that.  Stops are in English and Japanese.  Pay attention to the color of the tram signs.  

 

If you are adventurous, there are two buses that circle the island in Jeju.  

 

https://www.visitjeju.net/en/themtour/view?contentsid=CNTS_200000000012534&menuId=DOM_700000000010790#p1

 

My Korean friend says that the Tea Gardens (museum) was a nice place to visit.  Mostly to look and see.  On the bus route.  But it will take some time.  I don't think you can do both bus routes in the time you are there.  Exact change is needed.  I went to the market via Princess Shuttle.

 

 

[Szekhely]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

so I highly recommend you prebook the ones you really want as far out as possible prior to the cruise.

 

You weren't wrong - a lot of the excursions were fully booked, we managed to scrape in, but I day is in Japanese - that's gonna be interesting! I'm sure I can look up information about each site on google and get most of the information and the rest is just enjoying the sights.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after dinner, we headed to the theater to watch the production show I Got the Music
  

 

 
Followed by heading over to the Explorers Lounge to watch the very funny Yes/No Game Show

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

As I mentioned earlier, our plan is to walk around the Nagasaki area near where the Diamond will be docked. We have been here before on a Crystal cruise and have already been to the Peace Park, so we wanted to do something different as most all of the ship excursions go to it.

 

There are two places we hope to visit. The Glover Garden at the bottom of this photo
 

  
and the Nakashima-gawa river bridges, which are pretty much in the center of the below map (after the description screen shot).
 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 12 - July 21 - Nagasaki, Japan

 

 

 

[Californian]

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

On our B2B, we pre-booked most of our excursions online before the cruise because we had Princess-provided OBC to use, such as SOBC, MOBC, and Princess promotional OBC. However, we did just book an excursion onboard for Kobe. However, most of the excursions (in English) were sold out on both legs before we boarded the ship, so I highly recommend you prebook the ones you really want as far out as possible prior to the cruise.
 

As far as waiting to disembark at a port and then hope to find someone offering local excursions at a cheap price, like you see in the Caribbean and other high cruise traffic ports, I wouldn’t think so. But other folks following this thread who have choose that option might have a better insight on those possibilities.

 

I have shore excursion OBC and wasn't able to precook an excursion using the OBC.  I had to use my credit card.  Did you experience the same thing?  Or were you somehow able to book your excursions using your OBC?

 

Thanks again for your help.