LIVE from the Diamond Princess - 35 days Singapore to Vancouver

[mississauga]

Afternoon brings us Mr. Sexy Legs Contest out at the pool, which is really surprising. I have never known Princess to do this Carnival thing.

 

Actually, Mr Sexy Legs is a Norwegian thing....LOL. Carnival's is the Hairy Chest (ugh) contest.

[rdsqrl]

Actually, Mr Sexy Legs is a Norwegian thing....LOL. Carnival's is the Hairy Chest (ugh) contest.

And who has the Sexy Chest and Hairy Legs contests?

 

[shudder]

[caribill]

　

 

Before I “read” you the Patter, I’m finally remembering to tell you about our upcoming no internet time. My fingers will get a rest for approx. 36 hours beginning Friday night until Sunday morning. It seems that once we are in Japanese waters, due to their radio communications regulations, there will be no internet services. Whatever that means. I really don’t understand the whys and wherefores.

 

We had that two years ago on a Princess cruise. We were told it interferes with Japanese communications, but I do not see how ship-to-satellite communication does so.

 

In our case, when out of Japanese waters while sailing between Japanese ports, the Internet was turned back on until we reached Japanese waters again. Maybe it will be that way also for you.

[Pia1913]

Bill, internet manager said it would be out 36 hours this time and then again when we hit another Japanese port on the next leg. I will survive.

BTW folks, it has gotten cold this afternoon. No sun, ship rocking a bit and quite windy. I just turned up my thermostat which had been all the way at coldest level to halfway. Brrrrrrrrrr and so sudden.

Nothing to say. Just using Japanese minutes. :D

[caribill]

Bill, internet manager said it would be out 36 hours this time

 

That is also what we were told, but it did become available when between Japanese ports but not in Japanese waters. There was no announcement it was there, but I checked and it was.

 

The Internet is also used by the ship's managment for sending information back and forth to HQ. Possibly they turned in on for that purpose and I accidentally was able to sign in during that time.

[bcnvcanada]

There is free internet in the terminal in Nagashai. It is a pretty good conection. If you see Leo the csr officer aroung give him a shout out from the girls also a ciao to hi lovely Aunt G.from Italy. thanks

[DonahCBrown]

Better late than never I guess. So far, haven’t been commenting on the live, as I’ve been saving minutes to correspond with our house sitter (thank you Nancy!!) and mom but I promised to do a little bit of an update so here it is. Impressions of the first half – hot, humid, and busy/tiring, particularly as I twisted my ankle just prior to setting out on our adventure and it is still troublesome.

 

In Phu My, we had a fun day with Stuart and Shirley exploring Vung Tau and other areas nearer the port than the rest of our traveling partners who chose to do Saigon and the Mekong. It was very warm, but we had a good guide, and interesting time in the market where we got to see the local outdoor judicial court in operation as well as explore the market and have a very ‘local’ lunch in a ‘non-tourist’ spot.

 

I think the Dung Pham tour(s) have been well covered so I won’t add anything there except to say it continues to be among the best tours ever for giving some insight into the lives of the local people and the embroidery factor is still a bargain and a great place for souvenirs.

 

Our Hong Kong excursion was with Tours By Locals and was another interesting ‘non-tourist spots’ kind of day with a lot of walking (over 7 miles on my pedometer) and use of public transportation to explore both the central business area and the neighborhoods that are more traditional and less glitzy. We took the ferry, tram, bus, subway and, of course, walked and walked. Dim sum lunch at a place that doesn’t see many westerners was different (I liked it better than everyone else in our group, I think – but I used to eat a lot of dim sum in San Francisco)

 

I think the entertainment and shipboard life has already been well covered so I won’t comment except to say that there seem to be a lot more penny slots and, at least so far, they have been slightly more generous than usual – at least, I’m not down too much so far. Fran, if you are following this – there is a Denver Duck but it is really really stingy about bringing up the bonus so I’m not playing it much.

 

Tomorrow is Shanghai, another Tours by Locals. This time we will have a van and a larger group. Will report when we return.

[Cruisin Sal]

Glad to hear that you are still crising. I took portions of your trip in 2000.

Cheers,

Sally

[generichandle]

Wow Donna;

 

Yesterday I twisted my ankle and it was so bad I was going this morning to the Doc to see if I could find a way to still go [we leave for Beijing Friday]. But I kept it cold and this morning it is a lot better. Sore, but will take weight. So you should not feel alone. And I should still be in Beijing!

 

After missing my last cruise due to illness, I was beginning to feel a bit cursed. :eek:

 

Two more days!

 

Thanks all for your amazing recounts.We a relatively new to cruising and still rely on Princess for shore tours. But you are quickly showing us how much more can be done. So hopefully our experiences will continue to diversify. CC'ers are an amazing resource, both in information and ideas.

 

Doug

[aaerobear]

We had the same internet shutdown when we did a long asia cruise a couple years ago. Many of the ports did have free internet though (can't remember which ones as we hit 7 stops in Japan)

[mkccltr]

I know that you haven't reached the China/Busan etc ports yet but had a question about the off ship food. I am Ciliac (no wheat, rye, oat or barley) and was wondering when doing group dining is a special request available.

 

I will have the celiac cards in various languages stating my allergies but wonder if they can be honored. You speak about noodles are they rice or flour noodles?

 

Are the buses bathroom equiped? and if not what is the general availability?

 

We are on the Diamond next May Beijing to Vancouver. We are doing a 5 day Princess precruise also.

 

Did most of you do Princess sanctioned tours or private ones. Would be interested in the ones regarding Busan - Dalien - Osaka and Tokyo.

 

Thanks much appreciated.

[laughing husky]

I know that this seems a very silly question....I asked Princess and they did not know....but I had the best haircut in my life...(which right now seems like a long time..:)) on the Diamond last year....going on her again next month when she starts AK cruises...I cannot remember her name, but she was from the Netherlands....Any chance if you are up in that area, you could ask if they have a hairdresser from the Netherlands? I think if someone mentioned her name, I would remember it. It did not sound Dutch to me....Thanks.....

[Chelsea1]

I was on the Diamond 14-30th March and had my hair coloured and cut. The hairdersser was from Manchester (UK), definitely not the Netherlands.

[Pia1913]

Good Morning Shanghai, where it’s clear and cool, but rain is forecast. Our passports were returned to us last night and we will have to present them to Chinese immigration at the gangway. Upon return they again will be collected and held for preparation into Japan. This is our third visit to Shanghai and we have opted to take a ship’s tour to an area known as “Venice of the East,” where we will see and pass thru 36 bridges built during the Qing and Ming Dynasties. Will report on this later.

　

Those staying on board will have several movies from which to choose, such as “Phantom of the Opera” and “The Rum Diary.” At 4:30 there will be a folkloric show, which I believe will feature acrobatics. I’m not sure whether or not we will be back in time, but no worries since it will be shown on TV afterwards and probably tomorrow too.

　

Evening brings us “Warrior” on MUTS, a string quartet recital in Explorer’s and someone named Bayne Bacon in the theater. Assuming this is a male, he is advertised as a variety entertainer. This usually means a magician and/or juggler. Will report on this too.

To whomever mentioned free wifi in Nagasaki; thank you. Also, we know Leo; great guy. He was at our table for most traveled luncheon.

Answers: no bus I've been on has had a bathroom. As for food, on board they will honor your request for special diet. Don't count on it in ports. To me, noodles are noodles. We've had rice noodles as well as others.

OK. Off we go, and carrying an umbrella too. Just in case.

Bye.

[mississauga]

I will have the celiac cards in various languages stating my allergies but wonder if they can be honored. You speak about noodles are they rice or flour noodles?

 

The Chinese use a variety of noodles in their dishes. The noodles in Chow Mien are usually egg noodles. The rice noodles are white wide flat noodles. They are usually seasoned with soya sauce in a Chinese Dish but if you see that the noodles are wide and flat, they may be the rice noodles.

 

Being celiac, you probably know that won ton and egg roll wrappers are made with flour. Lots of the dim sum pastries are made with rice wraps. Usually they are a translucent white and you can see the filling through the wrap.

 

I know you will still need to ask but hopefully this will help you to know when to ask if it is made with rice vs flour.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Shanghai seems to always looks dull and smoggy from the bridge cams.....

 

 

 

 

[wineforhealth]

So Pia did Mike enter the mr sexy legs?

[Pia1913]

We’re baaaaaaaaaack. And a bit tired as well. Since we’ve been to Shanghai at least twice previously, we opted to take what Princess calls “Off the Beaten Track.” Our one + hour bus ride departed at 8:15 with 30 aboard and a very knowledgeable and personable guide; Bay. Her English is impeccable, which made for a great day. We arrived in the city of Zhujiajiao (no way I can pronounce it even though I kept hearing it said), where we proceeded to do a 2 hour walking tour. This city is located on Dianshan Lake and by so many crisscrossing rivers, that it’s referred to as “Venice of the East.” We walked through many narrow streets and stopped for a visit to their 18th century post office which contained an interesting wall. There are lots of slots with months, days and years on them and if you wished you could deposit letters to be mailed at a future date. The years went all the way to 2020. We then visited a herbalist and continued on to take a 20 minute sampan ride on the lake mentioned above. Six to a boat with the “gondolier” driving. He didn’t sing, but we did. :) This is not an easy tour, since besides the walking on uneven cracked pavement, there’s also a zillion steps to climb. Up the steps and over a bridge, then down the steps on the other side. Lots of bridges. Lots of people. The most interesting bridge of all was one built in the 14th century; the area’s longest, largest and tallest stone bridge. Yes, we walked up and down that one too.

We certainly worked up an appetite when we arrived at our restaurant for the included lunch. We sat 10 to a table while waitresses kept putting assorted dishes of food on a large lazy susan. I believe we had sixteen different items such as roast chicken, chicken with veggies, sweet and sour pork, white rice, tofu, bok choy, dumplings, French fries and other things I don’t recall. We also had unlimited choice of water, Sprite or beer. The beer was very good. ;)

Surprise, surprise, next door to the restaurant is a silk factory. We knew we would be seeing silk, but didn’t realize how much of it. We were first shown how silkworms go from birth to death and in between producing their eggs. A silkworm’s life span is less than 2 months. Then we saw the processing plant and afterwards ushered into a huge area to show how quilts were made. This was also a shop in which you could order quilts and pillows made to order or buy whatever was available on the spot. After that we saw a short fashion show which ended with everyone going into a silk store. A HUGE silk store! Anything and everything you can think of was there, from small souvenirs and scarves to every imaginable piece of clothing for men, women and children.

We got back to the ship shortly after 4:00 and we sure lucked out on the weather too. The day was sunny, temps went into low 70’s and it was just a very interesting and pleasant day.

　

There is a duty free shop in the port; no other stores. They sell booze and cigarettes and red wine only. Boo! We drink only white. I need to replenish, so hope Nagasaki has something for me. Otherwise, will buy what I like from room service.

Jim, no, he passed on it. However, it did bring back memories, since he did do it on Carnival 20+ years ago. :D

David, Shanghai sure looked good today. No fog.

See you tomorrow. We lose an hour tonight. Need to sleep fast.

　

[mema4]

Pia,

I am reading your blog everyday and I enjoy hearing about all the places I have not yet visited.

Alice

[DonahCBrown]

Shanghai has changed substantially since our last visit here in 2007 – it seems more prosperous, and cleaner, with more green space and trees, although the air pollution and traffic are both still horrendous. I understand from both our guide and Hutch that the size and coverage of the Metro (subway) system has greatly expanded as well and we saw subway stations well out into the area of the dock. The new docking facility is huge, clean and substantially nicer than the area we docked in 2007.

 

Our Tours by Locals guide was engaging and very sweet, if not terrifically knowledgeable, and her English was passable but not up to the standard of our guide in Hong Kong. We had an 11 passenger van for the day, but still did a lot of walking as there were a lot of places that the van couldn’t get very close in.

 

Highlight for the day, for me, was the Yuyuan Gardens. I would have liked to have spent more time in that area, which is a preserved ‘Old Shanghai’ section of town with many shops and markets. We also visited the Temple of the Jade Buddha, which is a goodly distance away from the other attractions, but very beautiful, Nanjing Road – which I don’t recall as having been a pedestrian mall in 2007 – and the Bund. If I had it to do over, I would skip Nanjing Road and spend the ‘shopping time’ in the Yuyuan shops and market. I would also request that the guide include all the admission tickets in the price and obtain them ahead of time as we lost some precious minutes finding ATMs, finding the ticket booths, and getting tickets for all eight of us. Lunch was in a local restaurant in the Yuyuan district and was an interesting experience as we tried to communicate what we all wanted. One of our party never did get his lunch and finally gave up and shared his wife’s. Food was good, but not great, in my opinion and it wasn’t easy to tell what you were getting, even with pictures to go by, but it was clearly authentic and from the number of local folks in the place, it seems to be well regarded – and, in fact, has branches all over Asia and a few in the US as well, so they appear to be doing something right!

 

Today is another sea day, and I’m hoping the improvement in the air will help what I think is bronchitis brought on by the pollution. I react to the vog (volcanic smog) at home in a similar but less dramatic way. Hacked and coughed all night last night and sound pretty much like the last act of Camille although I don’t feel that bad. Ankle is healing up and while achy did okay yesterday with no ace bandage for the first time all trip. Guess we lose internet sometime this evening and get it back sometime after leaving Nagasaki so you may not hear from any of us for a while.

[wineforhealth]

Pia

 

From looking at the cruise cam just now , it appears you had a bright moon last night on your route to Nagasaki

[Pia1913]

Ugh! I hate losing an hour of sleep. But then again, so many people forget to change their clocks and the gym is always less crowded on those mornings. Hello………… it’s Friday. And tonight is the night that we lose our internet for 36 hours. Actually, the “net” last night was so awful that we couldn’t log off and it kept using minutes. This has happened several times and the manager always gives them back. I asked yesterday whether unused minutes could be transferred to the next cruise. No, they cannot.

After dinner last night we did nothing. Casino wasn’t going to open until 11:00 PM, we didn’t want to listen to a string quartet and we certainly weren’t going to see a juggler. We read, we watched Fox News and went to bed early. We never saw the folkloric show either (didn’t get back in time), but it will be shown on TV today.

10 this morning is the witching hour; all sort of things happening. In the theater a Busan lecture, on MUTS a documentary, “The Imperial Japanese Navy: Kaigun” and in Santa Fe, the fabulous (hahaha) 3 hour up to 75% off sale. At 11:00 there’s another lecture, “Japan: Where the Past is Present.” The afternoon offers a 3:00 PM performance by violinist Ian Cooper and on MUTS at the same time, the movie “Sarah’s Key.” I haven’t seen the movie, but loved the book.

　

Tonight’s entertainment is the production show “Ports of Call” in the theater (why doesn’t this sound familiar? Did they change the name?), and in Explorer’s, pianist Van-Anh Nguyen. MUTS is offering “A Smile as Big as the Moon.”

See folks, I told you Donna would be along with her narratives, :D

Gym finished; breakfast awaits.

[ccrain]

At Sea To Shanghai:

 

Was it one day or two? Quite frankly don’t remember and don’t care. It’s all a relaxing blur. Sort of got our routine down. Coffee and computer in the Atrium, Judy does Kongee for breakfast, I do some horse feed and yogurt. Then we do Zumba with Kim, ballroom with Kim and Paul, line dance with Paul, Kim or Nicole, and then wing it from there. Sometimes Judy does a crafts class and I nap, sometimes we go to a movie, and I nap, sometimes we watch a movie on tv, and I nap, yep definitely a trend here.

 

It has cooled off significantly. Chased most of the people off the Lido deck and under cover, but felt wonderful after the heat of Bangkok and Vietnam.

 

We’ve met a couple from Hawaii, Richard and Dianne, that we’ve been hanging with the past couple of days. Lots of fun to have another couple to interact with on excursions. We had dinner together in the Santa Fe night before last. It was one of those innocuous Princess dinners. I had the duck, Richard and Dianne had salmon and Judy had the steak. It was an ok, same old, same old Princess dinners. The real treat was the ice cream. Love the Princess hand made ice cream. Richard and Dianne have the coveted end mini on emerald deck with the large balcony that wraps a bit. Fully covered. And they had a real table, same chairs as we do, but with an ottoman each. So they can really stretch out.

 

Night time entertainment of note was the comedian, Rikki something, who was high energy, pretty funny and only one of his british jokes either went by too fast or way over my head!

[ccrain]

Judy and I both have to sit back every now and then and take stock of life. Visting the Orient and Shanghai is one of those moments. Both of us were born into working class families who had gardens, chores and animals to take care of for food. After my dad was hurt when I was 7 we were actually homeless for about 2 years in the late 60's, living with friends and relatives.

 

Traveling back then was getting in the car and going to see grandparents. Planes and trains were unheard of luxuries only used by the rich and wealthy. I would not get on a plane until my first job interview in my last year of college, and then for only a 60 minute flight. I'll never forget calling judy from the first night in a hotel in LA, a foreign country for all I knew, telling her about the phone in the bathroom next to the toilet! And there was soap and shampoo in the bathroom for FREE!

 

How young and innocent we were back then. You heard about these foreign places, read about them, watched events on TV from them, but never in your wildest dreams every imagine that you would actually visit them.

 

So on that note - Let's go to Shangai.

 

Weather was beautiful in Shanghai. The best of the cruise. Not too hot, not too cold. The new cruise terminal was fantastic and beautiful. Too bad we in the US are still burdened by the PVSA which forces the building of all of these nice docks and cruise terminals to “foreign” ports. I’m sure there are several Gulf of Mexico ports that would love to build nice cruise terminals to attract cruise passengers and their money. But as we all know, we must protect the lucrative US cruise ship building industry!

 

Ok, off my soapbox.

 

So the weather was perfect, the bus was comfortable and we settled in for a great tour. Unfortunately our tour guide was not so good. He was soft spoken. While he had a mike, we could hear and understand him. On a tour, you had to stand right next to him. And you had to keep up with him in this city. On more than one occasion, several people would have gotten lost when they stopped to take a picture and he turned a corner in a crowd.

 

So we went up on top of the Jin Mao tower. Nice view, but if you think LA has bad air, think again. Visibility was about 3-4 miles. The contrast across the Bund to old Shanghai was pretty interesting, but I’m still fascinated by eastern architecture in contrast to western. Curves versus straightlines and completely different design options as well as preferred materials. A couple of building had the interesting “mad scientist air arc insulator” on top. Looks like one of those things they shoot or collect lightning bolts with. When we left SFO I had gotten some Chinese Yuan, so we were good as far as currency went. Picked up the obligatory refrigerator magnet, the photo and a bag of nutty little treats for snacks. Learned the Chinese word for ‘thank you’, ‘she, she’, and got a big smile from the cute girl behind the counter when I used it.

 

After the tower we headed to the museum. Only 80 minutes at the museum. Not nearly enough time, but we rushed through as much as possible. Most interesting to me was the Jade, the coinage and the pottery. Finally got to see a real Ming Vase - that legendary piece of pottery broken in every sitcom since dirt. Note that we lost 5 people in the process of exiting the museum and had to go find them. From then on, everyone stuck to the tour guide like glue, which spoiled it for a lot of people.

 

From the museum we headed to lunch in a hotel. It was a nice Chinese lunch, lots of variety. Sort of westernized and a little on the oily side – like the Wok was not hot enough. I’ve had much better in the states. Once again some of the street food vendors we sent by had some really mouth watering tasting stuff cooking, but you never know with unregulated street food. Unlike the Hong Kong, there servers never really smiled. I noticed that a lot in Shanghai. Very few smiles. Whereas in Hong Kong, there were smiles all over. And big genuine smiles.

 

Lunch was hurried. Only about 30 minutes and only one glass of water, coke or beer. That’s it. In fact, no water was distributed on the tour, a 9 hour tour. Good thing we brought our own.

 

From lunch we went to the Jade Buddha temple. The differences between Thai and Chinese temple design, contrasted with western church design is really, really cool. That is the kind of thing I love to experience on these cruises. The differences in human sculpture is also really interesting. Western artists concentrated on accurately depicting the human body, down to the tendons and musculature. They even go so far as to, like in David, attempt to get the perspective view down just right. Eastern artistry, IMHO, captures via caricature, exaggeration, color and costume. Such a different contrasting approach and very, very intriguing.

 

In college, my elective courses concentrated on western philosophy and western history. If I had another lifetime, I would love to learn the history of the eastern civilizations.

 

From the Jade Buddha temple we went to the Yu gardens via a market area. Here the crowds were much larger and after losing people at the museum, our group stuck to the tour group leader like glue, which was not easy. He did not give us any guidance, just took off in a general direction and you dared not stop to take a photo as he was likely to turn a corner and be out of sight in a minute. So we spent most of the time simply dodging through the crowd trying to keep him in sight.

 

Yu gardens was interesting from a layout and a design perspective. Loved the concept. Would liked to have appreciated it a bit more with a more leisurely stroll through the place, but the crowds made that pretty impossible. Everywhere you turned someone was taking a picture of someone across the path, and of course, being polite, we would stop until the finished, then move on. We need faster autofocus cameras!

 

We had 15 minutes to “shop” in the market area outside of Yu gardens. Not enough time to really look around and our tour guide had a habit of being 5 minutes late or 5 minutes early, but whenever he showed up, he left immediately. So most of us just hung around the rally point, dodging other tourists and waiting for him to show back up.

 

Then there was the ubiquitous ‘factory’ stop. This was a silk factory. And we only had 20 minutes there, with hundreds of other Diamond Princess tour people. It was a real zoo. Not a lot of purchasing in 20 minutes, that’s for sure.

 

Interesting thing – when we started, our tour guide specifically said we would get back to the ship by 630pm. On board was 530pm according to patter. When I told him that, he said our sailaway was not until 7pm. As this was a Princess excursion, and there was about 15 busses at the factory with us, I wasn’t too worried about the ship leaving. After we got on board, the captain mentioned that a few of the tour busses were late due to traffic. Since we were one of the last busses, we weren’t in any traffic, we just got in when they planned us to get in. Not sure of why the disconnect.

 

BTW, we were given back our passports to carry into China and then had to surrender them again upon re-boarding.

 

We did not feel like eating in the dining room and went up to the buffet, but it was packed, so we visited the Elite lounge which had my favorite snack. Stilton marinated in Port wine on walnut bread. Along with a glass of Port, it is, for me, really a tasty treat. And that was essentially dinner. After which we crashed for the evening as nothing exciting was going on…

[lovevacadays]

All, I'm really enjoying reading your comments. You all have such a way of bringing your experiences to life. So very interesting!