Dragonlady33

Thanks so much for sharing this very comprehensive review!

much appreciated 

On 7/20/2019 at 4:48 PM, lithlith said:

We recently completed a 13 day itinerary on the Diamond Princess out of Japan. It was difficult for me to find the information that I was looking for about this ship and our trip in general before we left for the trip, so I thought others might benefit from our insights. The information below is intended to be an FYI to other westerners sailing on the Diamond Princess out of Japan.

 

(We booked it as a 13 day, but it was sold separately as a 5 day and 8 day cruise so it was a back to back cruise.)

 

 

Embarkation in Kobe – we took the subway to the port.  It was great!  Super easy and dropped us right off at the terminal building.

 

 

On board the Diamond Princess  -

 

Guests - I had read online going in to this cruise that there would be a lot of Japanese guests. I was even thinking it might be 50-50 on board, but it was more like 85-15 and by that I mean 85% Japanese passengers to 15% westerner passengers.  On the 5 day part of the cruise one of the staff told us that there were only 300 English only speaking guests on board.  This isn’t a bad thing, just something to be aware of ahead of time.

 

At the captains circle get together, they went through the numbers of how many of each status level they had on board and on both the 5 and 8 day cruises that we were on the number of first time cruisers was close to two-thirds of the ship!  Now for those of us who have cruised a lot, we know that this greatly changes how things operate on board with so many newbies finding their way around.

 

 

Language & Activities - There were two cruise directors – one for the Japanese and one for the English speakers. This was really unnecessary. The Japanese cruise director spoke English and Japanese so to have an additional cruise director who only spoke English and no Japanese seemed like a waste. All of the entertainment staff (those who help with the trivias and other activities on board all spoke English and Japanese).

 

All announcements were made in English and then Japanese.  Most of the games and activities were done in both English and Japanese (heads up – this does drag out a trivia game when the question is read in English and then in Japanese, sometimes a 20 question trivia game would last over an hour!)  On some days there were activities or trivias that would be listed as Japanese only or English only, which moved along much quicker.

 

When you see an activity or show advertised in the princess patter that you want to do, do it then! There were quite a few things that were only offered once during all of our 13 days. For example, a calligraphy lesson was only offered during our 5 day cruise as was getting dressed in a yukata. The Secret of Silk production show was only offered on the 8 day part of our cruise.  

 

 

Crew - I think that most all of the crew on board the diamond princess have had to learn Japanese to be able to assist guests at dinner, with the cabins, etc.  The crew seemed super happy to see us each day but not so much with the Japanese guests. I’m not sure if it was just us who they liked or were happy to have some English speakers, since for many of the crew English is their second language, and Japanese is now their third language.   I do not think that the Japanese guests treat the crew very well.  In fact we saw multiple instances throughout our 13 days, where we couldn’t understand what was being said in Japanese to the crew, but it was clear from the way the crew would then turn around and act or look that they had just been spoken down to.  There seems to be a hierarchy in the Asian races and culture where the Japanese think they are at the top and that those from the Philippines and Indonesia (where many of the crew are from) are very much below them.  We were quite disgusted with how the Japanese guests were treating the crew, so we stepped up our niceness  🙂

 

 

Food - Menus were in Japanese and English. Food items on the buffet was maybe one third Japanese type cuisine and two thirds American/Westerner food options. Same for the dinner menu in the dining room.

 

 

Lines – The Japanese love getting in line. Everyone is very orderly, which is great, but just know going into the cruise to expect lines around the ship – going into the theater, lining up for a sale in the atrium, lining up for the dining room, lining up for karaoke, etc.  And this isn’t just a simple short line…the line for the dining room at breakfast and lunch would sometimes wind up several flights of stairs! And the karaoke line was out the door! Know that the line will move, but if you want to go to a show or have breakfast in the dining room that your timing is everything – get there early and don’t be surprised if there is a significant line that has already formed 45 minutes early.

 

 

Place there were no line or crowds - We found that very few people were ever out on the Lido deck, most passengers stayed inside all of the time, which made everything feel a little more crowded inside.  The pools and hot tubs were pretty much empty.  If you’re looking to book a spa appointment, no problem, it seems like the Japanese passengers aren’t really into that, so they had tons of openings. If you’re looking for a drink, also no problem, the bar staff was always just standing around and was excited when we would order drinks. We rarely saw Japanese passengers drinking alcohol. We also never saw a line for pizza or at the grill for burgers in our 13 days on board. The casino staff is also just standing around most of the time. With the strict gambling regulations in Japan, the casino was rarely open and when it was open, few people were there.

 

 

Immigration –  Once the ship stops in another country, then everyone has to go through immigration next time the ship stopped at a Japanese port.  They come on board and have immigration in one of the lounges.  The line was long and immigration took a long time each time we had to do this on our cruise.  Even if you’re booked on an excursion, you might get to bypass some of the line, but for the most part plan on 30-60 minutes of standing in an immigration line.

 

 

 

Our ports -

 

Kobe – embarkation (we took a train from Oksaka airport to our hotel in Kobe)

 

Busan, South Korea – we took a princess excursion to a temple and then fish market, which was a good tour

 

Yokkaichi – we took a princess excursion to a ninja museum and castle, it was ok excursion, had I been a 10 year old boy, the ninja stuff might have been more exciting

 

Yokohama (for Tokyo) – our ship docked at Yokohama at the end of the first 5 days and then again at the end of the next 8 days. Luckily both times, the ship had just docked the previous day in a Japanese port, so we didn’t have to go through the full immigration procedures in Yokohama.  However, all of our documents ahead of time and onboard said that we’re docking at 6am, which was true…however the port workers and small immigration team that work in the building that you have to walk through to exit the ship don’t start work until 7am, so the earliest that anyone can get off the ship in Yokohama is about 7:15am. (This would have been great to know for us ahead of time because both times we docked in Yokohama we were going into Tokyo independently by subway and train and had our day planned out for sightseeing based on being able to leave the ship at 6:15am, which turns out is impossible to do.)  Once we got off the ship in Yokohama, We independently took the subway/train to Tokyo.  We wouldn’t recommend doing this on your own unless you have a cell phone with an unlimited data plan and you are very proficient using google maps, which we had and are good at. You will need to rely on their google maps to navigate the subway, trains, and walking to your sightseeing destinations to be efficient with your time there to see the most you can with your little time in port.

 

Keelung (Taipei), Taiwan – we took the all day princess excursion of Taipei – excellent tour! Our friends independently went into Taipei taking the train in Keelung and then rode the hop on hop off bus for the day.  We saw way more than our friends did and having a guide who  explained things was worth the price for us with the princess excursion.

 

Ishigaki – we took a princess excursion here. The glass bottom boat ride that was part of the tour was the best glass bottom boat ride that we’ve ever had anywhere in the world! Our friends booked an independent tour at this port, which turned out tricky to get to because the immigration on the ship was taking so long and then they needed to catch a bus into the city to be able to catch their excursion, which they did end up catching their tour however it was all in Japanese.  Sometimes it is worth paying a little more for a princess tour.

 

Okinawa – we took the princess battle of Okinawa excursions, which we enjoyed

 

 

 

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to help having just been on the Diamond Princess.