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Diamond Princess is a British-registered cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. She began operation in March 2004 and primarily cruises in Asia during the northern hemisphere summer and Australia during the southern hemisphere summer. She is a subclassed Grand-class ship, which is also known as a Gem-class ship. Diamond Princess and her sister ship, Sapphire Princess, are the widest subclass of Grand-class... Read more
Diamond Princess is a British-registered cruise ship owned and operated by Princess Cruises. She began operation in March 2004 and primarily cruises in Asia during the northern hemisphere summer and Australia during the southern hemisphere summer. She is a subclassed Grand-class ship, which is also known as a Gem-class ship. Diamond Princess and her sister ship, Sapphire Princess, are the widest subclass of Grand-class ships, as they have a 37.5-metre (123 ft 0 in) beam, while all other Grand-class ships have a beam of 36 metres (118 ft 1 in). Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess were both built in Nagasaki, Japan, by Mitsubishi Industries.
The diesel-electric plant of Diamond Princess has four diesel generators and a gas turbine generator. The diesel generators are Wärtsilä 46 series common rail engines, two straight 9-cylinder configuration (9L46), and two straight 8-cylinder configuration (8L46). The 8- and 9-cylinder engines can produce approximately 8,500 kW (11,400 hp) and 9,500 kW (12,700 hp), respectively. These engines are fueled with heavy fuel oil (HFO or bunker c) and marine gas oil (MGO) depending on the local regulations regarding emissions, as MGO produces much lower emissions, but is much more expensive.
The gas turbine generator is a General Electric LM2500, producing a peak of 25,000 kW (34,000 hp) fueled by MGO. This generator is much more expensive to run than the diesel generators, and is used mostly in areas, such as Alaska, where the emissions regulations are strict. It is also used when high speed is required to make it to a port in a shorter time period.
There are two propulsion electric motors, driving fixed-pitch propellers and six thrusters used during maneuvering – three at the bow and three at the stern. The propulsion electric motors (PEMs), are conventional synchronous motors made by Alstom Motors. The two motors are each rated to 20 MW and have a maximum speed of 154 rpm. (Rated speed of 0-145 rpm.)
In June 2017 Diamond Princess was retrofitted with a hull air lubrication system to reduce fuel consumption and related CO2 emissions.
The ship was originally intended to be christened Sapphire Princess. However, construction of another ship – the one intended to be Diamond Princess (currently sailing as Sapphire Princess) – was delayed when fire swept through her decks during construction. Because completion of the damaged ship would be delayed for some time, her sister ship, which was also under construction, was renamed Diamond Princess. The name swap helped keep the delivery of Diamond Princess on time.
She was the first Princess Cruises ship to be built in a Japanese shipyard, and the first to forego the controversial "wing" or "shopping cart handle" structure overhanging the stern, which houses the Skywalkers Nightclub on Caribbean Princess, Golden Princess and Star Princess, and which was originally also a feature of Grand Princess prior to her 2011 refit.
Prior to 2014, Diamond Princess alternated sailing north and southbound voyages of the glacier cruises during the northern summer months and in the southern summer, she sailed from Australia and New Zealand. Starting in 2014, she undertook cruises from Yokohama for Tokyo or Kobe in the northern summer season.
For the 2016–17 season, she sailed round-trip cruises in the northern winter months from Singapore. Kota Kinabalu was added as part of her destination along with Vietnamese port of Nha Trang in December 2016. She resumed voyaging from Sydney for the 2017–18 season.
After the 2018 Australia and New Zealand cruises, Diamond Princess was re-positioned into South-East Asia for most of 2018, varying between Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia. She is projected to remain in South-East Asia to early 2021. She is then projected go to South America and Antarctica in Fall 2021-Spring 2022.
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Dear friends! Let us plunge, once again, into aspects of the cruise industry. In this article, we want to introduce several facts you probably did not know about the charming Diamond Princess liner. Photo by: Roderick Eime/Flickr/CC BY 2.0 1. Initially, the ship was named Sapphire Princess. The... |
Early in the morning of January 15, our cruise ship moored at Sydney terminal, located near the famous bridge exactly opposite the Sydney Opera House. Ah, it seems like I arrived here only yesterday - on the last day of 2010! And today, my journey is coming to its end also in Sydney.
The... |
We went on the cruise around Hokkaido on the
Diamond Princess
.
There were a lot of tourists from Japan and its neighboring countries! And no more than 5 percent of passengers were from other countries. Most of the people there were young, the average age was between 30 and 50. There... |
Returning to Tauranga, the bus drove through the center of the city of Rotorua with facades facing the lake of the same name:
On the way back the driver made a stop at one of the numerous kiwi plantations - New Zealand, as it is known, is the world's largest supplier of this fruit.... |
The true height of the mountains rising to the sky is especially felt from such pictures - after all, the photo was taken from the 16th deck of the huge liner!
The airplane is soaring between the mountain peaks. The views opening from there are impressive!
And here is the... |
From Thompson Sound to the next big fjord -
Milford Sound
- there are about 62 miles (100 kilometers) along the coast. The ship goes along the cliffs and mountain ridges of the west coast of New Zealand rugged with fjords. This voyage along the coast was one of the most... |
A leisurely stroll through the wine-growing plantations after dinner is so nice... So beautiful!
After dinner and acquaintance with the peculiarities of Australian winemaking, we take the bus again and continue the route.
From winemaking regions located outside the city limits, we go... |