Sapphire Princess Review
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Pre-Cruise: We booked the Marriott Residence Inn Lake Union for the night before the cruise, and transportation from the airport to the hotel with Already There Town Car. Both selections were wise choices. Already There Town Car had us to our hotel within 30 minutes of landing and getting our bags, and the hotel was clean and conveniently located near a trolley stop that took us downtown to see the sights. As previous visitors to the Emerald City, we took in the Pike Place Market and Space Needle, and got some seafood from the Ivar's near the ferry dock. Cost for a Town Car from the hotel to Pier 91 the next morning ran us $25.
Cruise: We arrived at the terminal at 10:50 am, and were on the ship and in our room by 11:50 am. Yes, there are the stops to (a) drop off your bags to go through x-ray, (b) fill out the medical form at the top of the escalator, (c) get in line to check in and get our cruise cards, and (d) get in line to board the ship. However, we had apparently timed it perfectly as we found this to be our easiest and quickest embarkation in four cruises. We were impressed with the efficiency of the staff, who had a person stationed outside each dock of elevators to aid people in locating the appropriate deck and cabin location.
As soon as we arrived in the room I immediately placed a call to request the Chef's Table, as I had read about this on CruiseCritic and KNEW I wanted to do. As we sailed, our onboard naturalist gave a bit of insight about Seattle and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We got our bearings with the ship layout, met our Cabin Steward and made our first purchases: Coffee Card, Ultimate Drink Card, and two bottles of wine which were delivered to our room within a few hours. We got great use out of the Coffee and Ultimate Drink Cards and the wine, at $55 total, enabled us to avoid both lugging it aboard and paying a $15 per bottle corkage fee at dinner. The ship is beautiful, with rich wood paneling throughout. We had set dining, 2nd seating and had been placed with a family of four, including 2 daughters in their early 20's.