Diamond Princess Day 25: 9 Mar 2023 Toba, Japan

 

I woke up early and caught the sunrise from the balcony. It looked like smooth seas for the tender today. You need a tender ticket to go to the shore. Of course the excursions and status folks always get to go first. I chose to do sudoku and relax. The system seemed very delayed because of immigration which needed to be on board since it was a tender port.

The locals seem very excited to see us in port. In most cases, they haven't seen a cruise ship since covid we are told. That said, I saw some sort of ferry or cruise ship near us.

I waited around for an hour after I got my ticket. During that time, I realized I had extra coffee tickets left so I bought a cappuccino for the assistant cruise director who seemed grateful!

PRO TIP: Remember yesterday's tip about how to avoid wasting time waiting to get off the ship? If you don't have status with a cruise line and you really want be first off the ship, book an excursion.

Once I arrived on shore (the tender trip was about 15 minutes), I looked around for a geocache. Unfortunately, I was not successful.

There was a boat moored that looked like it had a penguin on top but it was a lady in a kimono. Unfortunately, the next sailing was in 2 hours and it cost about $50 for a 90 minute cruise around the harbor. I decided to skip it and go for a walk.

I headed downtown toward the old castle ruins. I stayed close to the shore and ended up near the pearl divers' museum which is its own museum.

There is also an aquarium with something like a manatee which is their claim to fame. Unfortunately it was 2800 yen (about $25). I decided to skip it and have a really nice bowl of noodles for about $9.

Unfortunately,  I should have been on the other side of the street to see the old castle ruins so I decided to skip it and went back to the ship. 

Back on ship at 3:40PM and I was able to get ready for my 5PM dinner.

I got to watch the sunset while eating dinner. I chose surf and turf. I have been truly spoiled by the food in the main dining room.

PRO TIP: Dinner on formal nights and the last night of the cruise is always a little better than a normal night. Don't make reservations for specialty dining or skip the buffet on these nights.

I took pictures of my waiters so I can mention them on the post cruise survey. They did a great job. I highly recommend a fixed dining time so you get the same waiters and don't have to wait to get into the dining room.  Also, by getting the early dining time, you are able to see more of the shows and evening entertainment. This particular Princess cruise changed the showtimes to 6:30 and 8:30 so it was very important to get dinner out of the way before 6:30 to make the shows.

The baked Alaska wasn't much to look at, but it sure was tasty.

Sadly, it was time to shove everything into my bags and put them out in the hall. Princess requests that this be done before 10PM. I saw someone do it at 6AM and then heard them call down to the front desk to have it picked up. 

I managed to make the late show with a piano man and a great Elvis impersonator. I had talked with him earlier in the day and he is a former NCL entertainer in Million Dollar Quartet who has gone out on his own as a guest performer. He did some early rock n roll songs and a duet with the piano player.

After the late show, I passed out. I had a great cruise.

Happy Cruising!!