We arrived a day ahead the 3-day Princess Pre-Cruise Tour so we spent it walking to the nearby Silk Market, China World Mall, and grocery store.  We had great weather and it was very easy to walk around the hotel.

Princess Tour Day 1: Tianammen Square, Forbidden City, Jade Factory.  All very interesting but the Jade Factory was more for shopping.

Princess Tour Day 2:  Great Wall of China was the highlight of this trip for us (Bucket List Item #1 for Asia).  The Summer Palace tour and boat ride in the afternoon was relaxing.

Princess Tour Day 3:  Heavenly Palace and Silk Factory were in the morning with a long 3 hour bus ride (one rest stop) to the Port to get on the Diamond Princess.  All went smoothly.

Note:  Our main tour guide on Day 1 had a death in the family but his protege step right in and took over.  Very informative and efficiently run tours.

Beijing

Note: Before Nagasaki, we stopped in Busan, Korea but it was really not that great of a shore excursion.

We took the Nagasaki walking tour which was great. It showed us how to get around Nagasaki on our own using their trolley/bus system.  The Peace Park was very tranquil...with the Peace Memorial on one end and the monument where the detonation took place on the other end.

Excellent Museum.  I wished we could've spent more time here.  Very intersting and graphic videos, pictures, and exhibition.  Japanese School children were everywhere but were very polite and always accomodated our picture taking.

Alot of the old chinese junks and sampans were being replaced in this fishing village.  The boat tour was relaxing.

We stopped at Shanghai and Hong Kong in two separate shore excursions.  Both cities had massive high-rise growth and their rivalry as economic and commerce centers was evident.  Alot of the old chinese symbols (junks, sampans, etc) were being replaced as the city modernizes.

The day started off with fog/haze, but ended clear and the Diamond Princess was allowed to go straight through Victoria Harbor for the dazzling light show in Hong Kong at 8:00 PM.

Had 45 minutes to wander through the lines of shops...we wish we could've spent more time here shopping.

Day was foggy.  Not much to see.  The tram ride to the top we entertaining.

Before Saigon, we stopped at the beach city of Nha Trang.  Both locations were very hot, humid, sticky.  The boat ride in Nha Trang offered some respite from the heat and humidity, but the tour was a little disorganized due to the tender system broke up tour groups.  We ended up with a mix of people from different tour groups that got separated during the tendering.

Saigon is a long busride from the port.  That left less than 4 hours in Saigon itself and we only got to go past alot of key sites instead of going inside to visit.

Hot Humid and Sticky....always since 85 miles from the Equator.  The new terminal is close by. Massive construction going on....amazing people have adapted to live and thrive in the heat.  Good tour of old dwellings.

Signed on to Princess post-cruise hotel/tour package.  The first day was spent mostly in Pattaya south of Bangkok.  The part included a folklore show (part of which we missed due to late passengers disembarking from the ship), Elephant show, and botanical garden.  Tour guide was not as well organized and the check-in at the hotel was a madhouse.  We by-passed the cruise check-in and ended up going to the main lobby to get our room and luggage.

You need to wear long pants that cover your ankles.  Shorts/shirts/shoulders must always be covered at the palace and temples.
It's a huge complex and being covered up in long pants on hot humid weather was a challenge and not very comfortable.
Again, our tour guide talked alot but we could barely concentrate on her with the sun/heat bearing down on us.

Cool downed on this which was really appreciated in the heat of the day.  Interesting part was when the boat operator handed out bread...I thought for us...it was for feeding carp/fish at the temple.

Temples, temples, temples.  After 19 or so days of temples, I was a little numb to viewing any more temples.

Cabin Aloha 619 (A619) is right below the buffet which was convenient to grap a snack or to bring our meals to our room when the buffet was crowded.  The laundry room was nearby as well.  They changed out our mattresses so that was a welcome site to see new beds being brought in.  The TV is new flatscreen LCD type.  The shower curtain is still the older vinyl curtain with magnets so water tended to spill out and the curtain will cling to your body.  Balcony was clean the railings well kept.

Upon arrival in Beijing International Airport, we had made independent arrangements with the Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel to send a driver to pick us up as Princess Cruises had told and written to us that our package would not include the airport-hotel pre-cruise transfer since we were arriving one day early.We chose to use Princess Air, Princess Pre/Post Hotels/Tours/transfers except for and extra night on our own at the Beijing Marriott City Wall Hotel which we had to make on our own since Princess could not accommodate us with the extra pre-cruise hotel night.

Diamond Princess Review

Asia Beijing to Bangkok Cruise: Great Wall was Highlight

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