This was pure magic. We would never have entertained the idea of sailing with Princess simply because their ships are so enormous. But you have documented the ship beautifully and it certainly has enticed our curiosity. Thanks again for all of the hard work and time you put into your documentaries.
I'm a small ship person, myself but Princess is fantastic at arranging so many events in different places that the ship rarely feels crowded. They do an excellent job with the entertainment and food and the ships are very comfortable, welcoming and homey. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment here. :)
Thank you very much, another great video. A lot of great rooms and fantastic food. A lot of beautiful places and people in the video too. Sushi is one of my favorite food and the tiramisu looked really great, it's my favorite dessert.
Thank you so much, Mrs. L! LOL, there was lots of sushi on this trip. I like the tepura and the California rolls and miso soup, myself. And, of course all the matcha green tea and cappuccinos. Always appreciate your watching and taaking the time to comment on my videos. :)
@@midshipcinema You're welcome LOL 😂 sushi 🍣🍣 every where, I love the shrimp kind. I've got to try Miso soup some time, there's a Japanese restaurant here in town, they have great food. I need to try the green tea you drink. I've never had it. I love watching your videos. They're always good and presented very nicely.
Thank you so much. We really lucked out on the weather. It was getting hot but not too bad and there were only two days of varying rain, both on sea days.
Thanks so much, Andy. So glad you enjoyed it. Japan is fantastic and I really enjoyed the DIAMOND PRINCESS experience. She's big but very well run and the food and entertainment were top notch.
A very lovely cruise........ Maybe one day for my spouse and I !! Your tour of the ship was awesome and as we sail on the Sapphire Princess in September..... We'll be thinking of this ship. They are very similar. P.S. ( we love Charro, too......... Hoochie Coochie ! 😅 )
Brilliant Video We've cruised on Diamond Princess twice already, NZ 2012 & Japan 2014. I also saw SPARKS in 1974 in Bristol, England and in Brisbane, Australia in 2023. Nice SPARKS shirts. I still have my "when do I get to sing My Way" shirt from 90s in London. We're on Diamond again on 20th December New Zealand from Brisbane
Yay, Sparks, my favorite band in the world! So glad you saw the show in Brisbane, especially. Was tempted to go but the flights and expense were beyond my budget. Thanks so much for posting.:)
I really enjoyed this video. She was brand new 20 years ago when we sailed her on a New Years cruise. So glad she still looks fantastic. Also was looking to go on a Japanese cruise. Definitely on the bucket list now.
Thank you for unleashing memories dating back to July/August 2014 of my own Japan cruise onboard Diamond Princess. Our cruise included 3 ports in Hokkaido; Shiretoko Peninsula cruising; Korsokov Russia, as well as Aomori. I found the tour guides in each port charming as well and the meals on board Princess are always superb. I was introduced to the Ukulele on one of the sea days, resulting in my group attempting “You are my Sunshine” at the end of the lesson. I also remember enjoying the company of a mostly Japanese passenger base who all seemed game to try new things and have a lot of fun doing them.
Peter, another lovely video. I sailed on Sapphire Princess twice out of LA.....aboard, my favourite haunt......you can probably guess........the wheelhouse bar! I take it Sterling steakhouse was replaced by the sushi restaurant? Anyway, thanks again!
Thanks so much, Mark. On DIAMOND, they told me that Kai Sushi replaced the Internet Cafe that was on Deck 7. There was some mention of converting some of the Wheelhouse Bar into a steakhouse (I hope not as I love that space) at some point but I think the Brazilian Grill is also sort of a steakhouse in concept.
Great presentation Peter... would love to go on round Japan cruise! Interesting the reason the fake jet engine cowlings were installed. So glad other cruise ships ... such as RCL's turbine powered Radiance class ... had the sophistication to not take this faux jet engine decor approach !
Thank you, Grant. I actually kind of like those faux jets but am glad they only put them on the four ships (also on the smaller French built CORAL and ISLAND, although the ones on ISLAND were since removed). I like a little variety within the classes. These ships are wider and have wider funnels than the Italian ones with the same basic blueprint (CROWN, EMERALD, RUBY). It's a stretch but I liken it to the variations between ships like ORCADES, ORONSAY and ORSOVA.
Best coverage for this ship I’ve seen! Thank you so much. I’ll be sailing in April and totally looking forward to it. Do you know if Thermal Spa can be ordered only for sea days?
Thanks so much, Diane. I appreciate that. I believe you can purchase access to the thermal suite in the spa or even the Japanese spa on sea days for the day but please confirm when aboard. Hope you have a wonderful trip. :)
Excellent video! Is the Brazillian Steakhouse the 2nd specialty dining? I heard you mention the Italian and price, but it the Brazilian. It looks amazing and I KNOW my husband will love that! We'll be on exactly one year from now, so I appreciated this "hype" video!!
Thank you so much and yes, the Brazilian is one of three specialty dining venues if you include Sabatini's and Kai Sushi. On the Churrascaria, the price is $39, Sabatini's is $35 and Kai is either a la carte or $15. Hope you have a great time. :)
Another great video. I noticed a small discrepancy when talking about the ship. Technically the largest grand class ship is MV Ventura of P&O cruises at 116,017 gross tonnes. Diamond and sapphire are the largest ran by Princess though
Great video, Peter! This is an impressive ship with rather tasteful decor 👍 On the thumbnail subject: this looks much better, with your face in it and some promotional texts 👌😃 You might however want to check and rework the size, as some of the text is now cut off on RUclips. The ideal size is 1280x720 pixels. And it might help to place the text not too close to the edges of the thumbnail. Good luck 👏😃
Thank you, Frank. I amended but may still have the text too close. I can't do much with Canva but had that image of me in front of the ship to work with in this case. Appreciate your support and feedback. :)
I did this on March 17-27, 2024 to Kyushu and Busan, and also again July 7- 17, 2024 to Hokkaido and Jeju! And bumped into 2 parties that were same cruise with us in March.
Great Video! We are sailing on Diamond Princess, to Japan in May next year. I would like to ask, are the local tours purchased from the Princess? Thank you!
We booked a 16 day cruise on the Diamond Princess sailing out of Yokohama on September 15, 2026. We are loyal NCL cruiser’s but we are at a tier level with NCL that is sufficiently high but will take a long time to reach the next tier so we wanted to see what else was out there. We hope we will not be disappointed. From what I can tell from this video they are only 3 specialty dining options. On a 16 day cruise we are hoping this will be sufficient. On NCL there are 6. We would definitely want to dine at the Chef’s table. Is it difficult to get a reservation? If they only have one table of 10 it seems quite impossible. The ship itself looks nice. A bit dated looking but still a beautiful ship. Are all of the entertainment on the ship Japanese themed or do they have a variety of different type of shows? Normally cruises have a cirque type of show, a broadway type of musical, variety show, magic show, etc. From what I saw on your video it seemed like it was mostly Japanese type of entertainment. Which is fine and will be interesting. We just like to know what to expect. We booked our cruise based on the itinerary but variety and quality of food, drinks, and entertainment are also very important to us and it will be compared to our years of sailing with NCL. It looks like you had a fabulous time so we are hoping we will too. Thanks for a detailed informative video.
Great video… we will dock in Busan this October however on the large Quantum of the seas… one of the excursions is to Haedong Temple… my husband is concerned about too many stairs due to a knee issue … did you find this was a problem at this attraction?
Thank you. Yes, there are a lot of steps at the temple and it can get a little crowded. I'm not sure if there is an alternate ramp or easier access. I would definitely ask the Excursions team before you book.
Thanks for the memories Peter. If you could kindly enlighten my curiosity. Is this Diamond Princess refurnished this year 2024 or earlier cuz I couldn’t recognise some areas like the MDRs but the Piazza is definitely recognisable as we loved dancing there. We were on the 8 Day Hokkaido Cruise which included Busan too. Subsequently we spend New Year 2024 on Diamond again. Didn’t realise the ship was so big 😃
Thanks so much for watching. The refurbishment was done in 2022 at Marseille. It freshened up the ship overall with new carpets and a lot of behind the scenes work and, of course the external paint scheme with the sea witch on her bow. I'm pretty sure the MDRs were left as originally designed and same for the Grand Plaza. :)
This sounds exactly like what we are planing for Oct 2026 would love your thoughts on your days in Toyko and the average price of excursions for your ports if you don't mind.
The average price as I recall was between $150 and $250 for the full day excursions but I'mm pretty sure the latest prices can be found on the Princess website. Unfortunately, I didn't stay in Tokyo this trip. I did stay in Yokohama and loved it. There is a preserved ocean liner museum called HIKAWA MARU that we visited, Yamashita Park, Japan's largest Chinatown, a lovely boardwalk along the waterfront with dining and shopping options, a noodle museum and so much more. We used Yokohama as our starting point for bullet train trips to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Another advantage of Yokohama is that it is not terribly expensive. The Omni Hotel was charging about $175 per night for nice rooms with stunning views over Yokohama harbor.
@@midshipcinema thank you for taking time out from your day to answer my questions. The video really helped me plan. I know what you mean about ocean liner museums. I visited the Queen Mary while I was in Long Beach.
Thank for an informative and easy to listen to commentary. 😊
It's nice to hear someone likes the commentary. 😊 Thank you.
Thanks for this easily the best video we have found on the Diamond 👍
That is music to my ears, thank you! So glad you enjoyed it. :)
❤ Best wishes for All onboard to Diamond. Pakistan
Thanks Peter! Glad you enjoyed the Japan cruise on the Diamond Princess and also both of my shows! 🙏🏻
Thank you, Katei! You were great and the crowd loved your shows. :)
This was pure magic. We would never have entertained the idea of sailing with Princess simply because their ships are so enormous. But you have documented the ship beautifully and it certainly has enticed our curiosity. Thanks again for all of the hard work and time you put into your documentaries.
I'm a small ship person, myself but Princess is fantastic at arranging so many events in different places that the ship rarely feels crowded. They do an excellent job with the entertainment and food and the ships are very comfortable, welcoming and homey. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment here. :)
How do I book this kind of cruise, just go to Travel agency??
@@marianeil6630 Yes, a good travel advisor is always your best bet. You can also go to Princess.com
Really enjoyed your video. Making me look forward even more to our March 2025 cruise out of Yokohama on the adiamond Princess. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! I hope you have a wonderful time!
Thank you very much, another great video. A lot of great rooms and fantastic food. A lot of beautiful places and people in the video too. Sushi is one of my favorite food and the tiramisu looked really great, it's my favorite dessert.
Thank you so much, Mrs. L! LOL, there was lots of sushi on this trip. I like the tepura and the California rolls and miso soup, myself. And, of course all the matcha green tea and cappuccinos. Always appreciate your watching and taaking the time to comment on my videos. :)
@@midshipcinema You're welcome LOL 😂 sushi 🍣🍣 every where, I love the shrimp kind. I've got to try Miso soup some time, there's a Japanese restaurant here in town, they have great food. I need to try the green tea you drink. I've never had it. I love watching your videos. They're always good and presented very nicely.
Awesome video❤️
Thank you! :)
Epic journey and my top bucket list trip.
It was such a refreshing departure from all the stuff going on here. Lovely ship, country and people.
Thanks for sharing this experience Peter.
Thank you for watching, Chris! :)
Lovely video! I did the same sailing last summer on the Diamond. She is a lovely ship and Japan was great (though hot in summer!).
Thank you so much. We really lucked out on the weather. It was getting hot but not too bad and there were only two days of varying rain, both on sea days.
Very enjoyable video, Peter! Japan is fascinating and I hope to visit one day, as it's on top of my bucket list. Cheers from south Florida!
Thanks so much, Andy. So glad you enjoyed it. Japan is fantastic and I really enjoyed the DIAMOND PRINCESS experience. She's big but very well run and the food and entertainment were top notch.
Thanks for the great content. We are sailing on Diamond, to Australia in September. This video was helpful.
Thank you so much. I'm so happy to know that and hope you have a wonderful time! :)
great video and got a lot of info for my circumnavigation of japan next april on the noordam...a ship lover like me will enjoy it for sure!
Have a fantastic time, Jeff!
Did the Princess cruise from Yokohama, super enjoyed it.
My husband and I are booked on the Diamond in October 2025. Thanks for a peek at what’s to come. We are excited to do our bucket list cruise soon!
Hope you both have a wonderful time! :)
Heading out to Japan and cruising on the Diamond Princess in May '25 for 10 days. Can't wait, it will be our first visit to Japan.
Have a wonderful time! :)
We’re doing the same May 25th. Same sailing?
@@barrydesrosiers4087 No sI'm sorry, I made a mistake. We are sailing on April 26 out of Yokohama
A very lovely cruise........ Maybe one day for my spouse and I !!
Your tour of the ship was awesome and as we sail on the Sapphire Princess in September.....
We'll be thinking of this ship. They are very similar.
P.S. ( we love Charro, too.........
Hoochie Coochie ! 😅 )
LOL, Charo makes the world a better place. Thanks for watching.
Brilliant Video
We've cruised on Diamond Princess twice already, NZ 2012 & Japan 2014. I also saw SPARKS in 1974 in Bristol, England and in Brisbane, Australia in 2023. Nice SPARKS shirts. I still have my "when do I get to sing My Way" shirt from 90s in London. We're on Diamond again on 20th December New Zealand from Brisbane
Yay, Sparks, my favorite band in the world! So glad you saw the show in Brisbane, especially. Was tempted to go but the flights and expense were beyond my budget. Thanks so much for posting.:)
I really enjoyed this video. She was brand new 20 years ago when we sailed her on a New Years cruise. So glad she still looks fantastic. Also was looking to go on a Japanese cruise. Definitely on the bucket list now.
Thank you, Frank. Only thing I would recommend is going before it gets too rainy and hot in the summer. We did it just in time. :)
@@midshipcinema Thanks Peter for the heads up
I did this last September and it was amazing !😊
Nice! :)
Thank you for unleashing memories dating back to July/August 2014 of my own Japan cruise onboard Diamond Princess. Our cruise included 3 ports in Hokkaido; Shiretoko Peninsula cruising; Korsokov Russia, as well as Aomori. I found the tour guides in each port charming as well and the meals on board Princess are always superb. I was introduced to the Ukulele on one of the sea days, resulting in my group attempting “You are my Sunshine” at the end of the lesson. I also remember enjoying the company of a mostly Japanese passenger base who all seemed game to try new things and have a lot of fun doing them.
Oh, wow, sounds like that was a very exciting itinerary. I hope to get back and see more one day. Thanks so much for your kind words. :)
Great Video !!! My big brother
Thank you, my brother in ships! :)
Peter, another lovely video. I sailed on Sapphire Princess twice out of LA.....aboard, my favourite haunt......you can probably guess........the wheelhouse bar! I take it Sterling steakhouse was replaced by the sushi restaurant? Anyway, thanks again!
Thanks so much, Mark. On DIAMOND, they told me that Kai Sushi replaced the Internet Cafe that was on Deck 7. There was some mention of converting some of the Wheelhouse Bar into a steakhouse (I hope not as I love that space) at some point but I think the Brazilian Grill is also sort of a steakhouse in concept.
Parabéns 🎉 pelo video
Obrigado, Cyro! :)
Great presentation Peter... would love to go on round Japan cruise! Interesting the reason the fake jet engine cowlings were installed. So glad other cruise ships ... such as RCL's turbine powered Radiance class ... had the sophistication to not take this faux jet engine decor approach !
Thank you, Grant. I actually kind of like those faux jets but am glad they only put them on the four ships (also on the smaller French built CORAL and ISLAND, although the ones on ISLAND were since removed). I like a little variety within the classes. These ships are wider and have wider funnels than the Italian ones with the same basic blueprint (CROWN, EMERALD, RUBY). It's a stretch but I liken it to the variations between ships like ORCADES, ORONSAY and ORSOVA.
Best coverage for this ship I’ve seen! Thank you so much. I’ll be sailing in April and totally looking forward to it. Do you know if Thermal Spa can be ordered only for sea days?
Thanks so much, Diane. I appreciate that. I believe you can purchase access to the thermal suite in the spa or even the Japanese spa on sea days for the day but please confirm when aboard. Hope you have a wonderful trip. :)
こんにちわピーター。まだ日本にいるのに会えて嬉しいです。日本には、高架高速道路、トンネル、橋、火山の観光トラップ山など、世界で最も素晴らしいインフラがあります。アクセスビューポイントがすべて板で塞がれているのを見て、滞在中に富士山を見ていただければ幸いです。
ブーブー
日本のホスピタリティは素晴らしいですね。地元の方々によるクルーズ船のお見送りはもちろん、日本全国どこでもフェリーに乗れば、港の職員が外に出てきて、灯りのついた杖を手に手を振ってお別れをしてくれます（夜間出港の場合が多い）。
Thanks so much, Jeremy! So glad you liked it and I hope to get back to Japan again soon. It is a wonderful country.
Excellent video! Is the Brazillian Steakhouse the 2nd specialty dining? I heard you mention the Italian and price, but it the Brazilian. It looks amazing and I KNOW my husband will love that! We'll be on exactly one year from now, so I appreciated this "hype" video!!
Thank you so much and yes, the Brazilian is one of three specialty dining venues if you include Sabatini's and Kai Sushi. On the Churrascaria, the price is $39, Sabatini's is $35 and Kai is either a la carte or $15. Hope you have a great time. :)
Another great video. I noticed a small discrepancy when talking about the ship.
Technically the largest grand class ship is MV Ventura of P&O cruises at 116,017 gross tonnes.
Diamond and sapphire are the largest ran by Princess though
Thank you. Yes. I was just focusing on Princesss but that is correct. :) I'll mention that when I do a more detailed video.
Great video, Peter! This is an impressive ship with rather tasteful decor 👍
On the thumbnail subject: this looks much better, with your face in it and some promotional texts 👌😃 You might however want to check and rework the size, as some of the text is now cut off on RUclips. The ideal size is 1280x720 pixels. And it might help to place the text not too close to the edges of the thumbnail. Good luck 👏😃
Thank you, Frank. I amended but may still have the text too close. I can't do much with Canva but had that image of me in front of the ship to work with in this case. Appreciate your support and feedback. :)
I did this on March 17-27, 2024 to Kyushu and Busan, and also again July 7- 17, 2024 to Hokkaido and Jeju!
And bumped into 2 parties that were same cruise with us in March.
Great Video! We are sailing on Diamond Princess, to Japan in May next year.
I would like to ask, are the local tours purchased from the Princess?
Thank you!
Thank you so much for watching. All of the tours shown, with the exception of my visit to the ferry in Aomori were Princess excursions. :)
We booked a 16 day cruise on the Diamond Princess sailing out of Yokohama on September 15, 2026. We are loyal NCL cruiser’s but we are at a tier level with NCL that is sufficiently high but will take a long time to reach the next tier so we wanted to see what else was out there. We hope we will not be disappointed. From what I can tell from this video they are only 3 specialty dining options. On a 16 day cruise we are hoping this will be sufficient. On NCL there are 6. We would definitely want to dine at the Chef’s table. Is it difficult to get a reservation? If they only have one table of 10 it seems quite impossible. The ship itself looks nice. A bit dated looking but still a beautiful ship. Are all of the entertainment on the ship Japanese themed or do they have a variety of different type of shows? Normally cruises have a cirque type of show, a broadway type of musical, variety show, magic show, etc. From what I saw on your video it seemed like it was mostly Japanese type of entertainment. Which is fine and will be interesting. We just like to know what to expect. We booked our cruise based on the itinerary but variety and quality of food, drinks, and entertainment are also very important to us and it will be compared to our years of sailing with NCL. It looks like you had a fabulous time so we are hoping we will too. Thanks for a detailed informative video.
Great video… we will dock in Busan this October however on the large Quantum of the seas… one of the excursions is to Haedong Temple… my husband is concerned about too many stairs due to a knee issue … did you find this was a problem at this attraction?
Thank you. Yes, there are a lot of steps at the temple and it can get a little crowded. I'm not sure if there is an alternate ramp or easier access. I would definitely ask the Excursions team before you book.
Thanks for the memories Peter. If you could kindly enlighten my curiosity. Is this Diamond Princess refurnished this year 2024 or earlier cuz I couldn’t recognise some areas like the MDRs but the Piazza is definitely recognisable as we loved dancing there. We were on the 8 Day Hokkaido Cruise which included Busan too. Subsequently we spend New Year 2024 on Diamond again. Didn’t realise the ship was so big 😃
Thanks so much for watching. The refurbishment was done in 2022 at Marseille. It freshened up the ship overall with new carpets and a lot of behind the scenes work and, of course the external paint scheme with the sea witch on her bow. I'm pretty sure the MDRs were left as originally designed and same for the Grand Plaza. :)
We are goin to this Cruise this July. Is the show in the theater free to watch?
Yes.
This sounds exactly like what we are planing for Oct 2026 would love your thoughts on your days in Toyko and the average price of excursions for your ports if you don't mind.
The average price as I recall was between $150 and $250 for the full day excursions but I'mm pretty sure the latest prices can be found on the Princess website. Unfortunately, I didn't stay in Tokyo this trip. I did stay in Yokohama and loved it. There is a preserved ocean liner museum called HIKAWA MARU that we visited, Yamashita Park, Japan's largest Chinatown, a lovely boardwalk along the waterfront with dining and shopping options, a noodle museum and so much more. We used Yokohama as our starting point for bullet train trips to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Another advantage of Yokohama is that it is not terribly expensive. The Omni Hotel was charging about $175 per night for nice rooms with stunning views over Yokohama harbor.
@@midshipcinema thank you for taking time out from your day to answer my questions. The video really helped me plan. I know what you mean about ocean liner museums. I visited the Queen Mary while I was in Long Beach.
All that delicious food, I think I gained 5kg by watching this video 😂
LOL, only 5kg? Trust me, there has been a lot of time sent on the ellipticals here since we returned. :)
Why is it not video with people on it to really show how packed it is with 2600 people on it ? Including embark and disembarking
Why don't you make that video if that is what you'd like to share?
By today's standards, standards, at 113,000 tons, and only holding 2,600 people , she's far less crowded than newer ships.