Paula_MacFan

We disembarked from the Sapphire the day you boarded, and our ship experience was similar to yours. We did an 8-day land tour prior to the cruise which was very enjoyable. We found the ship to be in good condition overall and a nice change from our recent Royal class cruises frankly. The one thing that stood out to us, like you, was the entertainment. We enjoy live music venues in the evening and struggled to find many good options. Otherwise the food was good and we had generally good weather. We had a great time in the ports and on the land tour. I agree with your comments about planning ahead and booking early. I compared prices a couple months before our trip and had we waited longer to book we would have paid $5,928 more and many things would have been sold out. Glad to hear you had a similar experience. Thanks for the review!

We just returned from an Off The Beaten Path tour and we had 38 in our group.

Here is the free lanyard that comes with the medallion. We also have the blue flexible watch band (comes in many colors), the flexible fabric watch band (also has color choices), and my husband's favorite -- the clip. He likes the clip as it's very sturdy and can be clipped to belt loop, backpack, etc. There are other choices -- you'll see a display onboard, usually by the photo counter -- where you can try things on.

We've had several medallions shipped and every time the tracking history is ridiculous -- but we've gotten them in time. They seem to sit around at multiple locations and the tracking just goes on and on, but so far we've gotten them in time. We recently got them in time for our Alaska cruisetour that left 8 days prior to the cruise, and I was biting my nails towards our flight day -- but they showed up 2 days before we left. Worst case you'll get new ones at the terminal.

He was a little guy compared to the other bear picture, but he was on his own and not with a mother. The picture angle and tall grass might make him look smaller too.

We rented a Jeep in Skagway recently on June 4th. It was our second time doing this -- our first was ten years ago almost to the day 🙂 This time we stopped at Caribou Crossing and the suspension bridge, which we didn't do the first time. We went as far as Emerald Lake, where we had our picnic lunch that we picked up in Skagway at the Glacial Coffeehouse. Then we made our way back making lots of stops for scenery, the CC museum complex, and the bridge. When we got back to Skagway we went to the Lower Reid Falls hike and the gold rush cemetery, and then we drove the Dyea road which is a nice scenic area as well. We saw the cinnamon colored bear near Carcross and the black bear eating dandelions by the Dyea road. It was a great day!

We were there 2 weeks ago and did the Denali Tundra Wilderness tour. We were lucky enough to get one of the newer style buses which had larger, sideways-sliding windows. Our guide even remarked that we got lucky that day 😀 We probably saw 30 other buses throughout our 6 hour tour and only saw 1 other like ours. The rest we saw were what I'd consider old-style, smaller school buses with small windows that slid from top to bottom. My point being it's the luck of the draw which bus you'll get. I've also heard reports this year of people being bumped from booked tours due to over-booking and high demand. So I wouldn't expect any empty seats on your bus unfortunately, unless there was a last minute cancelation. We took our binoculars and were glad we did. Our driver made several stops and we were able to get out and observe moose, bear, and sheep at a distance. Several people asked to borrow our binoculars which we shared. Our guide also did a great job of using the spotting scope and putting images up on the screens for everyone to see. There were people on our tour with high powered lense cameras who took some amazing photos, and they offered to share with others on our tour. We saw grizzly, moose, fox, caribou, sheep, and birds. The whole day was a highlight of our 15 day trip.

We were on the Sapphire last week and got soda cans using the Plus package. We found it virtually impossible to find fountain options, which was fine with us. We prefer the taste of cans and we also kept some in our cabin fridge for convenience.

We were on the Sapphire last week and had no problems with wifi. We also had cell service virtually everywhere, other than the last day which was sailing the Inside Passage to Vancouver.

We just returned from an On Your Own cruistour last week. We did the Off the Beaten Path tour P. On your own means you can chose your excursions and meals are on your own. As opposed to the connoisseur option, which includes meals and a guide. If you look at the Princess Alaska cruisetour page there is an FAQ that explains everything.

No. But the most traveled passengers had 1,554 days.

We were on the Sapphire last week. There were a lot of kids and young people in general compared to other cruises we've been on. We don't have young kids so I can't tell you how many there were in the kids programs etc, but I can tell you any time we walked through the covered pool area it was full of kids and families having a good time 🙂 We saw many young families with strollers around the ship too. We had a quiet aft cabin and didn't hear much from our location, but several times walking down the hall coming and going we heard crying kids in rooms. We went to the Captain's party (he wasn't there due to 2 simultaneous passenger medical emergencies) but I jotted down the numbers announced. There were 2,714 total passengers, and 2,084 were new to Princess. There were only 91 Elites and 122 Platinum. It seemed to us in general there were a lot of families onboard. Overall we had a great cruise. We did an 8-day land tour prior to the southbound 7 night cruise. The ship was in good condition and we had very calm seas. The crew was pleasant and we enjoyed the food. Libby Riddles came onboard and gave a presentation and our naturalist Sandy did a great job.

This link lists the cruisetours. There is a railroad icon on each one as noted. https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises/cruisetour-options/cruisetour-finder/ We just did an Off the Beaten Path cruisetour 'P' last week, and added an extra day.

We boarded the Sapphire in Whittier on June 1. We breezed through with no issues at all, took minutes.

Here are some pictures I took last week from E735. It's one of the deepest balconies we've ever had, and very protected. There's a beam on the right side but it didn't impede our usage at all. In fact on the last couple days we used it as a sort of sun block/shade area when the sun was directly facing our room. We enjoyed the protected balcony area very much on scenic sailing days, such as Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay NP. That's one of the reasons we specifically chose this room. Also the quiet area was amazing. We've had other aft cabins before, but this was our first time on the Sapphire. On other ships we've sailed on, the hallway stretches across the back area and is used by all aft cabins. On the Sapphire you have to access your room specifically on the port or starboard sides, as there is no hallway across the back area. This means it is even more quiet as the only 2 cabins in the hallway are the suite and the balcony. We wouldn't hesitate to book this location again. Also we heard no noise at all from Club Fusion below. Edit to add I realized after posting my pictures they don't really illustrate how deep the balcony is. You can find more pictures on Google by searching. I have others but am hesitant to put our faces on CC 🙂