S
SDFish42
Guest
Hello my fellow addicts. I am a new member here although I have been viewing the boards for a couple months now in preparation for my Alaska Inside Passage cruise on the Sapphire Princess. With all the advice I got from reading the discussions I thought I'd try and do my part too. I will make it fairly short and sweet I promise.
Overall, the trip was absolutely incredible. I've been on nearly 10 cruises and everywhere I've been to it was HOT. Although I do respect my family's dire need to lie on a beach on vacation, it was nice to finally steer in a different direction and truly enjoy the port of call and do other things besides shop.
The ship is beautiful, it is enormous and being docked in Seattle next to the Holland America Amsterdam and Norwegian Sun I believe it was, the mere size made the other two seem like tugboats. A word of warning however is that if you have sailed on the Grand or any of its sister ships and obviously the Diamond, (its immediate sister ship), don't expect a whole lot of changes. The layout is more or less the exact same on each of these ships with a few minor adjustments.
As you might already know, there are now 5, yes 5, dining rooms (International, Italian, Santa Fe, Steakhouse, and Asian) on the ship in light of their "Anytime Dining" option which we chose. Just because we chose it, I DO NOT recommend this option to you at this early stage of the ship's travels. The idea for Anytime Dining is to allow people to eat whenever they want by making reservations ahead of time. What they fail to tell you is that reservations by 75% of those who chose Anytime were made on the first day of the cruise!!! Only one night did we actually get a reservation before 8:00 at night. For a system that allegedly allows you to dine anytime, you end up eating whenever they have availability, which defeats the purpose if your not sure how long you would be ashore. My advice would be to choose traditional dining, late or early, you get the same waiter/waitress, same time, no long lines, and no hassles. If you miss your dinner because your ashore, no big deal, you can walk into or make a reservation in any of the other 4 dining rooms anytime. Feel free to ask me if you are confused about this dining stuff. The food in general was very mediochre. The buffet was never desirable for me personally and everything just sort of started tasting and looking the same. Perhaps I have been on too many Princess ships. My girlfriend would definitely say that it wasn't a ship for chocolate lovers because there was hardly any to be found besides those on our pillow every evening.
To balance out the less than satisfying food though was the staff. Princess clearly has a standard to be set and I know I've seen it before on the boards, but the people were always friendly and we in fact got to know quite a few of the hosts for the various activities. Our stewardess was delightful and efficient and for the most part waiters were above average as well.
Alaska was beautiful and though we weren't there long, Victoria was a nice bonus as well. For being only 3 weeks old, the line management was tolerable when it came to embarking and disembarking which seemed to be a problem on the Diamond for a while. When it is said and done, I can guarantee you that whatever problems you run into aboard the Sapphire wil be subsided by an excellent staff, shore excursions (I can recommend the Helicopter & Dogsledding Tour), and the overall atmosphere of Alaska.
Sure it has its flaws but don't let them ruin the experience of your vacation and make the best of it! All of you with tickets already, I wish you a wonderful cruise and happy sailing.
-Bryan
Overall, the trip was absolutely incredible. I've been on nearly 10 cruises and everywhere I've been to it was HOT. Although I do respect my family's dire need to lie on a beach on vacation, it was nice to finally steer in a different direction and truly enjoy the port of call and do other things besides shop.
The ship is beautiful, it is enormous and being docked in Seattle next to the Holland America Amsterdam and Norwegian Sun I believe it was, the mere size made the other two seem like tugboats. A word of warning however is that if you have sailed on the Grand or any of its sister ships and obviously the Diamond, (its immediate sister ship), don't expect a whole lot of changes. The layout is more or less the exact same on each of these ships with a few minor adjustments.
As you might already know, there are now 5, yes 5, dining rooms (International, Italian, Santa Fe, Steakhouse, and Asian) on the ship in light of their "Anytime Dining" option which we chose. Just because we chose it, I DO NOT recommend this option to you at this early stage of the ship's travels. The idea for Anytime Dining is to allow people to eat whenever they want by making reservations ahead of time. What they fail to tell you is that reservations by 75% of those who chose Anytime were made on the first day of the cruise!!! Only one night did we actually get a reservation before 8:00 at night. For a system that allegedly allows you to dine anytime, you end up eating whenever they have availability, which defeats the purpose if your not sure how long you would be ashore. My advice would be to choose traditional dining, late or early, you get the same waiter/waitress, same time, no long lines, and no hassles. If you miss your dinner because your ashore, no big deal, you can walk into or make a reservation in any of the other 4 dining rooms anytime. Feel free to ask me if you are confused about this dining stuff. The food in general was very mediochre. The buffet was never desirable for me personally and everything just sort of started tasting and looking the same. Perhaps I have been on too many Princess ships. My girlfriend would definitely say that it wasn't a ship for chocolate lovers because there was hardly any to be found besides those on our pillow every evening.
To balance out the less than satisfying food though was the staff. Princess clearly has a standard to be set and I know I've seen it before on the boards, but the people were always friendly and we in fact got to know quite a few of the hosts for the various activities. Our stewardess was delightful and efficient and for the most part waiters were above average as well.
Alaska was beautiful and though we weren't there long, Victoria was a nice bonus as well. For being only 3 weeks old, the line management was tolerable when it came to embarking and disembarking which seemed to be a problem on the Diamond for a while. When it is said and done, I can guarantee you that whatever problems you run into aboard the Sapphire wil be subsided by an excellent staff, shore excursions (I can recommend the Helicopter & Dogsledding Tour), and the overall atmosphere of Alaska.
Sure it has its flaws but don't let them ruin the experience of your vacation and make the best of it! All of you with tickets already, I wish you a wonderful cruise and happy sailing.
-Bryan