Sapphire Princess photo review & comparison to Carnival

[own]

Food & Beverage Intern - Chuck Roast

 

 

Seriously? :D:D:D

[Colo Cruiser]

Captain - Nick Carlton

Staff Captain - Gavin Pears

Chief Engineer - David Morrison

Hotel General Manager - Ivano Calandri

Cruise Director - Gavin Chandler

Senior Doctor - Willen Esterhuyse

Customer Services Director - Helen Kimber

Food & Beverage Director - Robert Moik

Food & Beverage Intern - Chuck Roast

Staff Engineer Officer - Michele Mezzina

Saff Electro-Technical Officer - Salvatore Cataudella

Executive Housekeeper - Lucy Fowler

Executive Chef - Andrea Baiardo

Maitre d'Hotel - Silvio Zampieri

Occupational Safety & Environmental Officer - Tommy Christensen

 

Thank you! What dates did you sail?

[west coast cruiser]

Great review and super pictures.

Thank you.

[cormike1]

What a great review! We did the opposite to you....we have cruised 5 Princess and tried Carnival Glory on the Canada/New England cruise last Sept. It was such a deal that we said "let's do it. We loved the cruise itself and our room was softly decorated, thank goodness, but I never felt relaxed out of the room because of the decorating!!! I thought the decorator must have been on acid when he picked some of those colours and carpet/sofa designs, etc. lol. Had no complaints with the food. Would we do another Carnival cruise....if the price and itinerary were right....you betcha!!! Thanks again....really enjoyed your review and sense of humour.

[MAJPLO]

Seriously? :D:D:D

 

Hahahahah!!!! That's hilarious.

[Spaniel Lover]

Originally Posted by Spaniel Lover

Food & Beverage Intern - Chuck Roast

 

Seriously? :D:D:D

 

I was just checking to see if anybody was actually reading what I was typing! You win the prize for through reading.

 

Regarding the sail dates... it was January 16-20.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Spaniel Lover

[soccersharon]

My Mom loves Princess. Since she was unable to make our mother/daughter cruise on the Epic (due to health reasons), we'll make it up with a Princess cruise. Looking forward to booking one when she is able to travel again.

 

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Forums mobile app

[skoi13]

Nice review. Thanks for the perspective. Oldest ds and I will be sailing Princess for the first time in May. We've sailed Carnival once (had a great time), but have mainly sailed Disney. Looking forward to Princess more than ever.

[SCFCRUISER]

Thanks for the review Jim. I have followed some of your reviews on the Carnival board. As you can see from our signature, we are Platinum with Carnival like you. But as we found out as we get older (I am 56 as well),that I just got tired of the loud music, & falling down drunks. Don't get me wrong I am a beer drinker & like to have 2 or 3 buckets of beer each day, & have fun like anybody else, but Carnival for us was just getting old!

 

We are so glad we tried Princess & will keep doing so. As you said, we noticed the difference the first hour we were aboard our first Princess cruise. Also with Princess, you only have to sail 5 times to get Platinum status! I wish we could have sailed this winter, but maybe next winter. Happy sailing!!

 

Steve

[SdKT]

amazing pictures, thank you so much! we sail on Sapphire in 2 days! (insert panic here)

[fairsky1984]

Nice review and photos. Thanks. Just pulled out our luggage to board Sapphire next week. You got us in the mood, that's for sure!

[CruisnLolo]

Spaniel Lover,

Awesome review!! When will you be sailing to Alaska on the Coral? I am booked on the July 12th sailing and wondering if you'll be before...so I can read all about it!!! :)

[Bimmer09]

Remarkably good photos of an already handsome ship (Farcus-free is the way to be!) I love Joe Farcus-so passionate and imaginative but when his designs take life it's an explosion in a paint shop and it's Rococco-overblown with every inch of jumbled ideas screaming for your attention. But a fine man none the less.

 

The photos...wow! I use a Canon T3i with the kit lens. Have you changed the lens? Any photoshop or enhancements after the fact? Manual settings and tripod at all?

 

Loved the review and now I will read whatever other reviews you have written.

 

Thank you and I am glad you enjoyed Princess, which I where I sail for now.

 

Norris

[Bimmer09]

Spaniel-just noticed you are planning Alaska on the Coral-that was my first cruise with Princess. I have a long photo and video review of her on the Princess board.

If you are not familiar with the Coral you might want to take a look-see.

 

Norris, working the room.

[Spaniel Lover]

I have a long photo and video review of the Coral Princess on the Princess board. If you are not familiar with the Coral you might want to take a look-see.

 

I use a Canon T3i with the kit lens. Have you changed the lens? Any photoshop or enhancements after the fact? Manual settings and tripod at all?

 

Hi Norris

 

As a matter of fact, when I first started researching the Coral Princess, Google led me to your review... which kept me very entertained and got me very excited about our upcoming Alaska cruise. So, I thank you for taking the time to put that review together. I know how much work is involved!

 

Regarding the camera and the photos...

I use the Canon 18-135mm STM lens. I shoot everything in RAW mode and then go in and adjust the sharpness and white balance before converting any "keepers" to .jpg format... using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software.

 

I take a tripod with me on all cruises. I have one that is the perfect size to fit inside my suitcase. I use the tripod for a lot of the videos (I hate shaky video!) and for some of the low-light stills. It's also handy to have for "selfies".

 

I use the mode dial quite a bit to choose the best shooting mode for what I'm trying to accomplish. For example, if I'm shooting things that are moving quickly, I'll throw the mode dial in to shutter-priority mode so that I can select an appropriate shutter speed for the action... letting the camera automatically choose the aperture and iso setting.

 

By the way, I think the best innovation in digital SLR cameras occurred several years ago when they added the ability to have the camera choose the iso setting automatically. That one little innovation really made it a lot easier to get good photos!

 

The big news here at my house right now is that I have a new camera on the way! I decided to spend the big bucks and upgrade to the new Canon EOS 70D. So, when I do finally make it on to the Coral Princess this summer, I will have a really great camera to shoot with! When I get back home, I'll put together a heck of a photo review for all of you here on the Princess board.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Spaniel Lover

[Grammyluvs]

I don’t know when I have enjoyed a review so much. Your writing makes me feel I am right there and the pictures. Just WOW! Thanks so much for all the time and effort put into this. I hope Princess sees and reads it. As someone who is 5’1 with a husband of 6’, the showers really are not fun. I feel like I get beat to death.....LOL. He thinks they are perfect for him as far as height but small.

Hope you have a great time in Alaska....you will sure enjoy your camera there..the scenery is spectacular.

[~Christie~]

Thanks so much for sharing! We have done two Carnival cruises and my husband and I will be going on our first Princess cruise in April. We were wondering about the differences between Carnival and Princess. I have read other reviews that give some differences, but I love they way you broke it down.

 

Love the pics!

[marjosagb]

Great review!

 

I was wondering people's thoughts on the Carnival Miracle...

 

Am considering a 7-night Mexican Riviera cruise from LA this spring, and am trying to decide between the Carnival Miracle vs the Sapphire or Crown Princess.

 

There are seven of us - ages 55, 51, 31, 30, 22, 21, 19

-Food quality, nightly entertainment, onboard activities, and overall ship appearance are the most important things for us.

-We were on a RCI Voyager Class ship a few years ago and had a blast, but this time we are looking to sail out of LA.

 

Never sailed on Carnival, and only once on Princess quite a while ago, so any insight would be appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[Spaniel Lover]

Carnival's Spirit-class ships, such as the Miracle, are really nice. They have two swimming pools in the middle of the ship... one has a sliding dome that can be closed during bad weather. One of the pools hosts many activities... and the other pool is more of a quiet pool.

 

The Carnival Miracle does NOT have an outdoor television screen at either of the mid-ship pools. That could be either a plus or a minus, depending on your point of view.

 

The Spirit-class ships have what I think is the best-located Serenity retreat of the entire fleet. It's back at the aft end of the ship, so it's far away from the noise of the mid-ship pool. It really is serene.

 

If you're going to be eating in the buffet a lot... I'd have to go with Princess. But that's about the only area where I see a gigantic difference between the Carnival Miracle and the Sapphire Princess.

 

I did not eat in any of the traditional restaurants on the Sapphire Princess, so I can't offer an opinion on how it might compare to the Carnival Miracle in that regard.

[Crystabel]

I did not see anything about the 4 Any Time Dining restaraunts on Sapphire. each with a differernt theme and 1 speciality dish. We tried all of them and I would be hard put to choose which I liked best.

 

We were on the same sailing, as well as the following one that went to Catalina Island. All the Any Time Dining restaurants had the same menu except for their one specialty dish. Of note, you could order the specialty dish from one restaurant to the next. Fajitas were being served in the Sante Fe dining room, but we were in the Pacific Moon. When we asked if we could get the Fajitas, our server said they could bring us whatever dish we wanted. Nice touch.

[cruise.gal]

Awesome review and photos! We have sailed ten times on the beautiful Sapphire and were on after you.....Jan 20th - 28th.

Have sailed on the Carnival Splendor and couldn't get over the "fried eggs" on the walls of the main dining room, or the rest of the decor.

cruise.gal

[Gold_Coaster]

Hi Spanish lover, What a great summary & wonderful photos of the Sapphire,we are on her in September and now know what to expect. Thanks Brenda & Geoff.

[RC Dancers]

Thank you for your review and pictures. My wife and I are going to try this ship in March.

 

I really liked your pictures. It's really nice to see correct white balance and no over saturation. I bought one of the little Canon EOS M's after Christmas to go along with my 6D. I use Adobe Lightroom for post processing because noise reduction is almost magical and the cloning brush is so handy.

 

By the way, Carnival Platinum isn't much of a perk now. We were on the Miracle for New Year's and the Long Beach priority lounge was standing room only. There was no priority tendering in Cabo San Lucas. The gift bag/cooler was about the only extra.

[SadieN]

Thanks for the review.

 

We also took advantage of the Free Cruise Special on the Golden in October and booked a March cruise on the Sapphire.

 

The two things I missed on the Golden compared to Carnival are the Hot Chocolate machines on the Lido and the made-to-order sandwiches.

Wasn't impressed with the premade, plastic wrapped ones on the Golden.

[NYCcruiser65]

Fantastic review and photos! Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm a NCL cruiser, but contemplating my first Princess cruise and really found this review helpful!

 

Thanks!