Our traveling group of four, checked out of the Hyatt Regency Yokohama around 10:30am on Saturday, all of us exited to be sailing on The Diamond Princess! A friendly Japanese hotel guest spotted us in the lobby struggling with all of our combined luggage and took a nice photograph of us.
The four of us (Ben, Tom, Steve DOS, and I) happily chatted in the lobby as we waited for our 11am hotel pickup, both anxious and a bit apprehensive as far as what to expect on this sailing around Japan, on a ship that was built for the Japanese market in 2004. How many Japanese guests vs Caucasian guests? How will the food compare to other cruises? What about the drinks served; i.e. Japanese beers? What about the entertainment aboard? How bad will the checkin process be to get on the ship? All questions we had asked each other during our stay in Tokyo, but now comes the ultimate moment of truth as we prepare to board the ship!
Our driver was a few minutes early, and he and the hotel Doorman helped load our massive amounts of suitcases, duffle bags, and carry-on bags into two large vehicles, for the short drive to the Yokohama Cruise Port. He had to load a couple smaller bags of our carryon luggage in Ben and Tom’s van, while the rest of our luggage fit in our van fortunately!
We were only about 3 walking blocks from the terminal and in fact had taken a quick walk earlier in the morning to see which pier the ship was docked in. There were 3 ships docked in Yokohama on our sailing day of March 28, 2026 (ours – the Diamond Princess, another unknown ship next to us, and the Celebrity Millennium, docked on the over side of the harbor.
Our drive to the port was quick, and the embarkation and check-in process was extremely efficient! There were hundreds of people in the huge terminal, most comfortably seated, and everyone given a numbered card, from which your group was called. It was an amazingly quick process, especially considering how many people were going to be checking in that morning (not to mention the couple thousand passengers who had just disembarked from the previous sailing!)
You weren’t allowed to take photos going thru security, but it went so fast, I probably wouldn’t have had time if we were allowed! We had a slight slow-down at the check-in desk, as we didn’t receive our Princess Medallions before we left home from Orlando (they’re probably waiting for us in our held-mail stack!). The Medallions are small electronic gadgets that are used for everything onboard such as your room key, all room charges, gift shop, spa etc. We have wrists bands we’ve used for the last few Princess Cruises, and attach the new Medallion to it, and it’s about the size of a watch. The Medallions and band are waterproof, and I leave mine on the whole cruise.
In lieu of not having the Medallion, however, the check-in agent gave us a key card, and we would later pickup our Medallions (engraved with our name, and Black in color for our Elite status) onboard at Guest Services. Our friends Ben and Tom left a couple days later than we did, so they had their Medallions already. Not a big deal, as we went directly to Guest Services upon embarkation when there was no line.
I’m attaching a photo gallery for the first couple days of our trip below, as well as a couple short videos I uploaded to YouTube.
SAKE BARREL BREAKING CEREMONY: The photo below was the traditional Breaking of the Saki Barrel, which is a Japanese tradition for blessing the ship’s sailing, health, and happiness; at least something like that. It was quite impressive too, with the Japanese Male Cruise Director, the Female Hotel Director, and the Male Captain of the Ship all dressed in traditional Japanese clothing for the short ceremony, among other staff and crew.
The Cruise Director sounded more like an American than a Japanese man when I first heard his announcement welcoming everyone aboard. He spoke with the voice of a radio DJ, fluently in English first, followed next by Japanese, every time he hade an announcement. Perhaps he studied abroad or lived in the US at some time, as he had no noticeable accent and was very clear and personable with his conversations. Here is a short video of the Sake Barrel-breaking ceremony:
Sake Barrel-Breaking Ceremony on the Diamond Princess
