Sapphire Princess photo review & comparison to Carnival

[Spaniel Lover]

Miscellaneous Pictures

 

Here are a few photos I shot that just didn't seem to belong anywhere else in this story, up until now...

 

 

 

 

Of the four days we were onboard, we had the best weather when we visited Santa Barbara...

which was kind of ironic, since we only live a little more than an hour from there.

It was actually a lot warmer in Santa Barbara than it was in Ensenada, Mexico!

 

 

 

Heading back to the ship after a brief shore excursion to the exotic Santa Barbara marina...

I shot this photo when the pilot of the tender popped his head out for a better view.

 

 

 

We got to the San Pedro cruise ship terminal a bit too early and ended up waiting around a long time.

Upside: Group #1 boarding pass!

 

The boarding experience in San Pedro was a little weird. Our experience with Carnival was that boarding usually began around 11 AM... so we showed up at the terminal in San Pedro at 10:20 AM. That was a mistake. They weren't even ready to look at our documents and check us in until 10:50, and the actual boarding didn't begin until after noon for the Elite and Platinum guests. By the time they called group #1, it was 12:20 PM. After that, though, it was quick... and I think we were in the buffet within 10 or 15 minutes, tops.

 

The other weird thing I noticed, although it didn't affect me personally, was that their special lounge wasn't large enough to hold all their Elite and Platinum level guests. A lot of them had to sit out in the main terminal... and I do mean that it was a LOT of them, from what I could see. I'm platinum on Carnival, and they always had good lounges to wait in prior to boarding... except in Long Beach!

[Spaniel Lover]

On an airplane, this would be known as the "Flight Data Recorder"... or "Black Box".

On the Sapphire Princess, it's on the observation area right above the bridge.

I guess it makes sense... if the ship sunk, it would be easy to get to.

But aren't there less public locations on the top of the ship?

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, a lot of us Californians were excited about the NFL playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. Unfortunately, even though the ship was tied up at the dock and not moving whatsoever, the Sapphire Princess had the world's worst satellite TV reception. There were times when they would lose the connection (and the picture and sound) completely every five or ten seconds! It was really frustrating to watch, and then for the 49ers to lose at the end, too! The passengers were really well behaved about it, though... if that happened at a bar on land, there would probably be a riot. I imagine the folks at the guest services desk probably got an earful that day.

 

 

Sapphire Princess docked in Ensenada, Mexico

 

 

 

In case you're wondering, "Hamilton" refers to the city in the Bahamas where the ship is registered

[Spaniel Lover]

Our aft-facing balcony cabin, room A746

 

Planning a cruise is fun to me, and one of the things I like best is weighing all the options regarding the available cabins. I like studying the deck plans of the ship, looking for cabins that have something special about them... and searching Google and YouTube for pictures and videos from people who have been in that cabin before. Therefore, I always try to post at least a few pictures of our cabin to make it easier for other people who are considering that particular cabin in the future.

 

Here's a look at the bed and night stands in cabin A746

 

 

 

Looking in the other direction, you can see the desk (note the hair dryer to the left of the desk)

and the television in the opposite corner. I don't know what the heck that is on the TV!

 

I liked the TV because it had an HDMI input, and I was able to hook my camera to it and see how some of my videos turned out. On Carnival, I've noticed that a lot of the TVs have HDMI inputs... but there's no way to switch over to it. Nothing on the remote, or on the TV, that would allow you to switch inputs. They probably do that so that no one accidentally leaves it switched over to the HDMI input and messes things up for the next week's passengers. It was nice that on Princess, there was no problem in using my camera via the HDMI input.

 

They must have been slowly upgrading the TVs throughout the ship.

I think they must have done ours previous to our arrival onboard.

Down the hall from us, we saw them working at upgrading the TVs along our entire deck.

 

Something about the cabin that surprised me was that the room steward didn't make towel animals for it. On Carnival, you'd find a new towel animal every night after the steward turned down the bed. I thought I read that they did it on Princess, too. Maybe not... or maybe just not on 4-day cruises.

 

The biggest disappointment with the cabin was with the size of the shower and the way the shower head was configured. Even in the least expensive cabins and on the oldest ships, the showers are larger on Carnival than what we had here on Princess. On Carnival, they have this great shower head on a sliding rail so that you can easily adjust the height. The ideal shower head height for Kellyn is much different than what it would be for me... so Carnival's adjustable-height shower head is ideal for us. Also, on Carnival you can remove the shower head from the wall and go handheld. The entire shower experience was the worst 15 minutes of my day every day of our Princess cruise. The arrangement on Carnival is vastly superior in this area.

 

One thing I've done in many of my most recent Carnival cruises is to book a cabin at the back of the ship. The views at the aft are usually interesting, the balconies are wind protected, and I like being near the adults-only aft pool and the buffet... which are usually at the back of the ship. When possible, I like to be just one deck below the aft pool and buffet so that it's a simple and easy walk up one flight of stairs to get to them.

 

In studying the deck plans of the Sapphire Princess, I was delighted to notice a few cabins that were not just near the adults-only aft pool, they were basically adjacent to it. Take a look at cabins A744, A746, A751, and A749.

 

 

This looked ideal to me, and I jumped at the chance to book cabin A746 so that I would be just a few feet away from the terrace pool, one deck below the buffet restaurant, and two decks below a pair of Jacuzzis. Great location!

 

By the way... deck 12 is known as the "Aloha deck" and that always made me smile in the elevator. There's an automated elevator voice that tells you what deck you're at when the doors are about to open... so every time we would take the elevator to our cabin on deck 12, the elevator would say "Aloha" when we arrived. If you know Hawaiian at all, you know that Aloha means both hello and goodbye... so that's why I always got a smile when the elevator announced that I had arrived at my deck. Was it saying goodbye to me as I prepared to depart the elevator, or saying hello to me as I arrived back "home" on my floor? Perhaps a little bit of both. I never had such questions when taking the elevator to Promenade deck, though!

[Spaniel Lover]

 

See the four blue loungers over on the right side of that photo? Notice that behind them there is a short staircase down. That leads from the Terrace pool area to the cabins on deck 12. We could literally get from our cabin to the Terrace Pool in less than 30 seconds!

 

One other thing to point out in that last photo... look at those blue loungers again and notice that they're really just hard plastic loungers with a blue cover over them. Not a plush, soft cushion like every other part of the ship has... but a think little cover. The whole darned ship had wonderful comfortable loungers... except the loungers right outside my cabin at my favorite pool. Bad luck, I guess!

 

Scroll back up the page, please, and take another look at those deck plans... this time focusing your attention on cabin B750, the Grand Suite that is located directly below our cabin. It doesn't look particularly impressive in the deck plans, does it? Princess does a lousy job of showing it off at Princess.com, too. Here's what you'll see if you look the cabin up at their web site:

 

 

The diagram of the floor plan sure doesn't make it look particularly interesting, and I bet they scare some folks off with the special note in the red type about how the view is partly obstructed due to a support beam. But in reality, I bet this was a pretty nice cabin! Take a look at this picture I shot from the tender as I was making my way back onboard from a shore excursion:

 

The yellow arrow points to the balcony of our cabin, A746.

I've circled the balcony of the Grand Suite, B750, for comparison.

 

The balcony of the Grand Suite literally covers one half of the entire width of the ship! Our balcony was fairly comfortable, and certainly bigger than many other cruise ship balconies we've been on. But the balcony of the Grand Suite is over SIX TIMES as wide as ours! Here's a shot I took on our balcony, and it actually only shows about half of it:

 

 

Imagine what that Grand Suite balcony must have been like! By sticking my head out over the rail and looking down, I could see a little bit of it. It looked pretty sweet! (Insert your own sweet suite joke here...)

 

I was so curious about that Grand Suite that I just had to look it up at Princess.com and see what it cost. For our 4-day cruise, we paid a total of about $1000 for cabin A746. The Grand Suite goes for over $3700!

 

Which brings me to the next part of the story...

[Spaniel Lover]

The Most Amazing Cruise Deal, Ever

 

I've been cruising for a while, and I've seen some sales... and frankly, the only ones that are ever very good are the last minute deals when the cruise line is having trouble filling up a particular sailing of a particular ship. I guess Princess was having a LOT of trouble filling up the Sapphire Princess in January of 2014, because they lured me away from Carnival by offering me a deal that I simply could not pass up. You know the one... there's been a LOT of talk about it here on the Princess board on Cruise Critic!

 

To truly appreciate the story of this amazing cruise deal from my perspective, however, I have to tell you how I heard about it...

 

So, there I was, in a talk radio studio doing a guest spot on our little town's hot afternoon radio talk show. The subject of the hour was cruising, and I was the guest... brought in to talk about my 20 cruises with Carnival. But within the first few minutes of the show, I was feeling a little ambushed by the host... who it turns out had a very negative perception of Carnival and who insisted that Princess was the way to go and that Carnival was like the WalMart of the seas. I pulled out my trump card, which was that Carnival is almost always significantly less expensive than any comparable cruise on a competing cruise line... and then the host hit me with The Cruise Deal Of The Century as evidence that not only was Princess better than Carnival, they were basically offering free cruises out of Los Angeles during the month of January 2014. You can actually listen to the entire thing in

.

 

In case you didn't listen to the audio clip, what the talk show host told me (live on-the-air, with no chance for me to verify it in advance) was the amazing deal that you all know about by know... 100% credit for cruises in January 2014 out of Los Angeles. Well, how could I possibly try to convince the host that Carnival had any better deals than that? They didn't!

 

When the host hit me with that deal live on the air, I just pretty much ignored it and moved on with my other talking points. The reason for that is the old saying about how if you hear something that sounds too good to be true... it probably is. I figured that Dave, the talk show host, was probably totally misinformed... and that once I got home and looked up the details of the deal I would probably find it was full of loopholes or possibly just completely bogus.

 

So, imagine my surprise when I got home that night... looked up the deal on the Internet... and found out that what Dave said was completely true! Princess was essentially offering free cruises out of Los Angeles during the month of January 2014. Wow, they must have REALLY been having trouble filling up the Sapphire Princess to offer a deal like that! I chalked it up to the notoriously bad January weather that hits Los Angeles almost every year. People probably know that January would be about the worst time to cruise out of LA, as far as the weather is concerned.

 

There's one other detail of The Cruise Deal Of The Century that you have to understand to truly appreciate what a great deal this was. Yes, the 100% cruise credit was fantastic... but that wasn't the end of the good news. It turns out that they were offering this deal on every cabin throughout the ship. Think about that for a minute. If they're going to credit you back with 100% of your fare, what incentive is there to book an inexpensive cabin? It doesn't matter if you spend $600, $1000, or $3700 for a cabin... Princess is going to credit it all back towards your next cruise. So why book a cheap cabin?

 

I wasn't the only one to figure that aspect out... and the suites were the first cabins to get booked up. By the time I got wind of the deal, all the suites were booked up. I guess those people in the Grand Suite one floor below my cabin were not so crazy to spend that kind of money on a 4-day cruise after all!

[Spaniel Lover]

Our Next Princess Cruise

 

What made The Cruise Deal Of The Century especially appealing to me was the fact that we already had a 7-day Princess cruise booked for the summer of 2014 anyway... and the deal specifically stated that it could be applied to existing bookings. So, 100% of our Sapphire Princess cruise fare will be credited towards the cruise we've already got booked for this summer on the Coral Princess. After such a great experience on my first Princess cruise, I'm looking forward to the Alaska cruise more than ever! It will be especially sweet since I'll not only be cruising with Kellyn, but also with my three siblings and their spouses.

[Spaniel Lover]

What I Liked About Princess

 

To summarize everything, here's a list of what I liked about my cruise on the Sapphire Princess, and how it was better than Carnival:

 

The vibe is SO mellow!

No annoying background music playing throughout the ship

No smoking on balconies

Five swimming pools… fresh water, heated

Hugely better lunch and dinner buffet than on Carnival

No formal night on 4-day cruise

After six cruises, 150 free Internet minutes

Better seating arrangement in the Princess theater than in Carnival's big theaters

Waiter in the buffet keeps your glass full, removes empty plates fast

More free gifts… we got a free Princess tote bag, a fruit platter, and a free bottle of wine... and it was only our 1st cruise!

More music and dancing

Mariachi band at the Mexican-themed bar, one hour per day

There are more outdoor loungers with thick cushions

Nicer interior design (no Joe Farcus)

Free chips and salsa at the aft bar

Free backstage tour

Movies and music played at the mid-ship Lido pool are played at very low volumes so the tranquility is preserved

No pushy drink servers roaming the sunny upper decks

Future cruise certificates will yield a $100 onboard credit. Carnival used to offer this, but doesn't any longer.

HDMI television input that you can actually use

Larger public restrooms

Muster stations are all inside

Restaurants open earlier than Carnival. Breakfast: 6 AM Dinner: 5:30 PM

Closet arrangement is much better. One big closet, not 2 small ones

No shortage of seats for comedy shows, as they are in the big theater

“The Sanctuary” takes Carnival’s “Serenity” area to the next level, for a fee

Larger cast, more talented singers in the production shows

[Spaniel Lover]

In Fairness To Carnival...

 

As much as I loved my introduction to Princess, there were still a few things that I liked better about Carnival. Here's a list:

 

Guy Fieri burgers

Self-serve ice cream & frozen yogurt

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Bigger showers and bathrooms in the cabins

Better breakfast buffet, especially omelets

Ship locator and channel guide on the cabin TV system

You can get a pitcher of margaritas for $25 at Blue Iguana cantina

Towel animals

More comedians

Small comedy club improves the dynamic… comedian feels like he’s playing to a standing-room only crowd, because in most cases he is!

Boarding starts earlier… usually 11 AM.

Platinum guests have a private lounge to relax in before boarding begins, and it's large enough for ALL the platinum guests.

Onboard store seemed slightly better

Not required to bring life jacket to safety drill

Magnifying makeup mirror in the bathroom

I’m Platinum with Carnival!

[Spaniel Lover]

That's it for my review! Thank you for reading it.

 

I'd love to hear your comments, suggestions, and questions.

[west coast cruiser]

Thanks for your review and the pictures. We spent 28 days on the Sapphire a couple of years ago on a Southern Pacific cruise and loved the ship.

[Spaniel Lover]

I have heard the buffet is set up better on Princess as far as getting through the lines...did you find this to be true?

 

I preferred the arrangement of the Princess buffet to what I had been used to on Carnival. At least, at lunch and breakfast I felt the setup worked great.

 

I did NOT like the way things went at breakfast as far as getting an omelet. There were a couple of days when the omelet arrived fairly quickly, but there was one really bad day when the waiter had other things on his mind and it was a LONG time before the omelet showed up. That was really awkward, because Kellyn and I had both finished everything on our plates by then.

 

The omelettes were just too small, too... in my opinion. I tried to remedy this by asking for a "3-egg omelet" one morning... and the chef nodded and said OK... but when it arrived it wasn't any larger than the tiny omelettes I had on all the other days. So, for breakfast, I think Princess has some room for improvement.

 

By the way, yes, I do realize that the solution to this problem is to eat breakfast somewhere other than at the buffet. I'll try that in Alaska this summer.

 

I know the rooms are smaller on Princess but did it seem a lot smaller?

 

It wasn't that the room itself was any smaller than what I was used to on Carnival... it was the little dressing area between the closet and the bathroom... and the awful shower. The worst 15 minutes of every day of the cruise was shower time. In addition to all the things I already mentioned about the shower, the temperature fluctuated from hot to cold seemingly at random. Very frustrating! Perhaps this situation is better on the newer Princess ships. I know with Carnival that there are all sorts of things you could point out about the Fantasy-class or the Spirit-class that could be improved... and if you sail on one of the newer ships, it has been.

 

What about the shows at night?

 

I liked them. They seemed to combine some of the best elements of the way Carnival did their shows a few years ago (before the staff cutbacks) and how they do them now (with improved technology).

[bendar06]

FYI: Hamilton is the capitol city of Bermuda, a long way from the Bahamas; otherwise, a fine review. Welcome to Princess!

[Spaniel Lover]

Darn it! Bermuda, not the Bahamas!

 

As you can see, I need a fact checker in addition to the spell checker...

 

Thanks for letting me know about that. Too bad you can't edit a post on Cruise Critic after a reply has been posted. At least I can correct it on my web site.

[AmberTeka]

I loved your review. I agree with you on most things about Princess.

 

We LOVE the Trivia activities on Princess.

We too have sailed a lot of Carnival. Our cruise after next will be out Platinum cruise for Princess.

 

Carnival...............Clean. The ships we have been on...are clean. Clean.

 

I think Princess fans...are Carnival Cruisers who are older. Their children are grown or teens. they don't party so hearty anymore, but enjoy the productions and such more. Most are better off economically. Many are Canadian.

 

I love both lines. But Princess................I just love it more. Totally.

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. I loved reading it. I always like reviews from first time Princess cruisers especially if they do comparisons to the other cruise lines they have sailed. Nice to hear you enjoyed the Sapphire. She is my favorite Princess ship. I'm sad she is leaving for Asia.

 

Your pictures are beautiful. You really captured the Sapphire as well as the beautify of cruising. Loved all the sunrise/sunset pictures.:)

[Jasperdo]

Excellent comparison review, and your photos are outstanding. My wife and I have been on 3 Carnival cruises. We really enjoyed them, but I feel that we found a home with Princess now. For all the same reasons you gave. It just seems to suit our style more.

 

You're not the only one that likes to eat at the buffet for dinner. While we do enjoy the main dining room, we found that mixing it up with the buffet really adds to the variety. As you said, you can see what the food looks like beforehand, and choose your own portions. Plus, it's a lot faster than dinner in the dining room, which is helpful when there are a lot of evening activities we want to do.

 

Again, thanks for the excellent photo review.

[nutensteve]

Great review with fantastic pictures. we have only cruised with HAL and although we love HAL we are going to try Princess next. We will probably try the four day out of San Pedro then the Hawaiian cruise if we like it. I appreciate all of your insight.

[jsiegel]

Thank you for taking the time to post your pictures and your review. I love the Sapphire and enjoyed reliving prior cruises on her through your eyes.

 

Jackie

[ar1950]

In Fairness To Carnival...

 

As much as I loved my introduction to Princess, there were still a few things that I liked better about Carnival. Here's a list:

 

Guy Fieri burgers

Guy burger place was the New York Deli on our Carnival Cruise years ago. Best Pastrami sandwiches ever.

 

Better breakfast buffet, especially omelets

Princess used to do it this way. Now order the omelet before getting your other breakfast items. That worked for me.

Ship locator and channel guide on the cabin TV system

Princess used to do this, not sure why they stopped.

 

You can get a pitcher of margaritas for $25 at Blue Iguana cantina

Didn't have them available on our only Carnival cruise in 2000.

Bummer.:(

 

Towel animals

Princess used to do them.

Boarding starts earlier… usually 11 AM.

Princess used to start earlier than they do now.

Not required to bring life jacket to safety drill

Again, required way back when.

I’m Platinum with Carnival!

We are Platinum with Princess. Stick with it and you will be too!:cool:

 

Thanks for the review. If you liked the Sapphire I would imagine you will like the Coral. More similar than different. Its too bad about the music and noise on the Carnival ships these days. We very much enjoyed our Carnival cruise, but, don't think we would enjoy Carnival now from what you have described.

And, almost forgot to add, great photos! :cool:

Edited January 27, 2014 by ar1950

[Spaniel Lover]

If you're thinking about taking a cruise with Carnival, the one to sail on is the Carnival Breeze. It's their newest ship, and it's got the latest innovations. It's certainly the most beautiful... they used a different interior designer besides Joe Farcus... and the ship is just flat-out beautiful inside.

 

It does a nice 8-day Southern Caribbean itinerary that we totally loved. Well, actually, we did a back-to-back of a 6-day plus the 8-day and that really was the best cruise we've ever been on. Period.

 

Now I'd really like to do a 7-day or 10-day Caribbean cruise with Princess. I bet that would be fantastic... based on what I saw on my little 4-day free trial.

 

But I think before I do that, I hear NCL's Haven calling me...

[IECalCruiser]

Spaniel Lover, Thanks for your review and comparison to Carnival. We sailed in A746 on a 7 Day Coastal in 2011 at thought the location was fantastic, being so close to the Terrace Pool and the HC. They used to be a bargain as a Cat BC but now they are a more costly Cat B4.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[hpeabody]

Iris was in the production company when I was on the Ocean Princess in the South Pacific. Did you know she has been on Broadway (Hairspray)? Did they let her do a "headline" show on your cruise? She went out with us on my helmut diving excursion in Bora Bora which was a real treat, she is really very nice.

 

To answer your question, her last name Burruss

 

I am loving your thread! Thank You. I board the Sapphire in 2 days for 11 days B2B California Coastal and Mexico. I hope she will still be on board :)

[land lover]

simply wonderful review and photos...

 

I bet you would give the pros a run for their money..loved your comparison photos with the exercising...and the sunrise reflection in the windows...simply B E A U T I F U L

 

For ur information the short 4 day cruises on RCI years back always had a good amount of Asia pax, a lot of Asian tour groups throw in a short cruise on their trips to the states. So when princess started the short ones this OCT. it only follows that those tour groups were on board... So far I've gone on 3 short ones wi Princess(have only done Carnival once our Honeymoon 30 years ago, Im ur age) just to get away... booked b4 the promo on 2..we have pretty well sailed out princess, I'm an itinerary Gal....ships and food are not that important to me....but I do love my Aft cabins

 

Enjoy......

Edited January 27, 2014 by land lover

[Dryheave]

enjoyed your review ,great pictures

[Yuk0n Jack]

Stunning photographs - makes me want to purchase a quality camera!

 

Outstanding job on your review - well done!