Diamond Princess Day 26: 10 March 2023 Yokohama Disembarkation

I woke up early as we pulled into Yokohama and headed down to get my usual coffee. I made sure to take a picture of the name tags so I could mention them in the after cruise survey (and because I would not be able to spell Liudmyla correctly). Mario and Melody are easy to spell. Sadly, Melody had been flown off to the Royal Princess when we docked in Kobe so I was unable to give her a nice thank you.

I met with my room steward Aileen to give her a tip. She had done a great job for the last 25 days. I'm sure it wasn't easy given that we had missed two ports along out already long cruise.

The ship docked across from an Industrial area.

I finished packing and was out of my stateroom by 8AM. I grabbed another cappuccino and headed uo to the buffet which was decked out with tastier treats than usual.

Having a late flight gave me the chance to relax and watch the busy activity all around the ship.

As my 9:30 time slot approached, I headed down to the Vivaldi dining room to wait. They were running about 20 minutes late. Someone echoed my sentiment by decorating the statue with a winter hat! We left the tropics and were back in the cold winter air again.

Luggage was organized by colored tag in the terminal and there were 3 lines for customs. After getting into a line, I noticed one line was serviced by 3 customs officials instead of just one. That said, none of the lines were long and I was soon on a bus with my luggage.

It took about 30 minutes to get to Haneda Terminal 3 and I arrived about 11:15. 

I checked with my airline ANA to determine how soon I could check my luggage and was told 6 hours. I then went to the 3rd Level Departures area and found the Royal Park Hotel. I had been unable to determine if they could do day use on the arrivals (outside security) side. I was told that they didn't couldn't wouldn't or were not interested. I inquired about the inside security (transfer) side about day use and was told they were fully booked up. 

Plan B was a brand new hotel called Villa Fontaine which advertises an onsen spa on the roof. When I asked about a day rate, they were excited to tell me yes that they had a 4 hour room for 14000 Yen and an 8 hour room for 18000 Yen. Given the exchange rate, this worked out to be $132 for an entire day spent relaxing. The hotel is brand new as of December 2012.

I took a couple photos. Sadly I didn't model the pajamas for you.... they are to wear to the spa but are basically pajamas. The room was a bit bigger than the cruise cabin but had a tub and water kettle!

The hotel had a self.laundry and you could see the status of the machines on the TV.

At 5:30 I packed up and walked to check in my luggage. I had been unable to check in online as is usual with reward tickets for me for some reason. The automatic machine didn't work for me so I had to wait to see an agent. The agent spoke English fluently and I had a ticket in my hand almost immediately.

Security is usually a chore but I had used my time at the hotel for more than just relaxing. All liquids including deodorant or anything that security sometimes finds interesting were packed in my checked bags. I passed through security and walked to my gate to gauge distance from the food court.

I sat down for a bowl of noodles that cost around $8 US. As I was finishing up, the announcement for last and final boarding call for my destination made my heart race. Once I saw the screen I realized there were 4 flights to the same place within a one hour period. That is probably the reason I was able to get a cheap award ticket.

Once I boarded the nice 787, we took off and all announcements were in 3 or 4 languages and seemed to go on forever. They had a really nice entertainment system, but wifi didn't seem to exist despite the stickers on the wall saying that it did. They served a very nice meal for Economy class and I watched a movie and napped.

All in all, Princess did a great job start to finish. I'm a bit behind but I will catch up and then do a comparison post for all the cruises that I have experienced recently.

I hope you enjoyed coming along on this cruise with me.

Happy Cruising!