These photos and general review of the Diamond Princess cruise ship cover the external spaces. For interior spaces on the ship as well as some information about our trip from Beijing to Tianjin in China to pick up the Diamond Princess please read Inside Diamond Princess.
The big draw about cruising is that you get to see different sights every day even if you never leave the ship you’re on. For most cruise ships the two main outside spaces from which to gaze out at the always changing view (assuming you don’t have a balcony cabin or room with a sea view, of course) are the promenade deck and the top deck with its pools and loungers.
Promenade Deck
With Diamond Princess being a Grand-class cruise ship the promenade deck was deck seven, accessed from several locations along each side and circling the entire ship. We tried to make a point of walking the promenade deck once a day after dinner and we spotted a lot of people using it as a walking track, completing multiple circuits to build up their miles. We’re not quite that crazy.
It was interesting to contrast the different conditions when walking the promenade deck on Diamond Princess during our honeymoon cruise in the Far East. We found that at the start it was quite windy and could be chilly as you walked around (hence us buying hoodies from the stores on board) but as we got towards Vietnam and Singapore near the end of the cruise the conditions changed to nearly flat seas and high humidity making stepping out from the air conditioned ship to the deck like stepping into a sauna.
You can see how windy it is on this video of a complete circuit of the Diamond Princess promenade deck we took:
Swimming Pools
The swimming pools always look lovely even if it seems strange at some level to be swimming many metres above the sea level when you’re surrounded by sea as far as you can see. They weren’t utilised a huge amount by other passengers or us on the cruise although I can’t remember why exactly; certainly, as mentioned before, it was quite windy on the South China Sea, especially at the start of the cruise, but there was still a measure of protection from the wind and there was an inside pool as well. However, it did get a little rough on the seas so that might have scared people off and they did sometimes put netting over the ship’s swimming pools to prevent their use altogether.
The swimming pool areas were also used to house some ice sculptures on one of the sea days during the cruise.
The Sanctuary pool towards the front of the ship was the closest pool to our inside cabin. We didn’t know at the time (we would discover this five years later when on the Crown Princess cruise ship) but there was a means to generate a current against which to swim when in the Sanctuary pool so despite its small size it could have provided a reasonable means of exercise if desired.
Top Deck Areas
Around the main swimming pool were a number of food locations and a bar; the pizzas, hot dogs, and burgers prepared by the pool on a Princess Cruises cruise ship are outstanding.
In addition to a sports section there was a small golf putting area. Just like the onboard gymnasium that you’ll notice hasn’t featured in any photographs on the interior post about the Diamond Princess we don’t really do sporting activities so we didn’t engage in these parts of the ship.
The rest of the upper, exterior decks was lounging space or walkway spaces affording fabulous views of the sea from a high vantage point.
On one of the sea days while my wife was recovering from a little sea sickness I went for a wander up top and watched a large, dark stormcloud come in. People stayed out for as long as possible while the darkness enveloped the cruise ship but eventually the rain came down and drove everyone inside.
