Diamond Princess is a beautiful BIG ship. This was my first time sailing with Princess and I was not impressed. We arrived at the Port of L.A. at noon yet most did not board until after two p.m. When boarding finally occurred, everyone headed straight for the buffet because no one had anything to eat since breakfast. The story we got was the ship arrived late. (I've read this about the Diamond and other Princess Ships at other ports as well.)

After an LAX type experience boarding we got to our balcony stateroom only to have the power go out on the ship for about 15-20 minutes. Later it went out again before we sailed. I was on an inside stairway when that happened and almost fell on my face. Our departure was held up for over an hour because (as the Captain stated) they were waiting for six people who were stuck in freeway traffic. Later we heard the six "people" were crew members!! You can bet they wouldn't have held the ship for us. We finally got under way at around 6:15 p.m.

For a state-of -the-art ship, I thought it pitched and vibrated a bit too much, especially since we had fair weather and only a slight swell for almost the entire trip. Read more