Everything worked out very well regarding flights, transfers, hotel and cruise. However the cruise was severly interrupted by a typhoon resulting in three of the six ports on the schedule not being visited. I appreciate that the weather is one of those things but it apears all the risk is carried by the passengers as it is no skin of the nose of Princess if ports are missed and their T&C means that the passangers rely on 'goodwill' from Princess. In this instance it was bit of on-board credit that was of no use to us as we were already on princess + and a future credit towards cruise bookedin the next couple of months. Not much cosnidered we flew half way round the world for this trip and 50% of the ports were missed.
Ship and cabin were very good. Cruise was very good, Japan amazing.
The cruise overall was good. A holiday is what you make it and we always have a good time.
This is our first cruise post COVID. The Princess Medallion App is very good and a great improvement, and the service offered with the App offers much more flexibility. The Princess Plus is good value; we only used for beverage, WiFi and tips, but was well worth it. The WiFi onboard was superb.
This was an excellent package arranged by Planet Cruise/Iglu, consisting of flights, three days in Tokyo and a nine night cruise on Diamond Princess. Beautiful spring weather, an abundance of the promised cherry blossom and the welcoming Japanese people made this a memorable holiday.
The service on this cruise was exemplary. The organisation of excursions, embarking an disembarking was also faultless. The food was excellent in al the main dining areas. Slightly disappointed at the upgrade to the Sabatini restaurant. Comparatively to our normal evening restaurant (Vivaldi) food it was nothing special. Having to re-route the cruise due to typhoons was handled in a commendable fashion - the logisitics must have been an ordeal but it was carried out with incredible professionalism and we were very grateful to the captain and everyone else who made those decisions.
Very comfortable stateroom. Food was of good standard. Varied and enjoyable entertainment.
We feel that Princess has slipped in the dining room. We felt that the menu selection was reduced in comparison to last cruise. It was adequate but did not have the wow factor. The buffet had lots of variety. However must applaud their organisation.
overall a good cruise but a little disappointed by how many Japanese were on the ship on our second week while they are nice people they are generally overwhelming and we felt we were pushed aside in favour of the Japanese, we have made our feelings known to Princess cruises and await a reply.the entertainment on board was also repeated the second week which we`ve never known before, we will use Planet cruise again as everything was well organised thankyou
Overall an enjoyable cruise but not without some criticism. The Diamond Princess is a nice ship but lacks one important feature which is found on other Princess ships ( Star, Sea, Sun, Sapphire Princess) . The Piazza in the Atrium (Deck 5) lacks an International Coffee bar. Coffee is administered from the bar and when there are queues for coffee delays can be lengthy. This lack of proper coffee shop is a common criticism by passengers on the ship. The cruise itself was in general satisfactory however joining the ship at the Singapore cruise terminal was somewhat chaotic compared with previous joining experiences. The ship’s itinerary was varied and interesting but excursions could be better organised. Dining experiences were satisfactory in both traditional dining and buffet restaurants with adequate service experienced in those restaurants visited. Transfers from airports to hotels and vice versa were satisfactory but the major criticism covers the time taken to return home to the U.K. using connecting flights where the overall time spent travelling from Tokyo to London via Singapore took nearly 36 hours including transfers/waiting time between connecting flights. This time is compared with a direct flight from Tokyo to London of approximately 12hours!! Clearly there is a cost issue with one carrier providing the cheapest option but Planet Cruise should provide where feasible costings for direct return flights to avoid such lengthy and uncomfortable return journeys using connecting flights via hubs.
