Want Info On Sapphire Princess

[angeleyes031802]

Hi I am going to the shappire princess at the end of april and I want to know more about the ship. This is my first cruise and I want to know what to expect. How much is a pop card? How is the food? What sort of activities do they have and ect....:p

[sackman]

I love the Sapphire. Each of the Grand class ships is just a little different from the rest, and I think they got it right with the Sapphire. I can't tell you what the soda card costs, because whatever it is has never been worth it to me.

 

I love the Vivaldi dining room, which can be converted to traditional seating when there are enough people who request it. I found the food on the Sapphire to be better than what we had gotten on the Emerald just a few months prior. Take that for what it's worth. Food is subjective.

 

The internet cafe is large and well equipped. The indoor pool is fantastic. There won't be any problems finding things to do. Plenty of activities. Pool games, gambling, trivia, whatever suits you.

[KruzPrincess]

I just got off the Sapphire about 2 weeks ago. I had a great time and I really enjoyed the cruise. The cost of the Coke sticker is $4.25 a day plus a 15% gratuity, I believe. The Ulitimate Kid's Package (UKB), which anyone can buy, is $9 a day plus gratuity. With the UKB you can have the same fountain Coke products as you do with the Coke card as well as hot chocolate, virgin drinks, fruit smoothies, cans of root beer and malts from the ice cream counter. Food was pretty good. I thought the food was better than what I'd had on Crown in November. We really enjoyed most everything.

[billet]

It is a little different from the normal Grand class since it has 5 dining rooms instead of 3. The anytime dining rooms are themed and have a speciality dish (eg Sante Fe does fajitas) which are not on the menu.

The ship has a wider Promenade deck and actually has proper loungers which is very nice.

Skywalkers (the night club) hangs over back of the ship like a giant spoiler and is a great viewpoint. It is also a lovely place to go during the day to read and on the MR run should be lively at night if there is no port day the next morning.

There are always plenty of outside activities by the pool as well as indoor trivia, bingo etc.

[mcjigs]

I'm also going on the Sapphire this May to Alaska and can't wait. It's our first cruise with Princess, so I'm really nervous that all will go well. Enjoy hearing what people are saying about this ship. :D

[DRMizzou]

Hi I am going to the shappire princess at the end of april and I want to know more about the ship. This is my first cruise and I want to know what to expect. How much is a pop card? How is the food? What sort of activities do they have and ect....:p

 

I posted a review of our Valentine's Week cruise on the Sapphire on this board on March 1st. I think it is way over on about Page 16 now. You can also check it and several other Sapphire reviews on the Review section of the CC website--if you like. My review is kind of long but it might help with some of your questions.

[Audi]

I will be on the Sapphire in April and have just been given cabin number E324. It looks like it sits above something that is just to the left of the Wheelhouse bar. I cannot tell what that area is. Our room is a partially obstructed cabin but I can see no lifeboats, etc., that could be outside the window. Has anyone had one of these cabins? Will we hear lots of noise coming from the Wheelhouse bar even though it doesn't seem to be right below us?

[4cats4me]

I will be on the Sapphire in April and have just been given cabin number E324. It looks like it sits above something that is just to the left of the Wheelhouse bar. I cannot tell what that area is. Our room is a partially obstructed cabin but I can see no lifeboats, etc., that could be outside the window. Has anyone had one of these cabins? Will we hear lots of noise coming from the Wheelhouse bar even though it doesn't seem to be right below us?

 

 

We had E322 on the Sapphire 4 years ago and could see out the window.

We did have an obstruction, these barrel-type things which hold

inflatable life rafts. Wonderful location, no noise whatsoever and I

tend to be noise sensitive;)

[lovevacadays]

I've been on the Sapphire four times. It's a lovely ship and as stated before has the extra wide promenade deck with loungers. A nice, quiet place. Also, check out the aft adult's only pool and the beautiful view of the wake. Crooner's martini bar is great. They have so many different types of martini's it would take 20 cruises to drink them all! You can also ask for an olive tray with samplings of different stuffed olives if you like them. I loved it.

 

The Mexican Rivera is great. I love Mexico and have cruised there eight times as I live in Southern California so it's easy for me as I don' have to fly

 

Have a great cruise.

[4cats4me]

The Sapphire is a great ship. I love the layout more than the other

Grand Class ships. There is no Movies Under the Stars. There is

no International Cafe in the atrium [yet] but it has plenty of

other attributes. Activies run the gamut, from the sublime to the

ridiculous [just like every cruise ship and line I've been on]

but you will have a great time, I'm sure;)

[Audi]

Thanks, 4cats4me.

Since your cabin would have been the one next to ours, I would assume that we will have the same barrels outside our window. No complaints, though. We booked a fully obstructed guarantee cabin and I was prepared for a cabin with a lifeboat, etc, outside our window. I am happy just to have daylight coming through. We usually book an inside cabin but this time there was little difference in price between the two.

When I checked out the decks above and below us I saw a space that was not identified directly below us and next to the Wheelhouse bar. I am now guessing that it might be a place employees make drinks or something like that. Like you, I worry about noise, and having a bar below us, I worried about late night noises. You have eased my mind. I always pack earplugs just in case. Thanks, again.

[billet]

If my memory serves me well your cabin will have only two liferaft drums and they are below the window. Unfortunately I cannot find a picture!

[steponboard]

I sailed on the saphire in Dec and didn't care for the layout of the ship. The desks didn't go all the way forward and aftk without a detour up or down a deck. I also didn't feel the buffet was laid out well, much to small creating lines for all the stations even though you wanted only what was on the other end.

Whew, with that off my chest I did have a wonderful cruise. The food was good and the service was good. They had first run movies in the theatre, not under the stars which i enjoyed. I found most of the crew accomadating and efficient except my cabin steward didn't know what upgraded bathroom amenities were for elite guests and i had to call the supervisor of the housekeeping dept to straighten that out.

I am sailing on the Island Princess next month so as they say actions speak louder then words :)

[Pam in CA]

I sailed on the saphire in Dec and didn't care for the layout of the ship. The desks didn't go all the way forward and aftk without a detour up or down a deck. I also didn't feel the buffet was laid out well, much to small creating lines for all the stations even though you wanted only what was on the other end.

Not sure what you mean by "The desks didn't go all the way forward and aftk without a detour up or down a deck." All of the decks go all the way forward or aft; otherwise, there would be big gaps in the superstructure.

 

The buffet takes getting used to if you've been on other cruiselines but once you get the hang of it, it makes sense. The buffet layout is designed to feed the maximum number of people in the shortest time. I've rarely seen a line for anything in any Princess buffet. That's the beauty with the layout: you go to the food you want to take, serve yourself and move on to the next. You may have to wait for 1 or 2 people but usually, that's it.

[Audi]

Thanks, Billet. Sounds GREAT! It should be a nice cabin.

[KruzPrincess]

Not sure what you mean by "The desks didn't go all the way forward and aftk without a detour up or down a deck." All of the decks go all the way forward or aft; otherwise, there would be big gaps in the superstructure.

 

The buffet takes getting used to if you've been on other cruiselines but once you get the hang of it, it makes sense. The buffet layout is designed to feed the maximum number of people in the shortest time. I've rarely seen a line for anything in any Princess buffet. That's the beauty with the layout: you go to the food you want to take, serve yourself and move on to the next. You may have to wait for 1 or 2 people but usually, that's it.

 

Oh, Pam, there were a lot of people in line in the buffet on my Sapphire cruise a couple weeks back. They closed the center gates and put a sign on one end that said "do not enter". Everyone had to enter at one end and naturally fell into a line that made pretty much a big circle around the buffet. Of course, you could go to the center island without a line, but pretty much all the other areas had people waiting. Sometimes it was only a couple people, but sometimes it was several. They did this on the Crown, too, last November. It defeats the beauty of the Horizon Court design. The lines on the Crown at Cafe Caribe were far worse than the lines in the HC, though.

[Oi]

I posted a review of our Valentine's Week cruise on the Sapphire on this board on March 1st. I think it is way over on about Page 16 now. You can also check it and several other Sapphire reviews on the Review section of the CC website--if you like. My review is kind of long but it might help with some of your questions.

 

Wow...great review...I just checked it out upon seeing this. We're also on the Sapphire in May and can't wait...you've got me excited to see her! :)

[PastorD]

My son and I just returned from the Mexican Riviera cruise on the Sapphire. It's a great ship (not brand-new, but certainly in great shape). They're apparently going into dry-dock for some refurbishing this year or so (outdoor movie screen etc). Beds were a little hard.

 

The check-in in LA was amazingly quick. We were off the bus, and on the ship in probably 30-40 minutes. The return bus to LAX was also easy -- right outside the door, and partly filled, and off to the airport quickly.

 

We liked the divided pool areas (one open roof, one closed, one at the back etc) and the divided buffet dining areas -- some nice, quiet areas. I always love the promenade deck offering lounge chairs -- great quiet place to retreat and read.

 

We did the "Chef's Table" -- oh my goodness! That's an experience you might want to try out! It's only offered two evenings on our cruise (and Princess is one of the few lines offering it as far as I know) -- only 12 people max at each seating. ($75.00) Several courses, with wines throughout and a galley tour -- The Master chef and maitre d' Jean Paul were fabulous hosts. The steak house restaurant was wonderful as well; the Italian not as great.

 

The stops in Mexico are not as wonderful as some other cruise ports, but overall -- the Princess folks do a great job!

[shylee]

We just returned from our very first cruise on Saturday - we were on the Sapphire Princess. The ship was lovely, there were many activities and entertainment, the food was good and the people were very nice. We enjoyed Cabo the most of the three stops. DH and I took our two teens and they had an enjoyable time even though the teen program was a disappointment. We were in two balcony cabins that were bigger than I expected.

[mcjigs]

We did the "Chef's Table" -- oh my goodness! That's an experience you might want to try out! It's only offered two evenings on our cruise (and Princess is one of the few lines offering it as far as I know) -- only 12 people max at each seating. ($75.00) Several courses, with wines throughout and a galley tour -- The Master chef and maitre d' Jean Paul were fabulous hosts. The steak house restaurant was wonderful as well; the Italian not as great.

 

Do you remember which two night they were offered, like sea days, or last night? :rolleyes:

[angeleyes031802]

I heard it was hard to get the " chefs table" is it?

[monakayk]

Your questions have been answered already, but thought you might like to see photos of the Sapphire which we sailed on during our last cruise. Click the Photo Link below to view them:

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/575541503yiKPAv

 

Hope you have a great cruise on the Sapphire. By far...the Sapphire is my favorite ship we have sailed on so far! :D

[mcjigs]

Your questions have been answered already, but thought you might like to see photos of the Sapphire which we sailed on during our last cruise. Click the Photo Link below to view them:

 

http://travel.webshots.com/album/575541503yiKPAv

 

Great pictures. Thanks for sharring.

[CRUISAYEAR]

Just got off the Sapphire last Saturday. Chef's Table was held two nights, Tue. (P.V.) and Wednesday (Mazatlan). Good Luck ! (It is fantastic) Get on board Asap for best chance, find closest house phone and dial dine line.

Coke card cost me $34 bucks !

[spingal]

Skywalkers (the night club) hangs over back of the ship like a giant spoiler and is a great viewpoint.

 

Skywalkers on the Sapphire does not hang over the back of the ship like a spoiler. Instead, Skywalkers is in a similar location as it is on the Diamond, Crown, Emerald and Ruby......it is located slightly forward of aft.