Live from the Sapphire Princess: first post pause sailing 9/24-10/4/2022 (Baja Peninsula & Sea of Cortez)

[travelin.sisters]

Pre-cruise musings

     Looking forward to being back on the ocean in a few days & thought I would do another live as this will be the first sailing for the Sapphire since the pause. It has been a lot of waiting & wondering to get to this point. We booked when Princess first announced that the Sapphire was changing her itineraries to sail out of LA instead of Asia & Australia this fall, but then!

     First the 11 summer cruses on the Sapphire before ours were cancelled due to delays in getting her ready to sail. That was not too bad but being the first sailing always makes you wonder if they will have all the bugs worked out & everything ready for us. Then, the Diamond Princess, after arriving to our port & about a month before she was set to sail canceled her cruises cancelled her first 2½ months of sailings due to crew shortages. Since the Sapphire was following her by about a month, this led to questions about whether our cruise would meet the same fate. This concern was heightened by the fact that both ships had closed bookings for these cruises very early & Princess had now information they were willing/able to share. Finally, after the Sapphire arrived at the port of LA & had been here for a while, we decided that this cruise would be sailing.

     Our most recent stressor has been the total lack of information from Princess about boarding since we are leaving from an alternate berth that is only used when there are more than two cruise ships departing from the port on any day. For weeks, people’s calls to Princess have resulted in everything to nothing to instructions to go to the main terminal, check in & take the ramp onto the ship (which will be almost 3 miles away). My TA was told that we should go to the berth in the outer harbor but that there would be no buses (even though the only available parking is at the main terminal). Our roll call has is not very big or active, but we have supported each other through Princess’ lack of communication. People have accessed all their contacts, made calls to Princess, the Port of LA, the parking vendors & anyone else they could to gather information so that we would know what to do come embarkation day. Princess has had nothing to say, no email (well yesterday there was an email with super important boarding information! which was just the generic info sent for every cruise & nothing specific to how to board at the outer harbor), no answers when called…we board in less than 2 days & I guess they think it is enough to have signs & directions at the port (if they do). I have been driving by the outer harbor & yesterday they did start putting up tents for boarding & today people have heard from various sources that we should go there, check in & then if we need to park go to the main terminal, park & take the shuttle bus back. It would have saved a lot of stress & time for a bunch of people if Princess could have just communicated that to us instead of having to hunt for the info.

     I guess I should get all of us packed & ready to leave Saturday morning! I usually have all the clothes & everything except last minute done long before this, but with all the uncertainty it has been hard to get excited about this cruise. It will be nice to be aboard & sailing again. Hoping for a dining room lunch on Saturday & being able to go straight to our rooms as they won’t have to redo rooms from a previous cruise. I will update as time, events & internet allow.

 

 

[travelin.sisters]

The outer harbor (berth 46 area) going from empty space to tents for embarkation on Tuesday.

[cr8tiv1]

I always enjoy your live threads.  Maybe @Astro Flyerwill chime in and give you some advice.  The Discovery's maiden voyage was out that a way.  

 

Anyway you can get someone to drop you off and forget about parking the car?  

 

Happy Cruising,  Let's hope that once you ge onboard, all will be smooth sailing.  Bon Voyage.

[travelin.sisters]

58 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I always enjoy your live threads.  Maybe @Astro Flyerwill chime in and give you some advice.  The Discovery's maiden voyage was out that a way.  

 

Anyway you can get someone to drop you off and forget about parking the car?  

 

Happy Cruising,  Let's hope that once you ge onboard, all will be smooth sailing.  Bon Voyage.

thank you! yes for us it is easy to get one of our family longshoremen to give us a ride, just way harder for those driving in & the local hotels didn't know of the berth change...but no matter what happens we will be cruising & we figure it is better to let go of any frustrations (& there is always something you can be upset about) & enjoy sailing!

 

[fpsphil]

Following! We'll be on the Oct 23rd sailing

[Sunset329]

We will be following your Live Thread. We will board the Sapphire on October 4th.

[latebloomer56]

We are on the Oct. 4th. sailing as well. Please keep us posted once on board. Your boarding area will be different than ours.

Thanks and have a safe and wonderful journey.

[Pluto_fan]

So excited to follow along!  We're booked on the Sapphire Princess next June, our first time with Princess.  Thank you for sharing your trip with us.  Bon voyage!

[harleysmama]

Looking forward to your postings we are on November 17th.  

[Yehootu]

When I went walking on Monday, the ship had moved from anchorage to the dock. The week before while walking, I saw tenders down on several days and crew doing exercises. We have friends heading out on this Sats sailing also, hope all goes well.

[travelin.sisters]

30 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

When I went walking on Monday, the ship had moved from anchorage to the dock. The week before while walking, I saw tenders down on several days and crew doing exercises. We have friends heading out on this Sats sailing also, hope all goes well.

thank you for that info & the good wishes

[Vexorg]

Also on the October 23rd sailing here, will be interesting to see how this one goes.

[XBGuy]

I have departed from Berth 46. but it was years ago.  There were four cruise ships in port that day.  There were two at Berths 93 and 94 and at Berth 54 there was a pretty big Royal Caribbean ship.

 

We had a driver take us.  So, we did not have to concern ourselves with parking.  We drove to the berth and encountered quite a lot of traffic.  I think we arrived at about 1:00 pm.  It took about 25 minutes to make our way up to the front where we were able to get out of the car and hand our luggage over to a porter.  We, then, found the line for check-in, which was in the tent, That took about an hour, and we boarded at about 2:30.

 

The above may sound like a horror story, but it was not, really, that bad.  We went on to have a great cruise.

 

I really don't know what to make of the information that you received regarding check-in at the Cruise Terminal.  Obviously, that is where you will have to park your car.  I think my best advice is to go early and get the lay of the land.  If you see porters at Berth 46, stop and drop off your luggage.  Then, park your car at the Cruise Terminal.  From there you can learn if that is where you check-in.  If not then do it at Berth 46.  There has to be a bus to take you.

 

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise.  We did the Sea of Cortez a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

[Grambler]

Hoping you all have a wonderful time, we are not booked til June and I have been anxious, I can’t imagine how anxiety provoking this has been for you all! I do wish Princess had been more transparent and forthcoming with info but am sure we will all have great cruising experiences which will make up for all the uncertainty, can’t wait to follow your live review!

[Jersey42]

If you have a minute after you board, can you post a picture of the senior officers. On most ships there is a TV screen similar to the one below off of the piazza, starboard side on deck 6 or 7.  You can post on this thread or on https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2724695-princess-senior-ship-staff-inc-cruise-directors-entertainment-directors/page/20/#comment-64007909

Thanks

 

[NownZen]

I have a favor to ask. Ms Zen wants a point and shoot camera. On our last cruise a couple of months ago there were two cameras for sale.  I do not remember the models. One was a Canon. Could someone on this cruise post which models are for sale?

Thank you.

 

[travelin.sisters]

2 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

If you have a minute after you board, can you post a picture of the senior officers. On most ships there is a TV screen similar to the one below off of the piazza, starboard side on deck 6 or 7.  You can post on this thread or on https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2724695-princess-senior-ship-staff-inc-cruise-directors-entertainment-directors/page/20/#comment-64007909

Thanks

 

yes I will...how soon will depend on the internet & such but I will post it

 

[debi2g]

Thank you! I was hoping someone would report on the Sapphire's return to service We will be doing the same 10 day Mexico itinerary on the 23rd of October, so I'm very excited to follow along. I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

[Yehootu]

On 9/21/2022 at 9:28 PM, travelin.sisters said:

The outer harbor (berth 46 area) going from empty space to tents for embarkation on Tuesday.

I thought we were close to the pier here in Signal Hill. You have us beat.

[phabric]

Hope you have a great cruise.

 

Interested to see how you like the Sapphire.  I will be on the Sapphire in 2024.

 

Would be interested in any reviews you do.

[call_your_mother]

We will be sailing on December 2, 2022 for 33 days.  Will be the first time on Sapphire Princess, I'm a bit nervous because we've been sailing on the newer ships lately, the Regal Princess & Enchanted Princess.  Last February we were on the Grand, is the Sapphire comparable? I realize the Grand first sailed in 1998 so Sapphire is 6 years younger. Just a bit curious.

 

Hope to be watching live but I have my daughter's baby reveal party in the afternoon, very excited been waiting a long time, it's her first child at age 41.  Will it be available to watch later if I miss it live?

 

Have a wonderful time! 

 

Bon voyage!

[travelin.sisters]

42 minutes ago, call_your_mother said:

We will be sailing on December 2, 2022 for 33 days.  Will be the first time on Sapphire Princess, I'm a bit nervous because we've been sailing on the newer ships lately, the Regal Princess & Enchanted Princess.  Last February we were on the Grand, is the Sapphire comparable? I realize the Grand first sailed in 1998 so Sapphire is 6 years younger. Just a bit curious.

 

Hope to be watching live but I have my daughter's baby reveal party in the afternoon, very excited been waiting a long time, it's her first child at age 41.  Will it be available to watch later if I miss it live?

 

Have a wonderful time! 

 

Bon voyage!

congrats on the grandbaby!!!...live in this case does not mean taped live, it means a series of updates & photos & answers to people's questions as the cruise is going...I will hopefully be posting at least every couple of days (although, I have read here that the internet is not as reliable as it was in January so we will see what I can do)...it will all be able for you to read whenever you want...I haven't been on the Sapphire before but have been on the Grand several times so I should be able to answer that question after we have been on for a day or two

[travelin.sisters]

ready to go

          Finally have everything packed (except the last minute, tuck in the corners bits & bobs! Even the Stanley Bears are packed & ready to go. Hoping for a decent night’s sleep, but it's always iffy the night before a trip, so we’ll see—either way tomorrow I will be sleeping on the Sapphire Princess!

          We decided to do home COVID tests today after reading some very unpleasant experiences of people who had tested positive while on previous cruises. All of us are negative so are good to go.

     This afternoon I was double checking our Medallion apps to see that we were all still Green Lane & Boarding Group A & got a nasty surprise when the app had kicked one of our party out! I tried logging back in with the email & password, then with the boarding number & birthdate, then with a different phone but nothing worked. I decided to wait a while & see if it was just a temporary glitch but an hour or two later it was still not letting me log in. Expecting a long wait on hold & little help I called Princess & was happily surprised. I was connected almost immediately to a very pleasant & helpful young lady who was able to solve my issue. The call was less than 15 minutes total & most of that was waiting for the system to update with the changes she made. Apparently, Princess did updates to the Medallion system which somehow switched some users' info. The birthdate for the account we were having trouble accessing had been changed so it didn’t match what was on the reservation. Once she had restored the correct birthdate, we were good to log in & back to Green Lane & Boarding Group A!

We think we know where to go for check-in tomorrow, but there is still no word from Princess & conflicting info from what people on our Roll Call have been able to gather. I will probably drive out to the berth in the morning & see if I can get a definite answer, but whatever happens I am confident that Princess will eventually get us all on the ship & ready to sail. I just wish they had communicated the plan to us as so many people are very stressed not knowing what to expect.

[Ronnieslady]

We are on the Sapphire Oct. 4th .     If you can please let us know if the Main dining room is open for lunch tomorrow. The reason I was wondering is because last April on the Grand there was no lunch on embarkation day in the Main dining room. They said because they were short staffed .

     Hoping it’s not the  case for all of us on the Sapphire.  It’s always my favorite meal of the cruise. 
     Thanks for doing this for all of us 😎.         Grace 

[JF - retired RRT]

3 hours ago, Ronnieslady said:

We are on the Sapphire Oct. 4th .     If you can please let us know if the Main dining room is open for lunch tomorrow. The reason I was wondering is because last April on the Grand there was no lunch on embarkation day in the Main dining room. They said because they were short staffed .

     Hoping it’s not the  case for all of us on the Sapphire.  It’s always my favorite meal of the cruise. 
     Thanks for doing this for all of us 😎.         Grace 

What happens tomorrow for the MDR and any other location on the ship (any ship) isn't necessarily what will happen in October.🤷‍♀️