Sapphire Princess Review w/ Pics 1/21-1/28

[1bigballer]

O.K. here we go......

 

We (wife & I) flew non-stop from Tampa to LAX on the day of our cruise. Absolutely perfect with no problems. We landed at LAX around 9:30am. I would HIGHLY reccomend anyone fly with Song Airlines (associated with Delta)!! All thier planes are newer and have a personal entertainment center for each passenger. You can buy PPV movies on demand from a huge selection of current releases, you can create your own "playlists" from 1000's of MP3's for free, you can play real time in flight trivia against other passengers (very fun), and there is a large selection of video games available too. All of this is on the touch screen entertainment center at your seet. This was great and passed our time quickly on a coast-to-coast flight. I wish Delta could be anywhere near as nice as Song!!

 

We had pre-arranged a car service from Execucar and our driver was waiting for us with a sign as soon as we got off the escalator for baggage claim. The driver already had a luggage cart ready and we quickly picked up our luggage and departed for San Pedro. A side note here - here's a trick we find to be well worth the money. When traveling on a large plane it is well worth curbside check in with the porters. Tip them well ($10-20) and request "priority" tags for all of your luggage. Your bags will then be the very first offloaded from the plane at your destination. This saves lots of waiting time for large planes and you will never have a lost bag!! Just my 2 cents worth of advice, may not be worth the money to others but we're on vacation right? We arrived early at the port around 10:30am. We had to wait awhile to board but we were in the first boarding group after the elite passengers since we had arrived so early. Boarding was organized and smooth. We love that Princess has a crewmember at every elevator directing you to your cabin for the first time, absolutely no guesswork like on other cruiselines. We quickly found our way to our cabin on the Lido Deck (L208).

 

The cabin was great. Everything was spotless and clean. Our room stewardess immediately introduced herself to us and it was the beginning of a great weak aboard! We loved the location of our balcony cabin. We were on the same floor as the main indoor pool, main outdoor pool, Sundaes Ice Cream bar, the pizza bar, both pool bars, and the Horizon Court buffet. We love the view from our high vantage point on the port side of the ship. The balcony was fully covered and nobody could look down on us from above. It was fun at night to have a drink and watch the officers of the Bridge if they happened to be working on the exposed part of the Bridge extension visible from our balcony (they can clearly see us too though so no hanky panky on the balcony). On to Horizon Court for lunch....

 

Horizon Court was great the entire trip. The port side was open when we arrived but the other side soon opened too when our side got filled up. This is a good way to do things, never a large line all week and the cruise was sold out. The food here was very good, not gourmet but what do we expect at a buffet. Lots of selection, always hot and tasty. My wife and I both felt this was the best buffet of all our cruises (have never cruised the Luxury lines though).

 

We had anytime dining and this worked out fantastic for us. Here's another tip. If you are a party of two, then you never need a reservation for anywhere except maybe the two pay extra restaurants (Sabatini's & Sterling). We ate at the Santa Fe dining room our first night. My wife had a pasta dish and I had a seafood pastry of some kind. They were both fantastic!! I really can't figure out what all the hype about Princess food is about on these boards? Our food was excellent the entire trip. Neither of us ever had a bad meal and most were truely great.

 

I'll move it along a little here, seems I'm being a little long winded.....

The next two days were sea days. We generally ate, gambled, relaxed, drank a little and had a great time. There was always plenty to do. We watched a few activities (Passenger Fued, trivia, etc...) and were always entertained. We come on vacation to mainly relax so we don't usually get involved in any activities and we don't see many shows so I can't really give any opinions on the big production shows. The hypnotisits shows were GREAT, believer or not!

 

Here's another tip, pay attention...

The second night was the first of the formal nights. Formal is not my cup of tea so we skipped it altogether. Here's the tip - you can ALWAYS order anything off the REGULAR dinner menu from room service during regular dinner hours (6pm-10pm). We ordered full courses for both of us and ate dinner on our balcony. Very romantic (but remember no hanky panky on the balcony or someone on the Bridge may see you). The food was delivered hot and on a white tableclothed rolling tray server. I'm talking soup, salad, app, meal, & dessert. We did this BOTH formal nights. Not sure why anyone would pay for the ultimate balcony dining when they will deliver it for free. I even called back and ordered a second lobster on the second formal night. Obviously we tipped very well. I did not feel out of place later in the evening wearing slacks, nice collar shirt & shoes. Lots of people changed after dinner and we fit right in. Just no suits or tuxes for me unless someone is geting married or has died.

 

Puerta Vallarta:

We didn't book any excursions through Princess. We have cruised many, many times and have learned that we can always find as good or most of the time better tours at the ports for much less money and on our own schedule. This cruise was no different. We hired our own van driver with two other couples from the ship for $25 each. We were given a 5 hour tour of the entire area that was fantastic!! We stopped for luch at a restaurant high in the jungle and ate next to the running stream with birds flying in the trees and iguanas lounging in the branches. We saw beaches, shopping, jungle, huge mansions, cliffs, famous resorts, etc... Our guide was a native and was extremely helpful. He knew the answers to all our questions (or he could BS realy well but who knows and who cares). Generally we loved this port. It was beautiful and interesting, the people were nice, and we had a great tour. We shopped after our tour and had fun doing that too.

 

We ate at Sabatini's ($20 cover) on the 4th night. The food was excellent but this way of dining is not our thing. Here's the deal. When you place your order you only order your main entree. Everything else you see on the menu will be served to you in small portions over a long time period. My wife is pregnant and I tend to get antsy after about an hour. Our reservations were for 8:30pm and we didn't leave until after 11pm. This is wayyyyyy too long to be sitting for us, especially when we can't enjoy a bottle of wine (pregnant, remember) while waiting! Again, the food was awesome just not our idea of a great dining experience.

 

Mazatlan:

Since we had such great luck with the van tour in PV we decided to do the same thing in Mazatlan. We normally would be doing the ATV, dune buggy, zip lining type tours but had to skip all that due to the wifes condition (I had a little something to do with it after all). This was another great tour. We saw old Mazatlan, the Golden Zone, the cliff divers, shopping, etc... Again we paid $25 plus tip and it was well worth it. In general we liked PV better but Mazatlan was still interesting to see.

 

Cabo San Lucas:

Very beautiful, more expensive, more Americanized. Waited about 5 minutes to board our tender from the ship, no big deal. A little rough getting abour the tender for some of the older persons on board but they all made it safely. We found our best tour of the entire trip in Cabo! we hired a private boat with two other people form our ship to take us whale watching. When I first saw the size of the boat (about 18 feet with a littel outboard on it) I had second thoughts but I was assured it was a calm day and we would not be getting beat to death by the waves outside of the Harbor. I was mainly worried about my wife and our soon to be baby. Our guide was right and it was great. we traveled about 2.5 miles from shore and soon spotted whales. We were sooooo close you could literally almost reach over the side and touch them. We followed about three different groups for about an hour. Very hard to get good pictures AND look at the same time. We did manage to get some though. We had never seen whales before so this was a highlite for us. we paid $45 per person for about a three hour private tour. We were so much closer than the big boat tours booked through Princess for more money. How close can a 45 foot hobie cat really get before the whales submerge? Again, it pays to book your own private tours!! After the whale watching tour we shopped, looked at al the mega-yaghts in the marina, ate lunch at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina, and headed back for the ship. A pretty big line for the tenders but it moved pretty fast. We waited about 15-20 minutes before we could board our tender. No big deal, they do as well as can be expected with close to 3000 passengers.

 

Princess in general:

 

-Other Passengers:

There was a huge mix of people on this cruise. There were tons of people in thier 30 & 40's and tons of people in thier 50's, 60's, & 70's. Not very many kids and not very many under 30 it seemed. Almost everyone we met were very nice and polite. There were the typical chair hogs and occasional person bowling over my pregnant wife to get somewhere 5 seconds before we got there but no big deal. People are people. One thing - Tipping is NOT a city in China!! If someone provides an excelent service, tour, or goes the extra mile they deserve a TIP!!! We witnessed cheap people numerous times and it's embarassing even to witness it. We find that if you tip well you will be rewarded in sooo many unexpected ways. If only everyone would just learn this fact. The truely unique surprises a couple extra bucks will produce is soooo worth it.

 

-Food/Drink/Dining/Service:

We ended up eating in every restaurant except Sterling Steak House (we just ran out of time). Our food was consistantly excellent, the servers were friendly and efficient, and we were totally happy the entire cruise. Room service was quick and good quality (club sandwhich & fries was great). A major diffeence on Princess is that when you order a drink in the dining room, it is on the table in minutes. Not so on most other cruise lines. Usually it seems they have to run up or down to another bar area to get drinks and it takes forever. Kudos to Princess, I always had a full drink and fast at dinner. Another thing Princess excells at is beverage service around the ship. Even if we were sunbathing on the top deck or were in a bar area closed at that time there was always someone coming by to offer beverage service. How great and what a difference from other cruise lines.

 

-Ship common areas:

We never made it to Skywalker's for dancing and drinks but it looks awesome during the day. We were regulars at Churchill's and watched the NFL playoff games here. Nice atmosphere and nice people. Club Fusion is great but it seemed under-used for what it has to offer. The fact that the NFL playoff games were in tiny Churchill's and not in Club Fusion with it's boatload of plasma screen TV's was a major screwup for somebody, lots of people made comments and could not see the games. Explorers Lounge is nice and we saw a few smaller shows here. Nice atmosphere here too. Wakeview & Wheelhouse bars were very nice but we really didn't spend a lot of time here. Shopping was good on board. We bought a watch, some trinkets, and they had a great selection of Lladro figurines at great prices if you like that sort of thing (my wife does).

 

The Casino:

We played blackjack and roulette most of the time and ended up winning around $300 for the cruise. I played mostly $25 per hand blackjack and lost about $100 for the cruise due to what I called the 3 blond bombshells (3 good looking blond dealers from somewhere Eastern Blockish) that killed me one night. My wife played roulette and made up for my loss by winning around $400 for the trip. Not bad, at least we came out ahead. All the dealers were nice as long as you were too. Most people tipped them well if they were winning and I saw some good streaks. I saw some great hands dealt at stud poker which I think paid 30 or 40 to 1. In general we had a great time and spend a lot of time here in the evenings.

 

All common areas were extremely clean and well taken care of. We saw crew continuously maintaining every part of the ship. They even were poliching the lamp globes on the top deck one day while we were sunbathing.

 

-Money:

We spent about $1000 on our ship card. This included a watch, perfume, all drinks, souvenirs, water for in port, room service charges for cokes & a bottel of vodka, etc... We never even thought about the money and bought anything we wanted the entire trip. We probably would have spent much more but our drink bill is cut by about 2/3's since my wife is pregnant.

 

We didn't spend very much at all in the ports. Maybe $100 for each port for both of us.

 

The TV's in the cabin will hook up to any portable DVD player and we used it regularly. We rented 9 movies from Blockbuster (no late fees) and watched most of them either on the ship or traveling.

 

Disembarkation:

Here's another tip that served us well once again. (Some disagree with this tip but they don't have to use it if they don't want to) It is WELL worth the extra $20 to tip your room steward/ess to issue you whatever color luggage tags will be first called off the ship. We had some breakfast and then went directly from our room to the gangway and off the boat. We only had one day to explore LA so we wanted off quickly. The list that was issued showed that if you were the last color called it would be around 11:15-11:30 before you got off the ship and they were running late. I can not imagine sitting/standing in the common areas unitl my color is called that late. If you get the first color you just exit directly from you stateroom after breakfast. For an extra $20 I have never had any other tag except first off and it's well worth it!!

 

Los Angeles:

We stayed at the Sheraton gateway Hotel at LAX. I had never been to LA before and we had an early flight out the next day. We had the concierge arrange a private limousine tour of LA using the money we won at the casino. This was our one extravegance for the trip and it was great. Our limo driver gave us a guided tour and we saw all the highlights: Santa Monica Pier & Beach, Venice Beach & Boardwalk, Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, movie star homes, Chines Theater, Walk of fame stars, Pink's Hotdogs, Beverly Hills Hotel, Chateu Marmount, etc... This lasted about 4.5 hours and I saw everything I wanted to see in a day.

 

There is tons more but just ask questions and I'll do my best to answer. Our pictures are here:

 

www.kodakgallery.com/barberio

Feel free to sign the guest book too.

 

The bottom line is that we love Princess, we had a GREAT cruise, we met lots of very nice people, and we can't wait to do it again soon. KUDOS TO PRINCESS!!!

[lkmamom]

Fantastic review Mike!!! Your review was extremely helpful to me. I really appreciated all of the great tips. We have been on the Sapphire before, she is a beauty. We have not cruised the Mexican Riviera before and I must admit that there are a lot of things that I am not clear on. I hope that you do not mind a couple of questions.....

 

We planned this cruise with more relaxing in mind, so I have not really planned a lot in the way of shore exc.. Are "things to do" such as shopping and beaches close to where the ship docks in the ports or should we plan ahead and plan for particular areas to see and do??and taxi there:)

 

Best wishes and congrats to you and your wife on the little one.Thanks for all of your help.

Linda

[Coolmama_1]

Great review and I loved your pictures!

[1bigballer]

lkmamom - Don't worry, we had NOTHING planned ahead of time and just played it by ear. All the shopping is within 10 minutes from where the ship is docked at all three ports. Usually only a few dollars to cab it there. We always just get off the ship and talk to the people hawking tours at the pier and then decide what sounds the best to us. The cab drivers usually will not steer you wrong if you tell them what you're looking for.

 

Thanks coolmama 1. I'm never really sure if people that don't know us would like to see OUR vacation pictures but I figure it doesn't do any harm to post the link. I loved looking at other people's pictures of the ship before we left so I figure I'll return the favor.

[CarolynB]

Thanks for the review. I also loved the pictures. I hope you don't mind, but I forwarded your review to the others that are sailing with us in March.:D

[Fuzzzy]

Great review and terrific photos.....

[tiggyfrank]

That's great about getting full menu for room service! I wonder if this is really the norm on Sapphire, other people were saying that was not possible.

[Fuzzzy]

That's great about getting full menu for room service! I wonder if this is really the norm on Sapphire, other people were saying that was not possible.

 

I was on the Dec 17th sailing on the Princess and you could order anything that was on the posted dinner menu that evening.

[Sandy R]

We've sailed that itinerary many times and agree with you totally re: the ship and the ports. Your photos are great... you have a good eye. Congratulations to you and your wife on the upcoming event!

 

Sandy

[Lynda90]

I cannot seem to view the pictures. One comes up and when I click on it I get a blank screen. Anyone have any suggestions?

[Casshew]

Hi bigballer :)

 

I loved your review and photos, your wife is so pretty :) and you look like a great couple, thanks for taking the time to write your review and put up all the photos.

 

Cass

[Lynda90]

Finally able to view pictures. They are just great! Thanks so much for sharing pictures and review. Very enjoyable.:D

[merela]

on our 10/22 Sapphire cruise...unless Princess changed this policy over the last 3 months. We had kids sleeping and wanted to order off the regular menu and the person who answered the phone said this service wasn't offered. We tried to do this again another night and asked a different person, the answer was the same. BTW, we had outside cabins (no balconies). Maybe this is a service only for suite rooms?

[timem]

We leave this Friday for LA(Feb. 3): ship departs Saturday at 4:00 PM looks to be fantastic. I've been looking at pictures of this trip since mid December 2005 and yours are the best posted yet. Thanks for sharing them.

[mii]

What a great review. You told the good and not so good about your experiences. The pics were great also.

 

Marilyn

[DanJ]

Great review Mike. We were on this cruise with you. Just wanted to add a couple things. The NFL games were also shown in Skywalkers, although this wasn't publicised very well. It wasn't listed in the Patters, and only mentioned on the PA a couple times right before the first game. Club Fusion would have been a good venue, except that it was a sea day and there were activities going on in there most of the afternoon.

 

I also agree with how fast drink service is in the dining rooms, and I found out why on Friday during the galley tour. They have a full bar inside the galley, so the drinks are nearby. Maybe I wasn't paying attention, or just didn't notice on previous galley tours, but I don't recall seeing a bar in them.

 

We ate at Sabatini's on Monday, and really enjoyed the full experience. However, we were a group of 8, so the time flowed by really nice. I'm not sure I would enjoy it as much with just my wife and I.

 

We also had early luggage tags, but we just asked for them from the front desk. They asked what time our flight was, and I told them noon (4 of us had 1215 and 4 had 1235 flights, so noon seemed like a good number to say LOL). They didn't ask to see any proof, so we ended up with red 2, which was the first group called. I'd probably just try asking again before tipping my steward for the tags.

 

I'm glad to know my casino losses found a good home LOL. I remember the blonde bombshells well LOL.

[1bigballer]

After reading the 4 or 5 recent Sapphire reviews (including my own), I would think that anyone with an upcoming cruise would be feeling VERY good right about now. Every review has been very positive except one negative for the food. Happy cruising!!

 

P.S. - I'm glad everyone liked the review and the pictures!:)

[Winegirl from CA]

Great review, thank you!. We sail in May, and I am so looking forward to it. Your sunset photos were absolutely beautiful! Great job!:D

[lovecruising111]

1bigballer,

 

I have the Sheraton Gateway LAX booked for our precruise days. I have been wondering if I made the right choice staying there. What transportation did you use to go from the hotel to the port the day of your cruise. How did you like the hotel? We were going to arrange some kind of tour the day before the cruise. Maybe something like you did or Universal studios...

 

Thanks for the great review and all the info!

 

Sapphire- Mexican Riviera March 2006

[Hulagirl]

Excellent review and loved your pictures! Looks like you had very calm seas for your cruise. Hope that is what we encounter also in April. I'm ready for my turn, especially after seeing your pictures. Haven't been to this part of Mexico for 5 years, so we are ready.

 

This question was asked on our roll call and I know you will have the answer. Was ship time different than any of the ports time? I remember several years ago a friend found that to be and they almost missed their ship. We would love to know if it is.

 

Glad everything was so excellent for you and both of you had such a great time. Your pictures definitely showed that!

 

Thanks for all the information.

 

Hulagirl

[1bigballer]

lovecruising111 - We used Execucar both from the airport to the ship on our arrival and also from the ship terminal to hotel on our return. They were on time, professional, and had newer, clean cars. More expensive than shuttles but no waiting and well worth it to us on vacation.

 

The Sheraton Gateway was fine. Bed was extremely compfortable. We booked a club level room and enjoyed the free breakfast before our flight the day of departure. The concierge was very helpful arranging our tour of LA. Also has a Starbucks which is always a plus for us.

 

Our tour of LA was GREAT. The big tour vans are not allowed on the streets in Beverly Hills where the best star homes are located but limos are. It's truely amazing - even for us on the West Coast of Florida. Cost us $400 for 4.5 hours including a generous tip (about $70). Driver was a LA native and knew where everything was located and knew answers to all our questions. If you want a heart attack, be sure to point out houses and ask about Real Estate prices.

 

Hulagirl - The time was set forward at one point and then back again later. It is well communicated with place cards in your cabin and announcements over the PA. I think they adjust ship time for the time of the ports so there is no confusion while in port. Hope this helps.

[Hulagirl]

Thanks for the quick response. Princess is very good about letting you know if the clocks are to be moved to change for the ports, which is nice. Glad to know they do adjust for the time in the ports on this cruise. That usually seems to be the case with them, but have found a few times they don't, which is definitely confusing. Will pass on the information you posted to our roll call.

 

Thanks again.

 

Hulagirl

[Lynda90]

on our 10/22 Sapphire cruise...unless Princess changed this policy over the last 3 months. We had kids sleeping and wanted to order off the regular menu and the person who answered the phone said this service wasn't offered. We tried to do this again another night and asked a different person, the answer was the same. BTW, we had outside cabins (no balconies). Maybe this is a service only for suite rooms?

Merela, we were on the 11/26 sailing and just wrote in what we wanted on the breakfast card and had no trouble getting what we wanted. For dinner, we went down to the dining room during the day and reviewed what was on the menu which was posted on the outside door. We then jotted down items from the menu that we wanted and called room service during the dinner hours and ordered from our notes. You can't just call for dinner without knowing exactly what you want. Otherwise, you will only be able to order what's on the "room service" menu.

[DanJ]

Regarding ship's time. They move the clocks ahead an hour on Sunday night, but Puerto Vallarta is still an hour off. Noon on the ship is 1pm local. Then ship time matches local time in Mazatlan and Cabo. Then they give you the hour back on Thursday night.

[Hulagirl]

Dan: Thank you so much for the information. Will pass this along to my roll call. Do appreciate everything passed along!

 

Hulagirl