Sapphire Princess Review

[lovethecaribbean31]

Alaskan Cruise Review

 

We just returned from Alaska and had a fabulous time. We went on a cruise on the Sapphire Princess. The cruise started in Vancouver and ended in Whittier, Alaska. We would have liked to do a land tour in Alaska as well, but we just didn’t have enough vacation time.

 

Vancouver

We flew on America West to Vancouver and arrived early in the afternoon. We stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle and liked the hotel in general. We booked three rooms because I was traveling with my husband, parents and sisters. Since I stay at Marriotts frequently they “upgraded” one of the rooms to Concierge level. I decided to be a good daughter and give it to my parents. We were then told that they would get a free continental breakfast, snacks and drinks in the concierge lounge. But what they didn’t tell us was that because it was the weekend, the lounge was closed. Not a big deal because we didn’t pay for concierge level, but why say that they get those benefits when they aren’t available!? I didn’t notice any difference in the room compared to the regular rooms except they got a free bottle of water and it was on a higher floor.

 

The room itself was larger than what I expected after reading reviews. The bed was really comfortable and the shower had a rain shower head which I love. The concierge was very helpful and the hotel was great about storing our luggage so we could tour around before going to the ship. The hotel was in a great location in the center of town and nice views of the water.

 

Our first day in Vancouver we just walked around the city. I had been there once before so I was sort of the tour guide for everyone. I was still impressed with how clean and well kept the city is. We had dinner at the Boathouse which was recommended by one of my father’s friends. It was ok, but I think we could have gone somewhere much better.

 

The next morning was had a great breakfast at a restaurant called Goodfellas about a block from our hotel. The prices were much better than the hotel and I’m pretty sure that the food was much better. The omelette was probably the best I ever had.

 

We then took the bus to Stanley Park and walked around there for a couple hours. The park is huge and there are lots of sites and great views to see. You could spend a couple days exploring it if you have the time! We then took the ferry over to Granville Island. We enjoyed the shops and the market (only opened on weekends).

 

Even though the hotel was only about a 10 minute walk from the cruise ship dock, we took two taxis because we had so much luggage. Unfortunately we got ripped off. The first taxi said that he charged extra for luggage, so we had to pay him about $15. Then we went to pay the second taxi and he only charged $5 for the same amount of people and about the same amount of luggage. We were too late to argue because the first taxi was out of there by the time we realized that. Just a reminder that before getting in a taxi to ask what the fare will be to the destination.

 

Cruise

 

Embarkation

We were pleasantly surpised with embarkation. We got there at about 2:30, and there was hardly any line at all. I expected to be in line for an hour, but we got through security and the ticket agents and were on the ship in less than 15 minutes.

 

Rooms

We had three balcony rooms on the Baja Deck, midship but closer to the back than the front. My room was B610 and my sisters and parents were just down the hall in B614 and B616. I have been on two other cruises-one on a small cljpper ship (Star Clipper, oceanview cabin) and one on Royal Caribbean where we had an inside cabin. We were pleasantly surprised with the size of the room—much bigger than what I have had in the past. The bathroom was pretty standard with a small shower, but it was what I expected. We absolutely loved having the balcony and would recommend it, especially for an Alaskan cruise. It was so nice to walk right out of the room to see the fantastic scenery. Also, our balcony was completely covered and I liked that. The rooms direcly below us I believe were only half covered, and those two floors below were not covered at all. So we could look straight down and see them. I liked that it was covered because it was better when it was raining and it did feel a little more private (even though the people below us could look up and see us, I don’t think people from above would be able to look down and see us unless we were hanging over the balcony.) Actually, I think the balcony spoiled me and if I do go on another cruise I will want to have one wherever we go! All of our rooms were on the port side of the ship. I was worried about this at first because we thought we preferred to be on the starboard side (originally we were booked on the starboard side on another cruise, but we had to switch dates and when I did there were no preferred rooms available). This was a one way northbound cruise and I thought it would be better on the starboard side because we would be on the “land” side of the ship to see better scenery. But personally I think we saw the best scenery from the port side. On the days that we were actually close enough to land to see anything, there was land/islands on both sides of the ship. Also, when entering Glacier Bay and College Fjords the port side saw the glaciers first. The starboard side could see them on the way out after the boat turned around.

 

Food on the ship

 

I should preface this with the fact that we live right outside of DC and have tons of wonderful restaurants available to us. I think the general population (including my parents and one sister who live in a small city) would think that the food was really good. I’m also a very picky eater.

 

We took our carry-on bags to our room and headed for the buffet since we had not had lunch. I’m not a big fan of lunch and dinner buffets in general. I do like breakfast buffets because I enjoy getting made to order omelettes. Lots of people seemed to like it, and they did have a really good variety. But I just didn’t think the quality of the food was that great.

 

For breakfast we always went to the buffet. They served it in the dining room, but the same items were available at the buffet. For some reason on this vacation we were always up early (even on ship days), so we never had a problem with lines. My sister said it was crowded a couple of times if you went around 8 or 9 on a ship day. Again I enjoyed the made to order omelettes. I also really liked the fruit (very fresh), and being able to just get a quick bowl of cereal.

 

My husband likes buffets since the food is unlimited and he can try lots of different things. So for days that we were on the ship for lunch he would usually go to the buffet and I would get pizza or a burger from the pool bar. The pizza was pretty good. The burgers were good, but nothing special, and I thought the fries were soggy.

 

We had dinner in the dining room every night but one when we went to a specialty restaurant. We really enjoyed our waiter, Butch. He was so funny! To me the food in the dining room was really hit and miss. Here’s what I liked: strawberry soup (it was an appetizer, but I think it should have been a dessert!), the bread, fruit plates, pheasant, breaded chicken, ice cream, black forest cake. What I didn’t like-filet mignon and grilled chicken (very tough and dry), most of the desserts, the Caesar salad (bad dressing). I can’t comment on the seafood since I’m not a big fan. But my family really enjoyed the snow crab legs and lobster.

 

On our last night we went to Sterling Steakhouse. I was worried that it would be the same as the filet in the dining room that I wasn’t impressed with. But luckily my steak was great. Not as good as Ruth’s Chris (my favorite), but very yummy. We also got a window seat which was great since we were on our way out from College Fjord and the scenery was still nice.

 

Entertainment

 

I was worried that I would get bored being on the ship for three sea days. But even thought we were quite lazy, we were never bored. We really enjoyed the first sea day from Vancouver on our way to Ketchikan. The scenery was beautiful and I spent a couple of hours on the balcony. We were really lazy that day, but were still tired after traveling and it was nice to relax before being in port the next day. We ate, went to the casino, played bingo, did trivia, and watched movies. We also enjoyed just walking around the ship and exploring. We enjoyed drinks at the bar as well. We were also lucky enough to see a couple whales this day!

 

On the second to last sea day we spent about 5 hours in Glacier Bay. I spent most of this time enjoying the view on the balcony, walked around the ship for other views and played some ping pong. This day we also went to the casino and my husband won $500 on a nickel slot machine! That was a nice little bonus!

 

On the last day we spent about 3 hours in College Fjord. Again, we spent most of this time on our balcony. We also did lots of walking, played bingo and trivia. We also enjoyed some drinks in the bar.

 

We never went dancing, even though we had planned to. We were always so tired after dinner that we would just crash. We did go to see the magician/comedian one night. It was just awful and we left after 10 minutes.

 

Ports (best part of the cruise for me!)

 

Ketchikan-We were in port from about 6:30 am to 2:00 pm. So we really just had time for one excursion. We went bear watching and it was phenomenal. We went through Southeast Aviation. We actually booked through Orca Enterprises, and I think there was a mix up. Southeast apparently didn’t have any info on our reservation! Luckily there was room for two more on the plane, so everything turned out fine. Not sure how the mix up happened. We took a float plane to Anan Creek. The views from the plane were beautiful. I think we were on the plane for 30-40 minutes. There were six people in our group. We landed and spoke with the ranger who gave us tips and told us what to do in case we encountered a bear on our way to the viewing platform. We then made our way for the 20 minute path/platform walk—on our own. That scared me a bit, because I really didn’t want to encounter a bear until we were at the platform and in view of a ranger. But it was fine. Actually a couple minutes before we made it to the platform a mother bear and two cubs crossed the path in front of us. When we made it to the platform, there were bears everywhere! It was a lot of fun watching them catch the salmon. We had to have seen 10-15 bears. All were black bears. Some even walked right by and under the platform. I had hoped to see some browns as well and we didn’t, but I was still overly satisfied with seeing that many black bears. We also saw some cubs later (not sure if they were the same ones we had seen earlier.) Aside from our group there were only about 4 other people there viewing while we were there. They only let 60 people in a day. The ranger said that they usually have about 30 of those people come at one time, so luckily we missed them! There was also a lower platform that you could sign up for the view even closer for 30 minutes at a time. This was great! Apparently the pilot gave us the wrong time that we had to be back at the plane, so they radio’d for us to make our way back, but we still had over two hours on the platform, so that was plenty. This was by far my favorite excursion that we did on the trip.

 

We got back into town around 12:30- 1 pm. We had to be back on the ship at 1:30, so unfortunately we really didn’t get to explore the town at all.

 

Juneau- We did two excursions here since we were in port from 8 am to 8 pm or so. The first was whale watching with Orca Enterprises. I was a little worried when one of the bus drivers was very crabby. It basically seemed very unorganized—we got on one bus then the crabby lady told us to get off and get on the other, but the other was full, so we got back on the original bus. Luckily, that’s not how the rest of the trip went. We were on their larger boat, Orca Odyssey with Captain Larry. This was great and exceeded my expectations. First we saw glaciers, then we saw seals, then we saw sea lions, then dolphins and finally there were the whales! We saw lots of humpbacks—at least 10 I would say. One of them even breached (unfortunately I didn’t catch it with my camera!). There was also one who really put on a show flapping his tale over and over—it was great and I was lucky to get some good shots.

 

We then had lunch at a restaurant called the Flying Fish (I think that’s the name). The food was pretty good and it was right by the port area.

 

Our second excursion was flightseeing over the glaciers. It was really nice, and we got to see about 4 different glaciers. We booked this one through the ship and it was about a 45 minute plane ride. But looking back, I wish I had done the helicopter with glacier landing. We didn’t because my husband was just over the weight limit and we didn’t want to buy two tickets for him. My sisters did do this excursion and said it was their favorite of the trip.

 

After this excursion we took the $12 roundtrip bus to Mendenhall glacier. We enjoyed the glacier, visitor center and walking around the various paths. We almost didn’t do this, but I’m very glad that we did.

 

We then went back to town, walked around, and got some shopping done.

 

Skagway- We got off the ship and saw a rainbow! We booked the rail and bus excursion through Chilkoot Charters. We were SO glad we chose this over the ship’s tour. We took the one and a half hour train ride that ended in Fraser. The train was nice, commentary interesting, and the scenery spectacular. We then boarded our minibus. There were only 14 people--two groups on the bus—our group of 6 and another group of 8. This was great compared to the ship’s large tour busses which packed the people on. We got to do a lot more scenic photo stops and were able to get on and off the bus really quickly. For instance at one photo stop, there was a ship bus there when we arrived, we got out to take pictures, got back on the bus and the ship’s bus was still there! Also, this was the only photo stop that I recall stopping at that we basically didn’t have the place to ourselves. We were not on the cruise bus schedule at all. Our tour guide was also great. He was very animated, gave lots of information and happily answered all of our questions. Here’s a list of where we stopped, though I know I’m forgetting some! Carcross Desert, Lake Bennett, Emerald Lake, Bridal Viel Falls, Carribou Crossing (had a barbeque chicken lunch which was just ok, pet sled dogs and husky puppies—so cute!, museum (didn’t like the taxidermy animals, but that’s just me!), went in the shops, and had overpriced ice cream), and another lake on which we went to the shore line. I know that there were more stops, I just can’t remember them all! I would definitely recommend this tour. The scenery in the Yukon is just fantastic. We also had a mostly sunny day which was a nice change. We were back in town at about 2:30.

 

We just walked around, did some last minute shopping and had drinks at the Red Onion. I thought Skagway was the cutest town of all that we visited.

 

Glacier Bay-just beautiful. The scenery was fantastic and it was amazing to see so many different glaciers. Marjorie was fantastic and we even saw some calving. I have to say though that while it was beautiful, it didn’t exactly meet what I had built it up to be. I thought that College Fjords was more breathtaking.

 

College Fjord—gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. The most beautiful place we saw on the trip! We even saw sea otters sitting on icebergs (though only through the binoculars, they look like little black specs in my pictures) We heard calving here, but were not lucky enough to see it.

 

We ended the cruise in Whittier where we met our “limo” van driver from Limousines of Alaska. It was basically a large van with a limo interior with a trailer on the back for our luggage. It was very comfortable. We had to leave from Anchorage at about 4 pm that day to fly home. We made stops at the Portage Glacier and visitor center. It was beautiful here and the reflection of the mountain and glacier in the lake was a great photo op. We stopped at the conservation center where we saw moose, bears, buffalo, carribou etc. We also stopped at Bird Point for pictures. We stopped at the Aleyska resort and had planned to go up the tram, but it was cloudy so I don’t think it would have been worth it. We walked around their shops and gardens and headed on towards Anchorage. We stopped to check out the salmon in the creek and had a very nice lunch at the Bridge restaurant nearby. We then headed on to the airport for our flight home.

 

We had a wonderful time and I would really like to go back one day and see more of Alaska!

I have lots of pictures, if you'd like to see them I'd be happy to email them to you.

 

 

 

[stjohnrocks]

Thanks for a great review. I have been questioning my T.A.'s suggestion to book on the starboard side for our northbound cruise out of Vancouver next year. After reading your post, I'm really wondering if I should change to the port side? I thought if it was much better on the sea days on starboard I would stay put but it doesn't sound like that is the case based on your review. Do you think I should switch sides given the better viewing on glacier days?

 

I can't wait for next May! I love reading everyones reviews.

[mncruizr]

Glacier Bay-just beautiful. The scenery was fantastic and it was amazing to see so many different glaciers. Marjorie was fantastic and we even saw some calving. I have to say though that while it was beautiful, it didn’t exactly meet what I had built it up to be. I thought that College Fjords was more breathtaking.

 

College Fjord—gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. The most beautiful place we saw on the trip! We even saw sea otters sitting on icebergs (though only through the binoculars, they look like little black specs in my pictures) We heard calving here, but were not lucky enough to see it.

We felt the same about both locales when we were there last week. I felt that Glacier Bay was oversold as a destination. I'd have preferred to spend a whole day in College Fjord instead. Great review.

[Mooguy]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

We were on the same cruise too. We had a starboard mini suite E723 with a full covered balcony. I am so glad I got them to switch us from the port side cabin we had on Dolphin because they were the uncovered baloney cabins. We had some other people that thought our cabin was their cabin but we got that squared away but their luggage was in our room when we got back from dinner so we called and had them come pick it up.

We had anytime seating for dinner and this is the only way to go on the Alaska voyage however there was a few times we had to wait for a table. We made reservations a few nights and requested window seating and got the window one night and close the other. The nights we did not reserve it seemed like we got seated as far from the window as possible.

We went on the same whale tour and were on the crabby crazy lady's bus. This woman was having a bad day I hope and not like that all of the time.

We found the nightlife onboard to be toned way down from other cruises we have been on and the casino was almost empty some nights. We broke close too even in our casino playing and won one round of bingo for $150.

 

We plan on taking another cruise to Alaska next year but most likely a round trip one. We scored free RT airline tickets on the way out by taking a bump that put us on another plane 10 minutes later. We stayed at the Westin Bayshore and the airline had our luggage delivered to our room since there was not enough time to transfer our luggage in the plane swap. Not sure why they had to do this but it worked out for the best. We did not have to deal with luggage going from the airport to the hotel. I am glad we flew in the day before. We would have never taken the bump offer if we were cruising that day.

 

I will try and post more later but have to go for now.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Thanks for the review, we will be on the Diamond next month so it was good to read your review.

Glad you had a great time.

[alaswhales]

STJOHNROCKS,

I tried to post last night, but my computer restarted (I keep forgetting I have it timed to do so), so here is my response.

 

We were on the Sapphire Princess in June this year, and our TA told us that the best side for the northbound was the starboard side for several reasons. Not being on the port, I really can't say what they saw, but the ship turns around, and as many people have posted, I think everyone sees the same thing at Glacier Bay. If you are wanting to make sure to not miss anything, you can do what I wish I had done (the pictures I have seen others have of the front of the ship with all the people standing there are very cool) go up on a deck in front while going into the galciers and then when the ship is turning, you can head on back and enjoy quieter times on your balcony watching. One of the reasons our TA said that the starboard side is better is that the sun rises on that side so you have more sun, warmer for longer time of day, and have beautiful sunrises. I know that we loved being on the starboard side. Going out of Glacier Bay, we were able to see many whales. I have read peoples posts that were on the port side that didn't see any. We had one breach at the back of the ship on our side when leaving Skagway at 11:00pm. It was awesome. I happened to be out on the balcony taping the moon and got it on video. Enjoy your cruise, whichever side you decide on!

[Lynda90]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your cruise with us. We have a group doing a b2b on the Diamond and can't wait.:D

[lovethecaribbean31]

Stjohnrocks, thanks for your reply. After reading the response below, maybe it wouldn't be worth it to switch to the port side. I did notice that the port side seemed to be a little cooler than the starboard because of the sun. But that didn't bother me; I actually didn't get too cold on the balcony, just wore lots of layers. We really liked that we could see the glaciers from our balcony on the way in at Glacier Bay and College Fjord, and we didn't have to go anywhere to see it. So if that's really important to you, maybe you should switch, but if you're happy with the above posters recommendation to go out to the deck while going in, you should stick to the starboard side. I don't think you would go wrong with either!

[lovethecaribbean31]

Mooguy, that's great about the free plane tickets--10 minutes is nothing! We could have done that too because our flight was overbooked, but we would of had to sit around the Phoenix airport for five hours, so we decided against it. But now I wish we had!

 

Didn't you have a great time on the whale watching trip? We really enjoyed it.

[alaswhales]

To LAUREN27,

This is not meant to come across nastily, just a question. Obviously, if I wasn't on the port side, I wouldn't know this. My question is, if you see the glaciers on the port side going in, didn't I see the same thing from the starboard side when leaving them since they turn around? Were there more glaciers that we never saw and didn't even know about? Maybe someone who was on a deck and saw both sides can answer this. I am only asking in case I am wrong and go on another cruise there. I like to be an informed person. Thank you in advance. ;) Oh, we also got to see awesome sunsets from our balcony on the way out of the ports. Could you also see them on the port side? We also got to watch as we pulled into the ports as well, and saw a lot of waterfalls especially going into Juneau. It was just awesome!!! I don't remember seeing many coming out, but then again, that means you got to see them while leaving if you were on the balcony or deck.

[alaswhales]

We could have taken a bump also on the way to Seattle (we flew there with our free miles, and took a princess shuttle to Vancouver to got on the ship the next day) Our flight was from Detroit to Salt Lake City and then to Seattle. We had a 4 hour lay over in SLC, so my boyfriend wouldn't take the free airfare to switch. I was pretty upset about that since we didn't have to be there until the next day. Then we found out we only would have had to wait 2 more hours. By the time he said, fine, go ahead, someone already took it!!:mad: The vouchers they were giving were worth $400 per person. We could have gone to Hawaii!!!!! I won't let him live that one down!:D

[stjohnrocks]

alaswhales & lauren27

 

Thank you both for your replies. It was really helpful to have both responses. And I have finally decided to stay put on the starboard. It sounds like both sides are fine for different reasons. The determining factor being we are from the south and the cold weather will be difficult enough for us. 50 degrees is cold here and freezing to me! I even have an uncovered balcony for the sun (hopefully)! If its raining I won't be on our balcony anyway. So I guess bottom line is "different strokes for different folks". 9 months and counting!!

[lovethecaribbean31]

Alaswhales, you are right. The starboard side would see exactly what I saw from the portside of the ship after the ship turned around to head out of the bay. I just meant that being on the port side you get to see the glaciers first without having to leave your balcony. If you were on the starboard side you would not get to see them until it turned around unless you went elsewhere on the ship to view them. I think we saw the same things, just at different times! We were never on our balcony during the sunset because it always set while we were at dinner.

[DEE9]

Thanks for all of the info about your cruise. We're sailing southbound Sept. 2-9.

[alaswhales]

lauren27,

Thanks for the response. We put in for anytime dining, so we wouldn't have to be locked into a time, but they messed up and put us for the early seating. We felt a little guilty, but only ate in the dining room 2-3 times. Wew ate mostly at the Horizon Ct., so that we could just eat whenever we found time in between doing things. We mostly stayed on our balcony though, and my boyfriend got the norovirus, so we had to stay inside the cabin for 3 days anyway!!! Thank goodness it started the day after we were done seeing the ports and they were sea days and the glaciers.

[Mooguy]

I see the beer watching tour through Orca in Ketchikan is like $400+ was this the one you took and is it worth that much?

[lovethecaribbean31]

Mooguy, that is the one we took and it was worth every penny! I think the cruise ship bear tours were at least $300. From all of my research the bear viewing at Anan beats the places that the cruise ship takes you (Neet's Bay and I'm not sure where else). I just looked at Princess's website and see that they now offer a bear tour to Anan and it's $599!! So $400 must be a bargain! We saw at least 10 bears and even some cubs. It was my favorite of all our excursions--I liked it even more than the whalewatching tour.

[Mooguy]

Thanks I just noticed that I asked about a beer watching tour and not bear.

 

We are probably going to go back next year and do a round trip cruise on the Golden Princess out of Seattle so I am planning to do the things that we did not get to do or even know about the first go around.