Is anyone on Sapphire now?

[new2cruise]

Last week I enjoyed the live posts from the Sapphire in Alaska, as that's the ship we'll be taking in a few weeks.  I'd love to hear some reports about the ship and excursions this week.  Any takers?

[Rick&Jeannie]

I would check to see if there is a roll call. You may have better responses that way.

[JimmyVWine]

5 hours ago, new2cruise said:

Is anyone on Sapphire now?

Of course there is.  The ships don't sail empty, deadheading to the next departure port. Next question. 😈 

 

[victoriaj]

On 5/16/2023 at 8:26 AM, new2cruise said:

Last week I enjoyed the live posts from the Sapphire in Alaska, as that's the ship we'll be taking in a few weeks.  I'd love to hear some reports about the ship and excursions this week.  Any takers?

Just got off Sapphire on May 17th after 18 days onboard, staff was fantastic, a very happy ship with great attitude by all staff regardless of position.  We were a total of 19 ranging in age from 5 - 85 for the last 7 days and a party of 4 prior, without exception every single person in my party thoroughly enjoyed themselves and had no issues with cabin, food, staff or programs with fabulous weather albiet 1 rough sea ( one first timer in group got seasick) and a couple of days of rain, no complaints as never expected we would have such warm sunny May days in Alaska, only happened once before .  Production shows all awesome, 1 Comedian not good, Camp Discovery for little ones great with good hours, be sure to attend the on board Naturalists Presentation, Sandra is the best. 

Anything you particularly want to know just ask. Have a great Cruise!!!!

[new2cruise]

2 hours ago, victoriaj said:

Anything you particularly want to know just ask. Have a great Cruise!!!!

Thanks victoriaj!  Glad to hear you had such a great time!  It makes me even more excited for our cruise.

 

Could you tell me if you went on any excursions in Juneau or Skagway?  How did you like them?

[walkingsoon]

I'm on now.

 

We sailed on 5/17 with 2200 passengers (or so I was told once - didn't verify that) and the ship seems to be handling that (?85% cap) quite well. I haven't seen lines for the MDRs.

 

We went through Johnstone Strait rather than the Strait of San Juan de Fuca, though it mostly happened in the dark.

 

Alfredo's is limited to pizzas only. No  soup, salads, appetizers or alternate pasta dishes. Likewise, the International Cafe seemed to have more limited offerings than I've seen on other Princess ships. That's just an observation, not a complaint. It's probably a result of being on a bit smaller ship, which is a good thing. In fact my overall opinion of this ship, as is the case with all of the non-Royal class ships, is that it is greatly superior to any of the Royal class ships. That might change with the arrival of the Eclipse class. (Yeah - I'm one of those) Certainly, it's got a great promenade deck and balconies that are bigger than window boxes. The Crown Grill is a Sterling's.

 

We had a little intermittent misting in Ketchikan but nice weather since. Today was brilliant in Glacier Bay with more calving from Margerie Glacier than I've ever seen before. In Juneau, the trails on Mt. Roberts were snowbound from the timberline tram station on up. In Skagway the trail to and then around lower Dewey Lake was absolutely dry. Starting next week, the wooden trestle bridge on Basin Road in Juneau will be shut down to pedestrian traffic from 7:00am to 7:00pm, cutting off access to the Mt. Roberts and Perseverance trailheads. This will impact, quite negatively, those who take the tram up Mt. Roberts and then decide to hike down. 

 

In Skagway, we were forced to take a locally sourced shuttle service to the head of the pier. That's supposed to be for safety purposes, but given the three point turn they have to do on the pier, I'd feel much safer walking out on my own, more in control anyway. Waiting was minimal for the shuttle once the early morning rush was over.

 

Most travelled luncheon was replaced with a most travelled cocktail party. 

 

All in all, I really like this ship. The crew is great and seems relatively happy. You'll have a great time!