The Sparkling Diamond Princess

We went on our eighth cruise in January this year, leaving from Sydney to Tasmania for 8 days.  It was a nice change not to have to endure a long plane ride to reach our cruise departure destination as from Brisbane to Sydney is only around 1 hour away. We spent one night in Sydney prior to the cruise as it is always better to be at your departure port at least a day prior to the start of the cruise.  As it would be awful to miss your cruise due to flight delays, and I don’t think I would enjoy the stress of being late when you are trying to start your holiday feeling relaxed and chilled out.

On the morning of our cruise we checked out of our hotel and went to the Overseas Passenger Cruise terminal at Circular Quay in Sydney CBD via taxi.  As we arrived we looked up and saw our beautiful ship the Diamond Princess.  We gazed in awe of the size of her and our excitement grew a little bit more.  We dropped our bags at the designated spot and joined the 11.30am check in line.  As Princess cruises had been sending us text messages to let us know when we should arrive, it has been the only cruise line that we have been on so far to send us text messages to keep us up to date.

We got through the check in process pretty quickly and soon we were on board.  It was now time to find our cabin B415 located on deck 11, mid ship. We walked in and took a good look around and check out everything. The room was really nice, and one of the many surprises we were about to experience was we had walk-in-robe that was next to the bathroom. This allowed us lots of room for our clothes, it was a nice change from the wardrobes with doors that some of the other cruise lines have in their cabins. It is a small thing but had a major impact as you had more room to move around and it was easy to access your clothes. The bed was comfortable and the balcony was roomy. Once we dropped of our bags and put our important things in the safe. It was off to explore the ship and have some lunch.

Our cabin B415

Our roomy walk in robe

The shower

Our bathroom

We headed up to level 14 and to check out Horizon Court which was the buffet restaurant and after lunch we decided to check out the ship and take our photos of the ship before there was too many people walking around.  We walked along the decks 14 and 15, and found the range of pools and bars that the ship offered. We found the atrium which is located on decks 6, 5, 4 and from there we saw the Crooner’s bar, the library, the Internet cafe, the shore excursions desk and main reception, the Club Fusion which is cowboy theme bar, the Explorers lounge that is an Egyptian themed area, the Princess theatre plus we found the International Restaurant where we are having dinner. We also saw the Kai Sushi and Sabatini’s (Italian) specialty restaurants.

One of the many pools

Sydney Harbour bridge in the background

Mel on the pool deck

Calypso Reef Pool with the retractable roof

Andrew at the Neptune’s Pool

Neptune’s Pool

Movies under the stars big screen

Explorers Lounge

Kai Sushi

Sabatini’s Italian restaurant

Club Fusion

Cowboy themed bar – Club Fusion

Crooner’s bar

The atrium

Princess Theatre

To find out what happened next on our first cruise day check out the next post….

Further Information
Diamond Princess
Guest capacity – 2706
Number of crew – 1100
Inaugural cruise – 13 March 2004
Last Refurbished – March 2014
Number of Decks – 18

Check out the ship for yourself – Diamond Princess

Happy Cruising!!

MelK xxx