Californian

Thanks for your report.  Happy to hear you all had a great time

9 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

Looks like what I was expecting. Yesterday was eggs Benedict. I wouldve come for that as well.

 

Coffee tastes just like carnival MDR. Not great but it’s coffee 

 

If you like French toast, ask for the James Beard French toast at breakfast.  It's off the menu except on the last day, but my waiter said you can order it.  It just takes a few extra minutes.

We would like to tour a little bit of Yokohama before our cruise departs at 5 pm.  We plan to drop off our luggage with the porters as soon as we arrive (will be on a land tour), but want to store our carryons in a storage locker or a baggage service before actually checking in.  Are there any storage lockers (preferably) or baggage service at the Osanbashi port terminal?  If so, where is the exact location?  TIA

20 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Good idea, but another question  Are you seeing all three DR's in DMW?  Sometimes, Princess is holding back one of the DR's which indicates to me that there is space to be had once on board (although the hold back is likely mostly for walk-ups or to be able to support TD experience requests).

@Steelers36
No.  Not all dining rooms are listed.  We’ll just wait until we get on board.  Thanks again for your help.

16 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

IDK what you tried on the App because there is nothing in DMW that involves requests to the DRO.  You can try making a res with the Web version, but I would guess that DMW is not setup to book 18 people - even if you had them all set up as Travel Companions and were adding them for dining.  If you want to make a res in DMW ahead of time (and no need to do so IMO for what you want), I would appoint two other "captains" in your group.  You and the other two "captains" each book 3 couples into a 6-top.  One person trying to book 18 people is highly unlikely to be successful.

 

@cr8tiv1@Thrak and @Steelers36  Thanks very much for your help.  We're trying the 3 captains suggestion but can't seem to get same time each day.  We were only able to get two days at the same time using the daily reservations.  I guess we'll wait until we get on board and talk to someone when we go to lunch.  

Does anyone still have the first day Patter?  If so, would you post it please?  We have a group of 18 and we want to get 3 tables of 6 people for our sailing .  I'm interested in finding out if Princess still offers the opportunity for passengers to meet up with the Maitre d' on embarkation day to make dining arrangements.  I tried doing it on the Princess app, but it says "Please check back closer to your journey date to use this feature."  We are 46 days away (not on the Enchanted Princess).

3 minutes ago, sewgood said:

Things may be different in Japan, just ask the right crew before you leave the ship what you can bring back on board.

Great idea.  Thanks very much for the suggestion.  

Except for castella cake, we don’t expect to take unpackaged food off the ship.

8 hours ago, JRice said:

Why bring back any food from shore ? 

Do you expect a shortage on board?

We know that there is plenty of food on board.  We are interested in trying the local foods — part of the fun of traveling to different destinations.  

We're taking a cruise around Japan and I am wondering what foods we can bring back to the ship.

Can I bring back apples, pears, and persimmons back to the ship which will be in season when we go?

Apple pie bought in Aomori?

How about packaged castella cake that's been wrapped by the store?  Packaged castella cake that’s been opened?

Take out food from restaurants?

Foods bought from street vendors?

I’m guessing no on the last two, but not sure about the others.  TIA

4 minutes ago, DANCING GRANDMOMMY said:

Is this separate from the 2 specialty dinning that you receive for Premier, or can you use your specialty option?

It’s separate.

39 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I agree with @marden1970 we do it on all the longer cruises.

It is $110 per cabin and wonderful!

Book it with RS as soon as you get OB if you want to use obc. 
The Dine line may book it also.
 

They do limit the amount per evening because of taking away servers.

We like to book on an overnight at a port or at a late departure from a port, so we can have calm seas and a backdrop.  We eat early, so a 530 meal for maybe a later sailaway works great.

 

They call you the day before asking for your choices, entree, cocktails, any allergies, etc.

 

Best meal we have had on most ships!  You will have 2 servers staying in the background/hallway and last one we had 3 servers.

 

DH said he felt like royalty! 👑 

😉

We did an early dinner (5:30) on a day that we were in port until 8 or 9 and it was an excellent experience.  Sea was calm and meal was exceptional.  Something I would recommend doing at least once.

11 hours ago, ROCruiser said:

Thank you so much for the kind words. 

We have been to Japan many times but I have only recorded a few visits there in my blog. A longer cruise that we went on around Japan was July 2015. That one included a port day in Busan (which may be different now transportation wise). Then, we also had some port days in Japan on our transpacific cruise May of 2018; a family reunion cruise to Japan November 2018; and a couple of ports on a cruise out from Yokohama to Singapore December 2018. In July 2019, we did a Japan cruise from Hong Kong. Lately, the March cruises from Singapore to Japan and another transpacific cruise in May of 2023. These are all in my blog, not all on videos because I started learning how to edit videos during the pandemic. Here is the link to the Home Page of my blog. Thank you so much for visiting.

@ROCruiser  
Thank you very much for the dates of your trips to Japan and Busan.  Your blogs were great!  You all have a lot of energy going to so many places on your own.  I took some notes and will check out your videos when I get a chance.  We're going with a bunch of people, too, and I would be s nervous wreck to lose people in Busan.  I'm thinking that maybe we should all have Apple air tags on us. LOL.  

On 7/21/2023 at 5:09 PM, ROCruiser said:

We have stayed at Intercontinental Yokohama Grand before, a beautiful hotel. It's a little walk from the train station with luggage but a nice area to be. You may find more information in my blog post of other ports in Hokkaido in the past if not on the video list. That was before I started learning to edit videos during the pandemic.

@ROCruiser I really enjoyed your video on Nagasaki.  I wish I understood Mandarin!  We will be headed on the Diamond Princess in late October.  You mentioned somewhere that you have visited Japan several times.  Would you tell me which month and year you visited Japan so that I can read your blogs, please?  I really like how detailed you were on your videos, too.  If you ever visited Busan, Korea, please direct me to your blog and video on that city, too.   Thank you so much for sharing your trips with us.

On 8/7/2023 at 8:11 PM, capriccio said:

We set up WiFi calling which worked great with the internet on our 28 day Round Australia cruise, half of which were sea days.  We were even able to FaceTime without any problems which was especially great since our daughter was hospitalized for emergency surgery about half way through the cruise.  Being able to not only talk to her but see her was reassuring that we didn't have to cut the cruise short and return to the States.  The other 2 couples we were traveling with did the same and had no problems.  My sister-in-law called back to the States every day to check in with her 90 year old mother just as she does at home or wherever she travels.

I do the same

1 hour ago, 2wheelin said:

When we have had airlines change the time on us we were able to call and have them change it if there was a later flight at no extra charge.

I agree that 10:30 flight is too early.  Recommend you call the airline to change your flight for later.  

34 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

They do not taste great at all, the juice bar offerings. The benefit of feeling 100% and then some is worth the pain of drinking it. 

LOL

51 minutes ago, Scirocco Breeze said:

Trying to decide whether to upgrade to Plus, from the Plus I've already paid for...my next cruise is on Diamond, so already there is a paucity of the paid for casual dining options to factor in. Can anyone confirm whether they have the juice bar?

Diamond Princess has the Juice Bar midship on Deck 14.and it’s open from 7 am to 2 pm.  My understanding is that the only casual dining venue on this ship is Kai Sushi 

16 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Yes, we booked with the $50 and Juice Bar was included.  Premium desserts and exercise classes were not. Highly recommend Juice Bar.

Thank you!

Has anyone with the Princess Plus package that was bought before December 2022 been able to get the items at the Juice Bar without an extra charge?   We bought the Princess Plus package before December 2022 and are hoping that it is included in our package.     

4 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I will count this as a compliment…I loved my Cherry Blossom cruise.  My only recommendation is to fly in a few days earlier or stay a few days later.  I knew about the International Dateline but did not take into account airline delays.  We ended up with only one full day in Yokohama.  Need at least 3 to enjoy the city.

 

 

Thank you for the link.  I’ve been trying to read trip reports to get information.  Yours was very helpful.

Sorry you got Covid and hope you have a speedy recovery.  Were there any cruisers wearing masks?

@cr8tiv1By any chance, did you do a report on your Japan cruise.  I will be going in October and wanted to see how your trip went.  If so, link please?  Thanks

Ken,

If you did a "live from" on the Panama Canal, I would love to read it.  This is my first read on your "Live From" posts and loved following along on your journey.  If possible, would you make a list of your "Live From" posts and a link to each of those trips, please?  

Thanks for all the work you did in taking us along on your journey.  Safe travels home.

On 7/19/2023 at 2:52 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

Having fun sitting on the balcony watching the sunset! 😁

 

The first, second and fourth photos we’re taken with my iPhone and the third one was with my iPad. 
 

 

 

 

 

Did you get up early to see the ship sail under the Megami Ohashi Bridge?   I understand the people are waving from the bridge as you depart that port.  Should be something to see....

11 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

On our B2B, we pre-booked most of our excursions online before the cruise because we had Princess-provided OBC to use, such as SOBC, MOBC, and Princess promotional OBC. However, we did just book an excursion onboard for Kobe. However, most of the excursions (in English) were sold out on both legs before we boarded the ship, so I highly recommend you prebook the ones you really want as far out as possible prior to the cruise.
 

As far as waiting to disembark at a port and then hope to find someone offering local excursions at a cheap price, like you see in the Caribbean and other high cruise traffic ports, I wouldn’t think so. But other folks following this thread who have choose that option might have a better insight on those possibilities.

 

I have shore excursion OBC and wasn't able to precook an excursion using the OBC.  I had to use my credit card.  Did you experience the same thing?  Or were you somehow able to book your excursions using your OBC?

Thanks again for your help.

When on ship excursions, are tips/gifts expected?