Lily Lee

Thursday, January 01, 2026

Outstanding Contribution Team award

Grateful for the nomination and our Sustainable Development Committee won the team award in the Outstanding Contribution Award 2025.

Thursday, December 18, 2025

2025 Diamond Princess day 15 Phu My port Ba Ria day 16 sea

Day 15 patter

Met our guide Long and driver Cuong.

I have been engaging Lily Linh from uptravel WhatsApp +84 868 505 608 for all my private tours in Vietnam as she is very reliable and her guides are very proficient.

A special day to visit the Church on the 4th Sunday of Advent. Its also winter Solstice today.

At a local popular restaurant Banh Canh Long Huong Phuong. The hand made noodle, hand made pork cake were awesome. The noodle was so smooth and the soup tasty! Hubby gotten his pork blood curd!

Cemetery for solders and military building.

Coffee break at Votky. The coffee was so strong.

At Hai Tho, second generation in operating the rice wine making plant.

Rice wine making at Hao Long. The staff first cook the sticky rice, add the yeast for fermentation and then leave it for 3 to 5 days and add water. Then it was left to ferment for 15 days. After that it is cooked and distilled.

1 hour for cooling.

Air conditioned and the smell of rice wine was so good!

Added the yeast after cooling.

Distillation for 8 hrs which the rice wine will drip out of a tap.

The first liquer is 70% alcohol. They will mix to e.g 30% for sale to customer.

Trying the rice wine. It tasted so good. You can feel the warmth in the chest.

The tour groups from our ship arrived.

Rice paper with sesame. Chilli is added to make the orangey one.

We went to the wet market and almost saw 2 vendors fought. The vendors sat on top of the tables with the products for sale 😅

The skinned frogs are still wriggling and shocked me.

The street vendors could carry such a big board with sun glasses.

The charcoal can burn for 10 hours!

Pork blood curd or pudding.

Shopped at Go. There is a Mr DIY

Hampers for Lunar new year

Even a clinic for vaccination for babies!

Decided to go to Vũng Tàu as there are not many attractions in Ba Ria.

At light room in Vũng Tàu. Had mixed fruit juice and flower tea with vanilla puff. Nice though quite crowded as its Sunday today. The view is good from the top.

We went to the upside down house in Vũng Tàu as we still had time for another stop. The staff was so kind to help and guide us take the pictures.

Fresh seafood at Ganh Hao seafood restaurant by the sea!

Very fresh and nice grouper at Ganh Hao seafood restaurant. Love the sweet and sour pork ribs. The spinach with garlic is good too.

Song Vinh church in Ba Ria was built in 2011. Its the fourth advent Sunday before Christmas so its very significant for the worshippers here.

For the locals its winter Solstice, another significant day!

What a long queue to get onboard.

Bye Vietnam. See you next year.

Dinner at Santa Fe. Both of us had minestrone soup. Hubby ordered seafood antipasto. I ordered the reserve special chicken parmesan and hubby steak with red wine sauce for main. We ordered the cocktails watermelon margarita, apricot indigo and long island tea. My favourite Cream Brulee for dessert. Cream Brulee with Madeleine is awesome.

Wonderful staff and menu of good Spirit bar at deck 5.

Che Orton tribute to Elvis in the theatre. A humorous "Elvis" Che Orton.

jailhouse rock

Photos taken in yesterday's final portrait session for this cruise.

Day 16 sea day

Princess Patter

Instructions for tomorrow's disembarkation.

Breakfast at Horizon court

Singing by John

Making of blackforest by pastry and dessert master chef Maria.

Galley Tour

Lunch at Santa Fe. For the first time hubby and me ordering same food and drink! Blue Hawaian cocktail frozen which look similar to the color of the sky and the sea. Roasted pumpkin soup and Mongolian Seafood with rice.

Fresh fuit juice and ice cream inclusive in the premier package.

Candy Floss anyone? Cos its the last sea day, candy floss and cakes are offered at Level 14 outside horizon court near pool deck.

Last workshop making book marks. Didn't know that washi tape can be used in this way. Thank you Mako!

Dinner at Sabatini. I ordered the chicken. Hubby could not resist the seared sea bass. He ordered that with the striploin. For antipasto I ordered the Tuscan soup and hubby the salad again. Ordered white, rose and red wine to go with the 3 mains.

More people i want to thank. Definitely to Garry, our room steward, keeping our room clean and getting our laundry done. Ensuring our bottles of water and bucket of ice always refilled. The photographers Mao, Luthu and Anthony who have took many good photos for memories. The team at Sabatini, Catalino and Praschep for making sure we had best dining experiences. Best server Rizza and team at Santa Fe. Gratitude.