Diamond Princess Review
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Having taken 3 European cruises, we looked forward to visiting Asia, where we last traveled 30 years ago. Singapore was a great introduction, hot and humid but clean and modern. We spent 2 nights enjoying the city on our own before having to meet at the cruise center to be bussed to the ship. Embarkation wasted half a day but once onboard, we were fine. First 2 days were at sea, a great way to unwind, enjoy the sun, and make ourselves at home on the ship. Nearly every port stop was followed by a sea day, and we'd learned from previous cruises that port excursions can be exhausting, so the sea days were welcome, resting, reading, exercising, gambling, eating.
We're not much into shipboard activities (except that I did enjoy Zumba on sea days while my husband played video poker in the casino, we participated in both of the wine tastings, I ran the On Deck for the Cure in 50 degree windy weather, and we enjoyed the chef's demonstration and galley tour). We'd prearranged thru the cruise critic member board to attend the Meet and Greet and to participate in a slot pull--they were great ways to meet other passengers who we would later see on shore excursions and around the ship.
We'd utilized Cruise Critic to join shore excursions in various ports, only using the ship's tour in Nagasaki, where we enjoyed a trip to a feudal castle and samurai village. (Nagasaki was so welcoming to us since Diamond Princess was built there and we were the 1000th ship to visit there.) Small tours (20 or fewer participants) were the most enjoyable, and although the full bus-load in Nagasaki worked out fine because we weren't ever in crowded locations, our visit to Bangkok on a private excursion with nearly 40 passengers was chaotic. As we'd found in the past, the ports that we visited with only a few other passengers were the most pleasant. Highlights included the Nha Trang River Cruise, a private tour (just the 2 of us) in Shanghai with Shanghai Pathways, and 2 days in Beijing with 2 other couples, visiting the Great Wall and other must-see tourist attractions.
Cabin Review
Comfortable mini-suite. Great location right near the main lifts. (Noise was not a problem.) Cabin looks worn, which hopefully will be addressed when the ship goes in for refurbishing in 2013. Advantageous on this particular cruise to be Starboard since there was not much to see port-side in the container shipyards but the activity in the ports was fun to watch. In Busan and Nagasaki the starboard side was actually port-side so great for watching the dancing and entertainment from the balcony. There was some problem with the air-conditioning when we were in the hot southern locations, and once the weather cooled down, we were more comfortable sleeping with the balcony door open at night.