Live from the Sapphire - May 12, LA to Vancouver

[arizonaperson]

Home from the May 12th CA. Coastal now. I never really had a chance to post much live on the cruise, as I was too busy enjoying everything.

Yes, there were 3 ships in port yesterday in Vancouver(Canada Place), I had posted that on our roll call quite sometime ago, that potentially a "zoo" would happen. We did not experience the crush.

[arizonaperson]

Looking forward to reading more from you.

 

Were you supposed to have staggered boarding? I was wondering how Princess is going to handle this with their transfers from the hotel.

 

No, staggered boarding that I was aware of for the CA. Coastal, May 12th.

[arizonaperson]

The flat screens were put in around January and February of 2011. The only other difference is the new deck furniture. We are on Emerald deck.

 

So far on port side Baja deck no new furniture on balcony.:(

[arizonaperson]

Indigo Band extended their contract on the Sapphire until June 16th - Be sure to go see them!! Great band!

 

Yes, we loved Indigo and chatted with them. Saw them play almost every evening, they play a wide range of music. The lead girl is from Ireland and her fiancee(bass player) is from Bulgaria as with the rest of the band. She told us they were on Sapphire for another 4 weeks. Then time to do something else to get back to real life living.

[cruiselvr1]

Live from the Sapphire Princess

 

We are currently on the LA to Vancouver Coastal cruise and are staying on the ship for the next 2 cruises to Alaska.

 

We flew out Friday afternoon and arrived at the LAX Marriott late Friday night. We booked it through Princess as we would be getting in late. We have stayed here before and it was a predictable hotel. We had to have our luggage ready at 8:00 am for pickup which sort of ruined my idea of sleeping in. Our note that was given out said that Princess people would be available at 9 am in order to check in with them to get the bus slot. I walked by at 8 am and they had already given out the blue cards for the first bus by 8 am. Not sure when they actually started working that morning.

 

We ended up trading our green cards for the blue cards and had a 12:00 bus which left around 12:15. We were fully check-ed in and on the ship by 1:15. We went right to the dining room as we were starving after traveling the day before. We had a great lunch and the dining room was pretty full.

 

We were exhausted when we got onboard. We usually travel 2 days before and couldn't this time. We usually take a morning flight and took an afternoon flight and ended up arriving very late at the hotel and didn't get much sleep. So we boarded a little later then normal and the ship sailed earlier then most sailings we have been on. I felt like we went from getting on the ship to lunch to muster to dinner and then to sleep all within a few hours. Oh, and we packed a ton of clothes for CA and then to cover Alaska.

 

We signed up for 6:15 dining and all early dining is 5:30 on this ship. Early for us. We have great table mates on this cruise! Service has been very good. The prime rib dinner last night was the worst prime rib I have had on the ship (probably another roast on the ship was good but ours was awful). Tonight was formal night and I had the filet (mignons of tenderloin?) and it was probably the best I have had on Princess. Tonight was also banana foster.

 

We did an all day tour in Santa Barbara today and am exhausted from it. It was cool in Santa Barbara (maybe 60 at best) but in Solvang it was mid 70s and gorgeous.

 

We had a winery tour tomorrow booked for SFO and am glad we cancelled it. I have been to SFO many times and we decided to just stay on the ship. We will sleep in and try out the new pizzeria on Deck 5. I am still trying to find things after the redesign. The tour desk has moved and I tried to find the Captain Circle Host today and never found it.

 

I ordered flowers today on the ship and they arrived this evening and are gorgeous! They are much taller then normal as they don't fit in the normal place I put them.

 

We are in E731 and had this same cabin 18 months ago for Christmas and New Years. It looks the same except for the flat screen tvs. The beds are still the old type and I have an egg crate mattress pad which helps! I miss having CNN on then TV line up.

 

Captain is Nick Carlton and CD is Billy Hygate. The staff on the ship seem happy and everyone is friendly.

The Sapphire will always be special to my DW and I, we were married on an Mexican Rivera cruise.

[HikaruTsuki]

My husband and I were on this cruise as well. The reason we did not experience a crunch at Vancouver was because the passengers were given the boot three hours earlier than originally planned. We had to be ready to disembark at 5:20am!! Ridiculous...

 

The entertainment was good and the itinerary was enjoyable. Unfortunately I found the quality of food had decreased from our last Princess cruise in 2008. We will definitely choose a different cruise line next time.

[Coral]

My husband and I were on this cruise as well. The reason we did not experience a crunch at Vancouver was because the passengers were given the boot three hours earlier than originally planned. We had to be ready to disembark at 5:20am!! Ridiculous...

 

The entertainment was good and the itinerary was enjoyable. Unfortunately I found the quality of food had decreased from our last Princess cruise in 2008. We will definitely choose a different cruise line next time.

 

I had no idea you guys had to leave so early!

 

We had both highs and lows on food. Somethings were very good and other things were below average. I tried the prime rib again this week and it was better than last but I won't eat it again as it was not worth it.

[rdsqrl]

My husband and I were on this cruise as well. The reason we did not experience a crunch at Vancouver was because the passengers were given the boot three hours earlier than originally planned. We had to be ready to disembark at 5:20am!! Ridiculous...

I'm not saying I don't believe you. But, I don't believe you.

 

[R&S]

I'm not saying I don't believe you. But, I don't believe you.

 

 

Believe it. We were on this cruise as well and we were given a disembark time of 5:45 AM. The main dining room didn't open until 6:00 so we had breakfast in the buffet at 5:15, grabbed our carry-on from the cabin and was in the Explorers Lounge by our assigned time. We had to wait an hour in the lounge before we were given the green light to leave the ship.

 

It really puts a damper on the cruise experience when you need a 4:45 AM wake up call on the day you disembark. just my opinion.

[cruiselvr1]

Thursday/Seattle evening

 

Just some notes from today. I just walked into town today and didn't do an excursion. I then came back and contemplated swimming as the weather was so nice. It is currently drizzling. We could not have asked for a better day.

 

I still have some issues with MUTS and the implementation. Today near the pool was some beautiful sea music and sea scenes. I started reading my book and then all of a sudden they started blasting music from the speakers on top of the sea music from MUTS. Uggh! I stayed a little bit and then the music from the speakers stopped and I had hope and then a Barry Manilow concert started. Everyone who was reading at the pool (which consisted of everyone) then left the pool area. If only they had kept the calming sea music on MUTS for the day.

 

I did get some sun (I like to think of it as Vitamin D) today.

 

We did Sterling Steakhouse tonight and it was good. Tonight was Chef's dinner which isn't one of my favorites so this was perfect. It is staffed at night by what seems like the entire daytime (Alfredos) pizzeria staff. I had to ask the manager who was working at the pizzeria???

 

Tomorrow is Victoria and we are going to the Gardens.

 

I just looked at the Patter and the Most Traveled person has 847 days and is from California.

 

I really miss CNN. Not a Fox News Fan. I wish they would have both for those who have a preference. Not a very good selection of movies on tv this week.

Really enjoy your posts. I am a fox news fan, but they should have both.

[cruiselvr1]

No, the mini golf course (behind the MUTS screen) has been transformed into the Lawn Court.

 

Sapphire Princess 080 by RickEk, on Flickr

What a joke.

[capriccio]

Believe it. We were on this cruise as well and we were given a disembark time of 5:45 AM. The main dining room didn't open until 6:00 so we had breakfast in the buffet at 5:15, grabbed our carry-on from the cabin and was in the Explorers Lounge by our assigned time. We had to wait an hour in the lounge before we were given the green light to leave the ship.

 

It really puts a damper on the cruise experience when you need a 4:45 AM wake up call on the day you disembark. just my opinion.

 

 

We too were on this cruise but to give Princess some credit they did send out an announcement in advance that they were anticipating issues at the port and the airport with 3 (and it was actually 4 -- a NCL ship was at the other port) coming in on Saturday morning. On the 17th (2 days before disembarkation) they sent the advance notice message saying that the disembarkation details would have 'slightly earlier meeting times." They added that the airport had agreed to open check-in counters earlier than usual.

 

The disembarkation message did have groups begin meeting at 5:30 - but emphasized that was the meeting, not disembarkation, time. (I agree that they should have opened the Horizon Court by 4:30 for those in the early groups). We were spending an extra day in Vancouver so we met at 7:55 am in the overflowing Platinum/Elite waiting area and they were just calling groups that had been there since 6:30. We were called about 8:45 and were in our hotel by 9:20 am. It was chaos but to me it seemed organized chaos. They were alternating immigration and customs with passengers on the other Princess ship in port (I think it was the Diamond) - I don't know where the HAL passengers were disembarking. By the time we got to the luggage area (the line was held up before immigration because the luggage/customs area was backed up) our bags were there and we followed a moving line (not quickly but definitely moving) and hopped into a taxi without waiting. I want to say that everyone - the folks on the ship, the port staff, and the Canadian officials were patient and pleasant (although one immigration official groaned, 'please tell me we're at least half way through' and everyone - passengers and officials - laughed).

 

This was the first time we flew out of Vancouver and after reading about last year's debacle at the port and airport (and not being sure how many ships would be arriving on Sunday) we made sure we were at the airport by 8:30 am for an 11:10 flight. We didn't see any large lines so we either beat the cruise rush or there weren't any ships in port. We made it through security and US customs easily and were resting in the lounge well before 9 am.

[arizonaperson]

Here was our experience for May 12th cruise.

We were Gold 3 Princess transfer to SEA,direct to bus-flights after 4pm. We met in Club Fusion at 5:55am. Our gold 3 was called at 6:35am, by 6:45am we were in building to hand in custom form and line up with representative before proceeding down escalator to bus. We were on bus at 7:10am and rolling at 7:20am. Our luggage was put out in ship hallway, Friday night and we did not see it until we arrived at the airport. It was suppose to be on our bus, but only 1 suitcase out of 4 of us traveling together had their suitcase on our bus. We arrived at SEA at 11:20am. We waited until 2:20pm(last bus to arrive) this bus contained the rest of our luggage.

So we did not experience much wait in Vancouver or the mad house some others might have experienced.

I actually posted on our roll call prior to our cruise that 3 ships would be in port disembarking that day, so all the ships companies knew this far in advance as well.

[arizonaperson]

For anyone that was curious.....

On May 19th disembarkation day

Horizon Court hours were 4:30am to 9:00am

International Dining Room was 5:30am to 8:00am

Bar service- International cafe for cash sales 5:30am

Self service coffee & tea in each meeting lounge

No room service.

The earliest meeting time was 5:20am for walk offs groups A & B.

The ship was cleared about 6am to disembark.

[HikaruTsuki]

Believe it. We were on this cruise as well and we were given a disembark time of 5:45 AM. The main dining room didn't open until 6:00 so we had breakfast in the buffet at 5:15, grabbed our carry-on from the cabin and was in the Explorers Lounge by our assigned time. We had to wait an hour in the lounge before we were given the green light to leave the ship.

 

It really puts a damper on the cruise experience when you need a 4:45 AM wake up call on the day you disembark. just my opinion.

 

Yup... That was a pretty rough wake-up call. We live in Vancouver and my mother in law picked us up from the port. I felt bad having to tell her to meet us at 6am!

[Coral]

I was staying on the ship so I missed all the notices of early disembarkation. We didn't receive any of the notes except for a letter to show up at 8:40 at Pacific Moon.

 

I think the main chaos that I experienced was at the pier in the mid-morning, early afternoon. At 3:00 pm, the Captain announced that we still had 1500 passengers to embark and that we wouldn't be leaving on time (4:30?) and would leave at 7:30 instead. So a 3 hour delay due to to the pier area unable to process all the people.

 

I was disappointed in how they handled those of us who were in transit. How Princess thought it would happen was entirely different due to the pier people not knowing how to deal with it.

 

Sorry to all of you guys who had to get off the ship early. That is indeed early!

[Cuizer2]

Just wanted to update some info. The guy who they thought committed suicide was found on the ship sleeping somewhere. He is fine!

 

The space aliens brought him back.

[Cuizer2]

What a joke.

 

No, really it has been. See ...

 

 

[Susie51]

Thank you for your review. Are you in the same cabin for the whole cruise?

[cruzsnooze]

I just got off the May 12 sailing and had a wonderful time. We had pillow top mattress so finally no egg crate was needed. It was on deck 9 Dolphin deck that I had this in a mini suite.

[capriccio]

I just got off the May 12 sailing and had a wonderful time. We had pillow top mattress so finally no egg crate was needed. It was on deck 9 Dolphin deck that I had this in a mini suite.

 

We did too in a vista suite on Dolphin. Even though we were never really bothered by the old 'hard as rocks' mattresses (never requested an egg crate), both my DH and I agreed that the pillow top was really, really nice.

[judydoc]

Great pictures and review!. Which camera do you have?

[RDR]

Really enjoy your posts. I am a fox news fan, but they should have both.

 

I am so happy that Princess has Fox News. I used to watch CNN but found that they were very biased in their reporting and were not really a "news" channel but rather using "news" as a front. You never got the full story on any news and only realized it when you listened carefully and monitored other journalistic outlets. I no longer watch CNN, and haven't for some time. I found that many good journalists have left CNN over the years also for whatever reasons. Maybe they found CNN was sleezy.

[Coral]

I just got off the May 12 sailing and had a wonderful time. We had pillow top mattress so finally no egg crate was needed. It was on deck 9 Dolphin deck that I had this in a mini suite.

 

We are in a mini suite on Deck 8 (Emerald) and I immediately asked for the egg crate mattress pad. I should check and see if we have new mattresses. It feels better then normal, but I just assumed I got a good egg crate mattress pad.

[Coral]

Thank you for your review. Are you in the same cabin for the whole cruise?

 

Yes - we have the same cabin for 3 weeks. I booked the 2 Alaska legs about a year ago and added the coastal about 2 months ago and couldn't get my cabin but eventually it became available. So thankfully we don't have to move cabins.