Supplement to Travel Trade
November 2004

Diamond Princess:

Adapting to an Evolving Market

By Don Langley

The Santa Fe, a Southwestern-themed restaurant. The Diamond Princess, which debuted earlier this year, is a polished, multifaceted gem.

It is the biggest ship in the Princess fleet, weighing in at 116,000 gross tons (that’s a lot of carats), with 2,670 lower berths. (It retains the tonnage leadership along with its twin sister Sapphire Princess, but it held the berth record for only three weeks until the introduction of the Caribbean Princess, which has an extra deck).

Princess Cruises’ managers and designers have duplicated key aspects of the earlier Grand Class ships, while tweaking some elements to adapt to an evolving market.

For example, the Asian-themed Lotus Spa looks as if it was lifted directly off the Star Princess, although the commissioned art pieces are unique. The blue and white tile setting of the mid-ship pools certainly looks familiar to those who have seen earlier incarnations. The youngsters area at the ship’s stern is unchanged except for the addition of a pool. The glass and marble elevators rising through the Grand Plaza atrium are a Grand Class signature.

Princess has taken its Anytime Dining arrangement a step farther on the Diamond. As with the earlier ships, one dining room — the International, seating about 530 aft on deck 6 — serves the full Princess menu at first and second sittings. The two dining rooms that span the ship on deck 5 and 6 of the Grand, Golden and Star have been split down the middle to create four themed rooms, each seating about 250. The Sante Fe, Pacific Moon, Sterling and Vivaldi dining rooms are open from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Diners can come at any time by themselves or in groups. Reservations are available through the new onboard Princess Concierge Service, but are not required. There is no surcharge.

Each of the subtly themed rooms has an unchanging specialty menu with limited choices — Southwestern, Asian, prime rib or steak, and Italian. Each diner is also presented with the full Princess menu. Conversely, dishes from the themed restaurants will be offered in the International dining room at various times during any cruise.The Internet Cafe has 29 computers.

The Diamond Princess also has Princess’ signature alternative dining room, an enlarged Sabatini’s, seating 90 and costing $20 additional for dinner.

Unchanged from the earlier ships, the large Horizon Court buffet on deck 14 is open 24 hours. From 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. it becomes a bistro, with table service. Hamburgers, pizza and ice cream are available beside the largest swimming pool.
Pacific Moon serves Asian cuisine.

Another evolution, as Princess prepares for younger, active passengers with new interests in entertainment, is the replacement of the Vista show-lounge with Club Fusion. The Vista is a smaller version of the Princess showroom, with a stage and theater-style seating. Club Fusion has a bandstand and big dance floor, a large bar, lots of tables and chairs, some tabletop slot machines and 39 plasma TV screens. A full karaoke set-up will have the additional purpose of discovering the “Princess Idol.”

Instead of being used for a short period each evening, the room can be adapted for many activities, day and night. It is here that Princess presents Sound of Music sing-alongs, Beatles nights, Country nights and a ‘50s night. It can handle comedians and cabaret entertainment. The nightclub Explorers, which also has a stage and dance floor on all the Grand Class vessels, can take up any cabaret slack.

From a back corner of Club Fusion, a spiral staircase leads to the tiny Wake View bar, a new public space at the aft bulkhead with a view, as you would expect, of the ship’s wake. It’s intended for those who need a respite from the intensity of the club above. There is also a passageway to the International (traditional) dining room.
Privateers, ages 8-12.

The changes in the dining plan have enabled Princess to rearrange some of the other public space on its promenade deck. The area occupied by the Southwestern restaurant on the Star and the Sterling Steakhouse on the Grand and Golden, has become an enlarged Wheelhouse Bar on the Diamond. The former Wheelhouse space has become an enlarged Internet Café, open 24 hours. Its 29 computers, activated with a swipe of the room key-card, cost 35 cents per minute for Internet or E-mail access (free to frequent past passengers). Wireless access is available there and in the atrium for passengers who bring their own laptops.

Of the 1,337 staterooms, 748 have private balconies. Sizes range from the 160-square feet inside cabins to standard balcony cabins of 237 to 324 square feet (including balcony). There are also mini-suites with private balconies and suites ranging from 538 to 555 square feet. All staterooms have a desk, small mini-bar, safe, TV, telephone and hairdryer. Mini-suites and suites offer a separate sitting area with sofa and a tub and shower . Lower category staterooms have showers only.

From the exterior, the most obvious change is the move of the Skywalkers Lounge. On the earlier Grand Class ships it is elevated above the stern of the ship like a shopping cart handle. On the Diamond it has been enlarged and brought down to the main superstructure and slightly forward. The disco dance floor has been moved to one end so the rest of the room is simply a lounge for those who want that ambiance. It can be used for private cocktail parties, meetings and possibly afternoon tea.

In its new location, Skywalkers has a balcony and stairs that cascade five decks down the back of the ship past two bars, two hot tubs and two pools, one of which was made possible by moving the room.

The funnel area of the ship, as on the Island Princess and Coral Princess, is flanked by two structures that look like jet engines. In fact, they are purely decorative. They hide a gas turbine engine that provides the ship’s electricity and some of its propulsion power with no vibration and little pollution.

The Diamond Princess’ size, evident to any passenger who peers down the uninterrupted passageways the length of the ship on the main passenger cabin decks, gives Princess space for myriad activities. In addition to all the dining/drinking space, and the de rigeur casino, there are five swimming pools, a paddle tennis court, jogging track, a nine-hole golf putting range and computerized simulated golf. The gym has banks of stationary bikes, treadmills, stair machines, free weights and the full line of Cybex exercise machines. In the pool at the Lotus Spa area, swimmers can dial up the strength of the current they wish to swim against, so they can swim forever, in place.

There are some practical aspects of the shift to non-traditional dining on large ships. Trying to serve 1,000 to1,500 diners simultaneously requires a very large room. It puts a burden on the kitchen, especially since there is a time problem at the first sitting: the room must be cleared for the second sitting.

On a traditional ship, the end of the first sitting means that most of the passengers stream from the dining room at the stern to the showroom near the bow (which must also be very large), facing the horde of people who have seen the first show and are trying to make their way into the dining room.

New systems, such as Anytime Dining, solve that traffic problem, ease the time pressure on the kitchen, provide more passenger options (Personal Choice, in Princess parlance) and affect the architecture of the ship.

Traditional dining, according to Brian Langston-Carter, recently retired executive vice president-fleet operations, is preferred by some long-time cruisers simply because they are accustomed to it. It is also a comfortable way for shy people to meet other passengers.