Sapphire Review - 2/13 - 2/20/10

[4cats4me]

I already wrote a review on the Sapphire back in October, but we

sailed on her again so I wanted to write an updated review.

 

On this cruise it was my husband, myself and my mom. We booked back

in October due to some rock bottom prices!

 

My 11th cruise on Princess, 14th overall, and DH's 9th cruise on Princess

and 10th cruise overall. Mom's 8th cruise on Princess.

 

EMBARKATION

 

The best ever. We arrived at the parking lot around 10:45 and were

on board at 11:15. They called us to board at 11:05. We were among

the first few to even board the ship. I must add, we got to board early

since we are Platinum status.

 

CABINS

 

DH and myself booked a balcony guarantee and were assigned a cabin

on the Caribe deck, C-231, a forward cabin on the starboard side.

We received our guarantee assignment within a month or so of booking.

 

We booked a guarantee obstructed view cabin for mom who was assigned

a full ocean view cabin on the Emerald deck, E-100, the most forward

cabin.

 

We were pleased with the locationi of C231, although it was the most

forward cabin we've ever had and we did feel pronounced motion

there compared to the back of the ship. It was nice and quiet

towards the front, however.

We met our room steward on the first day, and I only saw him once

more during the week. First time that's ever happened.

He did a good job taking care of the cabin, however. No complaints.

 

Mom loved her cabin, E100. At first we were all a bit reluctant about

how she would like her cabin due to the most forward cabin on

Emerald deck, Category DD, and it is one of those cabins where people

pass by your window on promenade deck.

 

I am happy to report that she loved this location very much, and I can

also state that her cabin had much more space in it than the obstructed

ocean view cabins that we've had in the past, E322 and E420.

Her cabin was definitely a bit larger than an ordinary cabin. It had more

floor space than our regular balcony cabin.

Her room steward was great, giving her extra special service. His name

was Chris, and he was a very friendly guy. We all liked him a lot.

 

The only slight drawback about E100 that I must mention is: all was well

for the first 3 days or so until it was time to leave Puerto Vallarta, and

it seemed that there was some problem getting the ropes untied or some

such thing, and mom said there was a terrible racket that woke her up

and she heard some kind of a mechanical noise. She kept insisting that

it was the engines, but we told her the engines are in the back, but

she said it was some kind or horribly loud machinery noise. She also

heard the "machinery" noise everytime we came into port and left port,

finally deciding that it must have been the tenders that were being raised

and lowered. Who knows?

Also, I must add, one day while in her cabin, we saw people walking by

a lot, so if one is bothered by that, then this is not the cabin for you.

We tried peeking into her cabin during the day, however, and it was

nearly impossible to see into the cabin with just the sheers drawn.

Enough for the cabins.

 

FOOD

 

We feel the food has improved greatly within the last four months.

The buffet food was always very fresh compared with a few months

ago where we felt the buffet quality had diminished somewhat.

Don't get me wrong: I've always found something that is tolerable in

the buffet on Princess, but we were starting to feel the food quality

was suffering just a bit. But on this cruise everything was so fresh;

lots of fresh fruit choices, the usual wonderful salad fixings, as well

as a host of wonderful carved meats everyday, plenty of fresh

shrimp and pasta as well as a host of many other things to choose from.

 

ANYTIME DINING

 

This is the first time we've ever reserved a table for the whole week

in anytime dining. Surprisingly, on day one when I called to reserve

for the first 3 nights, the reservation lady told us that now they were

only letting people reserve for one night at a time, meaning that we'd

have to call each and every day. The mystery of anytime dining continues. Some cruises you can call on day one and reserve for 3 days,

then on the 4th day you can reserve for the rest of the week. Some cruises you have reservations, yet have to wait, wait, wait on formal

night even with reservations. Some cruises we've had no reservations

and just decided to go dine when we felt like it and it worked beautifully.

Now on this cruise, you must reserve each and every day???

So on the first night, problem solved: Our waiters suggested that we

reserve their table for the remainder of the week. So we talked to

the maitre'd, and he seemed reluctant to do this for us until we

told him we'd been on the Sapphire 4 months previously and we'd

noticed things had changed a bit, and we used to be able to reserve,

et cet, and then it was like a light went on and he put in a "request"

for that table, not definitively saying whether the table was ours or not??

Anyway, he did let us reserve for the week and that was the best move

we ever made!! Our service was so good and I'd forgotten how nice

it was to have the same dedicated staff -- it sure made a difference,

and this is the first time we've dined in the dining room for the majority

of the cruise, having eschewed formal dining for the buffet of cruises past. Don't get me wrong, we did eat at the DR a few times in the last

3 or 4 cruises, but this experience was so positive, that we're going

back to the DR forever.

And we loved the new menus that Princess has rolled out. Many

gourmet things that we all loved! Although some of my faves have

disappeared off the menu, they've been supplanted by some other new

favorites.

 

SHOWS

 

Since we were with our mom, we attended the shows at the Princess

theatre every night. I'm so tired of Piano Man I could scream. However,

it is a nice show. The vocalists this time were pretty weak with the

exception of one young lady who was quite good. Four months ago

the vocalists were much better I thought.

 

Do You Wanna Dance is a good show which I enjoyed a lot.

 

There was a third production show and I just can't remember the name,

but they sang Barbara Streisand/Neil Diamond/Cher songs

 

The pianist at Crooner's was Paul Burton and we saw him the last

night in the Princess Theatre. He played and sang the songs of

Cole Porter. However, he sang a lot of Cole Porter's songs from

failed shows. LOL He was quite good, but the stories of Cole seemed

to drag on a bit. Burton was a bit of a comedian too I thought.

 

Sam Moris was on board again, performing in the Princess Theatre

and then at the Explorer's. He was entertaining as usual. There was

another comediam named Lorenzo Clarke who was also a magician.

This is the first time we'd seen him and although he was corny, he

was very funny at times.

 

And then there was comedien Tom McTigue [i think] We just caught

the last part of his act one night.

 

Princess doesn't have enought entertainers anymore like they did

a couple years ago. They had Sam Morris perform 3 times.

It's obvious they're cutting from the show budget.

 

ART AUCTIONS

 

This is the first time I've ever attended these auctions, and it was

a lot of fun and very interesting. I didn't buy a thing. However, I won

a print in a drawing. At the last auction someone bought an Alexandra

Nechita sculpture for $10,000. Several things were going like hotcakes!

Very fun to watch.

 

SHIP

 

The Sapphire is a wonderful ship, and we've sailed on her 5 times now

and just love each and every trip ... the ship never seemed crowded.

This was winter break time for several schools so we had a lot of

kids. It was a much younger crowd in general, with very few elderly

as observed by my mom. The kids were all wonderfully behaved,

including the teens. We had a great crowd aboard, perhaps the

best ever.

 

WEATHER

 

Well, it was balmy upon leaving L.A. and the usual cool weather

all the way until we hit the tip of Baja on the third day of the cruise.

In Puerto Vallarta it was overcast all day, but that was good, because

we'd paid to go to a resort and if not for the cloud cover, we wouldn't

have had any shade at the resort.

In Mazatlan it rained cats and dogs; very unusual for February.

We remained on the ship

 

Cabo, beautiful weather, but we remained on the ship.

 

DISEMBARKATION

 

The best ever: We signed up for Express Walkoff, and were given

Group A cards. We were told to assemble in the Wheelhouse lounge

and that we'd be called at approximately 7:45.

We were called at 7:25, 20 minutes earlier than expected, and in

the car getting on the freeway at 7:45!!

There is just no other way for us in the future: It will be express walkoff

always.

 

Overall, it was a great cruise once again. I'm sure I'm forgetting some

things, but if you do have any questions I'll try to answer them.

 

Happy Sailings!

[icyheat]

the machinery was prob the bow thrusters--they move the ship left and right, which is why she would have heard them only when entering & leaving port. glad you had a good time!

[debgirl]

Thanks for the informative review. My friend and I will be on the Sapphire in 3 weeks.

[LUVtheNW]

Yes. Great review!

We had to L.A. in just a couple days to br ready for our Sapphire trip!

[Chesie]

Thanks for the review!

[jollyjones]

Hi - thanks for the review!

 

I have cabin E 420 for an upcoming cruise on the Sapphire - how is it? I'm hoping that the 'obstructed' view isn't very obstructed, and that it is a convenient location without too much motion in rougher seas.

[Oi]

Great and thorough review! so happy to read this and glad you had such a wonderful time and that your mom did too! We'll be on the Sapphire (first time) in 75 days and can't wait!

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the review.

[OceanSand]

Thanks for the review!

 

I was wondering if you remember which ports, if any, had a different time than the ship time?

[genevieve7000]

On the Sapphire in December, I think that Puerto Vallarta was the only port where ship time and port time were different. If I remember correctly, PV is on Mountain Standard Time.

[gertz]

The Sapphire is a great ship thanks for your review.

Two key words you used NEVER CROWDED, so true. Wish they were all like that.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

 

We are not fans of Lorenzo Clark, sorry to hear he is still onboard Princess ships. :eek:

[cruz chic]

Good to hear from someone else that was on this cruise. Great review!

[scopewest]

Thanks for the review, can't wait until our cruise.

[Princess Patches]

The ship changed time on the night before the arrival in Puerto Vallarta. Clocks were set 1 hour forward to Mountain Time.

 

Puerto Vallarta is actually on Central Time, so ship's time was still one hour behind local time. Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas are both on Mountain time, so ship's time was the same as local time in Mazatlan and Cabo.

 

We changed the clocks back to Pacific Time the evening before disembarkation. Hope that helps.

[stretchcruz]

Thank you for your review!! We leave on the 20th.

 

Which resort did you go to in PV? We were thinking of Dreams, but if there's no shade we'll be in trouble!

 

Thanks again...

[LTCOP]

Hi - thanks for the review!

 

I have cabin E 420 for an upcoming cruise on the Sapphire - how is it? I'm hoping that the 'obstructed' view isn't very obstructed, and that it is a convenient location without too much motion in rougher seas.

 

 

We were also on this cruise and how daughter had cabin E420! She actually had a great view. I remember sitting in the chair in the room and commenting that I had a clear view out her window. She did not complain of any motion and the room is very close to a set of elevators.

 

We had a great week also! The whales were everywhere! The food was delicious and I'm hating having to do my own dishes and pick up my own towels again:-)

 

Pam

[4cats4me]

Thank you for your review!! We leave on the 20th.

 

Which resort did you go to in PV? We were thinking of Dreams, but if there's no shade we'll be in trouble!

 

Thanks again...

 

We were once again taken to the Melia which is only a 5 minute bus

ride. We took this excursion 4 months ago and the resort was nearly

empty because Sept/Oct is not the most popular time to go to Mexico,

but this time nearly all the chairs were reserved when we arrived

at 11 a.m. [excursion departs at 10:45 or so and then you must

wait in line for them to give you a wrist band:rolleyes:]

Thank goodness it was overcast or I would have wilted in the sun!

Our temperature was around 80 degrees, so with cloud cover it was

perfect.

 

I still feel that the Melia is a ripoff, because it's $69 pp and all-inclusive,

but the buffet food area doesn't even open until 1:00 o'clock ship time,

which is actually 2 p.m. PV time, and then it's mobbed when it opens.

You can get nachos and hamburgers and hotdogs by the pool, however.

We brought our own towels from the ship, but the Melia gave everyone

towels anyway, so no need to bring ship's towels.

 

I really preferred it more when they took us to Paradise Village for $39

pp and it included lunch and 2 cocktails. At most, we each had one

margarita. We're not big boozers, so the $69 pp is a bit excessive.

The Melia has a very nice pool though.

I asked the manager on site how much a day pass would cost us if we

didn't wish to take a ship's tour and he quoted me $65 pp, so

might as well take the tour through the ship OR research your own

resort.

 

The food was good. Last time I didn't think it was so great, but this

time it seemed to improve

[4cats4me]

Hi - thanks for the review!

 

I have cabin E 420 for an upcoming cruise on the Sapphire - how is it? I'm hoping that the 'obstructed' view isn't very obstructed, and that it is a convenient location without too much motion in rougher seas.

 

We had E420 several years ago, but what I remember is you could see the

ocean outside your window. There is a tiny boat in front, but not a huge

tender boat that would completely obstruct.

It's midship so the motion wasn't as bad as the front, but if there is

pronounced motion you will feel it on the ship no matter where you are;)

[stretchcruz]

Thanks for the info on the resort. We were going to go to Dreams on our own, based on some reviews I read here. I'll check it a little more carefully....we need shade! The pictures on their website show a lot of pools and nice areas. Thanks again.