Sapphire Princess Alaska mini review

[no1racefan1]

DH and I are just off Sapphire Princess yesterday and I wanted to share some things while it's still fresh 🙂 This thread will be specific to Princess. I've been chronicling our Alaska trip over on the Alaska forum if you want to check that out: 

 

I'll start by saying DH and I aren't 'frequent' cruisers, this being our 5th cruise in a 20-year time span, and our 2nd cruise on Princess. We are also not brand-loyal, but rather look for the right fit for our budget, itinerary, etc. I went into this with pretty level expectations. I've read about all the changes to cruising and Princess post-COVID, and was just trying to keep an open mind and knew that we would enjoy our trip regardless of any little things that might come up. Let me just say our expectations were exceeded in almost every way!

 

The ship: Sapphire Princess was lovely. Not gaudy, not too big, and facilities crew that really seemed to take care of the ship at every turn. We found it easy to navigate after a day or two getting our bearings. We loved that we could walk laps on the Promenade. No complaints about the ship. We didn't frequent a ton of the public spaces too much, but we loved that there was ballroom music in one of the nightclubs one night for dancing, and I especially loved the decor in Crooners. We tried a couple different hot tubs (warm, not hot, as reported) and the ones in the Lotus Spa area were the best--the warmest and the jets worked there. They were also not popular and we regularly had the area to ourselves. There are steam rooms and dry saunas inside the changing rooms in the spa area. The spa staff didn't point these out on the spa tour (presumably because they want to sell the thermal spa package) but they are free to use and we enjoyed them. Again, this is a space that seems rarely used.

 

Our cabin: We were in B733, an interior cabin. DH exclaimed when we entered that it was a lot more spacious than he remembered from previous interiors. I don't know if that's because it really was more spacious or if we just don't remember since it's been a while, but we found the cabin very comfortable. The bed was awesome, it felt just like our bed at home. There were no annoying lights that came on the middle of the night. There was plenty of storage for our clothes, tons of hangers, and enough outlets for all our devices. Our room steward, Richard, was a pleasure. We never had to ask for anything because it seemed like he just anticipated our needs and things were magically taken care of during the times we were out. We had twice daily service (not requested, just happened automatically). Richard also surprised us on my birthday with totally over the top cabin decorations, a towel birthday cake, towel animals, towel swans for our anniversary, birthday banner, and rose petals on the bed. It was such a fantastic surprise and one of the things I'll definitely remember from our trip!

 

The food: We ate in the main dining rooms for nearly every meal. International Dining Room for breakfast and lunch and Pacific Moon dining room for dinner. I made reservations at Pacific Moon for either 5:20 or 6:40 every night, depending on our schedules that day. We never had to wait for a table and to be honest, the dining room never seemed busy at all. I didn't pick that dining room for any specific reason, but it was lovely decor and the staff was wonderful. DH has an uncommon allergy (onion) and Enrico, the asst. restaurant manager, brought him lunch and dinner menus every night to pre-order for the next day, which was remembered no matter where we dined. Enrico also made sure we were in the same section every night (again, not requested, just done) so we had the same wait staff and they remembered us. All of the dining staff everywhere we went were wonderful. The food ranged from good to excellent. We were never dissatisfied with a meal. I was nervous having read that quality has gone down but we were pleasantly surprised and pleased by our dining experience. We never went to the buffet except to get coffee and hot water. There was staff at both entrances of the buffet encouraging people to wash their hands, which was nice. We didn't go to any specialty dining.

 

Entertainment: I will fail you here because we didn't go to many things onboard. We decided to just keep our own schedule and if we had some free time, we'd check and see what was going on and drop by if something sounded interesting. We didn't make it to any production shows, comedians, etc. We did attend the first enrichment lecture and enjoyed learning about Alaskan wildlife. We also had fun at music trivia and listened to some acoustic sets here and there. I really enjoyed scheduling our time this way instead of trying to make sure we made it to things on Princess's schedule.

 

Embarkation & Disembarkation: Easy, easy, easy. It was seriously less than 5 minutes from when we stepped off the train in Whittier to when we were walking up the ramp onto the ship. We weren't on a tour, we just booked the train on our own. We also did not pay to have medallions shipped to us. That was no problem as there was literally nobody in the 'blue lane' and we walked right up and got our medallions. The 'green lane' was actually longer, but still seemed to move very fast. Disembarkation was pretty easy as well, the only hiccup was they were about 15 minutes behind so the different groups were kind of backing up. We were in the second group for self-assist walk off and we got a taxi and got to the airport in Vancouver in under an hour.

 

MedallionNet app: We did not pay for wifi. I didn't think we would care too much about the app but we ended up using it a lot to track each other's locations and to see what was on the schedule at various times. I also liked that I could take a look at our folio and any photos that were taken of us. Sometimes the app would freeze on my Journey and I would have to close it and reopen it, but that takes seconds so it wasn't a big issue. Other than that, it worked as expected. We didn't try to order anything through the app so can't report on that.

 

Packages: That leads me to my next topic, packages. We did not purchase a Plus or Premier package. I mathed it out beforehand and it just really wouldn't make sense for us. Our total bill onboard was only about $100 for drinks and laundry tokens. We did of course pay the crew appreciation. That being said, DH said he thinks he would like the package just so we wouldn't be thinking of charging things and we could try out some of the fancy desserts, fitness classes, etc. So, I didn't know DH was one of those people, but I guess he is! So we might be getting the Plus package next time 😉

 

I think that just about sums up my Princess review! I was a little bit hesitant but keeping an open mind, but our experience was excellent and any complaints we have are minor and not worth mentioning. I would consider Princess again in the future based on this trip!

 

 

[wrongwaywatson]

Thank you!  We are sailing on her in July and are looking forward to it!

[BSwarenson]

Appreciate you taking the time to post. We are booked for early September. I was happy to hear that the inside room was adequate. We spent very little time in our last room and zero time on our Veranda so the inside room should work out for us.

[PacnGoNow]

Great review!  We love the Sapphire too and her crew is the best!  Sounds like Richard is a real Sapphire gem!

 

So nice to hear such a positive review.  Thank you.

 

[Random Cruizer]

Thanks for this review! I'm on board her in late June!

[karatemom2]

I know from following your thread on the Alaska board how much time, planning, and anticipation went into this cruise. I hope it exceeded all your expectations. Thanks for sharing your review!

[no1racefan1]

10 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

I know from following your thread on the Alaska board how much time, planning, and anticipation went into this cruise. I hope it exceeded all your expectations. Thanks for sharing your review!

It really was an amazing trip, thank you!

[meldal]

Thank you for the review.  We will be boarding the Sapphire in Whittier this Saturday, June 1st.    I am even more excited after your review!!

[Auntiejo]

Thanks for sharing! Boarding in less than 2 weeks in Vancouver and reading your review makes me even more excited if that’s possible. Curious how the Chilkoot Hike and Float was? We booked the same excursion in Skagway. Thank you!

[Auntiejo]

Never mind! Just found the details in your other thread - thanks!

[awicky]

thx - going end of July ... 1st time Alaska & 1st time Princess cruise. 

 

[Cruz4Sun]

Thanks for your review.  We'll be sailing on the Sapphire in November and I was wondering about the beds.  Glad to hear they were comfortable!  Based on your comments I will be heading over to the Lotus Spa to try the sauna and hot tubs.

[Scandi_Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.  1st time Alaska and 1st time cruising.  I sale the last Saturday of June.  I'm very excited about the experience ahead!

[3 WI Cruisers]

Thank you for the review! We are sailing on the northbound Vancouver to Whittier on the Sapphire next May and now I'm even more excited! I'm going to read your thread on the Alaska board 

 

Cheryl

[beerme1]

Thank you no1racefan1!!

We are boarding after a 9hour train from Denali and scheduled to get there at 6pm I believe. We have a dinner reservation at 6:40 and I'm afraid doing the muster will hold us up. What time did you get off the train and can you speak to what happened right away for your muster and dinner?