Diamond Princess Singapore to Beijing March 19th-April 4th, 2011

Hi. I am a regular Princess Cruiser, Platinum member, and this is a review of the above cruise. Diamond is an elegant and large ship, in great shape following (October) 2010 mini-refit. A very pleasant cruise, sadly however we could not enter Na Trang at Vietnam due to weather conditions, and Nagasaki Japan was off limits due to the earthquake. Both these ports were high on my expectations list, but thats life. The weather was wet due to a depression in the South China seas for the first half of the trip, but very pleasant for the second half. The voyage was generally smooth, a couple of days with swells which affected a number of passengers. Concerns of the Noro Virus also hit us, with precautions put in place, but nothing eventuated, and we were fine throughout the trip. Busan South Korea replaced Nagasaki and was a pleasant experience.

This 16 nights trip, in a large cruise ship, the biggest in the Pacific Region, meant berths at Container Ports, with shuttles (free) to city or principal harbor terminal. Princess is publicity adverse about this element, because it takes time and nobody likes being in ques. The shuttles are free, and relatively efficient, but it sucks up time, e.g. in Hong Kong, where one gets off the ship, awaits to board a shuttle, 35 minutes drive into the Hong Kong Harbour Terminal, then you can do your thing. Same situation on return. Obviously formal ship tours pick you up at boat side, but independent travelers are significantly affected by the time element this takes. In Hong Kong we effectively only had 6 hours to wander. Read more