Review Sapphire Princess to Alaska 8/22-8/29/2009

[pizzalady1]

About Us:
My husband and I are in our mid-60s. This was my second time in Alaska (the first time was 1992 in Anchorage, Prince Williams Sound and Denali) and his first, and this was the second cruise for both of us, the first being Hawaii on The Pride of Hawaii. We originally planned to go in June but had to cancel at the end of April due to my husband's surgery. We were able to reschedule everything, including the exact same “special” cabin and all tours for August, so we went for it. My husband was having some chemotherapy side effects, so that did affect some of our activities. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and one that we will remember forever. All of the months reading the Cruise Critic boards paid off. We gained many tips that made this trip very smooth.

Embarkation:
We arrived at Canada Place around 12:30pm. It took about 20 minutes to wind our way through the hallway into the first big room. After winding our way through 1/3 of the ropeways in this room, someone official came up, looked at us, opened the rope and said to follow her. Maybe it was because we had no luggage, only flowers, cameras and a tote bag, but she took us from this first room (security??) to the second room where we went through US Immigration, which only took 20 minutes. My first thought when this official came up and said “come with me” I thought we had been picked for some sort of expanded security check. Then on to the health questionnaire and then to the cruiseline check in. We were in our room by 1:50pm. Princess did a super great job on their embarkation, much better than the experience we had on NCLA.

The Ship: The ship was beautiful and in great shape. The atrium and atrium elevators were beautiful There was usually some sort of entertainment in the atrium whenever we went through. We kept getting lost because some of the aft, fore and mid-ships elevators did not all go to every floor.

Steward/Crew:
As soon as we opened the cabin door, our steward, Freddie came in to meet us. He was very friendly and anxious to show us that he had put the eggcrate, mattress pad and top sheet on the bed as requested by our fax to Princess. Without asking, he brought a vase for the flowers I had purchased from the grocery store near the hotel. Throughout the cruise, Freddie was quick to freshen our room as soon as we put out the service sign and to turn down the bed when we went to dinner. I had purchased some Pepsi before boarding but usually forgot to get it from the fridge for dinner. After the first time when I had to traipse from the dining room back for the Pepsi, Freddie would see us leave for dinner and call out from whatever room he was it, reminding us to remember the Pepsi.

Every crewmember we saw, talked to or passed in the hallway was very pleasant. They were always smiling and never failed to wish us a good day or made some sort of pleasant comment, or asked if we enjoyed our day in port.

Cabin:
Both in June and when we rescheduled in August, we were able to snag E731, the last aft mini-suite on the starboard side, which had an extended balcony. Had it not been so cold and rainy so much of the time, we would have enjoyed the large balcony more. The room was very comfortable, had a large closet with a lot of shelf space and a full-sized tub/shower. The bed was very comfortable with the added eggcrate and mattress pad. Room service provides a bowl of fresh fruit and keeps it replenished by a request card.

Restaurants/Food:
Food if very subjective, but in general, we did NOT find the food to be great. We are plain meat and potato people and the food was “gussied” up too much for us. Even the plain beef did not seem very flavorful to us. We did not try the specialty dining. Certainly, we did not go hungry. At the buffet, the staff was very good at keeping the tables clean. The utensils were on the tables when you sat down and someone came quickly to get our drink order. They were also quick to clean up tables after people left.

Breakfast: We ate breakfast every morning at the buffet. It was very good with a huge variety of hot and cold foods including waffles, french toast, eggs benedict, made to order eggs, loads of bacon and sausage, cereals, breads, fresh fruit, etc.

Lunch: We ate lunch in the buffet, once at the Trident Grill/Prego (great hamburgers, mediocre pizza) and once ordered through room service. The remaining days we were in ports or were not hungry so did not eat lunch.

Dinner: We ate dinner one night in each of the four anytime dining rooms and three times at the buffet. We were seated in the dining rooms very quickly and had no trouble with tables for two. We found the other people at tables for two to be very friendly and had interesting conversations with them. The service was very good and fast. For three of the dining rooms we went around 6:30-7:00pm and had no waiting time. When we ate at the Vivaldi, we went at 8:00pm, which is when it opens for anytime, and had no wait.

Entertainment: On the first night we went to the Welcome Aboard Show Time and did not like the comedian Steve Moris. On the second night, we went to Do You Wanna Dance? and found it very enjoyable. This was also repeated on the third night. On the fourth night we went to I Got the Music and it was also was very good. On the fifth night, Piano Man was supposed to be playing, but the seas were too choppy and too dangerous for the dancers, so they moved the comedian Kevin Jordan from the Explorer Lounge to the Theater. He was funny. Piano Man finally played on the last night and was the best performance of the week. We usually got to the theater about 20-30 minutes before show time and had no problem getting a seat. By 10-15 minutes before show time, the theater was close to being full. At these programs, we found the Cruise Director, Billy London to be very long-winded and excessively corny for our taste.

Also during the week we went to the Libby Riddles presentation and two presentations by Shelly Gill, the current naturalist on the ship, and a presentation by one of the rangers. All four presentations were outstanding. We also went to a presentation on Navigation by the Second Chief. We had to pay close attention to him because of his Italian accent, but he was entertaining and certainly was a cutie!

Sunday, at sea: We learned that we do not like sea days! We are not into the lounging by the pool, casino, bingo, dance lessons, etc, so we were pretty bored.

Monday, Ketchikan: We had cold, wet rain all day. We hired Ketchikan Taxi Cab Tours for a 3-hour tour.After the tour we went to Creek Street and shopping in the downtown area. Since we were berthed at Dock 4 and it was still cold and pouring down rain, we caught a taxi at the Ketchikan sign back to the ship which only cost $5.

Tuesday, Juneau: Again, we had cold, wet rain all day. We had a Harv & Marv whale watching tour at 9:45am with Steve who was at the tram parking lot waiting for us. Afterwards we were dropped off at Mendenhall Glacier and we went to the Visitor’s Center. Since it was still cold and rainy, we did not walk to the waterfall. We caught the MGT blue shuttle to the downtown area for $7 per person. We had time to look at the shops in the downtown area and walk back to the dock. We were back by 4pm and I went to hear Libby Riddles presentation. We had planned to go up Mt Roberts by tram after the Riddles presentation, but the mountain was totally fogged in and it was still wet and cold, so we passed on it.

Wednesday, Skagway: It was just starting to rain as we left the ship. We had a tour planned with Dyea Dave to travel to Frasure on the WP&YR and then going on to Emerald Lake by van. Dave picked us up on time at the parking lot by the ship and drove us to the train station, giving us instructions on where to go to get our tickets where to board the train. The ride up to Frasure was beautiful—there was a little bit of fog here and there but it did not distract from the ride. At the Frasure Station there were numerous buses and vans waiting for their clients who rode the train, but no Dave. After about 10 minutes, someone from one of the other tours companies came up to us and said the Dave’s van had a flat tire on the way up, but they were fixing it and would be there shortly. About 5 minutes later a tour guide for Frontier Excursions came up to us and said that Dave’s driver could not get the lug nuts off the wheel and that Dave arranged for them to take us on their tour to Emerald Lake. We were very disappointed that we were not with Dyea Dave as originally planned, (especially since he had told my husband that he would take him into the WP&YR rail yard to see all the equipment) but we ended up going and seeing most everything we wanted. We were not impressed with Caribou Crossing or the BBQ lunch, Emerald Lake was beautiful and all the sightseeing locations were wonderful. The day ended up clear and sunny and it finally stopped raining! After the tour was over, we were dropped off in the downtown area. We went to the Klondike Goldrush National Park and saw their excellent movie. Additionally we had some time to hit the shops.

Thursday, Glacier Bay: The day was again cold and rainy. It took some time to get to the glaciers, but once we did, wow! The views of Lampaugh, Marjorie and Pacific Glaciers were amazing. We heard the crack of calving a lot, but did not see any. Unfortunately, we did not see very much wildlife.

Friday, College Fjords: This was again a sea day as we did not get to the glaciers until later in the day. Harvard Glacier was awesome. Again, we heard but could not see the calving and saw very little wildlife.

Saturday, Disembarkment/Seward:
Disembarkment: Disembarking was very easy. The elevators were not crowded and we walked off the ship at 7:30am with all of our luggage— there was no waiting in any assigned place at an assigned time. My husband waited in the terminal with our luggage while I walked the two or so blocks to the Avis Rental Agency at the Harbor Store. Oh, by the way, it was raining again! I only waited about 5 minutes until they opened and I was out of there in another 10 minutes. We loaded the luggage and were first in line at 8:30am for the 9:00am tunnel. All of the busses waiting in line to leave Whittier had first priority into the tunnel, so we did not start into the tunnel until 9:15am. It rained until we got to Seward.

[joand452]

Thanks for your review. We did the southbound version of your cruise back in 2006. We went early in the season, so didn't have as much rain as you did. I loved Alaska would love to go back. We also did Anytime Dining and never had to wait. Do people still complain about the waits? I haven't noticed, since our last two cruises were on RCI. But we'll do Anytime again in March.

Hope your husbands medical problems are over--best wishes to him.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the great review.

[Cruise Junky]

Glad you enjoyed Sapphire, we can't wait!!

[kooljamming]

We were on Sapphire Princess in February and had a great time, snagging E732. We had no problem getting a table for two in the dining room. A matter of fact, we wanted to sit with a large group but was offered that seating every night. I felt the same about the food in the MDR on Sapphire and Golden Princess. I did not care for the 'gussied' up preparation but enjoyed the buffet.

Thanks for the review