Review-Sapphire, 10/15 Mexican Riviera

[sally r]

We just returned from the 10/22/05 sailing on Sapphire. It was our 23rd cruise but the first on Princess. Overall, we were very satisfied.

 

We had a BA cabin on the Caribe deck right at the aft elevators. Great location. The room was small but clean and nicely furnished. The closet was huge and storage ample. The bathroom was teeny tiny but DH loved how hot the shower would get. Our balcony was huge. The attendant was so-so. Had to ask twice for everthing. The beds were rock hard.

 

We had anytime dining and never had any wait. The service was a bit slow but okay. We enjoyed most of the dishes but the beef was icky. Just had a weird taste. The king crab legs were really good.

 

Horizon Court (buffet) is a joke. Most of the time there was a huge line and then they would close one side! We did have some good items there like fried scallops, a good waldorf, curry chicken. We did like that there were new things each morning for breakfast.

 

Bar service was fast but they used a jigger and were kinda stingy with the alcohol. I had a creme de menthe as an after dinner drink and it was about a tablespoon so I asked for a double the next time..they charged me $11.30 for a 1/3 cup of cheap liqueur! The foo foo drinks were real tasty, nice and fresh.

 

Two women got into a fight in Skywalkers and one even got knocked to the floor. Security did nothing and let them continue drinking.

 

The short stay in Cabo is really difficult. By the time we tendered in it was time to tender back!

 

We had an early flight (11:24am) out of Long Beach and made it with time to spare.

[emmy]

First let me say Hi Sally :) also just off the Oct 15 sailing of Sapphire..our 4th Princess cruise and I had a very good experience and found it better than the Caribbean Princess last October....

 

Agree the beds are rock hard and we did ask for the extra mattress...great room steward... and I found the food in the International Dining room to be very good much better than last year's CP...we choose traditional because of a bad Personal Choice dining experience last year..

 

Entertainment was just okay.... thought embarkation was slow...nice area to wait but we arrrived at 10:30...we were allowed to check in at 11 am and receive a boarding number and then were asked to sit in another area until about 12 noon when they commenced boarding and security.... they started with Platinum and Elite members and special needs and then started called the numbers...we were in group 2 and boarded about 12:30 and were in our room by 12:45 pm

 

Disembarkation was good for us...red tag #3 We were supposed to be called at 8:15 am but were called about 8:40 and out and through customs getting our taxi by 9:20 am heading for LAX. We were at our gate by 10 am sitting and waiting for our flight at 12:30 pm..only thing was we did not actually hear them call overhead our colour and just went by what others were saying around us.

 

Totally agree with Sally on the Horizon Court setup... what a frustration...way too crowded and the order in which they put the food stations is strange.... found the food in the buffet to be so so....loved the beef dishes in the dining room and great desserts.

 

No tender problems for us in Cabo as we arranged a boat tour to Land's End through the ship since I thought tendering would be a nightmare on such a short stop and we were on the first tender off the ship by 7:15 am and this maximized our shore time.

 

Agree with Julie about the aft pool. We spent our days at the Terrace Pool aft and never found kids a problem...in fact DH saw a pool attendant ask unattended children to go to another pool... we loved the view from this pool area and its proximity to aft cabins. Never felt crowded except in the Horizon Court.

We had also recently cruised on RCI in an aft D1 cabin and definitely more cabin space on RCI.... and more drawer and storage space.... balcony was a good size on Caribe deck.

 

Found the seas to be very calm even not much of a problem on the last sea day heading back to LA.

 

Great muster drill....

 

Emmy

[DeltaOne]

The short stay in Cabo is really difficult. By the time we tendered in it was time to tender back!

 

Is that because you got a late start? Or do those that book Princess excursions get priority tendering?

[Pam in CA]

Princess shore excursions get priority tendering to the port. Coming back, it doesn't matter.

[sally r]

There wasn't a wait for tenders. It was just such a short time in port and it went too quickly!

 

One other thing in Cabo..the taxis were charging $12 each way for rides to town! We got a bike cart for $6 and it was really enjoyable.