Diamond Princess Review

Diamond Delivers

Review for Asia Cruise on Diamond Princess
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Stuartm
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Feb 2011

EMBARKATIONA breeze. We arrived at the Overseas Terminal at 12:30pm and were in our cabin by 1:15.CABINWe booked a mini-suite as we thought the extra room would be welcome on a long cruise. It was fantastic. The extra sitting room area was a real bonus along with the large bathroom with a shower over the bath tub and a clothesline as well.As the balconies on Dolphin Deck are totally exposed we were a little concerned that the weather might prevent us from getting full use of the area but this proved not to be the case. There were only a few days when we had rain and as we travelled with a large umbrella we could still use the balcony even in the wet weather.FOODI think the 3kg I put on speaks for itself. Generally the food was very good.Of course people grumble. An Englishwoman was complaining to me about the fact that the menus were so "American". She said there were never enough vegetables served with the evening meal and she had to ask for an extra plate of steamed vegetables. I asked her if she got them and she said yes................and I felt like saying "so what are you complaining about".My personal opinion is, if you go on holiday and hope that everything is as it is at home......then stay home.The culinary highlight was the "Chef's Table". It is $75 a head and worth every cent. But you need to be someone who will eat pretty much anything. Not that we got served anything weird but if you are a bit fussy then you may not get your money's worth.The experience was wonderful and you are given a group photo and a Cookbook plus the undivided attention of the Head Chef, the Maitre D' and the Sommelier for the entire evening.We ate in the Sterling Steakhouse one evening. The cover charge used to be $15 but it has risen to $20. I don't see that it warrants this. The steak was very good but the rest of the meal wasn't remarkable and as you are sitting in a divided off section of the Horizon Court there is very little in the way of ambiance. ENTERTAINMENTThis was pretty mediocre. We went to a couple of the production shows. The lead singers were very good but some of the dancing was pretty bad, especially amongst the guys.I saw a comedian and a magician who weren't too bad and an Elvis impersonator who had a great voice but he didn't sound a lot like Elvis.The Diamond had Movies Under the Stars added since our last cruise and I was ready to hate it but there I was lounging in the pool one afternoon singing along with a Stevie Wonder concert. Fortunately my favourite area is by the aft pools so the MUTS was never an inconvenience.We did watch a movie up on deck one night with our blankets and popcorn and cookies and milk. It was fun to do once although I don't know that a depressing movie about Alzheimer's is a good idea on a cruise where the average age is about 75!SERVICEIn general the crew were wonderful. Our cabin steward was adequate but we have had better. We had one waiter who stood out due to his unfriendly manner. We just avoided his section if we ate in his restaurant.But he was the exception. From the guys behind the bar to the girls behind the passenger's service desk we were always greeted with a smile and nothing was ever too much trouble.ALCOHOL POLICYThere is always discussion on the boards about what you can and can't take on board. We each boarded with two bottles of wine in our backpacks then after lunch we left the ship and returned with two more bottles each.In Port Douglas we boarded with 3 bottles of wine each.In Darwin my partner went off to the wine shop and got carried away. He returned with 4 bottles each. I did suggest to him that this might be a bit of a stretch but we lugged our booty back to the dock and when we put our bags through the x-ray machine the security guard questioned the fact that we had 8 bottles between us. He hesitated for a moment and we smiled a lot and he eventually waved us on. It seems to come down to who is on the x-ray machine as to what you can get away with but I think we will stick to more modest amounts in the future.DISEMBARKATIONAnother breeze. We were anxious to leave the ship as we had a tour guide waiting at the port. We went to the gangway earlier than our allotted time but as there was no queue we could disembark straightaway. I think that it took no more than ten minutes from leaving the ship to finding our luggage and our tour guide. Couldn't have been better.A FEW OTHER POINTSThe Diamond is a big ship which meant we couldn't always dock at the regular passenger terminal. This only happened in Hong Kong and Shanghai and it meant a 20 minute shuttle bus in Hong Kong and about an hour bus ride in Shanghai. People were complaining about this and all I can say is "Do your research".If you want all that a big ship can offer then you have to accept that you may miss out in other areas.Likewise with the tendering. We only tendered twice and the process is a long one on a ship this size. But if you know that then you can just accept it.I heard other people complaining about the number of port days. Didn't they read the itinerary?The Health Club is far too small for a ship this size. I gave up going as it was just too crowded. Fortunately jogging around the Promenade Deck was more to my liking.The Cruise Director was an Australian Dan Styne. He was entertaining when appearing live but on the Wake Show he was terrible and we stopped watching it.We had about 100 turn up to our CC Meet and Greet. Captain Sagani came along and spoke to us as did the Cruise Director. There were some other members of staff there as well although I didn't find out who they were.As you may be aware, in tender ports those taking Princess shore excursions get to disembark first. We had a large group of CC'ers on private tours in both these ports and Princess allowed the CC'ers to board the first tenders along with the shore excursion people which I thought was very generous of them.There are always going to be little things that aren't to your liking but for us they were far outweighed by all the things that made the cruise a joy.We had a great time and made lots of new friends and will certainly look at repeating this itinerary sometime in the future.

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