My partner- we are both in our 40's- and my mum and dad- 60's went on this holiday. It started off with chaos trying to sort out visa's for china/ japan and then one of the destinations in japan was cancelled for embarkation problems- not a good start we arrived in beijing staying in a good hotel for a few days with our rep John who was a great guy very helpful and informative- beijing was a great experience because of him and Tour East as a company in general. On the night before we were due to board the Diamond Princess one of our party had a text from home to say that the Norwalk virus was prevalent on ship and had made national press in the uk- we were a bit concerned but John assured us he had no information that we couldn't proceed which we did- luckily early. when we arrived at the port armed security guards were blocking the entrance but john walked us into the terminal- we were the first ones there. Previous passengers were getting off and being bused away all shaking their heads at us- one lady put her hand to her neck as if to show she was cutting her throat!. We registered and went to get on board only then being told to wait as we couldn't board. All this time, coachloads of passengers were being bused into the terminal and either had to wait outside in the bitter cold or in buses -some in hotels- we waited over 4 hours with no information or anyone in any form of authority giving us a clear idea of what was going on other than the ship was being cleaned- water and crisps were provided and eventually tea and coffee- the hot water was in the toilet area of the terminus- Norwalk virus be damned! Steve and i eventually found our room- no help from crew - to find a phone message for the previous occupant that her quarantine was now up and she could leave- that made me very nervous to even be in the room. because of the Norwalk virus, certain necessary curtailments were in place- hand washing- no salt/pepper cellars- and no self service
personally, i found that the buffet room serving staff were incredibly rude- i literally had a serving of butter thrown at me- i run a service business and always make sure i am overly polite to waiting/cleaning staff because of it- this was hell- we were made to feel as if we weren't entitled to anything
the public rooms were very comfortable on board although alot of bars were placed around the edges of the interior- like a waiting room and walking past it sometimes felt as if it was god's waiting room! unfortunately, the bars were not adequately stocked with beers/lagers meaning on many days they ran out of stock completely- even after ports- this wasn't good