AdmiralQ

I leave this Wednesday on a flight to Singapore to join the Sapphire Princess for a SE Asia cruise. Looking at the few recent reviews, it seems the food and entertainment is severely subpar on this ship and am more than a little concerned. I've only cruised once with Princess, on the Caribbean Princess for a short 5 day Caribbean cruise last year. I found the food to be decent to good, but the on-board entertainment fairly limited and frankly, not that good.

At this point, I wish we would have chosen a different cruise, but we can't do anything about that now. Does anyone have any insights or other information regarding the Sapphire? I realize most people are more inclined to leave an online review if they are unhappy with a product than if they are satisfied, but nearly every recent review for this ship is uniformly horrible.

Is this ship the dumping ground of Princess' fleet, or is something else at play here?

I've sailed on Carnival, HAL, Princess and Celebrity, and I found Celebrity's food to be the absolute worst among those lines. I'd put Carnival and Princess tied for the top spot. But that's not saying much....basically any cruise line serves barely edible dreck, unless you visit the specialty restaurants. Guys burgers deserves a special spot in cruise food hell for trying to pass off that grease on a bun abomination for a real burger though.

I don't cruise for the food though. I'm there to party, meet people and generally have a good time. If I want to have good food, I stay on land. At home, I eat out at restaurants for lunch 5 days a week, and dinner 6-7 days a week. Basically, my kitchen goes unused. And when I travel on land, I tend to seek out Michelin-starred restaurants to dine in.

But I know comparing a 3000 person capacity ship's cuisine to a fine restaurant isn't fair. I have had very good meals at sea, especially in HAL's specialty restaurants. But you have to be ready to pay the upcharge if you want decent food.

But for some reason, I adore the smoked salmon on a bagel sandwich in the deli on Carnival...it's my go to lunch nearly every day.

I am taking my first HAL cruise next month to Alaska on the Amsterdam and wanted to get a feel for what HAL and other cruisers consider "formal" wear. I'm in my 30's and am very fashion forward. I tend to purchase higher end clothing and ties don't often make an appearance in runway shows anymore - sport coats and tuxedos might as well be a death sentence for a designer. For formal night, would this suit featured at fashion week in Milan from Fendi for their spring/summer collection be fine for the MDR?

I've been on Carnival, Princess and Celebrity, and all of the food I would rank on par with a TGI Fridays, Applebees, Olive Garden type of restaurant on land. With the exception of the specialty restaurants, which would be a slight step up. Whoever goes on a mass market line and raves about the food doesn't know good cuisine. I'm sailing on HAL for the first time this August to Alaska, and am expecting nothing different as far as the food is concerned - edible but that's about it. As long as you go in with low expectations, you won't be disappointed. If you do get a good meal, then you will enjoy it that much more.

Strangely, I've found Carnival to surprise me with decent to good food more often than the other lines...

Good comparison, I really appreciate it. My last cruise was on the Caribbean Princess and I have two Alaska cruises booked for Aug 9, one on the Ruby Princess and the other on the HAL Amsterdam. Itineraries are pretty identical, so I'm in the process of deciding which one to cancel and which one to go on. This would be my first cruise on HAL, and being in our 30's and enjoying late night activities, I'm slightly concerned that HAL buttons up the ship too early for our tastes. I didn't have any problems with Princess. In fact, I was very pleasantly surprised on how many people stayed up into the wee hours on the Princess sailing. I'd really like to experience another cruise line, and the fact that we have a suite on HAL may push me towards doing the HAL sailing and cancel the Princess one.

Have never seen OBC earmarked for something specific as it is usually just a 'pot of OBC'. Have seen free excursions provided by TAs though. Your OBC can be used for anything that is charged to your account; drinks (alcoholic and soda), wines, specialty coffees, excursions, hotel charge (at about $11.50 / day / person), shop purchases, per charge dinners (Cannelletto or Pinnacle), spa treatments. If you have money left on your last day before disembarkation, you can charge in the casino onto your card, then cash out at the casino cage.

The agency is throwing in dinner for 2 at Pinnacle and another dinner for 2 at Canelletto, so I wonder how that will be reflected on the bill - hopefully just another chunk of OBC. That's a great tip on charging in the casino, then cashing it out at the cage. Never thought of that before - any OBC I've ever received has never made it to the end of the cruise so haven't had to worry about it :)

Thanks! Good to know I won't be limited to using the credit just for shore excursions. I thought it might have been limited since they specified a $600 credit towards excursions and a $100 OBC separately on the booking confirmation. We will probably end up using the credits towards the unlimited drink packages and book excursions on our own.

I booked my first HAL cruise - a 7-day Alaska sailing this August on the Amsterdam - and am receiving a $600 shore excursion credit through the company I booked through. I was looking to reserve some excursions through HAL's website, but it looks like you have to prepay at the time you book the excursion. I usually do tours and excursions on my own, but don't remember any other line I've sailed on requiring me to prepay for their shore excursions. They usually just show up on your room bill at the end of the cruise.

Can I not reserve any excursions in advance through HAL? Will I have to just book the excursions once on board to use up my excursion credit? Having to prepay for a fairly pricey shore excursion 4 or 5 months out just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. HAL is basically sitting on my money - earning interest on it I am sure - from the time I prepay until the money is disbursed to the tour operator. It just sounds like something a company struggling with cash flow would do.

It's a 4 day on the Caribbean Princess to Grand Cayman. Looks like I'll probably skip the suit. I like to travel as light as I can and the suit will just take up too much space in my luggage if no one or hardly anyone else will be wearing one.

Thanks for all the info! I didn't spend any time looking at deck plans so it's good to know we will most likely be on Dolphin. I'm really looking forward to trying Princess.

Although I'm kinda bummed there's no formal night on 4 night cruises. Will I look out of place if I do wear a suit and tie one night?

This will be my first cruise with Princess. I'm Platinum with Carnival and have cruised a few other lines as well, but decided to try something different and booked a mini-suite and chose to let Princess pick the cabin. My friend and I just booked this past weekend and are now 23 days away from sailing. How far in advance of departure will Princess assign us a cabin? Any chance, however small, of getting upgraded to a full suite?

Jolly Pirates all the way. It wasn't on a cruise, but we were staying in Aruba for 5 days or so and did JP. One of the best times I've ever had on vacation. They do a great job and can't recommend them enough.

I was on the Glory sometime in April or May and spent 2-3 hours each day playing blackjack. My bets were in the range of $25 to $75 a hand and every day the pit boss would offer to buy me drinks. I turned them down since I had Cheers. They never offered me anything else. I'm on the Elation in 2 days. We'll see if anything else comes my way.

Got off the Glory this past Sunday. Despite the apparently rave reviews, the Guys burgers need to be avoided by anyone wishing for something other than a disgusting mass of goo consisting of approximately 97% grease. I couldn't even swallow my second bite of that abomination they try to pass off as gourmet burger. I'm willing to eat anything - I've eaten grilled beetles, ants, snails, lutefisk, foie gras, rattlesnake, etc. and that burger was seriously the most disgusting thing I've had the misfortune to try. I'd rather eat Crisco by the spoonful - it would be just as healthy.

The fries were excellent, though.

That sucks that you missed out on the Jolly Pirates. I stayed for 5 days or so in Aruba 3 or 4 years back and did the Jolly Pirates sail and snorkel tour. It was a great experience and they kept the rum punches flowing freely the whole time. The rope swing was a blast. Definitely in the top 2 or 3 things we did there.

Aruba is busy, touristy and Miami (ish) IMO. I'm not a fan of the high rises on the beach vacation.

 

I was looking for something different to do there, and came across

http://www.jolly-pirates.com/

 

I booked the Sail. Snorkel. Swing all inclusive before we ever left. We were to meet at 0830 on Palm Beach ( maybe 15-20 minutes from the port). I woke up super early, couldn't go back to sleep. And of course, I finally did. In our cozy little bat cave of a room. The next thing I know, Angus is up telling me, lets move, it's 7:15 and we need to get going. I'd showered the night before, so I put on a swimsuit, and went to call the girls, picked up my iphone and guess what, it's 8:20. Angus read the clock wrong. ( And I slept through it ) There was no way to dress, get off the ship, get to Palm Beach and catch the boat. So, there was $200 down the drain.

 

We woke the girls figuring we'd make the best of it. I hate wandering aimlessly with no plans when you're anywhere for a short time. We decided a last minute beach day and headed to Eagle beach as it's less crowded. Well, less crowded is an understatement. There were no chairs and people sleeping on tents on the beach. With nowhere to sit or get something to eat or drink we headed to Palm instead. The Las Vegas of Caribbean beaches. Huzzah. At this point, I wanted to scrap it. But, I tried to keep a happy face for the girls. We walked down the beach and found a place to rent chairs ($60 for 4, are you kidding me!?) I bought a couple diet cokes in the beach bar and got on free wifi just long enough to find out my son (home watching the dogs) had popped a tire while parking my car and give him the CC info to replace it so I had a vehicle when I got home. Caroline was not at peak performance. After a while we canned it and headed back to the ship. Crappy day. Definitely NOT budget friendly. We did not even take pictures.

Awesome review! Love the writing style and very entertaining so far. Keep it up!

That is allI want too.

 

 

 

Why doesn't this surprise me. Frankly, I do undertand what you are saying. I sort of had the same type thing happen on my first cruise. Everyone had talked about the main dining room and how well you were looked after and how the servers went out of their way to make you happy and the people you would meet. Every single request I made was met with a no. There were 9 people at a 10 top table. A husband and wife who were so drunk by the end of the meal they could barely stagger out of the room. One man that had been left by his girlfriend a few days before the cruise arrived drunk every night, rolled around on the table and cried thru the whole meal. One young Japanese woman who did not speak a word of english that did this weird ritual every night that ended in drinking something that left her tongue black. It was like eating at a table with a chow dog. We did not even go back the last 3 nights and I removed all tips for the dining room. My service there was so awful to the point of being served the wrong thing and when I finally got it across to the server, she said she would get it fixed and never did.

 

I honestly do not know why I ever did it again, but I am glad I did. I think I am up to about 15 now, and none have ever been as bad as that first one.

That is pure comedy gold there. You should write a book, or at least a short story about those dinners.

I have never, ever seen security ask anyone with a drink inside the club for their ID after they have already been carded at the entrance. All security cares about is people keeping their drinks off the dance floor at that point, and even then they are pretty half-hearted most of the time.

Thanks. I appreciate the info!

Would love to do celebrity but their pricing for 12 days in Europe is liable to give this 30 yo a heart attack.

It depends what dates you are looking at. October or November (granted not the absolute best months to visit Europe, but it's not bad at all), Celebrity has some very, very reasonable prices on their Europe cruises. June, July, August - yeah not so much.

I'm heading out on the Glory this Sunday. I'm Platinum and have an aft extended balcony by myself, while my buddy I'm going with - first cruise for him - has an inside. He has FTTF and I'm wondering how check-in will be. Will he be able stay with me through check-in and boarding, or will we be separated? It really doesn't matter to me, but since it's his first cruise, if I'm on first and tell him to "meet me on Lido", I can imagine him getting lost and ending up in the kids club or something... :)

I'm Platinum on Carnival, but did a Caribbean itinerary last year on Celebrity - my first on them. Contrary to what I was expecting, the nightlife was very active on Celebrity. I was pleasantly surprised. I've booked an 12-night South Pacific for this fall on Celebrity and chose the unlimited alcohol package. I'm leaving on a 7-day on the Glory this Sunday, and for what I paid for the room and what I'll spend on alcohol (even with the Cheers package), the 12-night Celebrity cruise is going to cost me less than the 7-night on Carnival.

The higher-end lines are starting approach Carnival pricing during certain parts of the year. Carnival is going to have to start improving their product or start losing customers to other lines. Carnival's low prices have kept them as the industry leader, but their margins have obviously been squeezed by cost cutting and lower prices, so something eventually will have to give.

I agree with the OP completely. I will avoid at all costs cruising during summer break, Christmas break and Easter break. I have no problem with well behaved kids and feel they are welcome anywhere - as long as they are not acting like animals.

However, I have much more disdain for the parents of the misbehaving kids than the children themselves. There are billions of kids on the planet - your kid is not special, he or she is not entitled to special treatment, he or she is not as cute as you think, not as smart as you think, not as well behaved as you believe, and others don't think your spawn are god's gift to civilization. In fact, the more often you have to remind others of how special your kid is, the more likely they are ugly, stupid, and/or horribly behaved.

If people go on cruises for the supposedly "gourmet" food, they are very much mistaken. Granted, it's not horrible cuisine like some reviewers make it out to be, but it's simply mediocre-to-good food that is similar to any middle-of-the-road chain restaurant that can be found coast to coast in America.

Granted, if someone's idea of a fine meal is at their local Applebee's, maybe Carnival or any other mass market cruise line will be a slight upgrade. But it simply isn't in the same league as the cuisine that can be found in restaurants at any middle to large sized city in America. Find yourself a Michelin starred restaurant and you're talking a whole other universe.

I enjoy many of the dishes on Carnival, but I never understood the people who rant or rave about the food. You can do much, much better by staying home and finding a good restaurant in your hometown.

You have to remember that front-line customer service reps - in any industry - aren't exactly the best and brightest employees. Most of the time, they are just collecting a paycheck until a better job comes along.

Anytime you get an answer from a call center drone you don't think is correct or you don't like, just thank them for their time and hang up. Then call again and ask the same question. If after doing this 4 or 5 times you continue to get the same answer, then that answer is most likely correct.