retired1996

Just looked at the cards, nothing is filled in on the back regarding ship name or voyage date...

I was on the Sapphire cruise 3/23 to 3/27. I bought 2 of the coffee cards and since I just drink regular coffee and my wife drank the specialty types, I found that my coffee was free... I was told by one of ship employees that my card was good for any future cruises... I only used my wife's card for 7 cups of her coffee and never used my car at all. Was the employee correct in that the card can be used for future cruises or did I waste my money buying a card for myself I never had to use..

Disembarked yesterday for the 2nd to last domestic cruise for the Sapphire before she leaves for Asia. A couple of thoughts on how it went.

 

 

• We had booked a rear mini-suite on deck 8 and boarded at the rear. This time they had staff actually running the elevators, taking embarking passengers to their deck. All well and good except when we then wanted to go to Lido deck for pizza. The elevator call buttons didn't bring a car to our deck. One time a car stopped to drop off some passengers and we asked to be taken up as my wife is recovering from a broken foot and shouldn't walking a lot. The staff member shrugged and hit the close door button.
  

 

• Lido deck pizza was absolutely AWFUL. Quite possibly the worst either of us has ever had. Alfredo's was good, as usual.
  

 

• WiFi was a little worse than usual. We found that it was faster to go to the internet cafe and use their PCs.
  

 

• The new TVs were weird. Every time they both turned on, they were on different channels. I think that one wasn't put into the normal "hotel mode" as it turned on to the last channel and I could go into all the settings and menus. The default color on the other set was almost unwatchable at times and couldn't be fixed.
  

 

• Saw no sign of the on-demand movie channels that others have mentioned. There were a couple of extra blank channels that the hotel mode set rotated through. The regular movie channels seemed to be showing the same one or two movies the entire time. Same two Love Boat episodes as the last trip or two. No printed TV guide as usual.
  

 

• Other than two non-working foreign currency exchange machines and, maybe, a few more Chinese servers, I saw no evidence of the ship going to Asia. No change in menus, no bilingual signs, etc.
  

 

• The wine list in the Sterling Steakhouse menu didn't reflect what was actually on-board. After we tried to order off that list the waiter gave us a separate wine list.
  

 

• This trip continued to reflect a gradual decline in friendliness and attentiveness of the crew. Fewer crew smiled and greeted us as we passed. Longer waits for drink orders in or just outside of Horizon Court. One morning I had finished eating my breakfast when my hot tea finally showed up. Another morning no one offered us coffee until we were almost done eating. Our Sterling waiter didn't stop by until after the maitre d asked us if he had been there yet.
  

 

• Again, there was no mention in the Patter of any special nights on Horizon Court. The first suit we asked there didn't know at all. The second claimed that there would be Mexican night on our Ensenada day (wrong) and Bavarian the last night (right).
  

 

• The hot tubs still weren't hot so we didn't bother going.
  

 

• Not Sapphire specific but I received 18 welcome back emails, each linking to different survey.
  

Sorry but I disagree with all you complained about, Service was superb from all staff we had dealings with and they always had a smile and a friendly greeting. I liked the pizza as did my wife...The last thing I want is to watch television or movies, I can do that at home and I don't need to connect to the internet. We enjoyed the 4 days and never once heard any news of the outside world.. I also received a ton of welcome back emails,,,, simple solution just delete them.

Is it possible to drop off bags at the curb and wife will watch them while I park the car so we don't have to walk so far carrying our luggage...