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Review - Diamond Princess 11th to 19th December - East Coast of Australia

rossco_p

By rossco_p,
in Princess Cruises

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rossco_p

rossco_p

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Sunday 10th December – Day before embarkation

 

I have not read many recent travel blogs on CC about the Diamond Princess, so I thought I would post a review of our cruise, which was an 8 day voyage down the East Coast of Australia. We left from Sydney on Monday 11th December; and cruised to Tasmania via Melbourne before returning to Sydney on Tuesday 19th December.

Myself and my DW are in our early forties and we have two boys - DS1 (aged 10) and DS2 (aged 8) who hereafter will collectively be referred to as “the boys”. We have an emotionally labile cat that obviously could not accompany us on or trip and was pretty annoyed to be sent to the cattery. We also have a bearded dragon that does not care much about anything, except where its next meal of crickets is coming from, so we left it at home to guard the house.

We live in Brisbane and flew down to Sydney on Sunday, the morning before our cruise. DW and I were a little tired as we had been to see Paul McCartney the evening before and it turned into quite a late night. It was a good show and I am happy to answer any questions about it if anyone is curious (thankfully he did not play “Temporary Secretary” – check it out on YouTube, its terrible).

Prior to this cruise we had sailed on the Sea Princess the year before, which we really enjoyed. We sailed up the North Queensland coast to Cairns where I had the misfortune to be menaced by a Cassowary. No major injuries, just the embarrassment associated with running away from an angry bird.

The year before that, we went on the Legend of the Seas, which we liked not so much. It was a bit of an old tub compared to most of the other RCCL ships. Like a lot of the older cruise ships, the Legend was sent down to Australia when it began to reach retirement age, because apparently we in the Southern Hemisphere do not deserve nice things.

We flew into Sydney at 11am. After we landed at the airport we caught a cab to our hotel. I prefer a taxi to UBER, because rather than have a forced, friendly conversation with an overly familiar driver who keeps offering me a bottle of water that I don’t want, I much prefer to enjoy the uncomfortable silence of a cab where I can stare silently out the window while intermittently catching glimpses of the meter that seems to be going up a little too quickly.

We arrived at the hotel at about midday. After the boys performed the mandatory “jumping up and down on the bed and excitedly screaming” ritual, we decided to head out and look at the highlights of Sydney.

Sydney is great place to visit, and an even nicer place to live if you have a handy millions dollars lying around. That is the minimum cost of a house if you want to reside anywhere within 15 kilometres of the CBD.

We retired early after a nice afternoon of wandering around Sydney and marvelling at how it was possible to buy a coffee every 10 metres.

Tomorrow will be embarkation day. I am writing this based on the few notes I managed to scribble in between drinking beers and snoozing in the sun by the pool. I will also consult my photos to help jog my memory and I will post any pictures that may be worthy (I know the standards are pretty high on these boards).

I will try to post a review of each day of the cruise every 24 hours (work, family and cat commitments permitting).

 

Grumpy cat refusing to leave:

Cat.JPG.ac3f47eee94a05c2c42ade9464601907.JPG

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rossco_p

rossco_p

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Day 1 - Monday 11th December – Embarkation - Sydney

 

Thank you very much everybody for your kind comments.

 

Today was embarkation day. We left our hotel at 11.30am. Our boarding time was 12.30pm at the Overseas Passenger Terminal. A large crowd was already lining up by the time we arrived via taxi but the boarding was handled very efficiently and the whole process took only about an hour.

 

Our itinerary was as follows:

 

Mon, Dec 11 Sydney, Australia. Depart 4.00pm

Tues, Dec 12 At Sea

Wed, Dec 13 Melbourne, Australia. Arrive 7.00am

Thu, Dec 14 Melbourne, Australia. Depart 2.00pm

Fri, Dec 15 Wineglass Bay and Oyster Bay, Australia (scenic cruising)

Sat, Dec 16 Port Arthur (Tasmania), Australia. Arrive 7.00am, Depart 4.00pm

Sat, Dec 16 Hobart, Australia. Arrive 7.00pm

Sun, Dec 17 Hobart, Australia. Depart 5.00pm

Mon, Dec 18 At Sea

Tue, Dec 19 Sydney, Australia. Arrive 7.00am

 

The Diamond Princess is a Japanese influenced ship and she splits her time between Japan/Asia routes and Australia/New Zealand tours, depending on the season (she is usually slumming it Down Under for the summer).

 

After we boarded we made our way to our room which was on the Baja deck, Balcony Stateroom B504 on the port side.

First impressions of the cabin? It was larger than I thought it would be. Certainly big enough to swing a cat, so ours should count herself lucky she went to the cattery. This is our first time with a balcony and the boys were excited about this, it certainly makes the room seem larger when the door is open. We had a great view of the Sydney Opera House while we were still tied up. (Will post photo shortly).

 

We had twin beds with two bunk beds which were lowered from the ceiling each evening to comfortably accommodate the four of us.

 

We bought the boys the unlimited soda package, so that DW and I could blame their nutty behaviour on sugary, caffeinated beverages rather than our poor parenting skills. But seriously we are not one of "those" parents that let their kids run wild on a cruise. If they are not in kids club, they are with us at all times and we make sure they respect the other passengers.

 

For those of you who might be interested in what kind of photographic equipment I am using. I have a clapped out iPhone 6 with a nearly full memory and a battery that is on its last legs. But it still has a decent camera, I just had to be very particular about how many photos I took and the amount of time spent doing it.

 

We had lunch at the buffet in Horizon Court which was packed (not unexpected on the first day). It took about 10 minutes to find a table for the four of us. Lunch was nice with a wide selection of Eastern and Western cuisine. Whenever we ate in the Horizon Court, there were plenty of things that the boys would eat, including pasta with meatballs, different types of noodles and there was always a fish dish and carved roast meats served every day.

 

We went to the kids club (“Shockwaves” ages 8-12) for their information session and we registered the boys. The staff explained their policy of parents signing their children in and out each time and that parents always needed ID when picking them up, which was very reassuring.

 

Then we went to the muster at 3.15pm which took about 45 minutes. Our muster was in the Explorer’s Bar which was a lot more civilised than our muster on the Legend of the Seas where we stood on a deck in the hot sun while a crew member shouted at us to stay in line while I tried to put life jackets on two fidgety boys.

This time I let the boys work out how to put on their own life jackets and I was impressed with how quickly they figured it out. It reassured me that their “BMW education” is money being well spent. (I call their schooling a “BMW education” because their annual school fees are equivalent to driving a BMW off a cliff every year – I cry into my pillow at night usually only about once a month.)

 

After the muster we went up to the pool deck for the Sailaway party. There were great views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Opera House as we sailed out of Sydney Harbour. DW and I had the beverage package which made things a lot easier when it came to ordering drinks. Despite the large number of people on deck there was very little wait at the bar and also a reasonable number of servers were wandering around taking orders.

 

After the Sailaway party we went to dinner. We had set time dining at 5.30pm. There are four separate main dining rooms of similar size on the Diamond Princess and we were in the Vivaldi room. Our head waiter was Neresh from Thailand. He was very efficient and friendly to the boys. He knew our names and drinks order after the first evening. I cannot recall exactly what I had for dinner but I know for a fact the boys had prawn cocktail because they ended up having it every night. It would magically appear 5 minutes after they sat down each evening, which they thought was quite remarkable. Over the 8 nights I found the food to be good to excellent. I never had something I did not enjoy.

 

After dinner we wandered the ship exploring the different venues and then went to bed. Overall it was a very pleasant first day on the Diamond Princess.

 

Rossco

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rossco_p

rossco_p

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Looking forward to your review! WOW, Paul McCartney, the night before your cruise, what a thrill. I love the pic of grumpy cat.

 

Yes we were very tired the next morning but it was worth it, a great show. That is the cat's neutral expression! It is even worse when she is unhappy!

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rossco_p

rossco_p

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Is it too late to take the cat and bearded dragon with you? Seems such a shame leaving them at home with no hols!

 

Looking forward to your updates from Diamond Princess.

 

Alas, I do not think we would be allowed to take crickets on the cruise! I suspect there is some sort health regulation against that.

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USN59-79

USN59-79

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Enjoying the review. We were on the Diamond in October and November, so am interested to see if she is still so enjoyable. Concerning your iPhone: Are you aware that Apple will now exchange the battery for a new one at a cost of $29 U.S. at their Apple stores. Not sure if that plan is in effect in Australia yet, but looks like it will be in effect til the end of 2018 here.

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