Diamond Princess Review
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I just returned from the 10/9 Diamond Princess Cruise and as usual had an awesome time. Yes, there were some SMALL things I would have changed BUT overall it was a wonderful week!! Here is my review....
Embarkation - My parents and I arrived at the pier at about 12:40. We drove since we live in San Diego. Dad and I dropped Mom off at the curb, a porter took the luggage and then we parked the car. The parking at San Pedro is very convenient and we were able to walk back to the pier. The previous passengers had been late disembarking but we didn't realize that until we were on board. We are Platinum cruisers and my parents were in a suite so our check-in was easy because we were the second folks in line at the Platinum/suite line. Once we had our cruise cards, we walked right through security and were in our cabins by 1:20!! Later, we discovered that we boarded at the end of the first group of passengers. Many people were unhappy about the boarding process but it was not Princess's fault. It was LA immigration!
Cabins - My folks were in C750, an aft suite. It was a nice cabin but the balcony was crowded because part of the ship's structure went through the balcony. That made it hard to arrange the furniture. But it was a MINOR inconvenience. But if they had to do it all over again then they would have booked C752, the suite that was next to them. That balcony was HUGE!! I was in C746, an inside cabin only 2 feet from the door of my parents suite! The week before I left, NorcalGuy reported that he had vibration issues with a similar cabin on the Sapphire. While I didn't notice anything unusual, please note that the aft cabins do move quite a bit - especially on the return trip. And we had "slight" seas!! Can't imagine rough seas! I definitely felt vibration but it was because of the ship's movement. Since I am a LIGHT sleeper, I did not sleep well all week and would not book an aft cabin on any ship ever again! It was nice to have an inside cabin when I wanted to take a nap - I did this in port days since I wasn't sleeping very well. And I had plenty of room - but I was alone in this cabin.