chubbypiggy

Thank you for taking the time to check for me. My 2 cruises are not B2B. My 1st cruise is 7 days (only 2 of us), then get off ship for 5 days, then back on ship for 9 days (9 of us this time).

Really enjoyed your video on Nagasaki. Have you visited Kagoshima? If so, did you do a video of it? In Sept., we will be doing an 7-day Kyushu cruise and an 9-day Hokkaido cruise on the Diamond Princess. Between those 2 cruises, we will spend 5 days on land. Will be staying at the Intercontinental Yokohama Grand hotel. Hopefully not too far to get to the Yokohama station; really enjoyed your video of the underground shopping in the Yokohama station.

Within the last few months, anyone visited the Kagoshima port and bought the Kagoshima one-day pass or the "Cute" one-day pass? If so, did you buy the pass at the cruise terminal? There was a recent CC post that I read, saying maybe those passes can not be bought at the cruise terminal, and must be bought at the Tourist Info Center in town. We want to do the Kagoshima City View bus. If we can't buy the pass at the terminal, that mean we must take the Princess shuttle to town (I think drop off by Dolphin port), then have to walk from drop off point to Tenmonkan's tourist center to buy the pass before we can get on the bus

I read a lot of taxi drivers don't speak much English. At the cruise terminal, did you have problem telling the taxi driver you want to go to the Sakurajima ferry terminal? And getting taxi in Tenmonkan by Don Quijote to take you back to the terminal, did you just tell the taxi driver (in English), to take you to "cruise ship terminal"? Did you need to pay your taxi fare with cash or you were able to use a credit card?

@Ken the cruiser For your 1st cruise (9 days), the picture you posted showed the cruise pass for the Izumi Bath is $99. If you don't mind, when you have the time, can you kindly pass by Izumi Bath again (Sun deck aft) and ask what is the cruise pass for this 8 days cruise? In Sept., we have a 7-days cruise, then 5 days land, then a 9-day cruise. I am curious to know what is the pricing difference for a 8 day cruise vs a 9 day cruise? Of course, it will be 7 and 9 days for us. Thank you so much for your assistance!

Thank you !

@Ken the cruiser Next time when you are at the Fitness Center, please check if the free Sauna and Steam rooms are still there (by the changing rooms). I heard some of the Grand class ships (for example, Emerald Princess), they have been removed from the Fitness Center. TIA.

Yes, my original question was about the steam and sauna in the Fitness center. Thank you for the explanations.

Thank you.

Yes, and that is sad, because I love hot pots, Korean char-broiled food, etc. It is a health issue that started in 2016; saw so many doctors and tried so many different treatments, and none seems to work. Every time I eat spicy, grilled, fried food or even roasted nuts, in less than an hour, canker sores will start inside my mouth, and in a day or two, will become a large white painful canker sore patch. Super painful. I love Udon and Ramen. Do not eat sashimi, but eat some sushi (California rolls).

That look very interesting, thank you for posting it. I can't eat anything spicy, so definitely no kim chi. I also can't eat fried or BBQ/Char-broiled food; so Korean food is not for me. I like Japanese food; though can't eat their tempura food.

The Seogwipo shuttle that you took, was it a Princess round-trip shuttle? How much?

So will your cruise include Jeju and Nagasaki?

Thank you for your information. For Nagasaki, we do plan to walk to the tram stop and take the tram to Hamamachi Shopping Arcade, then walk to Chinatown, and either walk or tram back to ship. For Kagoshima, we want to do the HOHO Kagoshima City View bus (80 minutes loop). But I can't information on the stop location of that bus, thus, don't know how/where to catch that bus. Either we can take the RT Princess shuttle for $28pp or take the taxi. There will be 9 of us, so if we taxi, probably have to take 3 taxis. Our worry is, will it be difficult for us to get 3 taxis from town back to ship. I will continue to search if I can find information on the City View bus stop locations. If we do go ashore in Seogwipo, we will just take the shuttle and go to the Olle Market. I don't know if it is worth the hassle to get in long lines at Immigration to get back to the ship just for shopping at the Olle Market.

Sorry if I missed something; I re-read every page of this thread, and am seeing 2 different itineraries for your July 5-19 cruise. Have you visited Jeju (7/7) and Nagasaki (7/8)? We will be visiting those ports, so I am interested/look forward to your posts on those ports.

Thank you.

Thank you for the information and the pictures. Your 1st cruise is 9 days, correct? So only $99 for 9 days is really good price. From the Princess brochure, it shows the Japanese Bath is AFT of Sun deck; now has been moved to the Forward of Sun deck? The sign says "last reservation at ...". If you happen to pass by there again during your cruise, can you please ask if the guests must make advance reservation in order to use the hot tub and outdoor pool? We are thinking of buying the "cruise pass" and will go every day. But really prefer to go whenever we want (during their opening hours) and not have to make reservations every day. Again, thank you for your time!

Thank you.

On my recent April cruise, months before the cruise, I was able to view "Port Guides" on my Medallion app. I have 2 cruises coming up in early Sept., and want to see the port guides for planning purpose. I went to the Port Guide section, saw all the ports listed, but when I clicked on the arrow next to the port I want to see the port guide, nothing happened. I tried it on all the ports of my 2 cruises. Anyone knows how long before the cruise starts that we will be able to see the Port Guides on the app? Thank you.

@Ken the cruiser When you have the time, I would appreciate it if you can please get me some pricing information of the Izumi ( Japanese bath on the Sun deck). I asked questions in the past, and have received answers, but I would like to have the most updated information and pricing so I have some ideas of how much gift cards I should bring with me. There will be 9 of us and at least 5 of us are interested. Would like to know pricing for : One session pass? Several sessions pass? All day pass? Entire cruise pass? If they do offer "Entire cruise" pass, is it unlimited on how many times you can go each day? And unlimited time on how long you want to stay each time? Thank you for your time!!

@Ken the cruiser Thank you for posting the patters. As I mentioned before, we will be on the Diamond this Sept. for a 7-day and 9-day cruises, your Patters will give us information on what to expect. I know on the Royal class ships, the buffet area is called "World Fresh Market" (can enter and exit at many points and food/salad in different sections); and the Grand class ships, it is the "Horizon Court" (one entrance and one exit and food all line up). From reading your Patter, it shows "World Fresh Market and Horizon Court". So the buffet area is one entrance and one exit or can enter and exit at several points? Thank you.

My first visit to Japan was back in 1982; Japan is one of my favorite countries. Since 1982, I visited Japan every 3-4 years. Except the cruise in 2018 (Golden Princess from Yokohama to Alaska), all other previous visits were either land tours or DIY. But all prior trips, I kept going back to the same places (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc.). Decided it is time to visit new places in Japan, so decided on the upcoming 2 cruises visiting Kyushu region and the Hokkaido region. We love sea days, and don't mind to stay on the ship if we feel there is not much to see or it is a hassle go onshore/return to ship. In April, we did the 27 days Sydney to L.A. on the Majestic Princess. Due to weather, we skipped some ports. We ended up spending 22 days at sea. Just loved it.

Thank you so much for your detailed information, very much appreciated!! There is no rush; more information at your convenient is fine. For Nagasaki, I do plan to buy an All Day pass. If available, I always buy All Day pass for transportation that I need to use, even though I know most like I will only use it one time for round trip. Don't want to bother having to buy single tickets each time. I totally agree with you, paying for convenience is also my belief. If there is a chance for a long, long line to go through immigration to get back to the ship, then I think we will just stay on the ship to relax. From my researches, there really not much of high interest at the Jeju port. We will just wait until we get to Busan for our Korean shopping and eating. Thank you for confirming the Kagoshima shuttle. Tomorrow I will start my planning of the Kagoshima port, then will decide if we should take the shuttle or get a guide.

Thank you!!☺️

@cr8tiv1 I started planning for our upcoming Sept. Japan cruises on Diamond. It will be 7 days Kyushu & Korea and 9 days Circle Hokkaido (Nagasaki, Jeju, Kagoshima, Omaezaki, Busan, Aomori, Otaru, and Hakodate). We like local eating, shopping, and not so strenuous sightseeing. We prefer DIY over Princess excursions with a large group of people. From your 3/24/23 Diamond Roll Call, I noticed you visited 3 of the ports that we will be visiting on our Kyushu cruise. If you can answer some questions and maybe give some suggestions on any of the above mentioned ports will be much appreciated. For the Nagasaki port, our plan is to take the tram/or walk to Hamamachi Shopping Arcade and Chinatown. If you took the tram, do you remember how far was the walk from the cruise terminal to the tram stop #48 for Green Line 5? Did you visit Hamamachi Shopping Arcade and Chinatown? If so, were there enough to see/do for a few hours? For the Jeju port, it seems like the main attractions are Cheonjeyeon Falls, Yakcheonsa Temple, or beaches, all of no interest to us. We are thinking either to just stay on the ship or get off the ship and just stay in Seogwipo and check out nearby restaurants/shops. From your 3/24 roll call, you said "My Korean Chiropractor told me to skip Jeju sights and eat my way through the city". So, did you end up doing that? If so, did you rent a taxi or there were many restaurants by the port? For Kagoshima, I remember reading on CC (months ago) that Princess offers RT shuttle for $28 from port to town. Do you remember if that option was available on your cruise? Thank you in advance for your assistance!!