Sapphire Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,020 reviews

Nice ship, maybe needed a better itinerary

Review for Asia Cruise on Sapphire Princess
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Twinmum
2-5 Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Feb 2015
Cabin: Balcony

We are a couple in our fifties and this was just our third cruise and I was not too sure what to expect from the ship after reading some negative reviews. We have sailed on the CROWN PRINCESS and then the CELEBRITY SOLSTICE before this one and if I could combine the best features of those two ships I would have my ideal one! The fabulous cabins and bathrooms of the SOLSTICE with the layout and decoration of the CROWN and I would be in heaven!!

We arrived a few days early in Singapore and stayed at the Carlton City hotel near China town. This is a lovely new hotel in a great location and would highly recommend it. There is so much to do in Singapore, which is why were were so happy to do this cruise round trip from there. We had late checkout from our hotel so decided to head out to the ship after lunch to miss the worst of the crowds at embarkation. We were glad we did that because once we got to the cruise terminal, it was a breeze.

The SAPPHIRE is a nice ship and the food was fabulous in the dining rooms and I guess if we had not been on the CROWN and SOLSTICE then I would probably have been perfectly satisfied. There were a few areas that I did not just love though. The International Cafe on SAPPHIRE is extremely ordinary after seeing the fabulous one on Crown. There was not much of a selection of food, really only snacks, and the coffee was made mostly by people with very little idea of what they were doing. Having said that, it was no real issue as the buffet food was always fine for breakfast and lunch anyway. We spoke to a few people who complained about the food on the ship but when we asked if they had eaten in the dining rooms they said "no, just the buffet". There really was no comparison between the buffet and dining rooms. The food in the HORIZON COURT is perfectly fine but it is not 'fine dining' by any stretch of the imagination, whereas most meals in the dining rooms were beautifully presented and cooked to perfection. I suppose it comes down to whether you want to just eat a meal or enjoy a dining experience! The lobster tail on our second last night was fabulous, as were the superbly cooked King Prawns. I was expecting the Lobster on a formal night and was disappointed to not see it offered so was relieved when it did show up later in the cruise. We had 'ANYTIME' dining and dined in three of the specified dining rooms , with an excellent experience each time, even though the Maitre d' in the Pacific Moon dining room was a rude and extremely unhelpful misery guts!! Only problem being that it was a lot easier to get a table for two than be sat at a table with other passengers. Some passengers obviously prefer this, but we would have liked to have met more new people at dinner.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BA

We had a balcony cabin, midship which was in a great position, so as not too feel much ships movement when there was any. The Caribe deck balconies are lovely and big, and are half covered and half exposed. The kettles/jugs added to the rooms were great so that we could take some tea bags and milk back to our stateroom and make a hot drink when we felt like it. Only problem was that only ceramic mugs without handles are provided in rooms and the ones in Horizon court that you can take back to the cabins are plastic, which makes tea taste not as nice! The flat screen television is fabulous and there are lots of great movies available to watch at no charge. We could not make it through all of the films we wanted to see. The cabin is a reasonable size with great storage, but the bathrooms are so tiny. After the amazing bathrooms on CELEBRITY SOLSTICE, that two people can fit into and with generous size showers with glass doors, this bathroom was a little hard to get used to at first! One other issue with this cabin is that there is a galley for room service directly opposite this room and a metal strip across the carpet which rattles the trolleys every time they enter and exit the galley door. The noise it creates is particularly annoying when being used in the very early hours of the morning.

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