Diamond Princess Review

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Review for Hawaii Cruise on Diamond Princess
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jimber
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Mar 2008

My DW and I booked the March 17, 2008 cruise through our TA in Dec. 2006 which gave us 15 months of anticipation. In July we had done Alaska on Holland America's Volendam and were very pleased. We chose Princess for this cruise because a friend said it was better than HA and it left from Los Angeles which meant less hassle w/ our luggage AND we could take our golf clubs. We had a fantastic cruise from embarkation to disembarkation, both very efficient and stress free. Although we live on the most north-west end of LA it only took us 40 minutes to get to the Princess dock on the south end. The cruise was off to a great beginning.

We ate at "Anytime Dining" as we liked the flexibility it allowed us. We ate at each of the dining rooms at least twice, except for only once at Pacific Moon, but preferred the ambience of the Savoy with the Santa Fe second because we did not want guacamole dip every night, but the fajitas were delicious. We also liked the Vivaldi but they did not have "Anytime Dining" until 8:00. My DW really liked the Osso Buco there. We ate at both Sterling's steakhouse and Sabatini's thanks to our great TA Margie (Montrose Travel). Actually we ate at each of these twice because the first time was so good. We were a bit apprehensive about Sabatini's because of reviews we had read on the CC board but we discovered they serve only what you want and as little or as much as you want. I discovered I like calamari - a lot. The service in all the restaurants was excellent, courteous and efficient. We did not feel we lost any quality in service because of our varied attendance. The food was always delicious and the veal chop my DW had on the return was the best she had ever had - a sentiment shared by others we talked to who had ordered it. The food was so good and varied my DW, who I fancy is a gourmet cook, bought the DP cook book and felt it was a bargain at $28. And it includes the fantastic papaya-brie quesadilla that Sterling served and many of the chilled soups we tried occasionally and found to be very good. AND the prices for a bottle of wine in the restaurants are very reasonable.

We attended both wine tastings: the first for $9 each that featured lesser quality wines but good. The second on the return trip for $25 each that featured premium wines; these wines were very good and the explanations were adequate. On the HA trip we attended the premium wine tasting only but we received an excellent lesson on wine tasting, where to taste wines in your mouth, how to check for acidity, pairing wine and food,...On the DP an attempt was made at teaching but it paled in comparison.

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