Watch THIS before your Japan Diamond Princess Cruise!

Watch THIS before your Japan Diamond Princess Cruise!

After so many years and so many cruises with Princess, we thought we got it all figured out. Well, today we are cruising Japan on Diamond Princess and there are several things that really surprise us. This is Angelia from Port Lord. For one, the crew leans very Asian. While yes, majority of Princess Cruise crews come from Philippine, but you have a lot more variation on Asian here. In client services, you will always find one person who speaks Japanese, another one who speaks Mandarin, and another one who speaks Korean at all times. And of course, you always have the standard English client services. So, don’t worry. So, here’s another unique thing about Diamond Princess. Aside of spa, they also have Japanese traditional bath, aka onen. And onen is sort of like a public bath, but usually is divided by the gender. There are a lot of plenty of videos out there that will show you how to properly enjoy an onsen. So, make sure that you do before you sign up for it. How much you have to pay, it depends. So, you could buy it per session. You could also buy in a group of five or 10 or you could buy the whole package for unlimited access. Having said that, you still have to sign up and make sure you register when you come on ship. To pay for the access to onsand, you do need to show up in person. You won’t be able to do this through the app. For those of you who enjoy a little bit action in the casino, be aware that Japan has a very strict rules on casino and gambling. Your ship have to clear a lot further away before the casino could open. It also means that you have a shorter hours in the casino. So, for example, our ship left Yokohama at 400 p.m., but the casino was not scheduled to open until 1000 p.m. That’s quite far. Consider that when you plan how many hours you want to spend in a casino. I’m sure you have heard about the Japanese bed experience. Well, guess what? You get to experience this when you are on Diamond Princess. I believe almost every single female bathroom are equipped with bet. According to my husband, only a few of the male one. This particular design is actually the button is not on the side cuz sometimes they are. This one actually have a remote over here. Okay. When you sit down and you push the bedet button to spray some water, just know that it will take them a little bit while it’s not going to be instantaneous. In case this is well scary, you know, with all the buttons, don’t worry. You don’t really have to use it. It’s optional. But for those who would like to try, honestly, once you try a heated toilet seat, especially during winter, there’s no going back. Ask me how I know. The other thing about cruising in Asia is the amount of custom and immigration paperwork that you have to fill up. You will have to keep repeating doing this for every single time your port leave Japan, come back to Japan, go to another country, come back to Japan again. You’ll get very good at this. Having said that, the Japanese and I’m pretty sure all the other uh Asian countries take it very very seriously. So, this is the only cruising actually that we have our passport with us practically all the time when we go out. Trust me, you don’t want to be one of those people who walk all the way to the port authority just to be turned back into your ship simply because you forgot your passport. Another thing that is unique about Diamond Princess, due to their size and market, they don’t have the crown grill. Their specialty dining is limited to two, namely the Sambatini, the Italian, and the Brazilian grill that is actually in the buffet. So, they converted part of it and only open at night. For casual dining, your only option is the Kai Sushi. So, if you have Princess Plus and Princess Premier, that’s pretty much it. Another thing about Kai Sushi is because it is a casual dining option, there is no reservation. You will often find a long line, especially when you have a lot of Princess Plus and Premieres people on the ship. So, make sure you line up and you line up early. Trying this in Kai Sushi. Let’s get this one. Ah, it’s actually not a pretty rare one. I’ll try this and see how that goes. Little bit wasabi. I think it’s definitely not the best sushi you would ever taste in Japan, but it’s not bad to be honest, especially considering that you own a ship. Most of Do it again. Start. Sorry. Good work. Now, one thing interesting about Diamond Princess when it comes to dining is they have five dining rooms. Yep. For a small chef, it is quite surprising, especially because the international dining room is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during embaration day. This is pretty unique because most Princess ships only have three dining rooms and none of them are open for lunch during embarkation or December vaccation day due to turnover. Another thing about Diamond Princess, it is a very popular ship. So almost all the time they are sailing on a full capacity or at least almost full capacity. Having said that, you will notice that that well the vibe tends to be a lot more sedated and quiet which is typical of the Japanese culture when they’re within public area. Having said that, when they have a special event, things like line dancing, karaoke, they could be pretty fun and boisterous. Japanese cruise market locally is also very very strong. Because of that, you’ll notice that a lot of things are bilingual or built to accommodate the Japanese market. You have a lot of activities. They are geared toward Japanese and also geared toward the westerners. And they will also have entertainment there specific to the Japanese crowd only. With the food, same thing. You will always have the Japanese standard and you will also have the western standard. Love the food in Diamond Princess, but there is one pet peeve. There is no international cafe. And to be honest, even though we don’t always nodd food at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, it is kind of nice to have access to food at 24 hours, especially when you’re trying to recover from jet lag while you’re trying to adjust your body clock to Egypt. So, here’s a tip. When you go on shore, go visit the famous Japanese 7-Eleven, load up on the snack, and put it in your cabin. You will not regret it. If you found this content helpful in any way, please like and share with your shipmates. Here on the Port Lowdown, we aim to help the independent-minded cruiser with port reports, ship tours, and tips. You can also check us out on our website, and we love your comments, and we try to answer them as soon as we can. Happy travels and see you on the next cruise.

We cruised Japan and Asia this summer on Diamond Princess, and we discovered lots of differences and surprises! We’ll share some of the key differences, from a on-board Onsen bath house, to special entertainment, and some tips to make your Asia cruise awesome! Princess Cruise Line makes cruising Asia such a pleasure!

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