Sapphire Princess from Southampton in 2018

[CruiseQueenB]

CruiseQueenB,

 

Your speculation has been right: Caribbean Princess is listed @cayman Islands throughout the summer season 2018: https://www.caymanport.com/ship-schedule-results/

 

It seems very obvious that Princess may follow it's main competitor Celebrity and also deploys a ship in Caribbean throughout the summer season - I do not really like that... :(

 

As she is also listed in Caribbean in Sep/Oct (typical Canada/NE season), in fact another ship should sail the runs between NYc and Quebec - Royal Princess would be most likely candidate, IMHO, if Regal sails the 7 night runs...

 

Interesting, thank you for the link! Looks like Saturday departures alternating east/west 7-day Caribbean sailings based on the calendar, nothing ground breaking. Perhaps we see Caribbean Princess stopping in Amber Cove over the summer more though. I personally try to avoid the Caribbean in the summer, but I know industry wide Americans are looking to stay closer to home these days for vacation. It makes sense to try and test the market, yet again, and see if there's some money to be made.

 

I will be interested to see if they put Royal on the Quebec-NYC run, that's a very large ship for that itinerary, but they've squeezed Regal into the archipelago for Stockholm calls so I'm sure they'll make it down that portion of the St Lawrence no problem. Those cruises are very popular, and I don't think they'll have any issue filling up the ship for them.

[shipfriend_max]

Also Queen Mary 2, which is even larger than Royal Princess sails up to Quebec City, so theoretically there shouldn't be any problem to deploy Royal Princess on that itineraries. They are highly on my bucket list!!!

In 2013, RCCL had Explorer on that itinerary measuring roughly 138,000 GT, it is nearly as large as Royal with 143,000 GT. Explorer also sailed up to Quebec City.

 

I wouldn't know which other ship should sail there, all the Grand-Class ones are allocated.

 

Still a big question mark would be Island Princess, if she does not go back to Alaska. Maybe back to Europe, or staying year-round at West Coast??

 

 

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Edited October 26, 2016 by shipfriend_max

[trvlgirlmq]

It looks like Princess may be the only real contender for British Isles so I have been researching them for 2018 (probably out of our price range but it passes the time).

 

Le Havre shows Royal Princess every 12 days like clockwork. The ship comes from Edinburgh and next port is Portsmouth.

 

https://www.havre-port.com/show/2077#

[Cruise Junky]

It looks like Princess may be the only real contender for British Isles so I have been researching them for 2018 (probably out of our price range but it passes the time).

 

Le Havre shows Royal Princess every 12 days like clockwork. The ship comes from Edinburgh and next port is Portsmouth.

 

https://www.havre-port.com/show/2077#

 

Not at all Others just have other ports that don't include Le Havre

[princessfanboy]

The Royal is also schedule at Le Havre until september 21, so she is not going to Canada & New England:rolleyes:

Edited October 27, 2016 by princessfanboy

[flamomo]

I love the Sapphire. Would be thrilled to see her sailing again on the west coast. :)

 

Same here!! I mourned when she was sent away!!!

 

Seems like Princess has deployed several of the best ships in the fleet away to other parts of the world (Asia and Australia) and has left US cruisers stuck with the what I consider "the mooses" (Royal and Regal).

[shipfriend_max]

The Royal is also schedule at Le Havre until september 21, so she is not going to Canada & New England:rolleyes:

 

Sometimes those schedules might not be 100% actualized, so it might be the call the 21st of Sep will not take place, or Royal will start a TA to NYC the 22nd of Sep for serving Canada/NE after that.

But that would be quite late, although Princess kicks off the Canada/NE season a little later than others, such as HAL.

 

But which other ship would be a possible candidate in your point of view, if not Royal (maybe Regal)? I do not hope Island... :eek:

 

@flamono: Yeah I have the feeling that the new Princess ships are not liked by every freuquent Princess customer...

But insteaod of Diamond and Sapphire now you have Ruby, Crown, soon Emerald, as well as Star and Grand Princess at West Coast.

Aren't they were similar ships to Diamond/Sapphire and more or less as good as them?

 

I found Crown and Emerald to be nearly perfect cruise ships, let's see whether I'll also love Star Princess as much as Crown/Emerald... :)

Edited October 27, 2016 by shipfriend_max

[Bogof1]

Have just today booked med cruise out of Southampton on Sapphire princess for July 2018 she is here for the season, looking forward to sailing on her

[Rosebay44A]

Is this cruise Southhampton to Rome still scheduled?

[81Dropbear]

I've just booked a 14 night Baltic on Sapphire in Sept 2018, out of Southampton. I notice in her schedule that she's still in Singapore until late March 2018, with a two week gap between her last Asia cruise and her transit across to Europe. I guess they'll be doing a mini refit in those two weeks? It says on the website that the rebranded kids clubs will be on Sapphire in March 2018, so that would make sense. I wonder what else they'll change?

[lovevacadays]

My niece and I would love to sail the Sapphire in Europe. Fingers crossed we can do it in 2018. Our favorite ship. :):):)

[Mad dogs and Englishmen]

Sapphire was our very first ship on our first cruise to Alaska. We booked a family 'holiday of a lifetime' when I was in remission from cancer so she will always be very special to us.

I was thrilled to hear she was sailing from the UK in 2018 :)

 

Typical for us! We had already booked the Norwegian Fjords for this year on the Crown for some milestone birthdays, us, the kids and my parents!

Don't think we can afford another cruise just yet as we also went to Japan last year but I'm determined to get back on the Sapphire, even if it means Mr Visa paying!.....😂

[dides]

I'm determined to get back on the Sapphire, even if it means Mr Visa paying!.....😂

 

There's always the 3 day mini-cruise in October ;). Sapphire was our first cruise ship too - I chose her at random when we needed to visit Alaska as part of our plan to visit all 50 states. We loved her and Princess of course!

[Lanwood]

 

Seems like Princess has deployed several of the best ships in the fleet away to other parts of the world (Asia and Australia) and has left US cruisers stuck with the what I consider "the mooses" (Royal and Regal).

 

I'll be happy to swap...[emoji4]

 

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[shipfriend_max]

Same here!! I mourned when she was sent away!!!

 

Seems like Princess has deployed several of the best ships in the fleet away to other parts of the world (Asia and Australia) and has left US cruisers stuck with the what I consider "the mooses" (Royal and Regal).

 

I also have the feel Princess has changed some deployments, but at least @West Coast there are also really good ships such as Ruby, Emerald, Star or Grand Princess, which are very similar to Diamond/Sapphire Princess, and also from Florida Crown and Caribbean Princess are sailing.

[lovecruising56]

It does seem probable that Sapphire will make a west bound trip through the Suez in the spring of 2018. Her last cruise from Singapore returns on March 14; there are no other cruises showing for her. She does show up in the port of Gibraltar on April 30. That leaves a gap of 48 days. I would think that a dry docking in Singapore then the repostioning voyage. This year Emerald took 30 days for London to Singapore; perhaps a similar voyage will be undertaken by Sapphire.

Sapphire is repositioning from Singapore to Southampton March 28, next year (38 nights) just for the summer season and is heading back to Asia in October