Sapphire Princess Review 01-30-2010 Cruise

[waunabcruizin]

This is the first review I have written so if I forget anything let me know.

 

Us: Three women in our 60's from Washington State.

Cabin: Mini-suite on Dolphin deck mid-ships.

Pre-Embarkation: We flew down to Long Beach Airport on Friday afternoon prior to cruise departure on Saturday. We had reserved Prime Time shuttle service from Long Beach Airport to the Doubletree Inn San Pedro and would NOT recommend this service. There was no shuttle waiting for us at the airport and after two calls to the dispatch office the shuttle finally arrived more than an hour after our scheduled pickup time of 5:25 PM. We didn't arrive at our hotel until nearly 7:30 PM.

Hotel: The Doubletree was comfortable and clean and in a nice location. A free shuttle service was provided for anywhere within a few miles of the hotel and we engaged it for a quick trip to Von's Supermarket to buy our wine for the cruise. We ate dinner and breakfast at the hotel. The food was very good, service was slow and the prices were on the high side. Very good food, though, so the price didn’t hurt as much as it could have.

Embarkation: The free shuttle service from the hotel to the cruise terminal was very popular and by the time we booked our spots in the van the only room available was on the 10:00 AM shuttle. We actually left about 9:45 AM in the event, and arrived at the pier at around 10:00 AM. The instant the van pulled up to the curb the porters were on hand with the carts for the luggage. We had attached our self-printed luggage tags before we left the hotel and the bags were whisked away not to be seen again until they appeared in our stateroom around 2:00 PM. Check-in was absolutely painless, very efficient, and in no time, it seemed, we were in the waiting area with group 1 boarding cards. After a short wait in the waiting area we were cleared to board and were on board by 11:15 AM where we made a quick stop at the Passenger Services Desk to sign up for the Ultimate Ship’s Tour, then a quick stop at our stateroom to drop off our carry-on bags and meet our room steward. We tried the International Dining Room for lunch but the room was closed and we were left with the Horizon Court for lunch where we were lucky enough to score a window table and had a very nice buffet lunch with a view of the Vincent Thomas Bridge and L.A. Harbor. After lunch we explored the ship and then headed back to our stateroom to see if our bags were there. They were, so we unpacked and got squared away in time for the obligatory muster drill, which left us a little time for a change of clothes and a drink before our early dinner seating at 5:45 PM.

Food and Dining: We had requested a large table for traditional early seating and were very disappointed to discover we were assigned a 4-top in a corner. In addition, dinner on the first night (I had prime rib) was disappointing as the prime rib was very fatty and not very appetizing. We very nearly requested a change either in seating arrangements or from traditional to anytime but because of our outstanding waiter, Bognan, we decided to hold off on the decision until after night two. In the end we stayed put and were okay with it, but still would have preferred a large table where we might have enjoyed interesting dinner companions.

After the first night’s dinner the food was good to excellent every night. Some of it was even outstanding but since food is so subjective I won’t presume to detail which was what. The buffet was ….. a buffet. What can I say. None of it was bad, but none of it was memorable, either. The onboard hamburgers were very, very good and the pizza was great. Salads were good – crispy lettuce and fresh veggies topped with good dressings. Like I say, though, nothing memorable.

Entertainment: Only fair, at best. The singers and dancers tried hard but in the end there wasn’t enough talent to pull off the one show we saw. We didn’t have the desire to see additional attempts. The lounge shows were loud but again, devoid of talent, in our opinion. The sole exception was a piano player, comedian, singer named Paul Burton who played in the Crooners Lounge in the evenings. He was hilarious and was very entertaining. He had a show the final night in the Princess Theater, but as we still needed to finish packing we did not go so we don’t know how he fared in a venue larger than a bar lounge. In general the singers weren’t very good, the bands were mediocre and way too loud and the entertainment altogether was…., well I may as well say it, pathetic in our opinion. Certainly not up to the standard of other cruise entertainment we have seen.

Ports and Shore Excursions: Linda and I and Sherry did one shore excursion together in Puerto Vallarta. We booked Los Veranos Canopy Tour Zipline online prior to the cruise and it was one of the highlights of the entire cruise. It poured rain, and I mean a downpour, in Puerto Vallarta but we decided to go ziplining anyway. We were total drowned rats covered in mud and oil from the wet cables when it was all over but we had an absolute blast! We all agree that Los Veranos was outstanding, rain or shine, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. The only negative is the climb from one zipline to the next which is sometimes steep and was treacherously muddy in the rain, but worth it as the ziplines were a real adrenaline rush and so much fun it’s hard to describe it. They gave us a ride back to the ship when it was all over and as their office is in downtown P.V. we were able to see quite a bit of old town enroute. If we ever get back to Puerto Vallarta we would like to spend some time exploring the old part of town. It looks very interesting, indeed.

In Mazatlan, Linda and I wandered around the old town just exploring, while Sherry took a Princess Tour of bird watching and a beach break on Stone Island. She said it was very interesting and worth doing. She also had a whale watching tour booked for Cabo San Lucas, but in the end didn’t go as she picked up a little stomach/bowel problem eating fresh salsa in Mazatlan, so we all just wandered around a little in Cabo doing nothing much at all. I think we just bought t-shirts, took some pictures and called it good. Since the ship sails at 2:00 PM from Cabo San Lucas, and the last tender loads at 1:00 PM, there isn’t really much time to do anything in Cabo San Lucas. But the weather was good and the port fun to wander around in.

Stateroom: We had a mini-suite and it was quite comfortable for the three of us. Sherry ended up with the pull-out sofa bed, and with an egg crate on the mattress she said it was do-able. In fact, she said she was quite comfortable on the sofa bed. That’s a dramatic departure from the reviews found on Cruise Critic regarding the pull out sofa beds. Again, like food, this is pretty subjective so what worked for her might cripple me or someone else. There was lots of storage and it’s well arranged so none of us felt cramped. The balcony was wonderful ---- when we could use it. As many have reported, smokers curtailed what should have been a great addition to our cruise experience. We were able to read outside on our balcony of an afternoon only once, when apparently our resident CIGAR, yes cigar, smoker was apparently ashore. Other times, both pipe and cigarette smoke, in addition to the cigar, invaded our balcony, and even our stateroom if the slider was open, making the balcony unusable for any of us.

Miscellaneous: The Ultimate Ship’s Tour was outstanding in every respect. Linda and I thought it was worth every penny of the $150 per person charge for this tour and it was the highlight of our cruise. There are threads dedicated to the description of the tour so I won’t go into it all in this review but would like, instead, just to say that it was apparent that every department and every person that we met was bursting with pride at their position with Princess! And also, that every inch of that entire city underneath deck 4 is as spotlessly clean as your freshly made-up stateroom. The laundry, galley, print shop, crew area, everything! is just incredibly clean and orderly. The crew has every right to be bursting with pride. They are indeed awesome.

[cruzinchris]

Thanks for the commentary on your recent voyage on the Sapphire Princess. Glad that you made the best of the ziplining experience despite the rain, and I know what you mean about smoking on adjacent balconies - a bummer, to be sure. Hopefully, you have some very special memories of your cruise and can easily overlook the minor nuisances like GoBlueCruiser and I do :)

Chris

[Karkies25]

thanks for the review

[BlueSkySunshine]

Hey there, girls,

Thanks for the great review! You covered everything! What was your stateroom number? We will be on the same deck, same area next month.

Perhaps I will give the egg crate a try.

Thanks again!

[waunabcruizin]

Well, I just discovered the final page of my review is missing. Guess I didn't cut and paste correctly. Here's the last of the review:

 

Conclusion: Overall we each enjoyed our cruise and had a great time in spite of some of the disappointments. Princess puts out a fun experience, the Sapphire Princess is a beautiful ship, and we came home refreshed and smiling. That said, however, Linda and I will most likely not cruise with Princess again due to their smoking policy. It affected our enjoyment of the cruise and, while we had a good time in spite of it, we both agree we don’t want to deal with the smoking issue again. I might add that while we were on the bridge during the Ship’s Tour, a fire alarm went off on the bridge monitor system indicating smoke in a cabin on Baja deck. The bridge crew immediately responded and after receiving no answer to their phone call to the cabin, dispatched Security to the cabin to investigate. It turned out to be a cigarette left smoldering in an ash tray after the occupants went out. Without due diligence by the crew this sort of thing could, and has in the past, start a fire that threatens the safety of all of us on board. Given a choice, Linda and I will book our next cruise elsewhere.

Sorry for the length of this review. If we can answer any questions we’re happy to do so. Oh, and Thanks! to Cruise Critic! You guys are wonderful!

Carol and Linda

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[waunabcruizin]

Thanks for the commentary on your recent voyage on the Sapphire Princess. Glad that you made the best of the ziplining experience despite the rain, and I know what you mean about smoking on adjacent balconies - a bummer, to be sure. Hopefully, you have some very special memories of your cruise and can easily overlook the minor nuisances like GoBlueCruiser and I do :)

Chris

 

We had a great time on the cruise and have lots of wonderful special memories. The Sapphire is a fantastic ship with a fantastic crew and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Because of Linda's lung situation, though (hypersensitivity pneumonitis), smoking is a problem for her and we will most likely book our next cruise on Celebrity instead of Princess. We do have a cruise booked on NCL's Norwegian Spirit next January but we may well cancel it in favor of a Celebrity or Oceania itinerary. I'm not very good at reviews and in rereading this one it comes across as rather negative. I sure didn't mean it that way. We all had a great time and found the negatives to be minor for the most part. Princess is a very good cruise line but given Linda's lung situation we end up being much more sensitive to smoking that most people are. Celebrity and/or Oceania might be a better alternative for us. Or....we could book an oceanview or inside instead of the balcony. That would work too as smoking in general on the ship presented no problems at all. Regards to all,

 

Carol and Linda.

[waunabcruizin]

Hey there, girls,

Thanks for the great review! You covered everything! What was your stateroom number? We will be on the same deck, same area next month.

Perhaps I will give the egg crate a try.

Thanks again!

 

Egg crates on all beds work great. We were in D600, a little aft of midship. The location was great for motion sensitive people but we were rather far from both the mid and aft elevators. It was kind of a hike to get anywhere - which probably was a good thing! Enjoy the cruise.

 

Carol and Linda.

[cruzinchris]

We had a great time on the cruise and have lots of wonderful special memories. The Sapphire is a fantastic ship with a fantastic crew and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Because of Linda's lung situation, though (hypersensitivity pneumonitis), smoking is a problem for her and we will most likely book our next cruise on Celebrity instead of Princess. We do have a cruise booked on NCL's Norwegian Spirit next January but we may well cancel it in favor of a Celebrity or Oceania itinerary. I'm not very good at reviews and in rereading this one it comes across as rather negative. I sure didn't mean it that way. We all had a great time and found the negatives to be minor for the most part. Princess is a very good cruise line but given Linda's lung situation we end up being much more sensitive to smoking that most people are. Celebrity and/or Oceania might be a better alternative for us. Or....we could book an oceanview or inside instead of the balcony. That would work too as smoking in general on the ship presented no problems at all. Regards to all,

 

Carol and Linda.

 

Carol,

I didn't find your review to be at all negative. Your comments about your cruise are honest, fair, and balanced: You mentioned the positive aspects of the voyage as well as things that were displeasing. The best reviews are those that praise what should be praised as well as pointing out those things that could be improved. Your review did just that!

 

Thanks, again, for sharing your cruise experience here at CC.

Chris

[Clutterlady]

Thank you for your fair and honest review:)

[rmul]

Carol and Linda - Thanks for a great review. My husband and I are in D600 on the 5/1 sailing. How was your room steward?

 

Jan

[waunabcruizin]

Carol and Linda - Thanks for a great review. My husband and I are in D600 on the 5/1 sailing. How was your room steward?

 

Jan

 

Hi Jan - The room steward was great. His name is Dionisious, or Dioni (dee oh knee) for short. We tried to keep the room neat with three of us in there and he was very prompt at making the room up while we were away at dinner and breakfast. Ice was always available in the bucket in our fridge, fresh towels when required and he even washed out our wine glasses for us. We never had to ask him for anything. Oh, well, once we locked ourselves out of our safe (!!) and had to ask him to send someone to open it. Even that was very prompt! We left him an additional $20 apiece for his good service. Tell him hello from Carol, Linda and Sherry when you see him if he is still there. Enjoy!

 

Carol and Linda.

[gertz]

Thank you for your review. We loved the Sapphire. Next time if you are served something you are not happy with send it back immediately.

[stretchcruz]

Thank you for your review and the time you spent writing it. We will be on the Sapphire 3/20 and we're looking forward to it.

We no longer book balcony cabins because of the smoking. We book insides or outside depending on the price, don't want to waste our money on a balcony that cannot be used (our Grand Princess cruise was the deal breaker there....surrounded by cigarette and cigar smokers). We agree with you on that, for sure!

Thanks again for taking the time to review.

[KruzPrincess]

Thanks for the review. I'll be on the Sapphire in 1 1/2 weeks! It's fun to read about your experiences.

[Working 2 Cruise]

Well, I just discovered the final page of my review is missing. Guess I didn't cut and paste correctly. Here's the last of the review:

 

Conclusion: Overall we each enjoyed our cruise and had a great time in spite of some of the disappointments. Princess puts out a fun experience, the Sapphire Princess is a beautiful ship, and we came home refreshed and smiling. That said, however, Linda and I will most likely not cruise with Princess again due to their smoking policy. It affected our enjoyment of the cruise and, while we had a good time in spite of it, we both agree we don’t want to deal with the smoking issue again. I might add that while we were on the bridge during the Ship’s Tour, a fire alarm went off on the bridge monitor system indicating smoke in a cabin on Baja deck. The bridge crew immediately responded and after receiving no answer to their phone call to the cabin, dispatched Security to the cabin to investigate. It turned out to be a cigarette left smoldering in an ash tray after the occupants went out. Without due diligence by the crew this sort of thing could, and has in the past, start a fire that threatens the safety of all of us on board. Given a choice, Linda and I will book our next cruise elsewhere.

 

Sorry for the length of this review. If we can answer any questions we’re happy to do so. Oh, and Thanks! to Cruise Critic! You guys are wonderful!

 

Carol and Linda

 

I don't think there is such a thing as a "non-smoking" ship, although Regent and Oceania have more restrictive policies. If you can afford their price ranges, go for it!

[waunabcruizin]

I don't think there is such a thing as a "non-smoking" ship, although Regent and Oceania have more restrictive policies. If you can afford their price ranges, go for it!

 

Yeah, the price difference is pretty stiff - and no, we can't afford Regent and would have to struggle with Oceania. However, Celebrity, with whom we have cruised twice, now restricts smoking on balconies and staterooms so we most likely will return to Celebrity as our cruise line of choice unless there is a compelling itinerary that would make us consider Princess again.

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Was on the Diamond last year (sister to Sapphire) and loved it. MDR food was some of the best I've ever experienced. The Sterling steakhouse was way better than the crown grill on either the Emerald or Ruby (imho).

 

Bob

[superfcbear]

Thank you for this wonderful, honest review!! We are going this weekend and your review pointed out a few things I should look into!

 

I have a question: you said you left the hotel at 9:45 and got there at 10... On Princess' website it said don't arrive the pier until 2PM! When should we actually arrive? we'll be staying at the holiday inn at Long Beach so hopefully just as close as you were from your hotel

 

i have been watching the weather forecast and it seems like Cabo/PV is going to be rainy :(

 

thanks again

[rmul]

Carol and Linda

 

Thanks for your reply abpout Dioniscious(dee oh knee). We hope he is still there and we will be sure to tell him that Carol,Linda and Sherry said hello.

 

Jan

[mamaboss]

Excellent review. Thank you. I feel so lucky as i have cruised 4 times, always balcony and have never had a smoker next to me (i should not have said that i bet, lol) looking forward to hawaii next year on sapphire, she gets great reviews.

[wizard-of-roz]

Carol & Linda: Thank for sharing your insights onboard the Sapphire. We've cruised her many, many times and will be onboard her again in November.

We've only had one experience onboard her last year, when someone was smoking in the Wheelhouse Bar and the smell and wafting smoke was so insidious. We had to get-up and move ourselves. I don't think any ship has the appropriate air circulation system to allow smokers and non-smokers to inhabit the same areas. It's a long, protracted problem.

Again, thanks for sharing your experiences onboard our favorite ship!

[waunabcruizin]

Thank you for this wonderful, honest review!! We are going this weekend and your review pointed out a few things I should look into!

 

I have a question: you said you left the hotel at 9:45 and got there at 10... On Princess' website it said don't arrive the pier until 2PM! When should we actually arrive? we'll be staying at the holiday inn at Long Beach so hopefully just as close as you were from your hotel

 

i have been watching the weather forecast and it seems like Cabo/PV is going to be rainy :(

 

thanks again

 

Hi 'bear' - We wanted to be among the first to board because we intended to sign up for the Ultimate Ship's Tour ....and they take only the first twelve persons signing up. We were prepred to wait at the terminal for however long required to ensure we'd be among the first boarding group. It turned out that the wait was much shorter than we anticipated and the time at the terminal just flew by. It helped that we met some earlybird CC friends at the terminal who kept us entertained and before we knew it we were boarding. I know Princess tells you 2:00 PM but we've always been able to board before 12:00 on every cruise we've done. Whatever time you arrive I know you'll have a great cruise. Even with rain in PV and Cabo. At least it's warm rain, not like here!! We wore 'waterproof' (NOT!) anoraks with a hood and if they had really been waterproof we'd have been fine. As it was we were soaked through and muddy from head to foot (ziplining in P.V.-what a blast!) and when we got back to the ship we each took a hot shower and then Linda and I hit the laundromat with all our wet, muddy clothes and a good book. In about an hour or so the clothes were clean, folded and put away and we still had time for a glass or two of wine and appetizers before dinner. Ahhh, yes. Cruising!

 

Oh, btw, we enjoyed the most spectacular lightning display all around the horizon after we returned from early dining the evening we sailed from P.V. It was incredible! The wind got up and the sea had whitecaps everywhere but Sapphire was stable and comfortable through it all and we stood at our slider looking out at this incredible lightning show....it was fantastic! Cheers,

 

Carol

[BlueSkySunshine]

Hey there, Carol, Linda & Sherry!

 

Again, thanks for the review.

 

The reason I asked about your room # is because it is close to our room when we sail 3/20. We are in D620. I hope we will have the same steward as he sounds great!

 

I'm so sorry that you couldn't use your balcony due to the smoke :( and I'm glad you brought it to everyone's attention because those of us who smoke need to know that when we smoke on our balconys the smoke doesn't just drift off, that it can and does drift into areas where non smokers are. Whew, that was a really long sentence.

 

I always try to be considerate of non smokers. I don't even smoke in my house, I go out on the porch even when it's only 10 degrees like this morning! I think that most of us smokers do try to be considerate, but that stupid smoke has a mind of it's own! Just in case some of you are thinking "she has cancer and she smokes? OMG, what's wrong with her?"

I get that a lot! The answer is YES, I do. If you're curious as to why, just ask.

Bottom line is, I will absolutely be as careful as possible not to offend anyone while smoking on my balcony. I want all of us to have a great crusie :)