Diamond Princess - Tokyo to Sydney and beyond, 4th Sep 2024

[ceeceeDee]

16 hours ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

Brisbane

 

BICT does have free wifi, souvenir shop etc. Its comfortable but miles from anywhere so its shuttle into the City or call a taxi if you're not going on an excursion. In this instance, as the first port of call into Aus, there were various ABF requirements and you would be sitting in the terminal until it was all over if you didn't go anywhere.

 

Getting off the ship and through immigration took around half an hour but I was given priority by having a shuttle ticket for 9 am and when they were running late just waved me on ahead. The shuttle dropped us at King George Square in front of the Town Hall. I had hoped to go up the Clock Tower but I didn't realise it was school holidays and you should book online. The earliest they had was 4pm. I had a look around MoB which has art and photos of Brisbane's history. There were a number of childrens groups engaged in activities. 

Instead I went to the fairly new Skydeck of the new casino. Its only 23 floors up but gives a good view of Brisbane in particular Southbank. It was very busy as its free. No hope of getting a snack at the Cafe, people waiting to get a seat and they don't have that many. Maybe about 50. I'm absolutely in favour of it. Its great there are places people can take their kids for free and have a great day out. There is a section of glass you can walk on and see down to the street. This bloke was telling me about some glass walkways in the world where it appears to crack while you are walking on it. Well now, thats something to look out for! 😱

I then wandered down past my favourite building in Brisbane - The Mansions with the cats on the roof. They are renovating that at present. Then onto Parliament, QUT, City Botanic, wander round the shops then back to the shuttle.

I used to work just around the corner from The Mansions and walked past it each day to get to my building. It's my favourite Brisbane building too. Glad they are renovating it. It's such an elegant building.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

15 hours ago, lorri111 said:

time. I seem to recall Titanic was doing 21 knots but that was flat out at that time.

Good to know. I’ll keep it in mind😕

[Yaya_in_Oz]

All good. We’re here but a dreary day.Certainly glad I took the shuttle bus to airport. Forgot to take off my medallion, easy to do, and the machine beeped and they had to do an explosives test on it 🥹.

[arxcards]

14 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Most cruise ships can do up to 21 knots, except for the QM2 which is a liner so has a different shaped hull enabling it to go faster.

 

18 knots is moderately fast. On Coral at times we were doing a steady 20 knots when we had to cover long distances quickly. Usually Captains will slow down a bit if the seas are getting a bit bouncy but sometimes they just have to slam through them. 

That is a good description. I would love to cruise on QM2 at speed, but they rarely go above normal cruising speed on her these days. Most ships have a bit extra up their sleeve for when they are late or have a medivac. Extra speed is also possible with assisting wind & current. We did a Rock the Boat on Radiance in 2019 and following a medivac, there was no way we would be back to Sydney in time. After a day and a half cruising at 23.4 knots, our rocket ship was back on schedule. Expensive on fuel though. Operating at speed usually means the stabilisers are retracted, and it does feel racy with a bit of bounce and wobble.

 

Most parts of the world have ships cruising in a relaxed manner. The schedule from Sydney to Noumea requires the ship to average close to19 knots for 2.5 days, which is far from relaxed.

[colourbird]

34 minutes ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

 

 

It's great that we can make substitutions for these desserts. Since I don't like chocolate and it’s included in all of them, I was worried I might not be able to eat any. I thought I’d just have to pick out the lollies and other bits not affected by the chocolate and leave the rest.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Welcome Diamond Princess:
 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3029725-diamond-princess-in-sydney-australa-today-26th-september-2024/

 

 

[arxcards]

7 minutes ago, colourbird said:

 

It's great that we can make substitutions for these desserts. Since I don't like chocolate and it’s included in all of them, I was worried I might not be able to eat any. I thought I’d just have to pick out the lollies and other bits not affected by the chocolate and leave the rest.

I think I would prefer to stick to the crème Brule or the soufflé's in the dining room. With plus we do have the option, and maybe a "leaning tower" with a shot of Baileys and without all the extra lollies might be worth a try as a one-off.

[possum52]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

I think I would prefer to stick to the crème Brule or the soufflé's in the dining room. With plus we do have the option, and maybe a "leaning tower" with a shot of Baileys and without all the extra lollies might be worth a try as a one-off.

I love desserts but these are just too sweet and are they worth $21 (if you have to pay for them)? I would much prefer the NY cheesecake or even icecream/gelati after a main course. We often just finish with a Baileys on ice which finishes dinner off well.

[colourbird]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

I think I would prefer to stick to the crème Brule or the soufflé's in the dining room. With plus we do have the option, and maybe a "leaning tower" with a shot of Baileys and without all the extra lollies might be worth a try as a one-off.

 

We need to make the most of the Plus package, so these desserts would cover $21 of it. I doubt I could eat two per day. I do like the crème brules though.

[colourbird]

2 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I love desserts but these are just too sweet and are they worth $21 (if you have to pay for them)? I would much prefer the NY cheesecake or even icecream/gelati after a main course. We often just finish with a Baileys on ice which finishes dinner off well.

 

These are not for dessert after dinner, they are the entre before lunch.

[Wanderers2]

1 hour ago, Yaya_in_Oz said:

All good. We’re here but a dreary day.Certainly glad I took the shuttle bus to airport. Forgot to take off my medallion, easy to do, and the machine beeped and they had to do an explosives test on it 🥹.

We have the plus package & last Christmas on the Royal we were able to simply get scoops of Gelato & skipped all the other stuff.  Yum

[possum52]

6 minutes ago, colourbird said:

 

These are not for dessert after dinner, they are the entre before lunch.

Ok, I read up on them. Still very expensive if you have to pay for them and so sweet. I would much prefer a soft serve ice cream as a treat through the day. But each to their own. I wonder how many people are eating them each day? 

[sewgood]

On 9/23/2024 at 6:54 AM, CDaze71 said:

Is there anywhere that has included Sausage Rolls?

The Coral Princess had them in a pie warmer one deck above the pool.

Not sure about the Diamond though.

[colourbird]

16 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Ok, I read up on them. Still very expensive if you have to pay for them and so sweet. I would much prefer a soft serve ice cream as a treat through the day. But each to their own. I wonder how many people are eating them each day? 

 

We didn't eat any on our last Princess cruise as we didn't have any package, but we did see several people getting them whenever we got our soft serve, and some of them seemed to be a bit embarrassed being seen eating so much.

[sewgood]

Thanks Yaya for all your work in this live thread.

I have enjoyed reading about your excursions and generally following along with the day to day activities on the ship.

It helped me make up my mind about some excursions when I am next up in Asia.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

That is a good description. I would love to cruise on QM2 at speed, but they rarely go above normal cruising speed on her these days. Most ships have a bit extra up their sleeve for when they are late or have a medivac. Extra speed is also possible with assisting wind & current. We did a Rock the Boat on Radiance in 2019 and following a medivac, there was no way we would be back to Sydney in time. After a day and a half cruising at 23.4 knots, our rocket ship was back on schedule. Expensive on fuel though. Operating at speed usually means the stabilisers are retracted, and it does feel racy with a bit of bounce and wobble.

 

Most parts of the world have ships cruising in a relaxed manner. The schedule from Sydney to Noumea requires the ship to average close to19 knots for 2.5 days, which is far from relaxed.

On the world cruise we had quite a few days at the beginning of the cruise where we were operating at 20+ knots. Usually Princess ships operate around 18-19 knots, or even less, on regular routes. However with the itinerary change I guess they had to go as fast as they could to cover the distances from Sydney up to Tangier where we resumed the original itinerary.