Diamond Princess not easy for mobility impaired

[Brisbane41]

Bill, didn't we see this sort of thing on the Pacific Princess in Mexico? Someone tripped and fell, as I recall. In any case, I think OP was concerned more that there was little help from staff while boarding than the specific configuration of the stairs/ramp.

 

Its a liability issue and insurance issue as well and must protect the crew from liability if something were to go wrong. Sadly in this day and age with people falling and taking legal action companies and individuals must minimise the risk. Escorting someone on and off a ship in trying circumstances could leave the cruise line and crew members open to legal action should the passenger slip while in the care of a crew member.

 

There would also be local laws in Japan as well in regards to this. It is also a customs and quarantine control area so shore side staff with wheelchairs can only meet passengers after they clear the designated line.

 

I have been on Diamond Princess in Japan and witnessed this. The issues are not unique to Diamond Princess but common for international travel.

[Coral]

Yes' date=' these stairs were part of the ship's equipment. They can be manipulated to form stairs or to form a ramp based on the geometry. I do understand that they must cover the distance from the door to the pavement. Is there only one spot on the pavement where they can be "tied down?" If that is true, how can they sometimes have a ramp at one entrance but stairs at another? There were typically crew at these stairs to assist those in manual chairs (this did not apply to my daughter). It made no sense to me that they were bumping/carrying people up the stairs. NO criticism of assistance or lack thereof at these ports. My concern was lack of a ramp at ports of call.[/quote']

 

Looking back - it may have been easier to see if you could have used their wheelchair just for the purposes of getting on and off the ship and have someone assist her in a wheelchair just for this purpose. Odd but it may have helped.

 

We borrowed a ship's wheelchair to get off the ship and go through customs or immigration (sorry don't remember) in Vancouver and then back on the ship on a B2B.

[moki'smommy]

Because some of you have asked for a review, I wrote one and clicked "submit" but I'm not sure where it was posted. For that reason, I'm copying it here.

 

I've been asked to post a review, so here goes. Unfortunately I did not save Patters or other supporting info that might help with accuracy as to what took place when.

 

Background: Our party was myself, a 61 year old mom and my 25 year old mobility challenged daughter. My daughter's illness is such that after a physically active day she will typically require a recovery day so excursions were planned accordingly.

 

Arrival--we flew in a day early and stayed at the Narita Tobu hotel overnight. The hotel offers a complimentary shuttle to/from the hotel and to/from 2 locations in the city of Narita. We had talked about going into town, but opted to sleep instead! We had purchased a package that included breakfast. In retrospect, I probably would have skipped the breakfast but that wasn't a big deal. This is a large hotel with a multi-lingual staff. Bell services handled our bags. The room was HUGE by Japan standards. The chairs were a bit worn, but the beds and bathroom were good. Typical amenities were provided and there was a note in the room about all that was available on request. The hotel was a good value for an overnight stay before or after a flight. It is too far from Tokyo to be a tourist hotel. We scheduled our departure bus at check in. The next morning we were in line for the transfer back to the airport to meet our Princess shuttle to the port. Everything ran on time and we were back at Narita 30+ minutes before the appointed 10:00.

 

We checked in with Princess--they were totally easy to find. Our instructions were "in the arrival lounge between the north and south wings of terminal 1." This was accurate but we walked past it once. They had posted a banner on one of the "shop" areas that said Princess Cruise Line, but what actually caught our eye was the rows of chairs. We were checked off on their list, told where to pace our luggage, and advised that our transportation would be at 10 and that it may take 2 hours to get to the port due to traffic. We told the Princess staff that we'd be back in a few minutes.

 

There are multiple ways to get to the terminal; the easiest is thru Princess, the cheapest is by train. There is a complimentary shuttle from the train terminal to the ship. For us--one handicapped person and with luggage--train was not a viable choice. Princess cost was $49 per person each way.

 

My daughter decided that she'd rather purchase a data plan than depend on the free wifi that is supposedly available around Japan, so we used this time to purchase a 3 gig sim card for her unlocked iphone for $55. That proved to be more than enough data for the month, and we found that it could also be used from the open decks on the ship when it was near to land.

 

Princess escorted us to the transportation and we were off to the port. On the way I got my first view of the outskirts of Tokyo (traffic jams) and we saw Tokyo Disney. Most of the ride looked like any US highway except for the signs. It did get more interesting and much faster as we neared the port. At the terminal, luggage was handed off to the porters and we were given a number "4" to check in. We ignored this and went to the "special assistance" waiting area. About 10 minutes later, we were called to the check in window. It was a smooth and easy process; back to waiting to board. A short time later, we were called for boarding. We had been advised that there would be boarding assistance available (this is our usual system--the assistant pushes my daughter in their wheelchair while I push her walker and handle the carry on bag). We waited at the entrance for about 10 minutes, but no assistant showed up. My daughter decided we should "just go." This could have been unwise as we never know how steep the ramp might be or how long the zig-zags are. In this case it was a very short walk that ended in a STAIRWAY to the ship. We had never encountered a stairway at embarkation on any ship and asked about a ramp--nope. My daughter wrestled her way up the stairs with the walker and just plain determination (we actually had a brief conference about how to handle this). It worked, but was a long way from optimal.

 

Next stop, the room. We had accepted a Princess offer to move down from a balcony to an inside. The room was as expected, but HOT. We set the thermometer at the lowest temp and went to lunch, purchasing a Soda and More sticker on the way. I asked for "soda only" and was told it was not available. I later saw and spoke with someone who purchased one at a different location. Lunch was good. My daughter had a chicken caesar salad; I don't remember what I ate. When we got back to the room, our luggage was waiting so we organized and unpacked. It was still hot that evening, so we called Passenger Services...they spent 3 days getting the room cool. Also, the first time we flushed the toilet, it overflowed onto the bathroom floor--a phone call got us a plumber and a cleaner within minutes.

 

Muster drill--uneventful. The "Deputy CD" was in charge of our section and she was not happy with the lack of organization. She insisted on a team meeting to follow the drill. We were released from the drill about 10 seconds before the crowd and got caught up in the mad rush for the elevators. We boarded and were greeted by a woman screaming at us in Japanese. Seems she wanted us to get off so that her friend (who was farther back in the group waiting to board) could get on. Ain't happening, lady. There was another person with a walker in the elevator--irrelevant till we met him again at the Meet and Greet. We went back to the room, and then to the sail away.

 

Passenger mix: about half Japanese speaking, a significant Australian crowd, and the rest US and British. On the second leg there was a large Spanish tour group. On the first leg there were 4 Japanese tour groups.

 

The next day was a sea day. We were very pleased with the list of sea day activities. There were English and Japanese classes as well as classes in Japanese traditional crafts and dances and a chance to dress in Yukata (the daily traditional clothing). There was a pair playing traditional Japanese music in the atrium and a comedian/storyteller at night. In addition, there were the hula lessons and musical entertainment. I attended all of the Japanese lessons on the first leg--VERY helpful. It got to be cute as we'd practice our polite terms in the elevator. At least the Japanese speakers could understand us say "excuse me." There was also the typical Princess entertainment--electronic violin duo (too loud, should play acoustic instruments and lose the background track), pianist, and an Irish singer.

 

The library on the ship was had three times the collection we'd experienced on the Caribbean Princess, making me happy. There is no International Cafe. The two trays of pastries, replaced thru the day by sandwiches and later cookies made a poor substitute.

 

We held the Meet and Greet in the Wake View Bar which is on deck 6 behind the International Restaurant. There is also a stairway entrance from Club Fusion on deck 7. I met the spouse of the gentleman with the walker and learned that he'd been told there was no way to enter the bar area without stairs. I told her that I'd entered thru the restaurant, so she went to get her husband. After more chatting at the meet and greet, the ended up being good friends for the rest of the cruise. Our GREAT roll call leader distributed a summary of much of the info she'd posted on line. It was nice to meet people in person.

 

Also on this day, we saw several Japanese moms supervising children with their school books near the pool. At no time were any of the Japanese kids a problem on the ship. They were always quiet and polite and there was a parent in attendance. In contrast, on the second leg there were a few English speaking teens who needed some discipline. We saw one idiot jump from deck 15 into the pool on 14 and another group of 3 practice jumping and diving into the pool several times till we yelled at them. There were clearly posted signs saying "No Jumping or Diving" and the pool is not deep enough for diving. This same trio would walk thru the halls in public areas arm in arm, effectively blocking them from use of others.

 

Menus--the left side was "available each night" Japanese items. The salmon was good. The right side changed nightly and included one Curtis Stone item each night. The Potato and Leek Pot Pie was good; his other items didn't impress me. The items that changed nightly were generally good but nothing special. The buffet featured a wide variety of Japanese and Western dishes. There was a ramen station which rotated the type of ramen offered. Quality of the buffet food varied--we learned to never take anything from an almost empty dish. Room service was a most pleasant surprise. The food was excellent and the service prompt.

 

Each port of call had a bus to either the downtown area or to a train/bus station. This was complimentary and provided by the city. In addition, each Japanese port had free wifi in a tent in the port area. The local cities were very happy to have us. Several ports had high school bands or municipal dance groups sending us off in the afternoons. Most had vendors set up at the port and always included a tourist info booth with maps and instructions in English. There was often entertainment shortly after the ship arrived. Unfortunately, none of this entertainment was listed in the Patter or elsewhere, perhaps because Princess wasn't responsible for it.

 

Notable ports/excursions:

Amori--the festival floats are unlike anything we'd seen before. We visited the museum where the previous year's winners are displayed so we could get an "up close and personal" look, and then saw several of this year's being moved back to the storage area. That evening several of the floats were moved to the bay and floated around all lit up. This also featured fireworks. We did a half day excursion that also included the Seiryuu-ji Temple. This is a relatively new temple built in 1982 with the largest sitting Budda. It was particularly interesting since it was our first temple. The grounds were beautiful, and some of the smaller areas were very interesting like the area to commemorate children who died. We also visited a shrine on this tour. In fairness, by the end of the cruise I'd seen enough shrines and temples to last a long time; early on they were remarkable.

 

All of the tour guides were good and spoke excellent English. However, after hearing the same "shrine" and "take a bath" speech in a couple of locations, we realized that this is a canned speech that was part of their training. We also learned that we preferred guides who didn't feel the need to talk all the time.

 

Akita--I went into town with a friend from the meet and greet to see the lantern parade. People who paid for this as an excursion were quite unhappy. We rode the same bus transportation. They were supposed to have a reserved seating area but the complaint was that we all stood together. It was interesting to see these lanterns, but not as impressive as the floats.

 

Sakaiminato--we did a tour to the Matsue castle and grounds (only the outer walls are standing but the gardens were beautiful as well), the Grand Shrine, and ?. We loved our guide pointing out that the gardens are a famous place for chasing the pocket monsters. There were probably 50 or more people with their cell phones out. The castle walls and moat were interesting. At the shrine we got to see a maiden heading to a special ceremony and toured several of the areas of the shrine. There is a street with many statues by a famous anime artist that we were able to see from the bus. This is an easy place to visit from the ship, but we were far too tired to go back.

 

Busan, South Korea--no free wifi here. The first time, we did a tour to Yonggungsa Temple. You could do this on your own but it would involve more walking. There was a visit to a building to see some art work and then to the International Market. It was very hot and humid and my daughter had done way more walking than she probably should have, so we ended up spending the hour for the building inside a local hotel with A/C and at the market, we transferred to the free shuttle bus back to the ship after checking out with our guide. The temple had about 108 steps, but you could see a lot without climbing all of them. There were lovely views. I'm glad we had this very positive view of Busan from the guided bus tour, thru some nice areas of town, etc. because on the second leg we did the free shuttle bus to the market area. It was quite dirty and disgusting with men urinating against walls, nearly dead animals in store windows, etc. I think there is a requirement that the ship visit a port outside Japan and this one is the closest.

 

We were required to attend Japanese immigration the day before Busan and the afternoon we got back as well as Korean immigration if we got off the ship. Princess made this all a painless as possible and I do understand the mandates. Still, I'd skip this port if that were possible. It was my least favorite on either leg.

 

Tokushima--we did a little off the ship on our own. There is a park right across from the ship as well as much entertainment at the port. Here we had a band play us off at the end of the stay.

 

Nagoya--bus takes you to train station. We weren't impressed with any of the available excursions, so basically walked around a little and did it as a rest day.

 

Yokohama (transition day)--we took the free shuttle into town and looked around a bit. We planned to visit the ramen museum but by the time we got our act together, decided there wasn't really time to do this. There were fireworks that night (the biggest fireworks near Tokyo) that were visible from the aft areas of the ship. These were never announced by Princess. We weren't sure why the ship didn't stay nearer to the harbor in order to see these better since the cruise was listed as "Fireworks."

 

Kumano fireworks were easily seen from the ship. They were long, but not particularly impressive.

 

My favorite excursion was to see the Yamanouchi monkeys near Nagano. The excursion was poorly planned IMHO. We visited a hot springs "hell" that had a blue and a red pond area, foot bath, gift shop, greenhouse, etc. Then we visited an area that had a red pond and a foot bath (do you see that there is nothing new here?). The guide told us that the location next to us had an animal park and a hot springs, but we didn't stop there. Then we visited the monkeys. This excursion was listed as high activity because there was a long stairway up the mountain to the monkeys. But for 100 yen ($1) there was a tram to take you up and back and avoid all the steps. The monkeys were adorable and the area was largely shaded so cooler. Right next door was an aquarium that we did not visit. I would have skipped the second hot springs and substituted either the aquarium (inside, air conditioned) or the hot springs with the animal park. But the monkeys made the day worthwhile.

 

I'm leaving out another port where we did an excursion, but I'm not sure what it was.

 

The ship did offer open seating for dinner on nights with fireworks or festivals. This was a good option, and the buffet stayed open late these nights as well.

 

Disembarkation--we were spending a week in Tokyo, so it wasn't the end of our vacation. Princess would not allow us to do their transportation into Tokyo unless we were staying at "their" hotel, so we took Princess to the airport and then the hotel's paid shuttle back into town. This was not an efficient use of time, but the cost of a shuttle or limo from the ship to the hotel was $400! Funny, but the ship had a ramp for disembarkation!

 

 

We experienced a couple of cabin issues. First, it was HOT when we moved in and took a few days to get the temperature down. Princess said they did not supply fans to guests when we requested getting the room cooler.

 

The first time we flushed the toilet in the cabin, it backed up all over the floor--promptly fixed and cleaned with a phone call.

 

We had 2 bad episodes of the smell from the shower drain. Again, the room was serviced and got rid of it. The first time, the smell was back in less than 24 hours. The man did a more aggressive treatment and we had no further problems.

Edited September 4, 2016 by moki'smommy