To celebrate my Daughter's 21st Birthday, my Daughter and I boarded the beautiful Diamond Princess in Kobe for 2 back to back cruises - one 8 night cruise followed by a 10 night cruise. I did my homework before we left and knew that the majority on board were going to be a much older demographic and would be majority Japanese/Asian passengers. This certainly was the case. We knew this was not going to be a party cruise but one to see snapshots of both Taiwan, Japan and Korsakov in Russia.

Although I have cruised many times and my Daughter only 4 times, we have never cruised Princess before. We read many reviews however, as cruising is a personal opinion and perception, we wondered what it would be like. It was fabulous. From the first step aboard the ship we were welcomed and treated like VIPs.

Spending 18 nights anywhere can start to wear thin however we enjoyed every single minute. Although there were definitely language issues with fellow passengers, a smile is universal and we became quite gifted in the charade department :) All crew and staff spoke English and most of them spoke Japanese. Read more