Just back from 30 days on the Sapphire...any questions

[GottoCruise]

Whew! - I'm a little nervous after hearing about the "thrusters" - we are on the Sapphire Osaksa to Seatlle in April - would expect rough weather through the Aleutions and Bering Sea....wonder if Princess will fix the problem before then?? Still only have a "guarantee" so don't know where our cabin will be - but sure hope it's towards the back rather than the front of the ship (Mini- Suite, at least). So glad you had a great cruise!

We are also doing your itineray in reverse on the Diamond in April 2006 - We have done a short version Aus./N.Z on the Star - and yes, Wellington was one of our favorite Ports - We did a great "Safari" for the day, out to the seals etc. ....you'll just have to go back!!! LOL!:D

GotTocruise (aka Renee)

[cactusrose]

Looks like I'm going to get a chance to meet some of you on the 2006 cruise. Glad to hear you all had such a good time that you want to do it agian. Can wait to read the looooonnnnnnng reviews {please!}. For now, I'm just curious how many formal nights there were. Packing must be a real trick for a cruise this long. Good thing Diamond will have lot's of laundry rooms. I know what I'll be doing on some of those sea days.

 

We were on the first Star Princess Sydney to Auckland cruise a year ago. Love Australia and can't wait to spend some more time there.

[JimandLouise]

Hi Cactusrose,

 

We had 5 Formal night, packing was interesting for such a long cruise, but the laundry rooms are great, unfortunatley, they did get quite busy at times and we (well Louise...) resorted to going later at night to avoid the crowds, I know others got up early to get into them as well.

 

Jim

[JimandLouise]

Hi JMB,

 

Merry Christmas! Glad you're home safely. We're so jealous that you're off on another cruise straight away. Thanks for allowing me to scan the patters, if we're missing any, you can fill the gaps...

 

We were a little disappointed that it was overcast when we sailed in, you definatley didn't see the harbour at its best, but I'm glad you enjoyed it all the same. We went down to the Quay to see Sapphire leaving and saw Peter & Steph. The sailaway with the fireworks was an awesome sight, and the whole Quay was lined with people about 3 deep to see her sail away. If we get half of that farewell when we leave Sydney for San Francisco, we'll still be blown away. The Fireworks went on for about 15 minutes.

 

Anyway, have a great Christmas, only a weeks time until we can say we're cruising 'next year'.

 

Jim and Louise

[cactusrose]

Five formal nights, YIKES:eek: . That is going to take some really cleaver packing. I'm going to have to pay close attention to what all of you experienced endurance cruisers have to say.

[NorcalGuy]

Just a comment: That is my "dream cruise"! I don't think I can swing the Sydney/SF 2006 time-wise, but would love to do it some day... 30 days on the Sapphire, cruising through the Pacific would be wonderful. Trip of a life-time. Thanks for the review.

[JimandLouise]

Hi Painter,

 

Just found the Patter for the first day - the safety drill was at 4:15 not 5:15.

 

Thanks,

Jim

[S&D]

Hi Jim and Louise,

 

can you explain in detail...how this new dining works with the 4 new restaurants if you have PC dining? We have heard they have 4 different menus, but you can also order from the International dining room menu as well?

 

Did you have to wait long for tables etc?

 

Regards, many thanks

S&D

Adelaide

[JimandLouise]

Hi S&D, I'll cover this in my review, which is still coming together.

 

We did book for the first few nights, but then found that after about 8pm, when we liked to dine, the restaurants were really quite quiet anyway. The only night we didn't get the restaurant we wanted straight away was on the second last formal night, even then, the head waiter was able to tell us that there were tables available in Pacific Moon and Santa Fe straight away, and sure enough, when we went up there, there were.

 

I think if you want to dine in a large group, or before 8pm, then booking is a good idea. The restaurants always seemed to be busier on Formal Nights as well, and also on the final night of the cruise, so booking those nights probably isn't a bad idea.

 

We were able to select if we wanted to dine on a table for 2 or with another group, the tables for 2 aren't exactly intimate, and you tend to end up talking to your neighbour anyway.

 

You get the 'speciality' menu of the restaurant you are dining in, which is a fixed menu throughout the cruise, and the menu from the international dining room which does change. I heard that some people were able to order of other speciality menus to the restaurant that they were dining in as well (e.g ordering a steak from the Sterling menu whilst dining in the Pacific Moon) although we never tried it.

 

Each speciality menu had 1 (or maybe 2) entree choices, 3 main course choices and 1 desert. Also each menu had a different 'bread basket' Vivaldi had foccacia with tomato or onion, Sterling had crusty rolls with olives baked in, Pacific Moon had sweet bread with coconut on top, and Sante Fe gave you corn chips with the best guacamole (neither of us usally like guacaomle - but we both loved this stuff).

 

Generally we looked at the international menu during the day (its on all of the bars during the day so you can look any time) and decided if there was something on that menu that we wanted (so it didn't matter where we ate) or if we wanted to go to a specific restaurant.

 

Hope this helps...if I've missed anything you'd like to know...let me know.

[Painter]

Thanks for that info on the safety drill.

I can't wait for your "Review". Please...please....please have it posted before we leave on the 4th Jan for our 6th Jan cruise.

 

Marleneann.

[Painter]

Do you have any formal pics of you both that you could post?

 

Marleneann.

[Princess Di]

I have surely enjoyed all of your discussion here.

Hi, Sandra & Dave,

You can order from all the menus in any restaurant. The waiter will not offer all the menus - you only have to ask to see them. :rolleyes:

I get confused enough with one menu - 5 would probably put me over the edge deciding what to order, or what to eliminate. :eek:

There is such a high demand for tables-for-2 that Princess has tried to accommodate this in the newest ships by placing bench-style seating along the windows and then your partner faces you seated in a chair. Therefore, many more couples may be accommodated; however, as Jim says, you are seated right next to another couple (or 2 - a couple on either side of you). You can either talk to them, or not. ;)

[JimandLouise]

Hi Painter,

 

I've started putting together the full review today, I've barely covered the basics and I've got a full page on the word processor already.

 

Thanks for your additions Princess Di, as you've said - its bench type seating along the wall with a chair on the opposite side for your dining partner on the tables for two.

 

Painter....remember to ask for Balasz and Judit if you go into Sterling, they're husband and wife and work as a great team. Whenever we went into Sterling we asked to be seated in their area and we were never dissapointed with the great service they offered.

[Painter]

I have a question....

Does one have to pay for the food in the Trident Grill?

 

Review quote....

Trident Grill, where you'll find (delicious) hot dogs, hamburgers, veggie burgers, grilled chicken, fries and all the fixings.

[JimandLouise]

Hi Painter,

 

Trident Grill is free, its open across lunch until about 6pm. Its on the Lido Deck - Starboard side in Neptune's Reef and Pool towards the bow of the ship. The Cheese and Chicken burgers were good. Its a testament to how good the food was overall that over the whole 30 days we didn't try the hot dogs.

 

Prego Pizzeria is over on the port side in the same location and is also free.

[S&D]

Thanks so much Jim and Louise,

 

that was great, all our questions answered..... do you by any chance have any menus that you can post or email....or patters???

 

dfunn@ozemail.com.au

 

Looks like we shall cruise together next year.....:) :) Syd/San Fran

 

Best wishes..and thanks...

 

S&D

[gerrmack]

Greetings from Tasmania. We decided we didn't need the phone so we missed seeing you again. Thanks very much for the offer. We get home JAn 12 so we are still pluggging along. We hope to get to Broken Hill.

Will drop you a note when we get back home

 

Ria & Gerry

[gerrmack]

Is ourthread gone

 

Gerry

[JimandLouise]

Hi Gerry,

 

Glad to hear you made it to Tasmania in one piece, hope you're having fun. Our roll call thread is still going here :

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=2626782#post2626782

 

Have a great time for the rest of your trip in Australia.

 

Jim & Louise

[scampi]

Thank you very much Jim & Louise for answering all my questions. It's so helpful for you to be sharing all this information & the pictures with us. Like Painter, we're on the next Sapphire cruise which leaves Jan. 6th from Auckland. We leave in 4 days for N.Z. and will be reading this thread daily.

Thank you also, JNB410, about the information about probable motion in our aft cabin (We have E728 - Guess we'll need seat belts if we have strong seas.)

Happy New Year! Scampi

[JimandLouise]

Cruise Review

 

Sapphire Princess - LA to Sydney November - December 2004

 

Background :

 

We were two first time cruisers taking a 30 day headfirst plunge into cruising. We booked knowing almost nothing about cruising and relied mainly on the information we found on cruise critic to get around. We’re ‘younger cruisers, I’m 29 and Louise is a little older.

 

Cabin - Category BA - Lido Deck 232. Location - Forward of the ship on the port side.

 

Pre - Cruise :

 

We stayed in Anaheim to be close to some good shopping and relatively close to the port. We hired a car from Hertz and returned it to Hertz Local Edition in Lomita.

 

Hertz deducted $10 of the $15 cab fare to the port on the return of the car. They organised the cab for us when we returned the vehicle. Lomita was about 1 hour and 15 mins from Anaheim, probably would have been shorter if we’d known our way around.

 

Boarding.

 

We got to the port at about 2pm, and were checked in with only small queues and were on the ship well before 2:30pm.

 

The Stateroom.

 

We were happy with the location of our stateroom. The shorter corridor with the pools and horizon court on the same level were handy, also close to the pizzeria, trident grill and scoops. For next time we’ve booked Lido deck again, on the starboard side this time. That way when were walking down to Horizon Court early in the morning or late at night we don’t have to switch the side of the ship we’re walking down to avoid the smokers. Only a small thing, and it didn’t bother us in the room.

 

The size of the room was fine, and although we were dreading the small shower, it wasn’t quite as small as we had feared. It was a bit of a challenge to avoid flooding the bathroom at times, and there was no drainage on the bathroom floor itself so if it did get flooded, it wasn’t so easy to clean up. Our room steward Walaiphorn was friendly, efficient and helpful without being obtrusive.

 

Public areas of the ship :

 

Pools.

 

The pools and spas were virtually deserted after about 7:30pm, and Louise and I tended to have a swim and spa at about 11pm. It felt as though we had the whole ship to ourselves at times. We favoured Neptune Reef and Pool because it was open air and close to our room. The Lotus Spa pool was adults only and the swim against the current feature was really good once we worked out how to operate it.

 

Nightclubs.

 

Skywalkers seemed to us to be an area with a lot of potential that was really wasted. During the day it was generally used for people who wanted a quiet space to read and watch out over the wake, but there was no coffee or bar service at all up there. The closest place to get a coffee was to go down to Horizon Court to get the coffee out of the tap that wasn’t that good anyway. If they’d advertised this as a coffee shop, I think it could have been quite nice during the day. At night, the busiest night was about 30 people up there for an ‘Aussie Night’ Other nights, we went up there and were all alone other than the bar staff and the ‘happy’ DJ Eric. They didn’t really seem to cater for the passengers onboard and basically just seemed to play whatever music they felt like, rap, latino and the like, which is fine in its place......but...

 

Club Fusion was used for all of the TV based gameshow variations, Princess Idol, Weakest Link, If the could sea me know etc. and had lots of TV screens throughout the venue so that no matter which seat you had you could see the action. Bingo was also here. The resident band was Domino and there was a good sized dance floor. Just below Club Fusion (at the back and down the spiral staircase) was the Wake View Bar. This was really nicely decorated and could have been a nice place for a quiet drink and conversation, but the noise from Club Fusion came down there and spoilt the atmosphere a little. The ‘Wake View’ was through some deeply set portholes whilst kneeling on the bench seats, so not exactly an easy view of the wake, but it was nice all the same, and the spiral staircase up to Club Fusion looked great.

 

 

 

Part 2 to follow….Public Rooms and Ports….

 

[estebofarr]

Just a thought, did they charge for sea-sick medicine like they did on the Princess Sun? Hope that they gave up that penny-pinching practice.

[Painter]

Review....

 

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

 

MORE! MORE! MORE!!!!!!!!!!

[Painter]

...another question...

Is the refrigerator filled with drinks when you first go onboard...and can you ask for them to be removed?

 

Marleneann.

[JimandLouise]

Hi all,

 

Estebofarr - not sure on the sick medication - we didn't take any, sorry...

 

Painter - Thanks!! - The refridgerator was empty other than the ice bucket. There was a large bottle of water on top of the refridgerator for you to buy if you wished, but other than that there was no type of mini - bar set up.

 

More on the way, glad you liked it....