My wife and I took this cruise after the kids' grandparents offered to watch the kids so we could take a vacation; we quickly accepted their offer! My wife is 36 and I am 40; we were a little nervous about the crowd that might be on this ship as I have taken other cruises but never a Princess cruise. I have often heard that Princess tends to be an older crowd and that we might be somewhat out of our element on this ship. When in fact we found that there were many people on this ship right in our age range and younger. There were a significant number of kids on this ship but there were activities to keep them busy.

Embarkation: On prior cruises I have taken, embarkation has usually been a time to take Tylenol and realize your going to be in a hurry-up and wait mode. Not so on this trip! We parked our car in the terminal parking lot at 1:03 pm and saw a "sea" of people checking luggage and going into the terminal. After we checked out luggage and completed a brief health questionnaire; we were sent to the sign-in desk where there was a very long line of folks waiting to check-in. I cruise official noticed that our document envelope had an "express check-in" sticker on it and quickly whisked us to a line only 1 couple deep. Within a minute or so; we were speaking with the receptionist; issued our room keys and sent off to security to board. We passed quickly through security, boarded the ship and entered our stateroom at just before 1:30 pm where we were greeted by our cabin steward with a glass of champagne. I strongly recommend taking the time to pre-register with Princess for the express check-in; the minimal effort required to do this paid off greatly. Cabin: We booked a mini-suite cabin and were very happy with it. The room had plenty of space to relax in and was set-up very well. The balcony was very nice; it had 2 reclining chairs, 2 tables and 2 card type chairs. Many people have said that the mini-suite balcony on this ship were not very private due to the design of the ship. While it is true that this balcony sort of sticks our from the side of the ship and is in plain view from the decks above; it was not that significant an issue to keep one from getting one of these rooms. I guess the big question is what is someone going to be doing on their balcony to be that worried about privacy? While I do not enjoy being watched any more that the next person; we really didn't feel the privacy issue was a problem and enjoyed spending time on the balcony.

Food: On previous cruises, we have enjoyed exceptional food. The food on-board the Sapphire Princess was good to very good but far from exceptional. In most all restaurants, the food was somewhat bland and lacked flavor. The Horizon Court buffet was well stocked with a variety of items but again the food was very lack-luster. We dined in both specialty restaurants, Sterling Steakhouse and Sabatinis, and were pleased with the service and thought the food was very good in both locations. The pizza shop on Lido Deck was actually extremely good. We were very surprised that pizza on a ship would be every bit as good as anything we could get a home. Also on the Lido Deck, there were different food bars set-up with various themes daily. One day the theme was Mexican taco / nachos; another it was pasta and another it was chocolate. The food that came from these food bars was always excellent and great for a quick snack. The drinks were always good and had good presentation. If you like to drink sodas; I would recommend purchasing the refillable cup at the beginning of the trip. The cost was around $30 but if you keep the cup full when roaming the ship; it is well worth the money. Public Areas: The public areas on this ship were very nice and well laid out. Everything was very clean also. On the second formal night, they built a champagne water fall in the central atrium. The building of this tower was fun to watch; 641 glasses in all. The cruise wait staff were on-hand upon completion of the tower to enjoy some time with the passengers dancing and with champagne all around; this was a fun event. Read more