Onboard the Sapphire Princess

[KLLund]

My review of the Sapphire Princess in the Orient

 

First .. Embarkation was a snap. We were at the dock and on the ship within half an hour. Our luggage didn’t arrive at the cabin for several hours but it got there before dinner so that was fine. We just enjoyed the ship and since there was an amazing ferris wheel hanging right over the ship we decided to go ashore and take a ride to see the ship from 112 meters above .. Fascinating view. The ship did not leave until Midnight and a passengers trickled in throughout the evening.

 

The Ship .. This is our second cruise on the Sapphire Princess and it felt a little like coming home. We already knew the trick to find the International Dining room .. you either take the aft elevators to Deck 6 or you go to Crooners on Deck 7 for your before dinner Martini and walk aft toward Club Fusion and down one flight of stairs to the dining room. Deck 6 does not go all the way through the ship. ( We think Crooners is the better route ) The Sapphire is still big and beautiful. It is so new that nothing looks dated or worn and the staff is friendly as it was last time.

 

The Staff .. Ok everyone asks about the Cruise Director. Since we don’t particularly like the shows on cruises .. it was not until I turned on the TV this morning ( Day10 of a 12 day cruise) that I even saw the Cruise Director and now that I know what Lee looks like I can tell you I have never seen him on deck this cruise. Perhaps I don’t go where he does. Our cabin steward does a great job .. of course he doesn’t do it until 11:30 or 12:00 and that is a bit annoying but we can live with it. You have to flag down a server on the pool deck to get and drink and then it is very slow but that may be a good think. Now at Crooners you have Daisy and Catalin who are fantastic and seem to know everyone by the second night. Our waiter is great .. he had a little false start but caught on to the tables preferences quite quickly. The Maitre D’ is there every night to tell you what time to set your clock to overnight .. and it has changed a lot .. but to his credit he did manage to get me a copy of the Osso Bucco recipe that is NOT in the cookbook that I bought ( The cookbook is lovely so I am glad I got that too ). Others at our table had a special request and he still hasn’t come through but we will see.

 

The Food .. Some of the food is fabulous but most is average. It is a bit hit and miss .. some days the buffet is good somedays it is so – so. At breakfast there is a made on the spot omelette stand and they do a Fabulous Job and cook it the way you like it ( in my case well done ). If you want grapefruit juice you just need to ask and it appears. The specialty buffets on Sea Days will either please you or not according to taste .. there was a sushi day, a stir fry, an Italian, a Mexican etc. The hamburgers at Trident Grill are juicy and great .. the Pizza is ok but seems to be very popular. We are having too much fun at our table to bother with the huge amounts of food at Sabatini’s so I can’t comment there.

 

The Coffee .. If you order room service coffee or coffee in the dining room it is fine. The coffee is Horizon court is pretty much undrinkably bitter to us but again it is all a matter of taste.

 

Smoking .. As a smoker I will say they have fewer places to smoke on the ship than a year ago but there are still enough to get by. You can smoke at the bar at Crooners ( not at the tables ), a few tables each in Explorer and The Wheelhouse, Churchills & Wake View bar allow cigars and are all smoking, one side of the tables on the outside pool deck and the rail bar at the terrace deck. I haven’t seen or experienced any comment on the smokers nor have I seen anyone smoke outside of the designated areas so it seems to be working out fine.

 

Kids .. This particular cruise has so few kids and you hardly see them and never do you see them running wild. This would be because of the length of the cruise and the overall age of the passengers I think. We did take pictures of all the kids venues and they are on the website for those of you interested.

 

 

I will be happy to answer anyone’s questions but overall I just have to say this has been one fantastic vacation!!!

[lois1112]

Kathy, thanks for posting. those of us on the 11/11 cruise are anxious to leave and are eagerly awaiting any post.

How is the ships library...is it as bad as previously stated?

what are things we have to do...what can we pass on.

having been on the Sapphire before I agree with your path to the international dinning room

[BILLP1]

What is the trick to get a Hamburger served Juicy ?

 

The guy cooking them put all his weight down to squeeze the meat out of all pssible juice.

 

I was told all burgers had to be cooked well done . In the restaurants I was asked how would I like my Beef served?

 

Rare. No problem.

 

Confused.

[OldJerseycruiser]

Thank you for that review as we are travelling in Asia in November on Sapphire. That was a very useful observation of the ship.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I was told all burgers had to be cooked well done . In the restaurants I was asked how would I like my Beef served?

 

I've been told that the act of grinding beef either introduces or allows to develop more of the nasty germs (are they bacteria?) than exist in a steak, which is why most ships (and lots of restaurants) will only serve the burgers hot enough (well done enough) to kill those germs.

 

However, my only cooking ability is doing something in a crockpot or microwave, so I could be mistaken.:D

[Colo Cruiser]

Great review thanks. :)

[chasetf]

What is the trick to get a Hamburger served Juicy ? The guy cooking them put all his weight down to squeeze the meat out of all pssible juice. I was told all burgers had to be cooked well done . In the restaurants I was asked how would I like my Beef served? Rare. No problem. Confused.

We sailed the Zenith and were frustrated because the only way they would sever beef in the dining room was medium/well or well. :mad: I hate dry meat. Our waiter tried and tried to find rare or medium / rare but they would not give it to him.

 

So we spent the cruise eating fish and chicken. Uck for a beef eater. :(

[mad4cruising]

Another thank you for a useful review. I am also interested in the library- was it well stocked and were there enough books for the number of people on board?

 

Thanks again.

[jonsey]

THANnks great review what is your itinerary and are you enjoying the ports of call?

[KLLund]

I haven't had any problems getting meat medium rare in the dining room and I don't know what that trick was with the hamberger but it was really juicy and good!!!

 

We will go take a picture of the library and get an Idea for you all .. we brought enough books and I have already left them a couple .

 

Jonsey... Take a look at the website below and go to the Orient/Sapphire Princess link for the complete itinerary. We are in Dalian today and we have really enjoyed all the ports .. Shanghai was great !!!!!! There are pages on everywhere we have been as well as extensive pictures of the ship.

[lois1112]

Kathy--did you do ships excursions? if so which ones...any you heard negative comments about? postive? thanks of leaving the books...hope they are still there in a few weeks. I don't think i have room to pack many.

[KLLund]

I went to the library on disembarkation day to take pictures ... I will post them to our website ..But it sure looked like there were a lot of books to me and a quick review of titles showed some very up to date books. We were in there one day in the middle of the cruise and the shelves were by no means empty. I would tend to think perhaps our original poster about the library didn't find a lot to like on the cruise as a whole.

 

Lois .. We did Ship Excursions in Nagasaki .. the Peace Memorial, Atomic bomb museum and Ground zero. Our guide was very knowledgable and it was a very very good Excursion.

 

We did Vladivostok .. well this one was a bit un-organized and the town is not very interesting. We did enjoy the scenery out to the Fortress but our guide was not at all great. In fact there were A LOT of complaints about tours in Vladivostok.

 

Then in Pusan ( Busan) we went to the Tongdosa Temple and this was a fabulous tour with a great guide. Very organized an plenty of information.

 

In Shanghai .. we had a private tour organized though our roll call on here .. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this one and if you email me at this screen name @aol.com I will be happy to tell send you his name.

 

In Dalian .. university students studying English were our guides and they were just wonderful. We did the home visit with a Chinese family and we also went to a Kindergarter that put smiles on our faces for the rest of the day. Everyone was talking about what a fabulous city Dalian.. this was a special stop and one I had NO preconceptions on.

 

The first few stops are on the web site and Dalian will be on early next week.