Sapphire Princess Sep 24, 2022 cruise report

[latebloomer56]

1 hour ago, baggr42 said:

I am on deck 9 Dolphin at the aft. The climate issues are thru the ship as well as the plumbing. Public toilets all over the ship are inoperable. Become operational then others go out. My concern also is there proper hot water in the kitchen area as well as staff areas. If we the paying customers are being treated as such. What about those that ado not have a “voice”. Not that my voice means anything as nothing has been corrected. 😩😩

Thanks we are aft as always, just have to wait and see, adjust as needed.

I will be at sea again 😊.

[baggr42]

Watch this video. This is the toilet in our room. These people do not care. Understand this is a common occurrence on this ship at this time. Toilets not working properly. Some one should care  

paper will not flush!!  Simple corporate greed take the money and move on. To think they are sending this ship out to sea for 15 days 

[LawDog61]

I wonder if part of the problem is a shortage of plumbers?

[dhanakorn]

Patters (2)

Here’s the rest of the Patters. Internet on this cruise is a little spotty so I’ll continue with the cruise report when I get back home. But I want to post the Patters first in case someone needs them for planning.

 

Day 6

 

 

Day 7

 

 

Day 8

 

 

Day 9

 

 

Day 10

 

 

Disembarkation

 

[dhanakorn]

Disembarkation

By the time I got up around 7am the ship already docked at Berth 93. I have a nice view of Vincent Thomas Bridge from my balcony. 

 

 

 

Then I went to the buffet for the last meal on this cruise. Omelette takes a long time to cook on this cruise. But you don’t need to wait at the counter, the server will bring it to your table every morning. 

 

After breakfast, I explore the aft pool deck one last time. This’s probably my favorite place on the Sapphire. 

 

 

 

 

Ruby is docked at Berth 92. 

 

I walked off ship around 8:30am. We already cleared the immigration yesterday in San Diego so after grabbing the luggage we can just walk out of terminal. Then a quick ride to the airport. The price is fluctuated a little bit but this morning the Lyft/Uber fare to LAX is around $40-$50 and to LGB is around $25-$35. 

Overall it’s a good cruise. Despite some minor issues, I think Sapphire is in a relatively good condition - no need to worry if you’ve an upcoming cruise with her. Great service from the crews. This’s a quick update on disembarkation. I’ll continue with the rest of my cruise report. 

[JF - retired RRT]

56 minutes ago, dhanakorn said:

 

 

Did you eat all that?

 

[dhanakorn]

On 10/4/2022 at 12:06 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

Did you eat all that?

 

Yes, I did. We’re on vacation 😋

[dhanakorn]

Day 2 At Sea (1)
 

I was quite busy with work after this cruise. Hopefully I can finish this report before another cruise begins. Next month I’m going to take another long cruise from Haifa to Rome — very interesting itinerary but requires a lot of planning. 

Now back to Day 2. Today is a sea day so I decided to order the room service for breakfast. When I was young, looking at the cruise brochure with pictures of having breakfast on the balcony, I’d never have thought that I could afford it. Cruise was very expensive back then. Breakfast on balcony was one of my childhood dreams. Now that I’m old and have done it, eating breakfast on balcony isn’t a glorified experience anymore. I only did it one time on this cruise, mainly just to take pictures for this report. 

Here’s the room service breakfast menu. Princess still provides this service for free - some cruise lines already charge nominal fee for room service. 

 

Isn’t nice to have breakfast ready by the time you get up from bed. 

 

 

After I finished my breakfast on the balcony, I head up to the buffet for the real breakfast. Smoked salmon is available every morning. 

Bagel with cream cheese and preserve is very tasty. No omelette station - you order egg or omelette with the server and they’ll bring it to you at the table. 

[dhanakorn]

Day 2 At Sea (2)
 

After second breakfast, I relaxed by the pool for a couple hours then it’s time for lunch. 
 

Buffet line is small but they’ve the same line on both sides of the ship. 

 

The chicken curry is ok. NCL makes much better indian food. 

 

Soft-serve ice cream machine wasn’t working so they have real ice cream at Swirls. Normally you can only get real ice cream from MDR. 

 

 

Enjoy another drink by the pool in the afternoon. Aft pool area never really gets crowded on this cruise. 

[dhanakorn]

Day 2 At Sea (3)

Before dinner I went up to Skywalkers to check out the happy hours for Elite/Platinum guests. There’re some snack setup on the dance floor. Food changes everyday but nothing special. 

 

Then I went downstairs for dinner at Vivaldi MDR. Tonight is a formal night. Food is the same as my previous three cruises. I probably cruise on Princess too often. 

 

Duck liver pate

 

Duck a l’orange was surprisingly good on this cruise. Perfectly cooked. On my previous cruises, duck was very tough. 

 

Cheese plate and Chocolate hazelnut bar. I have this chocolate bar for so many times but the server highly recommended it and insisted that I tried again. 

 

Service in MDR was very good. Food was tasty but it’s just a repeat from my previous cruises. 

Tonight main entertainment is a production show Bravo. It’s pretty good but again same show that I’ve seen on Royal and Majestic. 

[dhanakorn]

Day 2 At Sea (4)
 

On this cruise, Princess brings back the champagne fountain! This popular event was canceled since the pandemic. 
 

The mountain of champagne glasses was setup in the Piazza area. 

 

 

Free champagne (or juice) is served in the Piazza area. It’s not a champagne, more like cheap sparkling wine. If you have drink package, it’s better to get something else from the bar. 

 

We’re about to get started. 

 

You can go up to the stand and get photo taken while pouring the champagne over the glasses. It’s kind of a waste since those champagne in the glasses will be discarded later due to sanitary reason. It’s fun to watch nevertheless. I’m not sure how long Princess will keep this tradition. 

 

Captain gave a speech to officially welcome everyone onboard.

 

 

After we cleared out the champagne glasses, the event was concluded with open dance floor. 

 

Video clip of the Champagne Fountain event.

Video clip of the open dance floor. Everyone was having fun.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by dhanakorn

[caribill]

1 hour ago, dhanakorn said:

You can go up to the stand and get photo taken while pouring the champagne over the glasses. It’s kind of a waste since those champagne in the glasses will be discarded later due to sanitary reasons.

 

Wholesale price, at least before the pandemic, was less than $1 a bottle (tax free for Princess for use in international waters).

 

It is a service to humanity that it not be consumed by people.

[SinbadThePorter]

8 minutes ago, caribill said:

It is a service to humanity that it not be consumed by people.

 

But it's very useful for scrubbing the decks.

[JF - retired RRT]

4 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

But it's very useful for scrubbing the decks.

And cleaning drains.

[travelin.sisters]

thank you...beautiful photos & I get to experience things I missed on the cruise, but I want to be able to have a buffet omelet & pastry & food that someone else is responsible for again

[memoak]

On 10/1/2022 at 3:11 PM, JF - retired RRT said:

No $$ coming in = no maintenance. Everything was mothballed. These ships aren't designed to sit idle.

Do you know how many ships we have seen in dry dock here in Portland ?  Tons !!!

[Kay S]

This is a great itinerary.  I've done it a couple of times.

[Jeff in Torrance]

We were on the voyage after the OP's, 15 days to Hawaii and back to LA.  I can report that I saw only one issue with an overflowing urinal in a public restroom.  No problems with AC/heat or plumbing that I am aware of.  Our personal trip was marred by my significant other coming down with a mild case of covid (which I somehow avoided).  Nice ship and voyage for the most part, although I think we decided 15 days is too long for us.  Back to the Mexican Riviera!