Sapphire Princess April 29-May 5

[iwunderu]

Sapphire Princess April 29 – May 5

 

Our demographic – mid 30’s

This was our 2nd cruise (1st with Princess)

 

Embarkation – Since the ship lost an engine on the way back from the trip before ours, we were late to board and late to set sail. I guess I can’t complain much as they did as best they could under the circumstances. They did offer free beer and wine since we were delayed at dinner that night. I felt they could have done something else, but I guess since they made an effort, it’s ok.

 

Day 1 – It was a cloudy cold day. I was very disappointed in the weather. We basically did very little the first day since it was so cold. The only organized activity we attended was trivia. We attended formal night and enjoyed the festivities. We had anytime dining and forgot to make reservations in advance, so I was worried how that was going to work out. We decided to go to Vivaldi’s since they were open to anytime dining after 8pm. We were able to walk up a little after 8 and be seated with no problems. The food there was delicious. I can’t remember the names of everything we had, but it was the best food I ate the whole week. After dinner we went dancing at Club Fusion. They were playing some hard to dance to 80’s music. We enjoyed watching other people try to dance to the music but most songs we were unable to dance to. I asked the DJ to play some Prince and the only thing he had was When Doves Cry. That is crazy! We left there to check out Skywalkers and initially we couldn’t stand the music. We hung around for a while and the music got better. We finished off the night there and went stumbling back to our cabin.

 

Day 2 – Another cloudy cold day. We decided to go paint ceramics to pass the time. This was fun as we created our own personalized souvenirs. After that I was dying to wear one of my many bathing suits I brought and we went to the hot tub. It was great. I was actually able to be outside in the cold and not freeze to death. While there we watched the martini demonstration poolside. This was fairly entertaining. I will have to say that I was disappointed in the poolside entertainment. There was some classical type music being played most of the time. I would have more enjoyed tropical vacation type songs more. I guess they were catering to the older crowd with that. We left the pool to go shower and change clothes and about 3:30 or 4pm it finally got warm! Woohoo! We’re officially on vacation now. We ate at the buffet and went to see the comedian Justin McKinney at 9:15pm. He was quite funny. I would recommend his show. We stayed in that night to rest for our first port day.

 

Day 3 Puerto Vallerta – Tuesday was my birthday. We had a walking tour I found off of CC and walked and shopped. Got some good deals on some tshirts and a really cute dressy top. Got back on the ship before the crowd to enjoy the pool. We attended the tropical deck party that night. It was kind of cool that they had the party on my birthday. We drank tequila that we brought back on board from the Sam’s club across the street. We didn’t try to smuggle it at all. Just had it in the bottom of our large bag with all of our tshirt purchases. Our room steward David said that they were not as strict on this cruise since all of our ports were Mexican ports. Anyway, I digress…back to the party. At first the band Hip Pocket played and we thought they were terrible. Also there were absolutely NO young people there at first. We almost left. When Hip Pocket finished their set, they started playing music that we enjoyed more than the band. Brick House came on and I have to dance to that. We made the reflections video with that. I didn’t even know it until it was over.  Then they played some games and the band Voltz played. They were a much more lively band and more suited to our taste. After that they had the Mr. Sapphire Princess contest. OMG! We laughed our butts off! I absolutely fell in love with this skinny little old man named Rusty they put up on stage with the others for the contest. In the end we voted Rusty as the winner. I felt bad then because I was afraid he would die of a heart attack from the excitement. That was the best night.

 

Day 4 Mazatlan – We booked online with Randi’s Happy Horses. Overall this was very enjoyable. The whole thing is an adventure as we rode in the back of a truck/taxi to the fishing area where our guide paid for a water taxi ride for the group. Then we got to ride in a wagon pulled by a tractor to the farm. I am an inexperience rider and they matched me up pretty well with a slow horse…he was the slowest of the bunch! I finally got the hang of it and enjoyed the ride. Then lunch at Victor’s where everyone raved about the garlic shrimp. I cannot comment on it myself as I don’t eat seafood. The chips and salsa were very good though. That evening on the ship, there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment for us so we stayed in.

 

Day 5 Cabo San Lucas – We woke up to a breathtaking view from our balcony. I could not believe it was real. We tendered out pretty quickly and paid for a round trip water taxi ride for Los Arcos. It was roughly $12 US. It was the best money I’ve ever spent in my life. Words cannot describe the beauty of Los Arcos and Lover’s beach. This is a must for anyone visiting Cabo. Unfortunately, this was the shortest port stop we had and boarded the ship by 1pm to set sail at 2pm. The waters were very choppy tendering back and I nearly got seasick.

 

Day 6 – last seaday. Not much to speak of going on. It was another cold day. The last day is always depressing anyway.

 

Summary – Sea days were way cooler than I expected, port stops were perfect. Food at the dining rooms was terrific, buffet food was boring, pizza was so-so and burgers were great. I agree with everyone that has posted that the coffee is terrible. There could have been more diverse daytime activities. Overall we enjoyed this beautiful ship and staff.

 

If anyone has any questions, I will be happy to try and answer.