We flew from Toronto Ontario to Vancouver Airport where we checked in with the Princess Hostess for our transfer to the ship. We collected our luggage from the airport carousel, walked twenty steps to turn it over to the the Princess Representative, and never saw our bags again until they arrived outside our stateroom shortly after we boarded Diamond Princess This was probably the greatest feature of using Princess transfers. No luggage to haul from airport to bus, and from bus to pier.

We arrived at the Port of Vancouver to be directed into a line with thousands of other passengers waiting to board either Diamond Princess or a HAL ship also sailing that same day. We shuffled along at a snails pace for the better part of two hours. First going through a Security check and then clearance by U.S. Customs. This was so unlike the usually efficient and relatively trouble free boarding process we encountered on our 12 other cruises. Never again will we sail out of Vancouver until someone assures me that the broken boarding process has been fixed!!!

Having sailed a number of times with Princess, we pretty well knew what to expect insofar as stateroom accommodations are concerned. Our ocean view stateroom was the usual compact 180 square feet, (more or less), but was so well laid out that, much to my surprise, we did not need all of the storage space provided. The hard working stateroom steward provided the usually friendly and efficient Princess service. I also want to take this opportunity to thank and applaud all of the staff and crew aboard Diamond Princess. These folks go out of their way to accommodate their guests in every way possible. No request seems too great or unusual that they don't find a way to fulfill it. Read more