Trip Report: Diamond Princess 3/27 - 4/3

Who we a Three adults, ages 70, 69 and their son (me), 39-year-old
paraplegic (who turns 40 on April 25, 2004 ). Home base is
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Previous cruises: 1/13/2003 Coral Princess (10 days, FLL to the Canal
and back); 6/2/2003 HAL Volendam (7 days, Vancouver to Inside Passage
and back). Trip reports filed in this newsgroup.

Part One: The Cruise

March 25. We leave Saskatoon in a snowstorm (but not whiteout), about
1:30 PM Central. Snow lets up 80 miles up the road, clear skies and
roads for the remaining 240 miles to Edmonton, Alberta, and we arrive
there about 6:30 PM Mountain. Edmonton International Airport is 20 miles
south of downtown (and is the butt of some jokes because of the
distance). We stayed a few minutes east of the airport, at the Nisku
Place Motel. Cheapest (but credible) hotel ($59) in an area of $100-plus
accommodation.

March 26. Horizon Air Flight 2319 is supposed to leave Edmonton for
Seattle at 6 PM, but the plane from Seattle (from where it turns around
and becomes 2319) is late, and our departure is delayed until (we are
told) 6:30. We're still on the ground when the snow (again) starts to
fall, and de-icing (unnecessary had it been on time) begins. We take off
at 6:50 PM.

Flight 2319 is a Bombardier Q 400, a DH4. A turboprop. Promise me that
you will never take this plane unless you absolutely have to. (Any good
airline timetable, either online or downloadable, will tell you what
equipment will fly a given flight.) I was in a window seat and felt the
vibration constantly; it improved only slightly when I moved in one, to
an aisle seat.

We arrive in Seattle around 8 PM Pacific. A quick (but not backbreaking)
move to our next plane, and Alaska Flight 280 (a 737) takes off on time
at 8:40 PM. My back is sore from the aforementioned DH4, and it takes
half an hour of my mother's massaging to make it better. The pilot tells
us en route that a nice tailwind makes it possible to arrive at LAX at
10:40 -- half an hour ahead of schedule.

That, in fact, is when the plane arrives. Our van (from Prime Time
Shuttle, http://www.redvans.com ) picks us up for the ride to the hotel.
Contrary to what we'd thought would be the case, the ride turns out (in
this case) to be a glorified taxi, giving us a ride through Torrance and
area late on a Friday night as it drops various customers off at their
homes. Gas in Torrance ranges from $2.07 to $2.13 a gallon for the cheap
stuff. Cost of the ride ($15 per person) is covered by the deal our
travel agent made for accommodation that night. We arrive at our hotel
http://www.sheratonlaharbor.com and are in bed around 1 AM Pacific.

Day 1. March 27. A Saturday, so no turning on Channel 5 to see the KTLA
Morning News, which we get at home. We go down to the buffet breakfast,
which wasn't very good. The hotel was good enough, but we'd eat
elsewhere next time.

11:30 AM brings the arrival of the van that would take us to the Diamond
Princess, a 113,000-ton, too-big-for-the-Canal vessel which is the
newest of the Princess fleet. We are its third voyage. After check-in,
we are one of the first on the vessel (veteran passengers came first,
then wheelchairs) just after noon. We go to the welcoming buffet meal,
then roam around the ship. We're in an inside (no outside view)
stateroom, A 245. Our luggage, dropped off when we arrived at the
terminal, arrives about 4.

An important word about the room. Despite Princess having the dimensions
of my wheelchair (24" wide), we immediately discover that the chair is
too wide for the door to the room. By one inch. Solution: have one of
Princess' wheelchairs in our room at all times, and have me transfer
from one to the other (I am definitely strong enough to do so) when I
return to the room. Not a problem the first day anyway: that's normally
reserved for a self-guided tour of the ship, and that's what we do most
of the day. We discover that many (if not all) of the rooms on that
floor are likewise too narrow. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend
this ship to anyone with a disability unless you're in a 'handicapped'
suite or unless you check with your travel agent stateroom door.
(Our agent told us they were wide enough.) The ship was sold out on a
voyage that we'd only booked three weeks prior; moving us was not an
option.

It is compulsory that an emergency drill takes place within 24 hours of
the launch of any cruise ship voyage, and ours takes place at 4:15. We
know the drill (literally ), so we have our life jackets in hand as
we go to the appointed meeting place prior to 4:15, and aren't really
surprised that many others are there too. (The way it's supposed to
work: the warning signal sounds, you go to your stateroom and pick up
your lifejacket, then go to the prescribed place, which depends on what
stateroom you're in.)

5:25 PM. 25 minutes late, the Diamond Princess begins only its
third-ever voyage, on its way to Puerto Vallarta.

After meeting our room steward around 6, we go to the buffet around 6:30
(where we ate many of our meals), then to the opening musical at 8:15.
Both auger well as to how great the food and entertainment will be this
week.

Day 2 (March 28) and 3 (29th). At sea. Nothing much to report here,
except that on the 29th, we stopped briefly just off Cabo San Lucas, at
the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula (read: south of San Diego), to
drop off at least one passenger. An announcement from the Captain a few
days later told us that it was a heart attack. (No word on his fate as I
write this.) Sad as it was, a number of passengers use this chance to
eyeball the place in advance of our scheduled stop there on Thursday,
April 1. We are impressed.

Day 4 (March 30). Puerto Vallarta. The ship pulls in around 7 AM, and
the first passengers are off around 8. Distinctive about the arrival are
these two fellows on the pier and the chance they offer to have your
picture taken with them and their cobra. Yes, snake. Big thick snake. At
least I think it was a cobra. I don't get close enough to find out, as I
make it abundantly clear that I will not have my picture taken with said
reptile. My mother, not nearly as decisive in her pronouncements, has
her picture taken with my dad and said reptile.

On to the tour. Our process of having a local tour in place of the one
endorsed by the cruise line seems to be working. (Our Princess-endorsed
excursion on Grand Cayman in January, 2003 was a bust; hiring a van for
a tour of Cozumel on the same voyage worked much better.) We talk to a
few tour operators, and for $120 ($40 per), we get a 2 1/2-hour tour of
the area, from the resorts at the north end of town to Mismaloya and
Taylor and Burton's place in the south. (As some of you may know, 'Night
of the Iguana' was filmed here.) It was okay, but we wouldn't go back
for a week. Better to spend $120 to find that out now than a couple of
thousand on a charter flight later. The tour, which began at 10, is over
by 12:30.

That night, we have dinner in the Sterling Dining Room, one of five
themed dining rooms on the ship (that's five if you count the room in
which Traditional Dining -- first and second seating -- takes place).
Excellent prime rib.

Day 5 (March 31). Mazatlan. Shortly after we get off the vessel and are
on land, we hear the seven short blasts of the horn followed by one long
blast that signify an emergency and a call to 'Muster Stations'. (See
paragraph about 'emergency drill', above.) I never did find out if it
was our ship or the Vision of the Seas, the Royal Caribbean vessel that
was parked right behind us for the day.

Mazatlan has a terrific tram system to get you from the ship to the
transportation (cabs, etc.) that gets you to town. It is here we find a
gal (from Saskatoon, who went to the same high school I did) pitching a
time-share. We know how to handle those , so we ride downtown to the
(El Cid) hotel/timeshare and hear the "informative 90-minute
presentation". I fret that we didn't see the sights. It's Mom and Dad's
first time here since the late 70's; they assure me that I saw all there
was to see (to say nothing of the new structures) on the ride into town.

While I'm at it, I go to an internet place (I'm not real fond of paying
so much higher per minute on the boat) and clear my Hotmail. The special
on the ship is 35 cents a minute; I can do better than that on land, so
.. . . .

Dinner that night is in the Pacific Moon (Asian-themed) Dining Room.

Day 6 (April 1). The day begins at the breakfast buffet. The ship
anchors off Cabo San Lucas around 7 AM. We're eating in the buffet
around 8 when the Elton John song "Simple Life" plays in the background.

Yeah, right. Simple life. On a cruise ship. Off Cabo. No oxymorons
there.

No April Fool's Day jokes on board. Although we don't get an extensive
look at Cabo, it is our favorite stop. We were in at 7 AM, out by 2 PM.
(BTW, ever hear of Los Cabos ( http://www.loscabosguide.com )? Same
place. Los Cabos -- Spanish for the capes -- is actually two places,
Cabo San Lucas, the one we visited, and San Jose del Cabo, a few miles
away.) This was the only tender situation of the three stops (i.e. the
only time we had to anchor in the bay and use tenders to get to shore.
Tenders are the little boats that get you from the big boat to the land
in those cases where the ship can't anchor at the shore, and Princess'
are terrific). We spend our time doing the only real shopping of our
trip (although it was in abundance at all three) and I get meself a
sunburned arm.

Dinner that night is in the Santa Fe Dining Room, and follows an
invitation-only party with the Captain, at which he said a few words.
Such perks are part of being a repeat cruiser on Princess (this was our
second Princess cruise, third overall).

Day 7 (April 2). Day at sea, on the way back to L.A. It begins with
breakfast in the International Dining Room, the one in which Traditional
Dining takes place. It's the only day that breakfast isn't a buffet for
us this week.

Given the glorious food we've been eating the past week (even the
poolside burgers were great!), it's no surprise that a demonstration by
the head chef and maitre'd (and subsequent walk-through tour of the
kitchen) is well attended. It's our understanding that Princess
determines who their best head chef is, then sends that person on the
maiden voyages of a new ship. They certainly did that this time.

An interesting "interview" with the Captain, conducted by the Cruise
Director, begins an hour late because of a water main break in an
adjacent washroom. That and three very brief power outages aboard the
ship (none longer than 5 minutes) over the course of the week must have
been embarrassing to the Captain, but did nothing to detract from our
enjoyment of the ship. BTW, he informs us that whereas the Titanic was
45,000 tons, we're 113,000 tons.

Day 8 (April 3). We are up at 6 for the breakfast buffet. On Coral and
Volendam, disembarkation (fancy term for getting off the boat) was
conducted in terms of when your flight leaves. This day was a mixture of
that and what deck (floor) your room was on. Our number came up at 8:50
AM. We left the ship and were met by the same van company that picked us
up a week earlier. Leaving the terminal at 9:35 AM, we arrive non-stop
at LAX (via the 110, 405 and 105) at 10:10 AM. Alaska Flight 593 leaves
Los Angeles 20 minutes late, at 2 PM, arriving in Seattle on time at
4:20 PM.

A word about Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, known universally as
SeaTac. http://www.seatac.org/seatac It's my new all-time favorite
airport. The only previous times I've ever been there were to switch
planes. This time, with our inability to make same-day connections back
to Edmonton, we actually left the place to spend the night at a hotel.
The plane landed at the North Satellite, meaning we had to get to the
main terminal to catch our ride to the Ramada just north of the airport.
The majority of flights arrive at the main terminal; for the ones that
don't, you need to get there in order to catch a ride. That's where the
Satellite Transit System
http://www.seatac.org/seatac/expansi...itsystem.shtml
comes in. It's the underground subway that connects all parts of the
main terminal with both satellite terminals. Maybe I'm just not used to
the sophistication of a big-city airport, but I was amazed. I didn't
think there was much more to SeaTac than an okay-looking terminal. Boy,
was I wrong. I've been a big fan of anything Seattle since my first
visit there in April, 1981. Add the airport to the list.

Oh, yeah . . . gas in the airport area is $1.87/gallon for the cheap
stuff.

April 4. We are up at 6 AM Pacific Daylight Time. We eat a frankly
disappointing continental breakfast (no milk, no cereals, no fruit) at
the Ramada,
http://www.ramada.com/Ramada/control...9&brandInfo=RA
then the same airport van that picked us up yesterday returns us to the
airport. Horizon Flight 2312 is supposed to take off for Edmonton at
9:50 AM Pacific. It's an hour late in getting off the ground due to
engine trouble. It arrives in Edmonton about an hour late, at about 1:30
PM Mountain.

My sister and her family live in the area, and we spend the night with
her before returning home on April 5.

Part Two:Assessing the Cruise

This was our second Princess cruise and third overall. The headline is:
Princess Widens the Gap Between Itself and HAL. If our first-ever cruise
was a 9, and the second a 7, this was an eight-point-something, closer
to the Coral Princess (Panama Canal) than to Holland America's Volendam
(Alaska).

Movie Theat Good sight lines, and better than its Volendam
counterpart, but not quite up to Coral.

Check-in procedu Smoothest yet. Princess all the way.

Staff: Outstanding. IMHO, Princess' strengths are its people, its food
and its entertainment.

Entertainment: See above.

Food: See above. A striking difference between the Diamond and the
Volendam was the seafood, which was made several different ways on the
Diamond. If you didn't like the one and only method of the Volendam, too
bad.

Shopping Talks: Didn't even try to listen to these after the snow jobs
of the Coral and Volendam. Got good stuff shopping on our own, so no
loss.

Art Auctions: Found out on the last day of the cruise just how much BS
is involved with these things, by sitting in on one. Hyped to the hilt
and not worth the time.

Disembarkation: Easiest yet. Outstanding system of being able to find
our luggage in the terminal upon leaving the ship.

So, what's next? Not sure, but probably nothing before the end of the
year. We'd still like to go through a full transit of the Canal, and
I've seen a few attractive possibilities on travelocity. Then, there's
the Caribbean (we became fans of that part of the world on the Coral)
and possibly another Alaskan excursion. Unlikely before next year,
though. Three cruises in 15 months hurts the pocketbook just a little.


It's still true: we are still fans of cruising. I'll repeat my advice
from earlier reports: If you have the money to do it, please do yourself
a favor and consider a cruise.
--
Stop the chop by deleting it from my address.

Good job. Thanks for taking the time to write your review.

--
Greg
lid
(Remove the '.invalid' twice to send Email)


"Arthur" wrote in message
...
It's still true: we are still fans of cruising. I'll repeat my advice
from earlier reports: If you have the money to do it, please do yourself
a favor and consider a cruise.
--
Stop the chop by deleting it from my address.

Arthur wrote in message ...

Great review...thanks for taking the time to write it,

Distinctive about the arrival are
these two fellows on the pier and the chance they offer to have your
picture taken with them and their cobra. Yes, snake. Big thick snake. At
least I think it was a cobra.

Highly unlikely it was a cobra. Cobras are venomous vipers, and quite
cranky. I doubt they'd use one for photo ops. I'm a big snake fan, and
I wouldn't even consider approaching a cobra, much less posing with
one.

I'm guessing that what they had there was a boa, or some other kind of
constrictor. While a cobra is a lean, mean fighting machine,
constrictors can be thicker and are relatively slow moving (as
compared to a cobra anyway).

Lee

Sounds like a boa or other constrictor to me, too. Our county fair always has
those out for people to hold. I have no problem with wearing one as a scarf
around my neck.

Lindsay

Lee wrote:

I'm guessing that what they had there was a boa, or some other kind of
constrictor. While a cobra is a lean, mean fighting machine,
constrictors can be thicker and are relatively slow moving (as
compared to a cobra anyway).

Lee

Sounds like a boa or other constrictor to me

If it's the same one that's been there for years, it's a Banana Boa
"Anything that doesn't kill you,,,,,,,just hurts a hell of a lot" JLP20