Sapphire Princess Review

[patterson3]

I just got home from our 7 day California Coastal cruise. This is my first Princess cruise. We usually sail on Celebrity, so I (and my wife) used that as a reference point quite often this week. Anyway, overall I would say we had a wonderful cruise! I had high expectations for Princess from everything I've heard and read and for the most part Princess met my high expectations. Embarkation was relatively smooth- we were on board within a half hour of arriving at San Pedro. San Francisco was absolutely beautiful and we had perfect weather both days we were in port. And the highlight of this cruise was probably departing SF- we had cabin C753, which is at the back of the ship, and after going up to the top deck to experience cruising under the bridge when arriving in SF, we decided to stay on our balcony when leaving (also we were getting ready for dinner because we didn't depart SF until some time after 3:00pm because we had arrived late the previous day). Anyway, this was an amazing experience, and I would recommend an aft balcony for anyone sailing under the golden gate bridge. Besides perhaps cruising through the Panama Canal, I can't think of a better experience on a cruise ship! In SF we walked around town ourselves on the first day and ended up renting Go-Cars (3-wheeled go cart-type things that go about 30 MPH) and drove around the city. The 2nd day we did the ship-sponsored Alcatraz and Golden Gate bridge tour and that was well worth the money. Our day in Santa Barbara was overcast and overall we were not too impressed with this stop. We walked around town (had to make a visit to the local post office), and even though the city was pretty, my wife and I thought it was pretty boring. Next up was Catalina Island. Had beautiful weather, after a cloudy start and we rented golf carts and loved this way to tour the island. Amazing views! In San Diego we did the ship-sponsored Safari Park excursion and we loved it. It was really hot that day, and my wife and I both love hot weather, and the safari park was enormous. We really could've spent 3 days there and still not see everything we wanted to see because the park is so big! In Ensenada we got off the ship for all of 10 minutes. The giant flag pole was impressive, but other than that I can't say too much about Ensenada, Mexico. We were tired and from what we had heard/read about the port there really wasn't much we had planned on doing anyway.

 

The ship was beautiful, and I really loved the wheelhouse bar and the Pacific Moon and Savoy dinning rooms. We tried anytime dining for the first time ever, and we really enjoyed meeting different people every night (we met some really great people), but we didn't like not establishing a relationship with the same waiter/assistant waiter that comes with traditional dining. I think on port-intensive cruises like this we would choose anytime dining in the future. Otherwise we'll probably go with traditional dining.

 

Ad finally, here are some comparisons with our experience with Celebrity: Among the things we thought Princess did better were getting to go straight to your room after boarding, Champagne breakfast was excellent, afternoon tea was great every time we did it (and we loved the more formal setting compared to Celebrity who only offer "Champagne high tea" (at a cost) once per cruise. Other than that tea is served much more informally the rest of the cruise). And we both loved the huge piazza vs. the more subdued atrium on Celebrity ships.

 

Among the things we liked better about Celebrity: food at dinner was pretty comparable, but the selection at the Horizon Court were far inferior to the vast choices that we had recently on the Celebrity Eclipse. Additionally, my wife and I just love the POG (pineapple orange guava) juice in Celebrity's buffets and that wasn't available on the Sapphire. My wife also likes how Celebrity offers a bathrobe to all passengers, not just suite or Elite passengers. I had told her about that before we got onboard because I know how she wears the robe every evening while getting ready for dinner and she was disappointed but we actually got lucky, and for some reason our stateroom attendant delivered two robes the first evening of our cruise. Neither me nor my wife requested them, so either they were delivered by mistake or our stateroom attendant could read minds!!! Also, the entertainment onboard was a little disappointing. The comedians were excellent, but I had read/heard that Princess' production shows were better than Celebrity and the Princess singers/dancers on the Sapphire couldn't hold a candle to the one's that were on the Celebrity Eclipse in November. Additionally, one of the things my wife and I really enjoy is a capella groups and there wasn't one on the Sapphire this past week.

 

Anyway, to wrap it up. We had a great, great cruise. We loved California and overall we found there to be far more similarities between Princess and Celebrity than differences. I think we probably have a slight preference towards Celebrity, but it's very slight. In the future we will probably choose a cruise between Princess and Celebrity based on itinerary. In fact, while onboard we put a deposit on a southern Caribbean cruise for next January because Celebrity doesn't offer this 7 day cruise and Princess is getting rid of it, and we were lucky that there were still aft balcony cabins available for the date we wanted, so we put a deposit down for cabin B749 on the Crown for Jan. 2014! We can't wait!!!

 

Oh, and one additional comment (since I know this comes up frequently on CC- Stateroom C753 has the hard beds, but I didn't find it nearly as uncomfortable as many would make it seem. From the posts on here I expected to be sleeping on concrete, and in fact even though the bed we had would never be confused with one found at a Ritz-Carlton or Waldorf Astoria, we both slept great all week, so I wouldn't lose any sleep worrying about it (pun intended)...

 

Please let me know if anyone has any questions about this cruise, or any comments in general.

[C5R]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad you enjoyed your cruise. We're sailing on the Sapphire May 11th to Vancouver and were upgraded to an aft balcony cabin which we are really looking forward to.

 

John

[Working 2 Cruise]

Thank you for your review. We did the exact same itinerary on April 13, and it was wonderful.

 

FYI - Robes are given to everyone, not just suite or elites.

 

Food - I hope you had the chance to enjoy the International Cafe. I found the buffet in Horizon Court quite good actually, and it was just easier to go there sometimes, although I do prefer the main dining room for dinner.

 

Have fun on your cruise on the Crown!

[Coral]

Princess does give robes to everyone. They arrive late in the day as they wash them on turn-around days. If you don't receive them in the future, just ask.

 

Thanks for the review. Entertainment is hit or miss on any ship, on any line IMO.

[patterson3]

Thank you for your review. We did the exact same itinerary on April 13, and it was wonderful.

 

FYI - Robes are given to everyone, not just suite or elites.

 

Food - I hope you had the chance to enjoy the International Cafe. I found the buffet in Horizon Court quite good actually, and it was just easier to go there sometimes, although I do prefer the main dining room for dinner.

 

Have fun on your cruise on the Crown!

 

Thanks for the info! I'm sure my wife will be happy to know that!

 

We did go to the International Café. In fact, we went quite often. That is one other thing I give an edge to Princess for- the coffee card!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Thanks for your review...I agree that Princess buffet could use improvmenet...but we love pretty much everything else! Glad you had great weather...we did this same itinerary in October and really enjoyed it. The sail under the Golden Gate bridge is a cruising highlight!

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. I always enjoy reading reviews from those that cruise other lines. I have thought about trying Celebrity and may do it one day.

[keepthelobstercoming]

Great review! We did this exact same cruise on Sapphire last fall, and it was fantastic. We also watched the ship sail under the Golden Gate from our balcony, and it was the most impressive sight we have ever seen from a ship! And don't get me started about the dim sum we had in Chinatown!

[Buck-White Boys]

Oh, wow, this review couldn't be more timely . . . we've booked Sapphire for the Sept 7 cruise in Alaska. We, too, have mostly cruised Celebrity before and are a bit anxious about going back to Princess. Our first cruise on Princess was fine, but the food was TERRIBLE . . . Celebrity has been far superior, in our experience. Oh, and that Orange/Guava juice -- yeah, there are times when that's almost a selling point for us.

 

Question - we've booked C748, so the same cabin as yours on the other side of the ship. From the pictures we've seen, it looks like you have really good views of the aft, and to the side of the ship. Is that correct? Is the balcony seemingly larger than other balconies or is it relatively the same size? Also, is it completely covered?

 

Really appreciate any thoughts on the cabin as we're very excited about it and hoping it will come close to our expectations. Also, any other comparisons to Celebrity would be greatly appreciated.

 

So glad you had a wonderful time - thanks for the wonderful information!

[patterson3]

Oh, wow, this review couldn't be more timely . . . we've booked Sapphire for the Sept 7 cruise in Alaska. We, too, have mostly cruised Celebrity before and are a bit anxious about going back to Princess. Our first cruise on Princess was fine, but the food was TERRIBLE . . . Celebrity has been far superior, in our experience. Oh, and that Orange/Guava juice -- yeah, there are times when that's almost a selling point for us.

 

Question - we've booked C748, so the same cabin as yours on the other side of the ship. From the pictures we've seen, it looks like you have really good views of the aft, and to the side of the ship. Is that correct? Is the balcony seemingly larger than other balconies or is it relatively the same size? Also, is it completely covered?

 

Really appreciate any thoughts on the cabin as we're very excited about it and hoping it will come close to our expectations. Also, any other comparisons to Celebrity would be greatly appreciated.

 

So glad you had a wonderful time - thanks for the wonderful information!

 

The balcony is definitely larger than the typical balcony, and you get outstanding views aft but your view of the side is limited because the balcony doesn't go all the way to the side of the ship (there's actually an emergency exit on either side in the superstructure of the ship), so your view to the side is limited. You have somewhat of a view of the side, but do not expect to see much to the side.

[Northender]

Thanks for your review and comments. I enjoyed reading this.:)

 

C752 & C753 are both great cabins. Our favorite on these types of ships.:D

 

Perhaps when you filled out your cruise personalizer you checked off that you wanted bathrobes.:D I have found when I do this, they are usually in our cabin late afternoon.

 

I agree about the entertainment. We do enjoy MUTS tho when travelling in the Caribbean.:)