Live from the Diamond, July 10-27, 17-day B2B around Japan and Korea

[chubbypiggy]

32 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We were actually on the Celebrity Eclipse. My Live From thread is in my expanded signature below. 

Oh, not on the same ship.  Maybe we were in ports together on one or more of those ports.☺️

 

Really looking forward to your posts on your upcoming cruise.  In Sept., we will be doing Diamond's 7-day Kyushu and Korea, then 5 days land DIY (will be staying in Intercontinental Yokohama Grand).  During those 5 days, plan is to spend 1st and 5th day in Yokohama and day 2-4 in Tokyo (will take train to Tokyo daily).  Then will embark Diamond again for a 9-day Circle Hokkaido.

 

After you get on board, I do have questions regarding information and pricing of the 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.   Mainly because I want to get some ideas if we want to do it, and if we do, how much gift cards I should bring with me.  There will be 9 of us.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

Oh, not on the same ship.  Maybe we were in ports together on one or more of those ports.☺️

 

Really looking forward to your posts on your upcoming cruise.  In Sept., we will be doing Diamond's 7-day Kyushu and Korea, then 5 days land DIY (will be staying in Intercontinental Yokohama Grand).  During those 5 days, plan is to spend 1st and 5th day in Yokohama and day 2-4 in Tokyo (will take train to Tokyo daily).  Then will embark Diamond again for a 9-day Circle Hokkaido.

 

After you get on board, I do have questions regarding information and pricing of the 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.   Mainly because I want to get some ideas if we want to do it, and if we do, how much gift cards I should bring with me.  There will be 9 of us.

 

Can do. Just remind me once we're onboard. As far as your upcoming trip, sounds like fun! Hopefully, the temperature will be a little cooler when you're there in September, as it's going to be a little toasty while we're there starting next week! 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[chubbypiggy]

19 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Can do. Just remind me once we're onboard. As far as your upcoming trip, sounds like fun! Hopefully, the temperature will be a little cooler when you're there in September, as it's going to be a little toasty while we're there starting next week! 

 

 

Thank you!

[cr8tiv1]

Summer is a rough time to be in Japan.  If you still have time to go to the Dollar Store, they have disposable rain coats AND "shower cap" like plastic to cover your shoes.  They were extremely helpful when visiting the muddy gardens.  Unfortunately, they did not make it through 2 hours of walking on gravel and rocks.  

 

Again...be sure to take your own trash bag and face towel from the ship.  Make that two towels.  One for wiping your hands and the other one for wetting you down.  

[cr8tiv1]

Should have included this photo in above post.

 

[SimplyMarvie]

16 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Should have included this photo in above post.

 

 

My kids call those "Castle shoes", because we lived in Romania when they were little and when you go into European Heritage properties you often have to wear them. They're now teenagers but get very exited when they encounter them. ("Look, mom! We get castle shoes!")

[Ken the cruiser]

After today, we only have 3 days and an early morning wakeup before heading to the airport for our flight to Tokyo!! Yay!! 🕺💃

 

Looking at the map of the area for the first time since we went on a family SE Asia cruise back in May 2019, it brought back a bunch of memories.

 

 

Seeing Tokyo at night from our cabin balcony was one of them, as the cruise included an overnight stop in Tokyo Bay. Hopefully, we'll have a pretty view from the Keio Plaza Hotel to once again see this beautiful city at night before boarding the Diamond the next morning! 

 

 

 

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures. Hopefully the nighttime photos I take with my iPhone SE this time around will be a little clearer.🤞

[MJC]

Following along as well, since Japan is on our must-see list. My question is, how far in advance did your itineraries become available for booking? I notice that most of next summer is already filling up. Does being Elite provide advance booking (if we go in 2025)? We will hopefully achieve Elite with our next Princess cruise in the fall.

 

thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

25 minutes ago, MJC said:

Following along as well, since Japan is on our must-see list. My question is, how far in advance did your itineraries become available for booking? I notice that most of next summer is already filling up. Does being Elite provide advance booking (if we go in 2025)? We will hopefully achieve Elite with our next Princess cruise in the fall.

 

thank you!

It all depends. We usually start booking excursions as soon as they become available. We booked this B2B in Aug 2022 and most of the excursions were already available. However, we have a Baltic cruise booked for July 2024, and no excursions are available yet. 

 

With regards to making Elite, I believe it only allows you to book an itinerary one day prior to when it is officially released to the general public, and 10% off any booked excursions, among other perks.

 

Hope this helps.

[Ken the cruiser]

Note to self. At some point while onboard stop by the revamped "Go Princess" Future Cruise Desk to see what "onboard" deals they are offering. 

 

Over the past few months I've been reading some threads where Princess has now contracted out the future cruise desk and are offering up to 50% off their website prices on some select itineraries. In the past, since we usually book through a TA, we would only visit them to buy FCDs, which can now be done using the App. As we pretty much have our itineraries booked through the summer of 2025, it will be interesting to see if any of our Princess ones would be worth cancelling through our TA and then rebooking onboard. 🤔

[LACruiser88]

42 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Note to self. At some point while onboard stop by the revamped "Go Princess" Future Cruise Desk to see what "onboard" deals they are offering. 

Same here, as we board the Emerald tomorrow and have quite a few bookings thru the end of 2025.  🙂

[chubbypiggy]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Note to self. At some point while onboard stop by the revamped "Go Princess" Future Cruise Desk to see what "onboard" deals they are offering. 

 

Over the past few months I've been reading some threads where Princess has now contracted out the future cruise desk and are offering up to 50% off their website prices on some select itineraries. In the past, since we usually book through a TA, we would only visit them to buy FCDs, which can now be done using the App. As we pretty much have our itineraries booked through the summer of 2025, it will be interesting to see if any of our Princess ones would be worth cancelling through our TA and then rebooking onboard. 🤔

When I was on my Transpacific cruise in April on the Majestic, I saw a big sign outside the Future Cruise office advertising the 50% off deal.  Since I have several booked cruises (Sept. 2023 and some in 2024), I decided to check out if I can get a better deal with that promotion.  I was told by the representative there, that those 50% discount only really apply to cruises that depart within the next 2-3 months.  She checked the prices for my booked cruises, and none of them have lower prices than my booked prices.

[Ken the cruiser]

32 minutes ago, chubbypiggy said:

When I was on my Transpacific cruise in April on the Majestic, I saw a big sign outside the Future Cruise office advertising the 50% off deal.  Since I have several booked cruises (Sept. 2023 and some in 2024), I decided to check out if I can get a better deal with that promotion.  I was told by the representative there, that those 50% discount only really apply to cruises that depart within the next 2-3 months.  She checked the prices for my booked cruises, and none of them have lower prices than my booked prices.

Makes sense. I had a feeling there would be a few limitations. So I guess getting 50% off an M1 cabin on a 32-day Tahiti cruise RT out of LA in 2025 might be a little wishful thinking. 😂

[boxkite]

Thanks Ken, will be following along!

[LACruiser88]

21 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Makes sense. I had a feeling there would be a few limitations. So I guess getting 50% off an M1 cabin on a 32-day Tahiti cruise RT out of LA in 2025 might be a little wishful thinking. 😂

If you are looking at the Sapphire sailing in April of 2025, we are booked on that one.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, LACruiser88 said:

If you are looking at the Sapphire sailing in April of 2025, we are booked on that one.

Cool! We were looking at that one but instead booked an NCL B2B in late May which goes to Longyearbyen twice. We were hoping to book it with Princess, but it appears they have stopped going to Longyearbyen. So we're now waiting for the Tahiti cruise in the Fall to become available for booking.

[SimplyMarvie]

On 7/4/2023 at 11:58 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

It all depends. We usually start booking excursions as soon as they become available. We booked this B2B in Aug 2022 and most of the excursions were already available. However, we have a Baltic cruise booked for July 2024, and no excursions are available yet. 

 

With regards to making Elite, I believe it only allows you to book an itinerary one day prior to when it is officially released to the general public, and 10% off any booked excursions, among other perks.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

This makes me giggle, as we booked our Japan cruise (right after yours) exactly 64 days out, after my husband and I looked at our kids school and exam schedules and went "Well, if we want to do another family vacation before eldest graduates, this July-August is the only option. Hey, look at this great deal on a cruise in Japan!"

 

Also, happy to suggest ideas for the Baltics! 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, SimplyMarvie said:

Also, happy to suggest ideas for the Baltics! 

We'll actually be doing a S2S in July 2024, with the first leg being a 12-day Celebrity Apex cruise around Norway to include a few days cruising above the Arctic Circle. Then once we get back to Southampton, we move over to the Sky Princess for a 14-day cruise around the Baltic. We have never done a side-by-side before, so it should be fun! 😀

[silkismom]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We'll actually be doing a S2S in July 2024, with the first leg being a 12-day Celebrity Apex cruise around Norway to include a few days cruising above the Arctic Circle. Then once we get back to Southampton, we move over to the Sky Princess for a 14-day cruise around the Baltic. We have never done a side-by-side before, so it should be fun! 😀

At least you don't have to worry about people seeing the same outfits for several days.

[Ken the cruiser]

It's almost time to wake up early tomorrow morning and head to the airport to begin our adventure!! Pretty much all the pre-cruise stuff has been taken care of and our bags are almost packed. We also just got notified that we have been upgraded to first class on the first leg of our AA flight to Dallas, although not quite sure what perks we'll get on our 2-hour flight leaving at 7:15 am. 😂

 

The Tokyo weather forecast for July 9 when we arrive in the afternoon is looking a little toasty, much like it's been here in Alabama for the last few weeks. Hopefully, though, without the 75 dewpoint moisture levels. 

 

 

So I believe, without further to do, it's time for Freddie, as we are definitely starting to get excited!!  🕺💃

 

 

[silkismom]

Oh, Freddie with my coffee😁  

[Ken the cruiser]

This has been quite the last pre-cruise day today. Thank goodness we had most of our stuff done yesterday. First, we were notified of the AA first class upgrade, which was pretty cool by itself.

 

Then while doing my daily price checks on each of our booked cruises, I found that our July 2024 Baltic cruise on the Sky dropped $1600 per person for our M1 cabin. Needless to say we contacted our TA and she was able to refare our booking to the new lower fare. Probably wouldn't even have even checked if we were on the cruise. 

 

If this is any sign of what's to come, we are going to have an awesome cruise!!😊

[Ken the cruiser]

It's around 6 pm in Tokyo right now (4 am local), and it's time to start getting ready to head to the airport. A check of future doppler is looking pretty good between here and Dallas. Hopefully all goes smoothly as we're scheduled to arrive at the Haneda Airport around 2:30 pm tomorrow after a 14-hour flight from Dallas! 

 

 

[BigRedFan]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

It's around 6 pm in Tokyo right now (4 am local), and it's time to start getting ready to head to the airport. A check of future doppler is looking pretty good between here and Dallas. Hopefully all goes smoothly as we're scheduled to arrive at the Haneda Airport around 2:30 pm tomorrow after a 14-hour flight from Dallas! 

 

 

Have a wonderful trip and an uneventful flight. 🙂

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Dallas

 

 

and have now boarded our flight to Tokyo. Yay!!