sapphire princess 6/20-current

On board Sapphire Princess now. Great ship. Think Grand Princess on steroids! Many of the improvements are wonderful, such as the nice internet cafe I am currently in. Some, maybe not as good, such as the new way of doing personal dining by making reservations for one of the four dining areas.

Embarkation was very smooth starting about 11am. I took the ship transfer from the airport and was quite pleased as no luggage was handled after the airport. There was no line for express check in but there was an area for Platinum and Elite. Heard a couple of criticisms of the handicap check in being ignored for awhile, but my personal experience was great.

Balcony room on Caribe mostly like similar rooms on other Princess ships recently. Showers are bigger than on the Island Princess, or at least seems so. This ship is rigged for noise reduction and very quiet.

Very positive experience to date and would recommend ship and Alaska itinerary.

Sounds awesome!! Glad you are having a wonderful time. :)

I am so glad to hear that you are having such a wonderful time. Please tell us all about your excursions, and the ships entertainment. We leave in a week! Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your trip.

Thanks for taking time to write :) How is the weather there? Did you do the Skagway train/bus tour or "do it yourself"? Someone suggested renting a carbut we don't know whether the rental car office is nearby or not . If it works, we can save a bunch of money (cost x 4 of us).

Thanks again :)

When you get to Ketchikan to the left of the pier is an internet cafe with dell computer for $5 for 20 minutes and $8 for an hour. Just a time from someone back from the Sapphire to help you stay in touch. The internet cafe on board is not free or reliable. Keep in touch. Hope they got the tendering down pat in Juneau for your cruise.

Horizon, 9/5/04, Sapphire Princess, 6/13/004, Zuiderdam-2003,

Constellation -2003, Infinity-2002, Vision of the Seas-2002,

Mercury-2001, Norwegian Sky-2000, Horizon-2000, Ryndam-1999, Grand Princess-1999, Westerdam-1998, Grand Princess-1998, Oriania-1997

1985-1996-3-HAL, 1-RCCL, 2-NCL, 11-Princess, 1-Royal, 1-Cunard

Richard to the right of the pier is a cafe with $5 for an hour rates, good connections too, also can be used in other ports, cyberstation is the name.

Prarie...I know this is the last minute as you will disembark tomorrow morning...

but, could you please check something for me and if you can't get back tonight

post when you get home. I would really like to know what the age breakdown of

the kids' program is on the Sapphire. I am getting mixed age breakdowns all over

the place. We will see you go by our place tonight about 3:30 am. Welcome back

to Seattle.

Hope you have a great trip and keep those reports coming.;)

Debbie

:D Welcome back, June 20 Sapphire Princess Cruisers :)

**** We need details, please give us details *** I am so NOT ready for this trip. I know I need to pack, but I just don't have time. There are so much to read from this board now that the search option is working :)

**** We NEED trip report, please write if you can :D ***

Yeah and copies of the menu and patters

I had a great trip! See my Sapphire princess quick review. Strongly suggest making dinner reservations immediately upon boarding the ship. Formal nights are the two sea days, for my trip Monday and Friday. Tracy Arms was awesome and we saw both glaciers as well as seeing the Diamond Princess as she entered the arm. Get up really early for the best Tracy Arms experience.

Did not get copies of the menu. I think Alaska Crab legs were for Thursday night, lobster for Friday night. Filet mignon in Sterling was good. Horizon court was not as good as usual. I think they are paying the increased cost of fuel by cutting the quality of Horizon Court. Lots of cheap desserts, pasta and rice dishes like my family would make to stretch the food budget.

Make sure to mark your baggage for disembarkation. Otherwise, my disembarkation was the best experience in my 7 cruises to date. I was actually looking around to see where the line was in the atrium area, but there was no line, just walked up to the door and disembarked!

Victoria disembarking was a real mess for anyone on a tour. Hope they improve upon this, but a great time was had once off the ship. Walked all over the tourist area after my formal tour ended and had a great time!