Princess Sapphire Review

Overall Rating

Our beds in the room were WORN OUT! Very uncomfortable, I still feel the mattress springs in my back three days after the cruise!

The food quality and variety (with the exception of afternoon tea) has clearly gone downhill since our last cruise on the same line three years ago. Each of dining rooms offer exactly the same menu with the exception of one signature item. If you order steak or any meat dish, be certain to order medium rare if you actually like it medium as they over-cook almost everything.

It seemed to take forever to get to Puerta Vallerta. The weather was great though and we did enjoy ourselves at the pool.

If you like to use the workout facilities, prepare to wait for the treadmills and other equipment. We usually waited at least thirty minutes for "our turn", there simply isn't enough equipment to go around.

Our ports of call were Puerto Vallerta, Mazatllan and Cabo. In our opinion, they could eliminate Mazatllan and spend the time saved in cabo. The Cabo port is accessed by tender boats, this takes away from time ashore which is already very limited (first tender leaves the ship at 7:30 AM, last tender back is at 1:00 PM). Mazatllan is not a great port and Cabo has a much larger upside for fun.

The entertainment was only average and the casino only had one "non-smoking" night so that kept us out for five nights.

On Princess Sapphire we booked a junior suite on Deck-9 (Dolphin Deck) located midships. The room was great, had a living room and bedroom and good sized bathroom with a full sized tub. Our suite steward was fantastic and highly efficient. We had plenty of room overall.

We never had any problems getting a table at any of the dining rooms and were only asked if we had reservations twice over the course of the trip but as you read "the bad", there is more to be told regarding our dining experiences.

Afternoon tea was exceptional! We went every afternoon that we were on board. Do not miss this, in fact we skipped lunch so that we could enjoy more of the offerings.

The ship was clean, there were two formal nights, lots of opportunities to have your photos taken albeit not always with great results.

The boarding process was very efficient, I recommend purchasing the Princess transfers to/from the airport because once you claim your luggage at the airport, the next time you see it is in your room. The de-boarding process was not nearly as efficient though. We plan to try a different cruise line next time, perhaps Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

All in all, I rate the cruise as 7 out of 10.