Live from the Sapphire Princess: first post pause sailing 9/24-10/4/2022 (Baja Peninsula & Sea of Cortez)

[travelin.sisters]

a quick smile before I start on answering questions 

we came back from breakfast to find that the Stanley's & Conrado or room steward had created a sliding ramp on the bed

 

if you can't go to Puerto Vallarta, put on your Puerto Vallarta t-shirts & a floofy Mexixican dress & create your own fun

Edited October 1, 2022 by travelin.sisters

[Vic The Parrot]

On 9/30/2022 at 7:24 AM, travelin.sisters said:

 

inside the aviary feeding the birds

 

 

 

the love birds aren't very loving!

That's adorable.

 

Is this place a stop on a particular shore-ex?

[travelin.sisters]

29 minutes ago, Vic The Parrot said:

That's adorable.

 

Is this place a stop on a particular shore-ex?

it was outside the aviary at El Serpentario in La Paz

[Sunset329]

1 hour ago, Ronnieslady said:

My husband Ron, is going to love that Ping pong areas.  We loves playing. He tries to get me to play, but I am not into it like he is.  He considers it good exercise. 

Sunset look for him to play any time.  He is tall 6’3” with a mustache, in his 70’s .  Or call our cabin anytime.We are in D738.  Let me know if he should bring his paddle ❓

 

I am an amateur table tennis player. However, I am traveling with a friend who does play table tennis. He is bringing his paddle for tournament play. We are also both in our seventies. We are staying in cabin C624. Have Ron call us if he wants to play.

[Ronnieslady]

56 minutes ago, Sunset329 said:

 

I am an amateur table tennis player. However, I am traveling with a friend who does play table tennis. He is bringing his paddle for tournament play. We are also both in our seventies. We are staying in cabin C624. Have Ron call us if he wants to play.

Just wanted to let your friend know, they might not let him use your own paddle for tournaments.  But he can for sure use it for regular play.   My husband said to tell you he is a just for fun & exercise player.   He doesn’t play @ home just on cruises. I will have him call you guys. Even if I have to do it for him.   You will all have lots of fun. It’s a good way to meet others with the same interests. 
          Thanks a bunch,          Grace  D738 

[travelin.sisters]

more answers to your questions

          Finally getting back to answering your questions & some other maybe useful information. Again, if I missed your question (this has turned into a longer thread than I expected & connectivity remains sporadic) please don’t hesitate to ask again or if there is something else you would like to know, I will try to find the answer.

          Club Class dining & the Casino while we were in Cabo, have been well covered by others on this sailing—thank you!!—& I don’t have anything more to add as I have no experience with either.

I did not actually meet any of the assistant cruise directors as we didn’t do any of their activities this cruise (I find each cruise is different & we feel like doing different things). Fernando the CD seems good, I do like that he is not as over-the-top exuberant as some. We did not feel the lack of any particular activities, as we were in a more hanging on the balcony type mood this cruise, but it seems like maybe there were fewer activities than usual. I will post the Patters so you can se if your favorites were there, but it felt like it started a little light. I know many departments are still getting all their people trained & things organized. I will say they did a good job of reorganizing as our ports were switched. One thing I noticed not having was any music classes (we have done steel drum, harmonica & glockenspiel, & of course, ‘ukulele to Hawai’i) or choir.

        There was a photo of the table tennis on the previous page & I did meet a man who had just been playing pickleball a couple of days ago. He said that the surface was not great & neither was the equipment, so maybe you do want to bring your own even though the ship has some.

         I did not use the shuttle in La Paz so don’t know if the town or the ship provides it. I would guess form the fact that there are shuttles in some towns but not all that it is a local, not Princess, thing but that is just a guess on my part. I don’t know how often the bus runs. I did not see a shuttle in either Cabo or Loreto.

       Yes, there is the usual stretch across clothes line in the shower.

The bears & I stopped by the laundry on deck 11 & they are charging for the machines & supplies. You can use your medallion to get the tokens. Here are some photos of the laundry room & the token dispenser.

 

 

       The photo department here has 3 point & shoot cameras. I took a picture of them in the case. The yellow one on the bottom is an underwater one & was the most expensive (I am thinking in the $300 range but don’t remember exactly any of the prices…maybe the top one was about $70 & the middle one was in the middle). The guy there said there would be pretty much the same cameras across the fleet, all some of the ships have a newer go-pro.

 

 

My posts in this LIVE:

pre-cruise musing—post 1

photos of berth 46—post 2

ready to go—post 23

onboard & ready to report—post 60

embarkation day—post 67

embarkation photos—post 68

embarkation lunch photos—post 70 & 72

exploring the ship—post 80

ship photos—posts 82, 84, 88, 89, 100 & 101

day 2—at sea—post 102

day 2 photos—posts 109, 110, 111 & 112

answers to questions—post 123

Cabo San Lucas—post 126

Cabo photos—posts 147, 150,153, 154, 160, 162 & 163

La Paz—post 164

La Paz photos—posts 178, 179. 180, 181, 182 & 183

Loreto—post 189

Loreto photos—posts 191, 192, 194, 195 & 196

[travelin.sisters]

10 hours ago, Gert2011 said:

Thanks for the updates.

You said you had to look around to find not flat diet Coke.  We are on the next 29 days and would like to know where you found it?

 

Thanks again.

oops missed answering this in my previous post...the bars by the pools & the one by the International Cafe have the soda dispenser....this tastes undrinkable flat to me (also what they have in the MDRs...so far, the other bars do not have their soda dispenser's working so they are pouring from cans (but can't give you the can, sigh)...if you can get them to pour from a recently opened can you are good...once they get all the dispensers working it will be sad for those of us who like our soda really fizzy (I drink it as much for the fizz as anything)

[Ronnieslady]

Is all the Air Conditioning working now❓❓❓

[travelin.sisters]

2 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

Is all the Air Conditioning working now❓❓❓

probably not yet...it got much warmer inside the evening we left Loreto. The captain said it was due to having the doors for tender services open all day. The temperatures in the public areas are back to being comfortable & pretty consistent. I don't know how all the personal spaces are but I would be surprised if ALL the people whose cabins were either too hot or too cold are sorted out yet. when we did Panama canal this same time of year on the Island 5 years ago...it took a couple of days for them to get our room comfortable once we dropped into southern Mexico & beyond (we were the first cruise south after the Alaska season & they had to adjust the AC ranges). We have been pretty comfortable (our AC was not keeping our room as cool as I would prefer, but certainly not at an unreasonable temperature), but I do know others have been either uncomfortably warm or cold in their cabins

 

[latebloomer56]

Hello, first thanks for your postings we sail on the next cruise to Hawaii.

Question did you receive printed copies of the patter or did you need to request them?

Thanks again, Laura

[CineGraphic]

If passengers know that many of the ship's systems would be problematic at start-up, surely Princess knows it too. The fact that they didn't get everything ship-shape BEFORE the 1st cruise speaks volumes.

[tonit964]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

If passengers know that many of the ship's systems would be problematic at start-up, surely Princess knows it too. The fact that they didn't get everything ship-shape BEFORE the 1st cruise speaks volumes.

When walking on the promenade deck this morning, on one side there was water everywhere, some of the pipes from deck 8 are leaking. 
There was a huge leak at the entrance to Wheelhouse bar and on deck 10 for the first few days of the cruise. They were replacing the carpet on deck 10 this morning.

Was dining in Vivaldi last night and parts of the floor are very soft, I’ve never experienced that before.

[hpeabody]

45 minutes ago, tonit964 said:

When walking on the promenade deck this morning, on one side there was water everywhere, some of the pipes from deck 8 are leaking. 
There was a huge leak at the entrance to Wheelhouse bar and on deck 10 for the first few days of the cruise. They were replacing the carpet on deck 10 this morning.

Was dining in Vivaldi last night and parts of the floor are very soft, I’ve never experienced that before.

 

Wonderful!  Just what we want.  I sure wish I could cancel

[NownZen]

11 hours ago, travelin.sisters said:

more answers to your questions

  

 

       The photo department here has 3 point & shoot cameras. I took a picture of them in the case. The yellow one on the bottom is an underwater one & was the most expensive (I am thinking in the $300 range but don’t remember exactly any of the prices…maybe the top one was about $70 & the middle one was in the middle). The guy there said there would be pretty much the same cameras across the fleet, all some of the ships have a newer go-pro.

 

 

 

Thank you for the camera information

[tonit964]

2 hours ago, hpeabody said:

 

Wonderful!  Just what we want.  I sure wish I could cancel

While there are issues with the ship for sure that really are impacting some guests such as AC/toilet issues, which there is no excuse for,  the staff/crew has been wonderful and I’m having a good time.

The ship just wasn’t ready in my opinion. I think I’m going to take a break from Princess for a while. Really want to try Celebrity. 
 

I hope your cruise goes without any issues and you have a wonderful time.

[amvo]

9 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

Hello, first thanks for your postings we sail on the next cruise to Hawaii.

Question did you receive printed copies of the patter or did you need to request them?

Thanks again, Laura

I receive it every day in the afternoon, as it was before Covic.

[CineGraphic]

3 hours ago, tonit964 said:

I think I’m going to take a break from Princess for a while.

 

Welcome to the club.

Happy Hour is 2pm-5pm Daily.

 

[FLAlaska]

Saw on Facebook that’s there was an medical emergency , Coast Guard helicopter on site and passengers asked to return to cabins. Hope you are all ok.

[travelin.sisters]

11 hours ago, latebloomer56 said:

Hello, first thanks for your postings we sail on the next cruise to Hawaii.

Question did you receive printed copies of the patter or did you need to request them?

Thanks again, Laura

Wwll I thouught this posted hours ago!!

 

we did get the Patters without asking for them, although in the Medallion app-->My PReferences-->Room there was a place to say which papers you want & I said yes to Patters & improtant notices, no to excursions, spa & art...I am not sure it matters my sister got them too & didn't do that

 

[travelin.sisters]

Coast Guard helicopter just left with a passenger who needed more care than the ship could provide

[startedwithamouse]

On 9/26/2022 at 9:51 AM, NownZen said:

It is nice to see the library. When we were on the Grand in January, they had one book and no games.

Grand was fully stocked with games and books in late December.  They must have removed them due to a covid surge? 

[travelin.sisters]

8 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Grand was fully stocked with games and books in late December.  They must have removed them due to a covid surge? 

I was told on one cruise where I did a tour, that they have to remove everything if there is a Norovirus or other outbreak onboard & regularly otherwise

[travelin.sisters]

possibly helpful info

          This is just some random information either about the Sapphire Princess or about how cruising is different at this stage of COVID &/or with the Medallion. It will hopefully be helpful or interesting to some people.

          This is our third cruise this year. We did 2 in Jan/Feb: the Grand to Hawai’I & the Mexican Rivera on the Majestic. Both January cruises were well less than ½ full & were made at the height of COVID precautions. Now neither testing nor masking are required. I have not seen any section of ship’s cabins blocked off as a quarantine section as on previous cruises this year.

       COVID protocols: Not many passengers are wearing masks, probably the same percentage that we see locally in Southern California. Crew is still masking, although most are no longer wearing N95 (or the equivalent) masks. The buffet is back to self-service. Cabin stewards no longer have to wait for 15 minutes after you leave the room to clean it & nightly turn down service is standard once again (still no chocolates). There are no capacity or spacing limits in the venues. In fact they stuff people in the stores for the talks/raffles. One thing that started due to COVID that I am glad has continued is that port talks & enrichment lectures are available for later viewing on stateroom TVs.

      Medallion: the app seems to be a little faster & more stable than earlier this year, but sometimes it is just easier to access things on the stateroom TV. I find the Journey View layout for the schedule much less user friendly than the previous list view & wish this info would be on the TV as well.

This is the first Medallion cruise where we have had trouble with other people’s expenses showing up on our bill. Even with a drinks package there have been bar charges that we had to get removed & it took 2 days & some frustration to get a charge from a store I never shopped in cleared from our account. I think this is a Sapphire training issue more than a Medallion issue as we had no problems with this on our previous Medallion cruises. I do like the ease of allowing other members of your travel party to access your cabin. Previously you had to ask for an extra key card for them, now it is simply done by guest services entering a programming code into their system. Crew chat is an easy way to get problems solved without standing in line at customer service.

      The Sapphire: There has been a lot of talk here & on other threads about the condition of the Sapphire & whether she was ready to sail. My two cents, for what they are worth, is that there has been a lot of work done throughout the cruise to continue to get her where she should be. I would say that this is what we should expect sailing on a return to service cruise. Unfortunately, we did not sign up for a RTS cruise, that was chosen for us when the earlier cruises were canceled. It has actually, for me, been better that sailing on the Grand’s return from dry dock cruise where they were still painting & gluing the whole cruise & I was sick with allergies for that & half of the next cruise.

I know that there are people who have had non-functional toilets, no hot water & air conditioning that is too hot or cold. That is never acceptable & should be addressed immediately by either fixing the issue or changing rooms. I would be angry, disappointed & want a different vacation too. This is not unique to the Sapphire, every cruise I have been on (except possibly the Majestic—which is new & was 25% full) there have been similar problems.

      Cruise ship toilets go out. Unless you had people to stay in each cabin & use the plumbing for some amount of time, I don’t know that you could anticipate which ones are about to go bad & I’m pretty sure you can’t replumb an entire ship like you can an old house. Please know that I am not saying anyone should have to stay in these conditions, they should be moved or the problem fixed fast!

Air conditioning is hard on a ship. When we did the Panama Canal this same time of year, where it is hot & humid & the ship had come directly from the Alaska season, it took several days & multiple tries for them to get our cabins comfortable. I was ready to go ballistic by the time they sorted it. Now I travel with a thermometer/clock so I can say x degrees in not acceptable instead of I’m too hot. Temperature is also subjective. How do you prepare for people who never want it over 70 & those who want it in the 80s?

       There are leaks around the ship, our hallway was one example, but they are working on fixing them as they occur. I actually expected to see buckets outside our room for the whole cruise, but they were gone in a few days. We have sailed with leaky balcony doors, leaky meeting rooms, saggy dining room floors & all of the things that are happening on the Sapphire, on other ships as well. Older ships need constant maintenance & certainly one that has sat mostly idle & empty for over 2 years will. I choose to cruise & I choose to cruise knowing that things will not always be the way I want them to be.

      Just some other things about the Sapphire: they do have the newer lamps with USB ports, but only one of ours works. The bridge cam view is hidden in in TV & moviesàLive TV. They don’t have the Sleep sounds on the TV which we loved using. The little bars of soap & tubes of lotion have been replaced with pump dispensers like the ones in the shower, which is not so bad unless you are allergic to eucalyptus as I am.

      I think that’s enough for now—next up 3 sea days!! & more photos.

 

My posts in this LIVE:

pre-cruise musing—post 1

photos of berth 46—post 2

ready to go—post 23

onboard & ready to report—post 60

embarkation day—post 67

embarkation photos—post 68

embarkation lunch photos—post 70 & 72

exploring the ship—post 80

ship photos—posts 82, 84, 88, 89, 100 & 101

day 2—at sea—post 102

day 2 photos—posts 109, 110, 111 & 112

answers to questions—post 123

Cabo San Lucas—post 126

Cabo photos—posts 147, 150,153, 154, 160, 162 & 163

La Paz—post 164

La Paz photos—posts 178, 179. 180, 181, 182 & 183

Loreto—post 189

Loreto photos—posts 191, 192, 194, 195 & 196

more answers to your questions—post 206

[travelin.sisters]

3 sea days in a row!! what a gift

        After a calm night I woke Friday morning to a gorgeous sunrise in the Sea of Cortez. We were moving so slowly (about 14 knots) & the water was so flat that it reminded me of being on Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal. It felt so very peaceful & was fun to be able to see land on both sides of the ship. One thing that was not like the Canal was that we saw a bunch more leaping dolphins at breakfast! Overnight we had floated back down toward La Paz & we spent the day slowly rounding the tip of Baja. The captain announced around noon that we are still ready to head quickly away if Orlene changes her path but for now, we are expecting smooth sailing with maybe some winds tomorrow. If we had continued to Puerto Vallarta, we could have expected 25-foot seas which would have been safe but not enjoyable. The hurricane was currently near Manzanillo.

          We love sea days so the thought of having the next three days as sea days was wonderful. I am sure that there are people who are disappointed about missing Puerto Vallarta, although I haven’t heard from many who are. I think San Diego is a fun exchange, even though it is a short drive from our house. There is something different about playing tourist than going to visit family.

          The shore excursion staff was able to put together 4 excursions: a city tour of San Diego & La Jolla by bus, the Old Town Trolley tour, a Harbor Cruise & the San Diego Zoo on your own. We could have easily planned something ourselves, but having extra OBC that we needed to spend picked the Harbor Tour. I don’t know why we always end up with tons of extra OBC on Mexican cruises instead of the Hawai’ian ones where it would be easier to spend but we seem to.

          Spent the day leisurely doing a little of this & a little of that: did some wandering of the ship, collected charms for the free charm bracelet, checked on photos, collected some answers for this thread, worked on getting a charge from a store I had never been in refunded & ate of course. Basically, it was a leisurely relaxing day.

           I did go to the internet café to talk to the manager about why the internet is so ridiculously slow. He told me a whole slew of contradictory things: it isn’t really slow, it is slow because the signal in this area is not good (it was good in January), it is slow on this ship because it is older, it’s slow on all ships, the hurricane disrupted the signal today, the provider can’t provide what they promised to all the ships that want it. I said that I understand he can’t give me any better service than there is but that it was much worse that my two previous cruises this year (granted both were less than ½ full) & perhaps worse than in the pre-medallion net days. I also said that if this is the best that is possible Princess needs to stop advertising & selling the promise that I can do anything including streaming shows on the pool deck. I can’t even transfer my photos with dropbox, I finally turned it off until I get home & transferred via cable. He took my room number & offered to refund what I had paid to upgrade from the one device plan that came with my room to 4 devices. I guess I need to figure out something to spend OBC on—if only they had new outfits for the bears.

          Next was the Captain Circle party (there were enough Platinum & Elite members (1,041) that they split the part into 2 times. This cruise is 81.37% with 1,943 guests. There are 362 new to Princess cruisers, 318 Gold, 222 Ruby, 602 Platinum & 433 Elite members. Captain Ravera told us that 3 Princess ships have been affected by Orlene: Sapphire, Ruby & Diamond.

          At dinner they had a table set up in the Savoy dining room for the Chef’s Table. The table was lovely & well served, but it didn’t seem like the location in one edge of the dining room would feel very special.

          By bed time we were out of the Sea of Cortez & back in the Pacific heading west at 12 knots. The ship is rocking a bit side to side, still relatively smooth but not the almost imperceptible motion we had gotten used to.

          Saturday, we continued leisurely sailing north-west toward San Diego at about 12 knots. We mostly enjoyed the ocean from our balcony, ate & collected the charms my sister wanted for her bracelet. As we moved northward, the temperature became more & more comfortable outside & the ocean is so soothing.

          I did finally get the charge reversed on my account, so we looked for something to spend the rest of our OBC on. The shops on the Sapphire are tiny & didn’t have a lot of the usual stuff that I would have expected (port & Princess branded souvenirs & t-shirts, for example). They did have a good stock of liquor, watches & jewelery. Finally figured out what to do with the OBC so we could check that off our list. We did go back to the second show by the magician after dinner, he also had the hula hoop performer with him. It was fine but I think he’s not really the kind of performer we enjoy more than once a cruise.

          Dinner was in Sabatini’s & it was a little disappointing. We had a great table by the window & some of the food was delicious, but they had a very hard time dealing with our food allergies & service was disorganized. Our junior waiter said this is his first ever cruise & his first time in a specialty dining room but he did a very good job. The problem was that our waiter did not tell us that one of the items ordered could not be served because of allergens & that we would need to reorder until it was time to serve that item so two of us were eating our pasta while the third was waiting with nothing. The calamari were apparently excellent & most of the food was pretty good, the service was just really scattered. We were glad that the meal came with our booking & we hadn’t paid extra for it.

          With our patters on Saturday was notification that everyone would have to do immigration checks on Monday morning in San Diego even if they are not leaving the ship. These will be onboard & we were assigned times, those with Princess excursions first & then by decks. Once we have all been cleared, we will be free to depart. I imagine that we will not have to do immigration checks in LA & our disembarkation will be pretty quick.

          Sunday was another lovely day at sea, with not much planned. After breakfast we went to the photo department to use our photo vouchers. This is always a hit or miss thing: our TA always gives us 2 vouchers for 6x8 photos, on various ships we have been able to combine them for one bigger photo, gotten a photo & the digital copy on a ship shaped flash drive or gotten the photo—this time we were unable to combine them & all the photos were more expensive than our vouchers. We opted for digital copies which were the same price as the printed photos. I don’t know if this is a new to Princess thing or just this ship but the photo getting off at La Paz was less expensive that the photo taken on the ship. I don’t remember that being true in the past. The also had Stanley Bear flash drives & so we, of course, needed those!

          For lunch we decided to order room service & watch the waves. It was relatively prompt & let us pick what we each wanted without doing to multiple places on the ship. The egg muffin sandwich was good, as was the hot dog, but the tuna sandwich was very dry & has a skimpy amount of tuna salad. Fries were ok but not as crispy & fresh as on the pool deck. Fruit salad was nice & the desserts were great (key lime pie & chocolate cake). It is a nice option to have & ordering in the app was easy with lots of options to customize.

          As we were waiting for our lunch, the captain came back on the PA system to announce that there was a passenger who needed more care than the ship could provide. They had made arrangements with the Coast Guard in San Diego to dispatch medical evacuation. We were not to sue our balconies; deck areas were closed & passengers in the 400’s on the port side had to leave their rooms. There was some delay in dispatching the helicopter & about an hour later we were told that they had left San Diego & would be arriving in about an hour’s time.

          Once they arrived the helicopter hovered along the port side to coordinate speed etc. After what seemed a long time, they moved in & over their ship, where we surmise that they lowered the rescue diver/medic & the litter. Then back to the side & finally back over the ship & then back to prepare to return to San Diego. It seemed like the helicopter spent a lot of time with each of those moves, but it was here less than 45 minutes. It was such a calm day which, I am sure, made the rescue much easier than some we have seen. Hoping & praying that the passenger recovers well & quickly.

          Started packing as Monday is now a port day—driving to the port, there is no need to pack carefully, but it always means there is a lot to pack to get off. Collected the last charm for our bracelets.

          This was our second formal night. People dressed nicely for formal night but I did not see any tuxedos or gowns. There was the usual range of dressy casual to dressy-dressy. Back to the cabin, set our clocks back to California time. Packed a little & to bed. Tomorrow is San Diego.

          Up next: sea day photos & then Sand Diego.

 

My posts in this LIVE:

pre-cruise musing—post 1

photos of berth 46—post 2

ready to go—post 23

onboard & ready to report—post 60

embarkation day—post 67

embarkation photos—post 68

embarkation lunch photos—post 70 & 72

exploring the ship—post 80

ship photos—posts 82, 84, 88, 89, 100 & 101

day 2—at sea—post 102

day 2 photos—posts 109, 110, 111 & 112

answers to questions—post 123

Cabo San Lucas—post 126

Cabo photos—posts 147, 150,153, 154, 160, 162 & 163

La Paz—post 164

La Paz photos—posts 178, 179. 180, 181, 182 & 183

Loreto—post 189

Loreto photos—posts 191, 192, 194, 195 & 196

more answers to your questions—post 206

possibly helpful information—post 223

[KKB]

On 10/2/2022 at 1:40 PM, tonit964 said:

While there are issues with the ship for sure that really are impacting some guests such as AC/toilet issues, which there is no excuse for,  the staff/crew has been wonderful and I’m having a good time.

The ship just wasn’t ready in my opinion. I think I’m going to take a break from Princess for a while. Really want to try Celebrity. 
 

I hope your cruise goes without any issues and you have a wonderful time.

We sailed Caribbean Princess in July & Discovery Princess in Sept, both were lovely.

Dont give up on Princess!

BUT Celebrity is wonderful too!!