Sapphire Princess: Somewhat Live in Southeast Asia

[cookieartist]

Enjoying your review and following along.....we did Bangkok to Sydney on the Sapphire in 07-08 (over the holidays) and just want to mention that my sister had an abscessed tooth when we arrived in Bangkok. We had 3 days there before boarding so we went to a dentist near our hotel. Wish our dentists were like this!!! My sister had a hand massage while listening to music while having her tooth worked on and we waited in a waiting room that had huge TV, recliners, computers to use, hot and cold drinks and a refrigerator full of food....all for us.

The dentist did a wonderful job and the cost was 1/4 of what it would have been in the States.

 

Loved Singapore but glad we had the extra days in Bangkok. I felt like we were in a National Geographic magazine....the palace and temples were amazing.

 

Enjoy the rest of your trip....

 

Nancy

[ibfern]

Had a wonderfully exhausting day in Singapore, love this city. We hired a driver who chauffeured us everywhere so we saw so much; Sentosa island via the cable car including the bathroom with see through windows, Fabor peak, the residential area on Sentosa Island, the 24 hour Mustafa center, Lau Pasat Festival Market, and more! Whew.

 

It's muster time but we don't have to go, instead I am going to grab a cup of joe at the IC. My feet are killing me in that great way that happens when you see it all.

 

More later, especially info on the great driver guide we hired.

Amelia

[ibfern]

Ko Samui

12/27/14

 

We had an incredible day at this beautiful island, it is a tender port so get you tickets early and make the most of the day. We used a private driver with a nice and comfortable van for 10 of us and it cost $14 pp, not including entrance tickets, Elephant riding, lunch and other expenses you might incur. Our tour guide was Mr Samui, find him on tripadvisor or Google him he has a website,

 

We got off the ship late because some of our group decided to eat a leisurely breakfast while we waited at the appointed time, grrrr, so make sure you all agree about time to leave! Touring with strangers can be trying!

 

Mr Samui was lovely and very helpful in pointing out places to visit. Of course we headed straight for the Elephant Safari where we got to ride and lead ride an Elephant for a mere $25 pp, which was a great deal. We rode for about a half hour and needless to say it was a major highlight of the cruise! There Elephants are well cared for, the kids who rode/led the Elephants grew up with them and cared for them lovingly and we saw so sign of abuse or distress. At the elephant park was some good shopping, a hike to a beautiful waterfall, and we probably spent about an hour there,

 

The folks we were with refused to visit the snake park which bummed out the boys and f

Girls as well, it's an easy 20 minute detour if you are interested I would certainly think there would be enough time.

 

We ate at a lovely restaurant (details later) on the water and had some delicious food, our guide helped me order because I have some food allergies and it was some of the best food I ever had. Not too pricy and very scenic place to ate, we saw several CC friends eating there as well.

 

Next we visited Chaweng beach which was horrible, touristy, and gross water with much to much undertoe. Avoid this place like the plague, even the shopping was terrible. After wasting an hour here, we had little time to visit the Big Buddha which was located in a very happening place with lots of nice vendors, food, temples, and more. We had little time to enjoy this place, lessened learned about touring with less people and making sure they are like-minded!

 

We got back to the tender port with time to spare, all in all it was a nice day. I wanted to warn against packing in too many people which causes disagreements in what to see and where to go and instead advise that you pay a little more and ha e more control over places you see.

[ibfern]

I have been down with migraines for the last few days, thus the late reports, I woke this morning with another but caught it in time so I am OK and plan to spend all day goofing around the ship. There are lots of activities, trivias have been fun and new, praises the same. It can trade in ones you can't use for useful things like Magnets and flashlights.

 

One of the cruise staff, Brandon, we remember from our 30 day South American cruise on the Star and he is great, it's so nice to see familiar faces. We are really enjoying all the cruise staff on this ship.

 

We moved tables for dinner again, this time we are in Savoy and have fantastic waiters, a beautiful table with a view, and the food is very nice. Our Maitre d Francisco visits us almost every night. He is great.

 

Ok time to plan for Bali, and I mean to write us an extensive thingie on Singapore, as well as a one day adventure, hopefully sometime today.

Happy early New Year to all,

Amelia

[TracieABD]

Hey Amelia-

It sounds like you are having quite an adventure. I am hoping you will still be aboard when we board on January 13th. If so, let me know what kind of tea to bring to you from the states.

 

I really appreciate all of the detailed reports. I am hanging on every word.

 

Please, let us know if you have any special pointers regarding the ship and/or crew!

 

Thanks and happy sailing!

Tracie-Lynn

[LaraTiara]

Also enjoying the updates!

 

We welcome any advice as we board her in February.

[ibfern]

Happy New Years from Bali! We had a grand celebration last night on the Sapphire, with hats, noise makers, and all sorts of activities and good cheer. Using the New Years around the world hand out, we celebrated country by country throughout the evening. Dress was formal, dinner was yummy.

 

Had to cut the celebrating off early because of an early port day with tenders to Benoa, Bali.

 

I've been felled by migraines three days in a row, thus much silence. Feeling better now and hope it doesn't start again today.

 

Found out the always available wonton soup may contain shrimp which might explain my migraines! Still, I have learned to use chopsticks on this cruise. There is always a silver lining...

[LaraTiara]

Can you kindly tell me a bit about the evening attire for women on Sapphire? I have been looking online for typical short/long Asian dresses. Is that typical dinner attire on board?

 

Thankfully they are the trend in the west at the moment, so I will get use out of them after the cruise too.

[Woobstr112G]

Happy New Years from Bali! We had a grand celebration last night on the Sapphire, with hats, noise makers, and all sorts of activities and good cheer. Using the New Years around the world hand out, we celebrated country by country throughout the evening. Dress was formal, dinner was yummy.

 

Had to cut the celebrating off early because of an early port day with tenders to Benoa, Bali.

 

I've been felled by migraines three days in a row, thus much silence. Feeling better now and hope it doesn't start again today.

 

Found out the always available wonton soup may contain shrimp which might explain my migraines! Still, I have learned to use chopsticks on this cruise. There is always a silver lining...

 

Amelia;

 

Glad you had a great New Years celebration.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited January 1, 2015 by Woobstr112G

[CRUZGAL53]

Happy New Years from Bali! We had a grand celebration last night on the Sapphire, with hats, noise makers, and all sorts of activities and good cheer. Using the New Years around the world hand out, we celebrated country by country throughout the evening. Dress was formal, dinner was yummy.

 

Had to cut the celebrating off early because of an early port day with tenders to Benoa, Bali.

 

I've been felled by migraines three days in a row, thus much silence. Feeling better now and hope it doesn't start again today.

 

Found out the always available wonton soup may contain shrimp which might explain my migraines! Still, I have learned to use chopsticks on this cruise. There is always a silver lining...

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR AMELIA & KEN!

And Amelia...feel better. And say hi to Chris & Pat! :)

[LaraTiara]

Yes indeed - happy new year to you in Bali Amelia. Hope you had a healthy day and enjoyed touring.

 

Sincere apologies for interrupting your onboard thread and querying about Sapphire attire. Just anticipation, excitement.

[ibfern]

Can you kindly tell me a bit about the evening attire for women on Sapphire? I have been looking online for typical short/long Asian dresses. Is that typical dinner attire on board?

 

Thankfully they are the trend in the west at the moment, so I will get use out of them after the cruise too.

 

Hi Lara,

People are dressing exactly as they do on any other cruise, although I do notice more people dress up. There is a wide variety of clothing worn, I bought a batik dress yesterday and wore that last night. :)

 

It's hot and humid outside and cool inside, I didn't bring enough sweaters although I tend to run hot anyway. So don't forget some warmer clothing!

 

Amelia

[ibfern]

HAPPY NEW YEAR AMELIA & KEN!

And Amelia...feel better. And say hi to Chris & Pat! :)

 

Thanks Joyce, I do feel. Enter and I will say Hi to Pat and Chris. Happy New Year to you, Tom, and the gang! Love,

Amelia

[CRUZGAL53]

Thanks Joyce, I do feel. Enter and I will say Hi to Pat and Chris. Happy New Year to you, Tom, and the gang! Love,

Amelia

 

Thanks Amelia!! :) Have Fun!!!

[ibfern]

Singapore

12/29/14

 

Had a great day in Singapore today. We had already spent 4 days here and still had many places to visit. Before we used an MRT pass to get around the city, this time we hired a private driver who took us to all the places we missed, and some places we didn't know about.

 

Khuhan (khuhan.sg at gmail.com) met us at 8am in his comfortable Mercedes limo cab and off we went to conquer Singapore. The weather predicted rain so I created an itinerary that took that into consideration however, it really never rained. Lesson learned, lose expectations and use a knowledgable driver!

 

We started at the Gardens by the Bay, choosing to visit the Flower dome. It was all decked out for Christmas and frankly it was very cool at 59 F perfect for a hot humid day for me but cool for Ken. We walked through the dome, amazed at the wide variety of plants and surprised that there was cactus, Mediterranean climate flowers, and no tropical flowers at all. At the very bottom of the dome was fake snow and a pretty snow scene, snowmen, and several large Christmas trees. Of course at the end it led right into a gift shop which we browsed through but bought nothing. I called Khuhan ringing him but hanging up as we had arranged so I would not incur any charges and he was waiting as we exited the gardens.

 

We drive by the Lau Pasat Festival Market which we had walked past several times in our first days but did not know what it was. Khuhan explained about how it used to be on the shore but now landfill, used to enlarge the downtown area so more skyscrapers could be built, made the market nowhere near the shore! This market is where many locals and visitors go to eat, each stall is rated for health purposes (A,B,C,D) and it is built in old Singapore style. We also drove by Raffles which also used to be at the shore but is now far from it!

 

The weather we looking pretty good to we headed to Mt. Fabor, a high point in Singapore where you can see the whole city and surrounding green areas, resorts, and neighborhoods. We bought Cable Car tickets, Khuhan would meet us on Sentosa Island where it left off and gave us instructions about what to see before the ride including the "loo with a view" which was a trip! I could see all of Singapore from the loo. The glass was so clear, our friend Chris had accidentally walked into it and he came out with a huge bump on his head. Thankfully he healed quickly thanks to a topical medicine Khuhan suggested we buy.

 

The Cable sky ride was spectacular, we could see all over Singapore including our ship, the Sapphire Princess. We snapped away, picture after picture of the amazing sites including a pool filled with Dolphins at a resort on Sentosa Island. Amazing views, don't miss this. As we exited, we followed Khuhan's instructions about where to meet him and there he was waiting for us. We visited a resort owned by Shrangi-La, then drove around a wealthy neighborhood to see how the other half lives! You should have see the cars in the driveways. At a lookout point we got a great picture of our ship.

 

We left Sentosa Island and went back to Singapore. Our next stop was Arab Street where we ate lunch at a rip off restaurant called Sufi Corner Turkish restaurant. The food was good, I got falafels and a spicy dip called Esme, but the prices were outrageous. Our friend Pat bought a coffee and a piece of Baklava which was the size of a quarter, and cost $8! Avoid at all costs. Earlier we had eaten at a much better place, I'll tell you about it later.

We walked around Arab street, famous for its beautiful materials, alcohol free exotic oils, and lovely clothing. Of course I bought several hand sewn chiffon tops and a lovely linen dress, all for about $150, which I though was a great price. There is not much bargaining in this area, btw. This is also the place to buy beautiful rugs, the one I loved costs $12,000 and was well worth it but Ken said no. Glad he did, otherwise I might have bought it. Yikes.

 

Next we headed for Little India, and a famous store called Mustafa, opened 24 hours a day and huge with 4 floors. This store sold everything imaginable from medicine and food to jewelry and clothing. Amazing place, perfect for jet lagged folks who find themselves awake in the middle of the night.

 

Throughout the day Khuhan stopped at several places which were not on our list, Hindu and Buddhist temples, historic buildings, and even a synagogue! It was a lovely day and we really got to fill in the gaps of places we missed, the places we wanted to revisit, and even places we did not know was there. Khuhan was a brilliant driver, knowledgable on history and architecture and knew all the shortcuts. We had a fantastic day, got back to the ship at about 4:30 and was back on the ship within 15 minutes.

[TracieABD]

Hi Amelia-

Thank you for the Singapore update. I may contact your driver, if you do not plan on using him on January 12.

 

How much longer will you be on the Sapphire? I hope you will still be there when we board!

 

Happy New Year!!!

Tracie-Lynn

[ibfern]

Hi Amelia-

Thank you for the Singapore update. I may contact your driver, if you do not plan on using him on January 12.

 

How much longer will you be on the Sapphire? I hope you will still be there when we board!

 

Happy New Year!!!

Tracie-Lynn

 

Hi Tracie,

 

I am getting off the ship on Jan 13, we will just miss each other! I think you will be happy with Khuhan, he is a little more expensive than a regular taxi but has much knowledge and made our visit much improved over what we could have accomplished on our own, given the limited time we had.

 

We are flying to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat for 5 days/4 nights when we get off the ship, really looking forward to that!

 

Enjoy your trip,

Amelia

[p0240]

Hi Amelia

Was one of your ports Penang? If it was, was it a tender port or a berth?

 

Also with Singapore, as the Sapphire docks at the new terminal, do you know how far it is, or how you get to the nearest MRT station?

 

In Bangkok, we have booked a ship tour, which must be what you did too? Would you recommend it?

 

thanks for all your help, getting heaps of hints from your notes.

 

enjoy the rest of your cruise

Pat:):)

[ibfern]

Hi Amelia

Was one of your ports Penang? If it was, was it a tender port or a berth?

 

Also with Singapore, as the Sapphire docks at the new terminal, do you know how far it is, or how you get to the nearest MRT station?

 

In Bangkok, we have booked a ship tour, which must be what you did too? Would you recommend it?

 

thanks for all your help, getting heaps of hints from your notes.

 

enjoy the rest of your cruise

Pat:):)

 

Hi Pat,

We will be in Penang in a few days, it's not slated to be a tender port. The MRT does go to the new cruise center, there is a long covered walkway connecting the subway to the port for us it was too long to drag luggage. The biggest problem we had with the subway is that there are many exits in each stop and it's tough to figure out which one leads to where you want to go, it took us days to get oriented, and I always asked to be pointed to the correct exit for places like Chinatown, it was easy to walk out the wrong way and not find what we were looking for.

 

Did a ship tour in Bangkok and it was not my favorite thing! Even though it's fairly close to the port, about 100K, it took forever because of traffic. Next time I'd take a private tour and leave early to go back to the ship.

 

We just had a fabulous tour in Bali, private all day long for $100 for 4 of us, I'll write that up tomorrow hopefully.

 

Hope this helps,

Amelia

[westendgirl]

Hi Amelia

Was one of your ports Penang? If it was, was it a tender port or a berth?

 

Also with Singapore, as the Sapphire docks at the new terminal, do you know how far it is, or how you get to the nearest MRT station?

 

In Bangkok, we have booked a ship tour, which must be what you did too? Would you recommend it?

 

thanks for all your help, getting heaps of hints from your notes.

 

enjoy the rest of your cruise

Pat:):)

 

I'm not Amelia, but Penang is not a tender port. We didn't take a tour and walked all over town. There's plenty to see from an historical standpoint and Little India is quite interesting. When we were there last year, the ship was charging for a shuttle into the city center. You could see the disembarkation point from the ship and it wasn't a long walk, so I would recommend not taking the shuttle unless one has mobility issues. Penang was one of our favorite ports in Southeast Asia!

[san diego sue]

Happy New Year Amelia and Ken(and Chris and Pat).

By the way we are now also booked on the Australia cruise to LA in April 2016.

Booked it the same way you did. two days and 28days.Hopefully Chris and Pat will be on that one too.

[yankprintster]

My wife and I were on this same cruise (the first 11-day portion anwyay).

 

I'll add a few comments to the detailed reports that ibfern has posted.

 

Regarding the "earthquake" mentioned, the "20 foot wave"... Yes, that was actually pretty frightening. I've been on more than a dozen cruises, and it was the first time I've ever started thinking about whether I should grab the life jackets. We were in our cabin watching TV when there was a single, extremely hard jolt that knocked various papers off the desk. It was followed by a weird rolling back-and-forth sensation that lasted for maybe 30-60 seconds. I've never been in an earthquake, but maybe that rolling sensation is what ibfern alluded to.

 

Later on in the cruise, there was a Navigation@Sea talk with the ship's 3rd Officer. I asked him what happened that night, and he said we were cruising along at 20 knots, hit a big wave, and it immediately knocked 3 knots off the ships speed. He mentioned that it actually knocked him out of his bunk (wasn't sure if he was kidding or not--as it only knocked papers off our desk). He said this kind of thing actually happens quite frequently, so I guess I'm lucky to have never experienced it before.

 

We only did the ship tours, no private tours. The comments made by ibfern pretty much sum up the ship tours. We did many of the same ones. It was hot. Very hot (only 88F, but it felt hotter with the humidity). The timing of how long the stops were on these tours seemed odd. For instance, many short stops (5-10 minutes) didn't have anywhere near enough time to see everything, and the longer stops (40-60 minutes), were generally too long (most everyone piled in the bus 15-20 minutes before it was the scheduled time to go as they wasn't actually that much to see and do at many of the longer stops). And I agree about the comment made about the busses. When 8 tour busses all show up at the same place at the same time, it makes for a very crowded place. There's really no valid reason I can think of why they didn't want to stagger the busses so they don't all converge on the same attractions at the same time.

 

Regarding the two "factory stops" at the shops in Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok, my wife actually enjoyed those a great deal. She ended up buying a lot of stuff there. (Maybe she was the "there's always one" that returned to the bus ontime.) She specifically picked the tours because of the shopping component and was thankful for the opprotunity to go there. As for it being overpriced? I don't know yet. She plans to take the jewerly she bought in Bangkok to one of the local jewerly stores to get it apraised in the next couple of weeks. If the appraisal comes back bad, I'll let people know.

 

One thing I'm not sure was mentioned earlier regards the people on board. There were a LOT of Australians on board. And not many Asian passengers. My wife is Asian and she thought there would be a lot more Asians onboard, and was surprised there were so few. I think the Australians outnumbered the Americans on this cruise.

 

The cost of the ship's Behind the Scenes tour was $150. I usually like to go on these tours, but the price was too high for me to justify. I've done the behind the scene's your on NCL before, and I don't think it cost maybe half that (or a little more than half).

 

This was only our 2nd Princess Cruise. Most of my cruises have been on NCL and Carnival. Some things in particular I found interesting about Princess: Bingo actually paid out reasonable cash prizes. On NCL and Carnival, the bingo prices always seemed very, very low compared to what they were taking in for the game. Also, it was standard bingo (B-I-N-G-O cards; the first Princess Cruise I did on the Dawn Princess used Australian bingo cards that didn't use the alphabet letters).

 

The other thing about Princess is that I don't recall seeing an "Ask the Captain" session. NCL and Carnival usually have a session where the Captain (or sometimes the Staff Captain) goes to one of the lounges to answer any questions. On this cruise, it was only the 3rd officer (way down the chain of command, after Captain, Staff Captain, Senior 1st Officer, 1st Officer, Senior 2nd Officer, 2nd Officer). Despite that, the 3rd Officer was actually a very nice and funny guy. He directly answered questions that I've always seen Captains try to avoid or give politically correct answers. This 3rd Officer told it like it is, and was very refreshing to see such an attitude. As an example, someone asked him about if they worry about pirates. He said "with all due respect, you guys just aren't expensive enough--it's easier for them to go after an oil tanker, and there's too many of you people for them to try to handle, you'd overpower them." He then went on to discuss the "weapons" and countermeasures they have in the event of a pirate situation (sonic canons that can burst eardrums, water canons that can sink small boats, etc.) He was asked, what if a passenger goes out on their balcony, will the sonic canons burst their eardrums? He replied "Why would you be stupid enough to go stand on your balcony if pirates are trying to take over the ship? You know the pirates have guns, right?" Was a very fun Q&A session. On other cruise lines I've been on, anytime a question is asked about pirates, it's always "we have confidental procedures to handle it, we can't go into details, rest assured we will get control of the situation", the P.C. answer.

 

 

One final comment. The women that gave all the port talks in the theatre was very informative. We attended all of them, and there was always useful nuggets of information in there. I don't remember her name offhand, but she was very good.

 

All in all, one of the more fun cruises I've ever been on. Was disappointed in missing Nha Trang because of the weather, but that's just one of those things that can happen.

[cc4889]

Thanks for the updates! With regard to the menus having changed, is it possible to post an example photo of a dining room menu? And is Fettucine Alfredo in a Parmesan Basket still available all the time? Thank you!

[ibfern]

Thanks for the updates! With regard to the menus having changed, is it possible to post an example photo of a dining room menu? And is Fettucine Alfredo in a Parmesan Basket still available all the time? Thank you!

 

Yes the fettuccine Alfredo is still available, my friend orders it every night because she loves it so much!

[cc4889]

That's awesome, thank you!