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Diamond Princess Review
Diamond Princess 6/2/06 Review
Just got back from another great cruise - this one aboard the Diamond Princess on an Alaskan itinerary. We flew to Anchorage the day before the cruise and stayed overnight at the Captain Cook hotel. We had reserved a crows nest room at the top of the hotel, but found out a couple days before arriving that those rooms are non-smoking. Since we still have that vicious habit, we decided to book a junior suite instead. The room was beautiful and had great views of the town and the mountains. For dinner we went to Humpies and ate beer battered Halibut (fish and chips). It was delicious, as was the beer they made. We sampled the chocolate beer, but stuck with the honey weiss (probably not spelled correctly). There were 17.5 hours of sunlight that day, and boy did our body clocks have trouble adjusting! We made arrangements with Princess to have our luggage picked up in our hotel room the morning of embarkation, toured the Anchorage open-air market, had breakfast, then walked a block or so down to the expo center to catch a bus to the ship in Whittier. The trip was interesting (especially the 2-mile, one-lane tunnel - oy!), and boarding the ship was easy. This was only our second cruise with Princess so technically we're just gold members, but we were offered platinum check-in. When the bus pulled up we got off, breezed right up to the check-in desk, and 10 minutes later we were in our stateroom! We only had one bad embarkation in 7 cruises, and that was on the Explorer OTS (took almost three hours of waiting in confusing lines). This ship was beautiful! She is so tastefully decorated and elegant, with lots of mosaic tile work on the atrium floors and walls. We booked the Juneau suite on the Caribe deck. We picked this cabin because of the aft facing balcony. It was extremely private and very sheltered from the wind. The cabin itself was spacious, with quite a bit of storage space. The shower stall was large and there was a Jacuzzi bathtub (which, sad to say, I didn't get a chance to use at all ). Our cabin steward (Lorena) was so sweet and efficient that we ended up giving her an extra gratuity at the end of the cruise. Some favorite spots for us included Crooners martini bar (Rebecca and Arthur were extremely professional bartenders, but also entertained us with jokes and magic tricks throughout the week), the Explorers lounge, and our balcony g. The Whittier sail-away was delayed due to some late arriving passengers, so after dinner we had a drink, then went back to the cabin and sat on the veranda until the ship finally pulled away - about 11:30. I just couldn't go to bed without seeing the sail-away! We spent the next two days cruising the College Fjord and Glacier Bay. Our TA (Ray) gave us a champagne breakfast which we enjoyed the morning of the Glacier Bay cruising, and a dinner at Sabatini's. The food at Sabatini's was very good, but the waiters were almost too attentive. I find it just a little distracting to have someone at my table every 3 minutes (that might be an exaggeration, but not by much). We'd just get involved in a conversation when someone would be pouring ½ inch of water into my glass to top it off. We ordered a bottle of wine and I only wanted a half glass, but I had to constantly be on guard because every waiter in the place (including the Maitre'd) tried to pour me more! All in all we really enjoyed the meal, and the change from the main dining room. Speaking of the dining rooms... a staff member stood at the entrance to every dining venue (including the Horizon Court), with the bottle of hand sanitizer. This was also true when we boarded the ship at the beginning and at every stop. It's a nice precaution, but I had some kind of reaction to the product and I ended the cruise with ugly dry, red rashes on the back of both hands. It's completely cleared up now, and wasn't uncomfortable at all - just annoying mostly. I probably could have opted out of the hand sanitization, but I didn't want to appear difficult or, worse - either contract something or spread something to other passengers. Our next cruise will be a 14 day Med cruise - I might bring my own hand sanitization lotion with me on that one! Most nights we ate in the International dining room (the traditional venue), but one night we went to the buffet and brought back a plate so we could sit in our cabin and watch a movie. There was a selection of DVD's from which to choose - I can't remember which movie we watched but it was nice to just stay in the cabin for a night. We booked a flower garden tour in Skagway, but ended up just touring around the town and shopping for souvenirs. In Juneau we took the whale watching excursion. We saw several Humpback whales and that was quite a sight! My favorite excursion was the canopy zip line tour in Ketchikan. After traversing the first zip line my entire body was shaking, but it was exhilarating! The guides (Dylan and Mike) were excellent! They were so knowledgeable and safety conscious, and they really seemed to be enjoying themselves. In both Juneau and Ketchikan, the bus trips for the excursions were very short. We were once in Jamaica and chose a 'Rafting down the Martha Brae River' excursion where the bus ride seemed longer each way than the actual rafting experience! The cruise ended in Vancouver, and after claiming our luggage we took the elevator up to the lobby of the Pan Pacific hotel and checked in. What a great hotel! Our room wasn't ready so we toured Gas Town and got a light lunch. Once in our room the doorbell rang and there was a beautiful flower arrangement, a plate of fruit, and a box of chocolates, all courtesy of the hotel. From our hotel room we had a great view of the Zuiderdam (I think that was the HAL ship). The Diamond was on the other side of the hotel, and we strolled down to the pier to watch them sail away. We had the greatest weather for the entire week - in the 70's and sunny, and the ship and staff were just wonderful. We saw some great calving (calfing?) in Glacier Bay, and many, many, many sea lions! Feel free to e-mail me if I left something out! |
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