Another Long Review Sapphire 12/03

For our next cruise, we decided to try for the first week in December.
Only after vacations were approved did I start looking at different web
sites for a seven day Mexican trip. Our initial plan was for a balcony
on Caribe deck on the Sapphire Princess. Before I got further in
research, we got the brainstorm to bring two of our adult children with
us.

Since we are not independently wealthy, we decided to book two interior
staterooms. After several days of running into identical quotes on the
web, we came across an offer we couldn't pass up.

Well, it turns out our great deal is a guarantee, just to get on the
ship. We have two unassigned cabins with a category of M. After several
minutes searching deck plans of the Sapphire, I found all four cabins
of this category. Plaza deck, lowest you can go, and all the way
forward. These rooms are directly under stage left of the Princess
Theatre. There is a space behind these cabins that I assume is for the
mechanical equipment for the stage itself. Although we would have not
picked this location, we have accepted them in trade for all four of us
to take the cruise. Since upgrades trickle up, and we are as low as you
can go, the chance for the upgrade fairy to strike us is likely, but do
not expect it.

Four weeks before the cruise and the tickets have arrived. Room
assignment has not happened and all that's left is the packing.

Three days before the cruise, Princess has finally made room
assignments. Our guaranteed M grade staterooms on Plaza forward of the
art gallery are now category J, still interiors, on Caribe very near
the forward elevators. Doing a little research, these are upgrades in
name only. Per Orbitz.com, their price is the same for J through M.

EMBARKATION
It's time to load up the car and go the 25 miles to the pier. If we
had one more bag, I have no idea how we could get down to the docks.
After unloading the bags, we are directed by security to use the
parking in front of the cruise center. We pull into the entry of the
long term parking lot by the ship, only when you are at the front of
the line and can't backup is there a sign where it's stated the
price is now $12 a day or $84 for the week.20% higher than last year.

Once inside, the passengers were divided into four lines. We shuffled
through the switchback line for about 45 minutes until we are at the
front. Have no idea what everyone else was doing, but within four
minutes we had sail away cards in hand and were on to the next set of
hurtles. We show a guard our cruise cards and are allowed into the next
room and are handed a slip of paper with the number 30 printed on it.
Only by osmosis do we figure out that we are being called in groups for
the security checkpoint behind a partition. The people in line have
number 26 in hand, so we set up for a wait. I scrounged a chair for my
wife and the rest of us sat on the floor. After about 30 minutes our
number is called and we get in line that leads to a partitioned off
area. Twenty minutes later we turn the corner and see the problem in
all its glory. The hundreds of people getting on the ship are being
funneled in to two lines manned by rent-a-cops hired by either the TSA
or the cruise center. The guards take their time and appear in no
hurry. In any event, very poor planning has gotten a LOT of people
upset before even getting near the gangway. Our last two Princess
embarkations took no more than 40 minutes. This time, it took almost
two hours. Calm down, think of my happy place, whatever. All I know is
that we are finally on the ship.

Although we know our cabins are forward, we are herded in the wrong
direction, back towards the elevators at the Atrium. There, ship staff
tell us to join a small group of people waiting for elevators and go to
Caribe deck, and then backtrack to the forward part of the ship.
Thanks, I needed the exercise.

STATEROOMS
The rooms are nothing to brag about. Bedroom, desk, closet and bathroom
crammed into a 16 by 10 foot area. We have our room set up for a queen
bed. The remaining floor space is very limited and a small glass table
is moved several times a day to be out of harms way, only to finally
get a home in the closet. I have found a total of two electrical
outlets in the bedroom. There are others, but there is a possibility
they are 220 Volt, so why bother. A side note, this is our first cruise
using an interior stateroom. We bought a $3.99 alarm clock that has a
very bright read out. We have the same problem others have had. The
voltage is not a true 110 and the clock looses about three minutes a
day. Our two grown kids have the cabin next door and have it set up
with two twin beds. Room looks larger with this setup and the small
table is out of the way. Their room is a quad and has two drop down
beds in the ceiling, never got a chance to see them in operation.
Another thing I noted was the lack of ventilation, very little air was
felt coming out of the one vent in the ceiling. I don't know if this
is normal for an interior room but I doubt it.

The room, like the ship, show some signs of wear. In the halls, small
scuffs and dents can be seen on the walls. Crews are at work daily
painting and varnishing keeping ahead of the effects of salt air. The
same type of small things is seen in the cabin. A couple of small
scuffs on the walls. Traffic patterns are obvious in the carpet, the
beautiful blue seen along the walls is dull and stained in all the
traffic zones. The front edge of the desk has many small chips out of
the paint and my keen eye noted one screw does not match the others on
the bathroom lock and some of the caulk behind the faucet is gone. In
the kid's cabin, for some reason there is a piece of tape on the
showerhead with OK written on it.

I am doing a quick inspection of our room as I write this, while
sitting at the desk. Looking at the mirror above the desk, I can tell
it has not been cleaned in quite a few days. Looking into the mirror,
behind me, I then inspect the large mirror above the bed along the back
wall. I spot a rather large smudge on the glass at least 4" X 6". I
sit for a few moments since the steward has missed this very blatant
mark on the mirror. Standing to get a better look at this mark,
surprise, it has become invisible. For whatever reason, this mark can
only be seen if looking up from the bed. And now that I'm in this
position I note two larger oval marks below the original mark. In a
flash my mind identifies the upper mark as a shoulder blade and bump
from a large vertebrae. The two ovals that would be normally below a
shoulder blade would be the mark left by someone's posterior. My wife
comes in wondering what I'm laughing at. I only tell her to lie on
the bed and then point out the three marks. In less than ten seconds,
she says, "you have to be kidding". Later, my son also identifies
the mark without prompting. This will be the test for our room steward.
How long will it be before he brings a bottle of glass cleaner into the
room?

As promised, the Diamond (which we were on six months ago) and the
Sapphire are identical ships. In fact we did a double take when we saw
that Neil Chandler was our cruise director. He was the assistant cruise
director on the Diamond earlier this year. In speaking with him, we
learned he was promoted to cruise director, but without a ship. For the
time being, he will travel the world filling in on ships when the
assigned cruise director is on vacation. Talk about globetrotting.

ENTERTAINMENT
We spent most of the time in either the theater, Explorers, Wheelhouse
or Club Fusion. Shows, movies, bingo, TV show take offs, comedians and
musical acts. Better acts were Lorenzo Clark, Kevin Jordan and Greg
Otto. Then there was ventriloquist Kenny Byrd, who starts off his act
by saying that ventriiquists are a dieing breed. If he bothered to
watch his own act, he would understand why his statement is true. In
my opinion the high light was Dan Bennett comedian/ juggler,
outstanding.

Our son is a garage musician and was very interested in the various
bands, one man to four piece groups, who perform though out the ship.
He was amazed that not only did you have to know how to play your
instrument, but also have to be able to read sheet music and be able to
repair your own equipment.

In room TV was the usual satellite feeds of CNN, TBS, movies and family
faire. Two points, the TBS feed had problems through out the week.
Picture and sound would freeze, unable to watch anything. In the past,
Princess would have movies that were one to two months from release to
video stores. This time we found these movies supplied by something
called "Onboard". All movies shown were available at your Block
Buster or HBO. Speaking of movies, I have felt that Princess had fallen
down as far as showing films in the small venue, Explorers. On the
Diamond, the picture was fuzzy and sound muffled. On the Sapphire they
got it right, picture was sharp and bright with the sound set for the
room.

On the last night, a show was put on with three acts; Lovena Fox, a
singer we are sorry we had missed earlier and Kenny Byrd, the comedian
who we were sorry we had caught. Some of the crewmembers then put on
"If I Was Not Upon The Ship", which we had seen on the Pride last
year. This type of production should be presented on all larger ships,
you need at least 8 crew members who can sing and perform, lets the
passengers see another side of the crew. In any event, the audience in
the theater loved it.

PORTS
In PV we did the ECO snorkel trip to the Marietas Island in the middle
of Banderas Bay. Plenty of sea life and a crew that bent over backwards
to make things right. This was the start of whale watching season and
the captain stopped a couple of times when whales were spotted near our
course. On the return leg, we came with in 35 feet of two whales. Got
awesome video with sound. Twenty minutes later, we came across about 50
"Spinner" dolphins, gave us a show of jumps of 2' to 8' out of
the water. Although we returned to the dock with three hours to spare,
we returned to the ship to relax before dinner.

There was no activity in Mazatlan that interested us, but we had heard
of a small restaurant that we wanted to try. We took a cab past the
Golden Zone and found "Tony's On The Beach", just past the El Cid
resort. A small open-air place with steps down to the sand and 200 feet
to the waves. Why here? We had heard about their lobster and shrimp
platters. As it turns out, three of us ate the dinners designed for
four. Did some shopping before calling it a day. As one of the stand
ups said, "the best thing about Mazatlan is getting back on the ship
and leaving". We spent almost 45 minutes in taxis going and coming
back. This was the first time he had been exposed to "third world"
conditions and was quite shocked. When he asked, "Why don't they
clean up and fix their own place?" I had nothing to say. So much for
the all-knowing father.

My wife did about a 30 minutes of shopping in Cabo while my son and I
rented a jet ski for an hour. We were the first ones on the water and
had smooth riding for the first 30 minutes. After that, things got
rougher by the minute. Half the time we were airborne. Two days later,
I'm having trouble sitting down because of the pain in my rear. We
were near the Sapphire when we saw some kid on another jet ski cross in
front of the bow of a tender at about 50 feet. Never knew these small
boats could make 90-degree turns. I can only assume the passengers were
tossed about because of the defensive maneuver.

I have a bone to pick with the captain, at all three ports the ship
waited for late passengers. In PV, a truck with about ten people
hurried up about 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave. This could
have been a Princess sponsored excursion, who knows, but we also waited
over 30 minutes in both Mazatlan and Cabo for two passengers at each
stop. Why did we have to keep an eye on the clock if the ship is just
going to wait for everyone to get back onboard?

WEATHER
From all my research, we expected clear weather with temps to be 80-85
degrees. On the third day, before our first stop, clouds over took us
from the Southwest. Of the three stops, the warmest we got was 75
degrees with high clouds. No big deal, in fact the weather was better
than expected, except the weather according to Princess was over 80
with full sun. I guess whoever does their weather recordings doesn't
have a window.

PERSONEL CHOICE
OK, work with me a little bit on this. We were on the Star Princess
shortly after Princess started the PC program. The way it worked then,
you walked up to the large room and stated the number in your party.
You would be put at whatever table they were filling. From your own
table for two, to seats at a large ten-person table, anything was
possible. The beauty was there was never a wait. You sat with different
people each night and had a great time.

Earlier this year we were on the Diamond using personal choice. Instead
of two large PC rooms, they then had four smaller "themed"
restaurants. Each restaurant would have the same menu for the entire
trip. Sounds great on paper, but if nothing on a certain menu interests
you; your choice of rooms has been reduced by 25%. The longest we had
to wait was 5 minutes and never used reservations. 6 out of 7 nights
we were given our own table and we shared a table for four on the other
night. But then this was Alaska and for whatever reason, the older
passengers stayed away from the dinning rooms by the hundreds.


Fast forward to the present and PC has mutated into a monster. The
"themed" menus have been scrapped and you now have four smaller
rooms using the same menu. If you walk up with a party of four, you
have to wait for a four party table to become available. Forget about
those empty tables of 6 or 8, they have to be left empty for all those
large parties walking in. I can only assume they want their restaurants
to have some kind of attitude towards their own customers. I just
don't understand why they make people wait with empty tables. Just a
guess, but the next time either of these ships are put in for
retrofitting, the four room idea will be redone to two larger rooms.

FOOD
Understanding that you are on a ship and a different scale must be
used, you're dealing with a banquet type situation rather than a five
star restaurant. The food is excellent in the dinning rooms. My wife
favored the beef, my daughter the pastas and my son and I danced all
over the menu.

Lido items could be a little heavy on the grease and some items would
sit for hours untouched (stewed pears?), but in all the quality and
freshness was good. By the pool area, the hamburgers were dry and the
pizza excellent. There was a sushi table open several hours a day, but
after the third day of the cruise I question just how fresh the fish
could be. We tried room service once, at about 1 A.M. and found the
sandwiches dry as well.

Service was superb in all venues. My wife mentioned to the waiter in
one of the dining rooms that the Crème Brulee, which is offered once,
was her favorite desert. Just before we left, he presented a foil
"basket" with a second desert for her to take back to the
stateroom. Our daughter does not look her age at all and our son is 19.
Of the seven nights, wine was poured for them five times. On the last
night, the bottle was left on the table so I could pour to my son, so
not to involve the waiter in this felony. The other night, two wine
glasses were removed without a word before the wine arrived.

I happened to go up to Lido after 2 AM one morning, lo and behold, crew
members sitting all over the place eating their meals.

OBSERVATIONS

On a recent Carnival cruise, full uniformed security guards were
observed in all public areas. On Sapphire, we saw one person dressed in
khakis and t-shirt with "youth security" on the back. I'm sure
there were security people there, but they were invisible.

This was about two weeks before the normal Christmas break from school.
I think this was the reason there were very few children on this
cruise.

We were able to watch the cruise director, Neil Chandler, get ready to
go in front of several hundred people to perform. Here is a grown man
dressed in a full chicken outfit getting ready to hit the stage. Very
interesting watching him physically pump him self up to take control of
a room.

There is a "party" night where there is a champagne glass waterfall
in the atrium. Passengers are allowed to pose for a photo op, but only
to the ship's photographer. Three strategically placed crewmembers
block the shot from the surrounding area. But then you can buy the
photo the next day from Princess.

On the last day, disembarkation was only 35 minutes behind the printed
schedule. Smaller rooms were used for baggage claim and we rounded up
our luggage in less than 5 minutes. What was interesting, was none of
the 12 security people in the area checked to see if you were taking
someone else's bag home

Oh, the deal we got, net cost was $68 a day for each of us. That
covered the cruise, port and other taxes and travel insurance.

The last thing I did was drop a note into the feedback box with my
contact information. Seams that smudge on our mirror will be there for
the next passengers. That was a week ago and haven't heard a thing
from Princess.

jlp,
Very good review, well done. The below paragraph made me laugh because
it reminded me of a cruise I took to the Bahamas.
My wife, myself and her brother and his wife went aboard the Sea Breeze
out of Fort Lauderdale. This was over the Christmas Holidays. When we
pulled into port the Captain announced that the water temperature was 80
degrees. Great, so we take a snorkeling excursion. As we're gearing up
and people are mentioning that the water was cold. Well we didn't give
it a lot of thought, I mean heck we're from Michigan, how cold can
tropical waters be? Well my brother-in-law jumps in feet first with fins
on. Now picture this: Have you ever seen one of those lizards that can
walk on water? My B-I-L's eyes got twice as big, he looked like a
missile coming out of the water. From that point he tried to walk on top
of the water trying to get back to the ladder. Some poor woman got half
run over. That was the end of his excursion.
I went in but didn't stay too long. My wife had to finish the film
before she was going to give it up. We later became scuba divers, wet
suits are great.
Paul


wrote:

snipped

WEATHER
From all my research, we expected clear weather with temps to be 80-85
degrees. On the third day, before our first stop, clouds over took us
from the Southwest. Of the three stops, the warmest we got was 75
degrees with high clouds. No big deal, in fact the weather was better
than expected, except the weather according to Princess was over 80
with full sun. I guess whoever does their weather recordings doesn't
have a window.

snipped

Got this directly via email:

Was particularly interested in your review of your cruise on the
"Sapphire Princess" on 12/3 cause we are sailing on her
on 1/21/06. Sounds like you really got a good deal.

We got a guarantee also, category HH, obstructed oceanview (meaning you
look out at the lifeboats). Oh, well, for 7 days
it is only 575.00 including all fees and taxes. Never had this kind of
room so we will see how it is.

With all the negatives on your review I'm surprised you gave it 5
stars. Maybe there was more positives than I picked up
on from your review. Sounds like you had a good time, though.

We have done this itinerary before also so are just going on for the
fun of going on it cause we also live only 11/2 hours from
the port. We are also going to leave our car there for the week.

So, was the food at "Tony's on the Beach" really good or just plentiful
to share. We have done the "Golden Zone" stuff
and would like something new to do.

Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks

Sherry Sanders


I have never had a vacation that was totally free of problems. So a few
hiccups over 7 days is no big deal. As far as I’m concerned, unless you
say so, you had a great time.

At Tony’s, the food was good and large servings. We had the Lobster
platter that in addition to to a boiled lobster, there were six large
fried prawns. The Shrimp platter had steamed, fried and a little beauty
that was wrapped in bacon and broiled. The smallest prawn served was
over 4 inches. There are three restaurants that share the building
facing the water; Tony’s On the Beach is the center business.

As far as other info, try going to this board:
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=203

While this board covers cruising in general, use the above link to find
boards for cruise lines, individual ships, ports and even actual
sailings or roll calls.

Thanks for this very comprehensive trip report. I read it with
particular interest because I'm taking that same cruise on January
21st. I have a "guaranteed share" stateroom, inside, and with luck
I'll have either a compatable roommate or a stateroom to myself. I
doubt I'll debark at any port since I'm recovering from a broken foot.
I'll decide at the last minute whether to rent (as I did this summer
for an Alaska cruise) an accessibility scooter. I assume you saw some
of those onboard - mine was not the only one on the last cruise. It's
a bargain, by the way, at $300 delivered and picked up from the cabin.

I've sailed with a partially obstructed view more than once and I like
that arrangment. You get plenty of light, some view and nobody can
walk by and look in the window!! And the price is lower :-)