Princess Sapphire Reviews

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Princess Sapphire
★★★★☆
4.2
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Latest Reviews

“I brought my 4 year old daughter and 1 year son aboard...”

★★★★☆

written by on 10/07/2009

I brought my 4 year old daughter and 1 year son aboard the Sapphire Princess for an Alaskan Cruise. The ship docks right inside the Alaskan towns. You effectively walk off the ship and into town. No need for taxis or buses.
The ship is beautiful and the rooms are spacious.

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“On Princess Sapphire we booked a junior suite on...”

★★★★☆

written by dml09 on 09/03/2009

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.

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“Princess Sapphire was our 2nd Princess cruise. Love...”

★★★★★

written by nstan on 01/10/2007

Princess Sapphire was our 2nd Princess cruise. Love Princess Cruise line. Food was much better than Carnival, Holland America or Royal Caribbean lines. Embarkation and disembarkation were fine. 4 swimming pools made it easier to find a space. Great spa with sauna and steam room. Great shopping. Everything is clean, neat and organized.

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“Get a balcony room to see beyond your walls, we had...”

★★★★☆

written by Robert Mitchell on 10/06/2007

Get a balcony room to see beyond your walls, we had good and bad experiences, with the good issues outweighing the bad.

This is a pretty long and detailed description but worthy of looking at. We returned from a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Sapphire Princess in April 2006. Both good things and some not so good things happened on this cruise, which was also our first cruise ever. Overall it was a good vacation but for reasons mentioned below, it may be a while before we take another.

The Sapphire Princess is a large ship and very nicely decorated. It carries about 2600 passengers. There is a 3 deck atrium in the centre that is very nice. The entire ship is nice for that matter.

The first thing you need to realize on a cruise is that there are going to be formal nights aboard. Our seven-night cruise had two. This requires packing a suit at the very least. Tuxedos are mentioned but a good dark suit is sufficient. Other nights you are expected to dress nicely, referred to as smart-casual. I packed a sports coat and slacks for these times. I noticed after a couple of days that a number of men wore no coat or tie so I stopped as well. The issue of formal or smart-casual is up to the individual. If you do not want to participate in the dress-up you can simply go to the buffet or have room service. As I thought this was a strict issue I gave in and took along a suit, which suited my needs nicely for the item following. Dress-up or not I do not rate with any value, as the option is yours. It might require more suitcases though if you elect to get dressy.

The best thing of the entire trip was surprising my wife by arranging to have the Captain renew our vows while we were at sea, which happened to be on the first formal night. She was completely unaware of what was in the works. The ship purser was a great help arranging for flowers and other items. The cost is about $200 for this level of vows renewal. Regardless, it was well worth it. For this part of the trip I give Princess an A+++.

The wedding photographer could have done a better job as he got shots of the back of our heads and other shots of the Captain looking down while reading. The posed shot afterwards were quite good though. For his part I give the cameraman a B+.

If you want to have your photo taken you will get many opportunities. There were quite a few cameras and backdrops to choose from on the first formal night. The second formal night had fewer options to select from. Photos were also taken when we initially boarded and every time we disembarked at a port. These photos were on display in a designated area for later viewing in the hopes that they would be purchased. The cost was about $22 each for 8' by 10' size. That really is not too bad if you consider the cruise a special occasion. You are not obligated to buy any, for their effort I rate the pictures a B+.

Our cabin had a balcony, which I highly recommend. The room was about the same as a small room at a hotel, not large yet not cramped. A balcony gives the impression of more space, as well as the ability to see other ships, land, whales and dolphins, which we did get to see. If you can, take along a small set of binoculars. When we signed up for the trip we were fortunate enough to be moved to a higher deck (LIDO) and for that I am grateful.
Tip: There are more shelves and a room safe behind the mirror by the closet.
Tip: A word of caution. You do not want your room to be too close to the rear of the ship, more properly referred to as aft, as engine vibrations can be easily felt, even during the daytime. Imagine how that would be at night! Our cabin steward was exceptional. He was friendly and always very helpful. I grade this out as A+, based strictly on my own expectations.

In fact, the entire crew was friendly and helpful. Almost all restaurant servers were very well trained. Only one pair that served us did not quite use the proper etiquette by serving myself before my wife. We did not have any wine, so the issue of wine tasting etiquette did not occur. I am not trying to be snobbish and mention it only as a nice bonus. I bring it up as cruise ships are supposed to be on top of proper etiquette or so I have been led to believe. It was nice to see it in action when it did occur, which was often. This warranted another A rating for Princess.

There is a large theatre that seats about 900 people in comfortable seats. Entertainment was good but I was expecting shows to be more like Vegas. Larger meetings and films were in here also at various times. There was no outside theater as I was led to believe. My error. This section I will rate as B+.

The primary drawback, to us, was that the cruise was more structured than we like. If you want to go to a sit-down dinner other than the buffet, you need to make reservations, the earlier you make them the better. If you want a window seat for the entire trip, you should plan in advance. There is no additional charge for a standard restaurant meal but there is an extra charge of $20 for a specialty restaurant reservation. We did not like the idea of extra fees, so did not go to the one on our ship. As a result, we cannot review that item. We did try several other eating areas but overall we found the food somewhat mediocre. It was better than bland but not by much. Admittedly, I like my food spicy but I can tell if my food is tasty or not. We did have very good sliced pineapple every morning and at lunch as part of our meals at the buffet. I grade the food overall with only a C.

The concierge told me that the restaurants all serve the same food, with the exception of a few dishes special to that restaurant. We did have a good Cornish hen one night and on another night we each had two reasonably sized small lobsters that were also good. None of the meals were large portions but why waste food? If you want more you can get it immediately or you can always get some sort of food at the buffet 24 hours a day. You can also buy pizza slices near the swimming pool during the day. For the lack of menu variety I grade this part of the cruise with a B.

Items have changed even more, as noted by some passengers that have been on other Princess cruises told us. As expected, if you use the items in your stateroom such as soda or water, you will have these items added to your room bill. There is a small fridge that is adequate. We were told that not long ago was there no fee for water or soda, there was free ice cream at the back of the ship. We did not find any ice cream machine aft. We did not like the flavour and sweetness of the ice cream served at the outside creamery by the pool. The scooped ice cream at dinner, however, was fine. Overall, I grade this group of items as a C-.

There is a Casino on the ship and some people did win but not us. I did have a little problem at the Casino with the cashing of travellers checks. I do not want to explain further but I was not happy with the answer I was given by the manager. Suffice it to say that you should be certain you date your travellers checks yourself. By the way, there is a small additional fee if you have money charged to your room. I feel compelled to grade the issues that I had with the Casino as a D-. I could be in error but this is how I feel.

At Puerto Vallarta, we decided to do the Jungle Canopy Adventure, there were 14 people in our group. We were driven about 60 miles from the ship for the excursion. I refer to it as our Zip Trip. You zip across cables from tree top to tree top. We went in late April and surprisingly the jungle was rather dry where we were. We used DEET bug spray but we got bitten quite a few times anyway. We still have some very notable bites 2 week later. Another couple on the same Zip with us had no bites and did not even use any bug spray. I guess we drew them all to us with what turned out to be bug perfume. We really did enjoy the Zip Trip. My wife was afraid she could not do the 70-foot rappel at the end but she did and really enjoyed it. We would do it again but recommend long pants and a long sleeved shirt instead of shorts and a short sleeve shirt. This Zip Trip we rated as A-.

The Mexican guides during the Zip were very friendly and helpful. Follow their advice and do not take your glove off, as I foolishly did to take a picture. I was cautioned prior but thought I could sneak in just one shot. I actually did drop my glove and would have been done for the outing but fortunately, the glove landed on my foot. I also was properly scolded for taking my glove off. Go early in the day, as it does get much hotter as the day goes on. The brochure says that a sweater is recommended and that you should be in very good physical condition. We did not need a sweater but could see where one might be needed. Prior to the Zip, everything that belonged to our Zip group but was not needed got placed into one huge bag and left at the start point with an employee. The next group uses another huge bag. The only physical part of the Zip is walking up a moderately steep trail about 100 feet or so at the very beginning and an easier but longer one at the end. You should not have to rush coming back up the slope as the guides will be trying to sell their video to everyone. It might be a quarter mile back to the starting point, where you will also find the bathrooms and trucks, both of which will be an incentive to move along anyway. You can reclaim your belongings here as well. The trails mentioned are just dirt ones. Being a former technical climber myself, I recognized that the guides knew what they were doing. For their knowledge, guidance and humour, I rate the guides as A++.

The structured issue I referred to earlier pertains to the necessity that everything on board happens on a set schedule. If you decide to participate, then you follow a schedule too. We went to a jewellery show and learned that prices were good for many items in Mexico. We had no idea that jewellery shopping would be available at such prices, so we decided to go looking. We looked after our Zip Trip and realized the prices really were very good but we had to get back to the ship, as it would soon be sailing from Puerto Vallarta and we did not want to be left behind. Judging from the names called to report to the pursers desk shortly after we left port, we estimate about 6 people, or groups, did not make it back in time. The structure and strict timetable I rate as a C but this is strictly my taste as I usually am taking a vacation to escape these items.

Our next stop was at Mazatlan. Here we had already signed up for a city tour that was nothing to write home about. Yet here I am doing just that?

The following two purchases are at stores recommended by Princess Cruises in the Discover Shopping flyers delivered each day to your cabin. These are supposed to be good places to shop. We had problems at these two shops that we hope to get corrected. The ratings for these purchases will have to be added later, so look for another review that details how these are progressing. We hope they do not take long to get settled properly.

Store #1 - We finally got some time to shop and bought a very nice Tanzanite ring at Tanzanite International (TI) but it had to be sized. We later discovered there was a problem with the way the stone was sitting in the ring that we received. We decided to have it adjusted further at the TI at our next port, Cabo San Lucas. We are sure the stone that was returned to us was not the same one we bought in Mazatlan. This was confirmed when we had it appraised back home at a jeweller that we have used many times before. The best TI would do is provide us with store credit. No refunds were offered unless it is the same day as the purchase. Of course that means having to go to another of their stores on another trip. Even our credit card company (American Express) was unable to get our store credit turned into cash. We had to mail the ring back very quickly to New York where their Customer Service location is. Even though they knew we were complaining about the stone having been swapped for an inferior stone, the Customer Service department claimed they put the ring back into stock immediately. They could not examine the stone to compare it to the purchase receipt. That's the story anyway. They also claimed that this stone swapping has never happened before. Under these conditions this is true because there is never time to make a report. Thus buyer beware really does mean just that. We must make a trip to a location that has one of their stores within 2 years and trust that we really get what we paid for.
Store #2 - In Cabo San Lucas we also bought an Ammolite ring at Royal Jewellers. The stone setting is somewhat like a rainbow with red on one side, then green, then blue on the opposite end. We were told it was a doublet with the Ammolite on the bottom and the top was clear sapphire. Our later appraisal told us it was a triplet, with the slightly torn Ammolite glued to a bottom surface and covered with a very thin top coating. Our jeweller said he would never try to clean it as the top layer was so thin. Regardless, it is a striking ring worth keeping.

I should point out that lanes on a road do not mean much in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, the only places we were on the roads. Traffic just merges whenever it is convenient. We took 1 bus and 3 taxi trips and we were very uncomfortable during each of them. We walked near the pier at Cabo San Lucas and on the only street we crossed, the driving was more normal to our thinking. Drivers stayed in their lanes. Mexican traffic flow I have to give a C-, simply because I do not have enough information to make a really fair judgement.

Taxi fares are predetermined in some cities and you negotiate the fare in others. This is only for information and does not warrant a rating.

The biggest drawback for the trip was the fact that the ship had to travel at a significantly reduced speed after Cabo San Lucas, our expected last full day at sea. The Captain spoke over the intercom that we would be arriving in Los Angles much later than planned and if we had other transportation in LA arranged for prior to 5 pm then we should make different plans. We were never informed of the reason for the slow down, so could only speculate. The most often mentioned reason, purely speculation, was that one of the engines failed. For the failure to advise everyone of what the problem was, I rate the cruise line with a very generous C-.

I was on deck sunbathing when this problem was announced. My plan was to rest most of the day. Due to the announcement I had to go get dressed and get into line to use a courtesy phone to change our plane reservations. I believe there were only four phone lines provided for the majority of people. After a couple of hours and moving only about 15 feet closer, Princess decided to hand out tickets with numbers that allowed a person to leave and come back when their ticket group was called. I went back to our cabin to try calling from there. I was told there would be a fee of $5 or $9 per minute, if I called from the room. I tried many times but could not get a dial tone due to everyone else trying to call. I finally got through. Not wanting to take any chances, I made plane reservations for 6:30 pm. All this took up most of our final day at sea. We were extremely fortunate that we got our bags checked in at the airport but with only 4 minutes from the baggage check in cut off time. We sat in the plane for only about 5 minutes before we were on our way. You would think that Princess would anticipate this sort of scenario and would have a plan already in place to address it. This did not seem to be the case because of the poorly managed method used I will rate this problem as a D-.

Yet another sore spot for many people was the obvious fact that Princess Line was taking care of the people that arranged their trips through Princess Lines first. The words used in the later announcements indicated that if your travel plans were made through Princess then they would help you. All others needed to use the courtesy phones. I estimate about 1000 people, or groups, needed to use four free phones. I made the room call thinking I would have a fair sized phone charge on our bill. To give credit to Princess, they did not charge me for my phone call to shore. Handing out numbered tickets about 2 hours after the initial announcement and not advising us of a free phone service from our rooms shows how Princess was ill equipped to handle this low level emergency. As a result of this inefficiency and preferential treatment I can only assign Princess a D-. It would be lower, except for the fact that they did finally hand out tickets and waived room phone charges.

As an additional point for your information: When disembarking at the end of the cruise everyone gets special luggage tags to replace the ones used during embarking. These were all delivered to each stateroom long before there was a problem. There were several categories for leaving the ship, based on the original, estimated docking time of 7am and your original transportation, plane, train, meet someone, etc. These were all coded with red tags with numbers 1 to 6 to enable people to catch their transportation in a timely manner. After these time-critical people, you could disembark based on your deck level. The first deck to leave was LIDO (deck 14) followed by the next deck below and so on. Since the majority of passengers had to make new transportation reservations, you would expect a different colour code or tags would have been issued to everyone. Whether because of cost for new tags or a logistics nightmare, this was not done. It was obvious the original colour tag system no longer had any meaning, yet it was still going to be used. Princess planning ahead earned it only a C-.

The ship finally docked about 3:30pm but we could not leave the ship until about 5pm. New colour luggage tags could not be re-issued so everyone left the ship in essentially the same order as before the mysterious problem occurred. As stated earlier, we barely made our flight.

Again, overall we did have a good vacation, with some problems.

Would we go on another cruise? Not right away to be sure but we do not rule it out entirely either. There were enough good times to outweigh the unfortunate ones. We did meet some wonderful people on this cruise.

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Robert Mitchell's Response to Robert Mitchell's Review

Written on: 30/06/2007

To complete the review above I must point out that Tanzanite International has made good on their error mentioned above as Store #1. In June of 2007 we traveled to St Maarten to use our T.I. store credit. We worked out what we considered to be a very good deal by getting two rings. One was a Ceylon blue sapphire surrounded by small diamonds for my wife and a single small sapphire as a pinky ring for myself, using up all of the store credit and a very small amount more. After a day I decided the ring I chose wasn't really what I wanted and T.I. agreed to exchange it. I selected one with some small diamonds instead. They even allowed me to have the new ring at a significantly reduced price. Tanzanite International did make good on our problem and they have now restored my faith in them.
<br/>
<br/>A more detailed review for St Maarten will be written soon for that area.

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“I would so recommend this ship, our group of 50 people...”

★★★★★

written by jp20 on 01/01/2007

I would so recommend this ship, our group of 50 people ages 5 to 73 had a wonderful time. Never had I enjoyed a cruise as much as this one and it had nothing to do with the ports of call. Mexico is Mexico, love the ship and Cabo was great except we went when they had a holiday so almost everything was closed, no rentals of any kind. (boats, ect)

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“I guess the Princess Sapphire Mexico cruise is not...”

★★★★☆

written by ruthdiamondbar on 04/07/2006

I guess the Princess Sapphire Mexico cruise is not children oriented. This was my main concern for this trip. There were 6 of us that went on this cruise, including my 5 year old daughter and 7 year old son. This was our third cruise, but our first cruise with Princess. The children's active area was well facilitated, but the children's programs were not the best. It was more like a baby-sitting program, not educational and fun like the other two cruise lines we have been on. My children were bored after few sections.

My kids like to watch the shows in the theater. The last night we were all there again watching the farewell show for all ages. We were shocked when the director dressed like superwoman with two water balloons in his bra on stage, then someone poked the balloons. One manager kept grabbing the other female manager's breast, the female manger stripped several layers of the males underwear. This was not adult night, there were lots of children in the audience. It is a shame they put such a show on stage. I hope Princess will have more consideration for the children on-board, and have shows that will better cater to their tastes in future.

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“For our next cruise, we decided to try for the first...”

★★★★★

written by jlp20 on 18/12/2005

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 hurdles. 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 ventrioquists are a dying 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 fayre. 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 crew members 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 dining 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 Cr me 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.

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