Some 2021 Sapphire Princess itineraries have been cancelled.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Princess have cancelled/changed some 2021 Sapphire Princess itineraries including the PNG/Vanuatu one we had booked. Bummer!

 

However I managed to score a guarantee cabin on Pacific Princess from Sydney up to Tokyo which will more than make up for it. There are some very interesting ports on that itinerary plus it's a longer cruise. 😊😊😊

 

From what I gather from other forums Princess were a bit slow in contacting people about the itinerary changes. Some people had the cruise disappear from their Personalizer before they received notification of the change. I was on Ruby Princess at the time so didn't get the voicemail or email until we disembarked this morning.

[MicCanberra]

It is always a shame to have your cruise cancelled, a least you have a very good substitute.

[OzKiwiJJ]

21 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

It is always a shame to have your cruise cancelled, a least you have a very good substitute.

Yes indeed. I really wanted to try Pacific Princess, and actually had a Christmas cruise booked on her until they cancelled the Dunedin port stop. I preferred the Sapphire itinerary for PNG as it included a couple of Vanuatu ports I missed on our last PNG cruise but we can do PNG etc any time. I didn't originally consider the Sydney - Japan trip on Pacific as we already had the Sapphire cruise booked so I'm actually delighted we could get a cabin, even if it is only a guarantee, and I have enough FF points to pay for the flight home. 

 

Now I'm waiting for the late 2021 / 2022 cruises to be announced. There is a Sea Princess PNG one in October 2021 that we're considering but I want to see what repositioning to Australia cruises (other than Majestic) pop up in 2021. 

[MicCanberra]

I am sure you will find something to suit.

[Westaussie]

Received email from Princess during the week about this but it's still showing on my Personalizer and still able to book excursions!  It was a good itinerary and at a better time of year for PNG weatherwise.  Included Champagne Bay which we love.  Also booked b2b with the cruise before from Freo to Sydney which is still listed so I wonder where Sapphire is going after Sydney?  Second time this has happened as Princess cancelled a South American cruise we were booked on a few years ago.  Oh well, back to the drawing board!

[OzKiwiJJ]

Mine was still showing in my personalizer too, although the accompanying picture had disappeared. I guess they keep the booking open until you contact them to book another cruise or cancel completely. It's a bit odd that you can still book excursions though.

 

Champagne Bay would have been one of the highlights of the cruise for us, we missed going ashore there due to ill health on our last PNG cruise.

 

There is some speculation that Sapphire might be being sent to Alaska. 

 

Hope you manage to find a suitable replacement cruise, Westaussie.

[icat2000]

Sorry to hear about your cruise being cancelled. 

[NSWP]

I reckon the North Americans jumped up and down and said we want our Sapphire back.   Having been on her for a month last year in Europe, I understand why, great ship.  The grand class Princess ships are my favourite.

[Westaussie]

6 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I reckon the North Americans jumped up and down and said we want our Sapphire back.   Having been on her for a month last year in Europe, I understand why, great ship.  The grand class Princess ships are my favourite.

Like those ships too, together with a good itinerary and making it b2b is disappointing.  Wish they had made their changes after the cruise returned to Sydney.

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I reckon the North Americans jumped up and down and said we want our Sapphire back.   Having been on her for a month last year in Europe, I understand why, great ship.  The grand class Princess ships are my favourite.

I like the basic Grand class, and the Gem subclass (based on our last Diamond cruise) but do NOT like the Crown subclass ie Ruby, which just has too many passengers for the facilities especially when there are lots of kids onboard to up the passenger count even more as they are usually in quad or triple cabins.

 

I think Princess had some issues with Royal in Alaska last year so it may be that they are redeploying the smaller ships to that region.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, Westaussie said:

Like those ships too, together with a good itinerary and making it b2b is disappointing.  Wish they had made their changes after the cruise returned to Sydney.

Me too, but if they are sending her to Alaska she needs to be there for the start of that season so leaving Sydney mid-May would be too late. I think it takes close to a month for the transPacific repositioning.

Edited December 14, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[Westaussie]

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Me too, but if they are sending her to Alaska she needs to be there for the start of that season so leaving Sydney mid-May would be too late. I think it takes close to a month for the transPacific repositioning.

Yes, we did the repo cruise on Golden this year and left mid April.

[Relaxing Robbies]

The Sapphire is definitely going to Alaska in 2021.There are itineraries forAlaska 2021 available to view on the Princess forum of CC.

 

We are booked on the Sydney to Shanghai repositioning. We were supposed to leave on May16 2021, but this has been brought forward to 11 May,. Darwin has been deleted as a port stop and replaced by Bali. The ship will then travel from Shanghai to Anchorage, Alaska via Japan.

[Scanorama]

We were booked on the cancelled PNG cruise too, what a shame, it was the 3rd time we tried to do a PNG cruise, oh well maybe 4th time lucky. Hope Sapphire is coming back after the Alaska season, thoroughly enjoyed cruising o her sister Diamond 2 years ago, was very looking forward to PNG this time, many new ports for us.

[OzKiwiJJ]

9 minutes ago, Scanorama said:

We were booked on the cancelled PNG cruise too, what a shame, it was the 3rd time we tried to do a PNG cruise, oh well maybe 4th time lucky. Hope Sapphire is coming back after the Alaska season, thoroughly enjoyed cruising o her sister Diamond 2 years ago, was very looking forward to PNG this time, many new ports for us.

We enjoyed Diamond too which is why we chose to do the Sapphire PNG cruise - it was one of the few (only?) Sapphire cruise operating out of Sydney return. Oh well! Another time, I hope.

 

Actually if you really do want to see PNG then the Sea Princess itineraries are better for that, they stop at more PNG ports. We did a similar itinerary to the Sea Princess ones about three years ago but that cruise was longer as it also included Vanuatu ports which we missed as we both came down with a nasty flu on the cruise.

Edited December 15, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[martin jenkins]

we were booked on this too great itinerary shame it was cancelled, we rebooked 12 days singapore to tokyo and a bonus is there is a sale on with beverage package included.

[SinbadThePorter]

11 hours ago, Scanorama said:

We were booked on the cancelled PNG cruise too, what a shame, it was the 3rd time we tried to do a PNG cruise, oh well maybe 4th time lucky.

 

If you are going to do a PNG cruise make sure it includes the Conflict Islands.

 

After the new cruise terminal goes operational in Brisbane October 2020, there will be more options for PNG available. I believe Pacific Explorer, Sun Princess and Carnival Spirit will all be doing PNG cruises from there.

[By The Bay]

5 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

If you are going to do a PNG cruise make sure it includes the Conflict Islands.

 

After the new cruise terminal goes operational in Brisbane October 2020, there will be more options for PNG available. I believe Pacific Explorer, Sun Princess and Carnival Spirit will all be doing PNG cruises from there.

With any luck, they will be during our winter. Great way to escape the cold for a few weeks.

[By The Bay]

A quick search for June and July 2021 has only 1 cruise.

 

Pacific Explorer from Brisbane, Australia round-trip departing 02 Jun 2021 for10 nights. It does include the Conflict Islands.