As the Diamond Princess left the port of Keelung in Taiwan the night before we’d felt the wind pick up almost immediately upon getting out onto the open sea. That wind and the accompanying swells had continued through the night – a lovely feeling if you’re as much a fan of really feeling like you’re out on the ocean when you’re cruising as we are – and we woke to similar conditions. It was pretty overcast in the morning at sea on the approach to Okinawa and the balconies on the ship showed signs of just how much spray had been hitting them overnight and into the hours of daylight but there was plenty of time for the weather to improve as we weren’t due to dock until the early afternoon.
We noticed that the pools were all closed off as we went to breakfast which seemed a little bit like overkill to us. I understand closing off the shallower, adults only pool in the Sanctuary area of the ship because the low water depth and even fairly mild waves can make for dangerous conditions but with the deeper pools this risk is mitigated quite a bit and there’s nothing more entertaining than being in a pool with the waves sloshing around everywhere. While eating breakfast in the buffet area we were captivated by the view of the horizon rising and falling as we made our way through the choppy waters towards Japan and you can see some of that in the video accompanying this post.
There was time to kill in the morning and we spent it watching some of the entertainment in the piazza, taking part in the trivia, and getting a little bit of reading in; all the elements of a typical, lovely, relaxing sea day but with a port arrival imminent!
As we neared the port city of Naha tug boats appeared to give us an escort to shore. Our balcony position gave us a good view of one of the vessels although it was not entirely clear what their main purpose was on the approach to Okinawa as they seemed to be neither really pulling or pushing the cruise ship. It’s possible they were there in a precautionary capacity in case the sea and wind conditions required the ship’s pilot to call for some assistance.
We didn’t spot many other vessels as we entered the harbour but one that stood out was the Star Cruises SuperStar Gemini cruise ship, formerly the Norwegian Dream. I love seeing these older ships operating for lines that are more localised, especially ones that have changed ownership several times, and it’s great to take a look through their deck layouts and cabin arrangements and entertainment offerings to see how they cater for the markets they target.
We eventually came alongside in Naha. We’d visited Naha before back in 2008 but on that occasion Diamond Princess had docked considerably farther north and had required us to use a complimentary shuttle bus to get from the ship into the city. Everything would be in walking distance this time around which also meant there wasn’t an unattractive (well, I don’t tend to mind them) commercial port for a view and we could instead look out at the outskirts of the city and towards where we would later be heading.
This video shows the sea conditions in the morning, some of the actions of the tug boats, and a little of the port of Naha from the top deck of Diamond Princess.
Japanese Immigration
There is never any point rushing to get off the ship as soon as it docks because there are formalities to be observed first. In many ports there is a brief customs clearance procedure for the ship and then an announcement is made and everyone is allowed off. In some places passports and/or visas and/or landing cards may need to be shown. And then there’s Japan where every single port of entry requires a cumbersome immigration process. You have to pass the thermal scanning to ensure you’re not running a temperature. You have to show your passport. You have to have filled in a customs declaration form. And this all needs to be scheduled because they don’t want three thousand passengers trying to do this all at the same time.
On the plus side you don’t need to do the scheduling; that’s all arranged by Princess and you get notified in your cabin the day before when you’ll need to gather in one of the lounges or dining rooms to be called ashore. Counter to that, though, is that you might want to get off the ship early but that’s completely out of your hands. If you have arranged an excursion through Princess, of course, then you’ll get scheduled early to take advantage of it but whether that applies to people arranging their own things I can’t say. Certainly something to consider if you’re thinking about private excursions while on a cruise hitting Okinawa.
We passed some time observing occasional passengers making their way along the dock beside the ship, having completed their Japanese immigration procedure. We did this to try to gauge just how long it was taking people based on when we saw them leave the ship and enter the terminal to when we recognised them coming back out and heading ashore but it wasn’t an easy thing to do.
It eventually came to our time to head to one of the dining rooms and wait to be called ashore. And wait. And wait. And listen to the apologies for the delay. And wait some more. And watch some people assume queues were for other people and jump them. And wait. And then get let through. A lengthy walk from the ship to the terminal then left us in a long, snaking queue of hundreds of other people with a sinking feeling that this would take forever but, fair’s fair, the queue moved pretty rapidly as there were a lot of immigration desks open. I passed through very quickly and had the opportunity to see the immigration desk computers from behind as my wife was being processed: lots of screenshots of not just her present passport photo page but previous ones too flashed up along with screens of additional information that I clearly couldn’t read. It was actually quite fascinating to see just how much data was being held on her and easily accessible to the customs authorities.
We finally stepped out of the terminal and onto Japanese concrete just over one hour after we’d been told to meet aboard the ship to pass through immigration. For a country that really, really, really likes putting people through immigration it could do with some projects targeting efficiencies in the process in our opinion.
In the next post I’ll cover our time ashore in Naha itself.