First off, if you want to see where we are, you can go to the Princess website and click on “ships”. Find the Diamond Princess, click on it, and then click on “bridge cam.” Or I think you can just Google “Diamond Princess Bridge Cam.”
Grant and I got onboard at around 1:30 - it took us about 45 minutes to embark. We went straight to our cabin at the very front of the ship, P200. We met our cabin steward, Fortunato, who showed us our cabin features.
First let me say that I compare things - its just something I do… so since this is my first Princess cruise, I just naturally compare it to other cruises I’ve been on - Grant does as well. So part of this blog will have comparisons that Grant and I discussed… and if we say we prefer something about another cruise line, it doesn’t mean this one isn’t great!!!!
We have an ocean view cabin on this trip. (We had booked an obstructed view - which cost the same as an inside, but we booked guarantee and got upgraded to a regular ocean view if we wanted it - but the cabin would be at the very front of the ship where we would feel the motion of the ship the most. Of course, Grant was thrilled by that, so here we are!
The layout of the stateroom is different from both Carnival and Royal Caribbean. RC still has my favorite layout - however, I have only had balconies on RC and on both Carnival and now Princess, I’ve only had windows or inside.
In any case, when you first walk in, there is a “hallway” immediately to your left that leads to a nice long closet on one side (the length of the “hall,” and the bathroom on the other. Of course, the bathroom is teeny tiny! If, when you walk in the door, you keep going straight, you continue into the main part of the room. The desk is on your left, and the bed takes up most of the room. There is a desk chair, another sitting chair, and a small table, and that’s it! The room is decorated beautifully, with lots of wood and mirrors to make the room look much bigger. Grant and I agree that the furnishing and style of this cabin is our favorite so far…
Next, we headed up to the buffet to grab some lunch. The buffet (as is well documented online,) is very small and very poorly laid out. There are about 10 - 12 buffet counters squeezed into this tiny area about the size of two Sizzler’s salad bars put together. The food offered takes half of the counters, thus the area is divided into two sides, each with 6 counters offering the same food. Its is narrow, hard to get around, and laid out very weird, with the desserts first, for example. However, the food was good!
After lunch, we toured the ship. We had eaten at the very back, where there are a series of pools that sort of terrace. There is a pool on one deck, and then if you go up to the next level there is another pool, (surrounded by the kids club), and then the next level up has two Jacuzzis. These are all cool because they overlook the back of the ship. The next level up has the SkyWalker’s night club, which over looks the pools and the back of the ship from 15 stories above sea level!
The neat thing about the Princess ship, is it has a ton of the same kinds of areas, just smaller versions… for example, it has two main pool areas - one can be covered with a retractable roof when it is cool, two smaller pools (that I described above on the back end of the ship) and then a small adults only pool with two Jacuzzis that is next to the spa. This pool has a current that you can swim against.
It has three show areas - the main theater, Club Fusion where they do karaoke, and then another big lounge with a stage. The ship is really designed differently with s many different areas for passengers to be.
The casino (which happened to be our muster station area) is themed to be like Africa, with African map carpet and lots of trees that give it a very New York- New York (hotel/casino in Vegas) type feel. Its very cool - one of my favorite cruise line casinos.
Our bags got to our rooms quickly - in fact, two of our three bags were in our room when we first got there! So after the drill, we went back to our room to unpack, and then ran up to the front deck to watch the sun set over Catalina and the rest of our sail away.
We are doing the Anytime dining, which works much like going to a restaurant. We made reservations this evening at 6:00 in the Savoy dining room. HUGE advantage here - we get to sit by ourselves, just the two of us, whenever we want. Also, we can visit any of four dining rooms, which means we can eat in different locations throughout the cruise! The only disadvantage here is not having the same wait staff throughout the week to get to know your preferences, which can be awesome if you have a good team. But this is really a good way to go - especially if it’s just Grant and I.
Oh, don’t worry, here comes everyone’s favorite part:
For dinner, Grant had the salmon appetizer, the spring rolls, cream of mushroom soup, and a fresh water fish entrée.
I had the spring rolls and the mushroom soup, and my entrée was a delicious pastry puff filled with crab and lobster…ahhh
For dessert, we both had a rich chocolate flourless torte, with a espresso crème filling. Have mercy.
After dinner, we went to the theater to reserve seats (the theater only holds about 800 people, about 1/3 of the passengers.) The welcome aboard show was pretty typical a couple songs with the orchestra, dancers, and singers, and then a comedian (who wasn’t listed on our guide - the originally; scheduled comedian must not have made it to the ship…)
Next, we went to Club Fusion to watch Karaoke. Two cool things about Club Fusion: 1) There are some slots in the back, so we could chill in the back, watch karaoke, and play video poker. 2) There is a staircase next to the stage that leads to a cute, small little bar lounge - it feels secret and hidden - like the Adventurer’s Club at Disney World’s Pleasure Island. Very cool.
There were two pretty good chicks, one younger gal who sang the shoop shoop song with a lot of enthusiasm, and a pregnant chick who had a beautiful voice, but kept choosing sleepier ballads, great to listen to, but a little old after awhile. (No I did not sing!!!! I was spoiled with Rock-a-Roki!)
At 11:15, we went to the back of the ship and hung out in the Jacuzzi for about 45 minutes. Now we are back in our room, watching “The Sound of Music!” Good night!
OH!!! One more thing!!! The Christmas decorations are still up, which is way cool - we were not sure if they’d have taken them down yet how cool to see a cruise ship decorated for Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment