Everything about this cruise was fantastic. From the ports we visited, to the length of the cruise, the onboard entertainment, the exercise class choices, the gym facilities, the games and competitions not to mention the food, all exceeded our expectations! The restaurants were impeccable and the food was first class. The décor is exemplary and let's not forget the compliment the cruise staff. The cruise director and his assistant were very high achievers, always at the ready to assist with entertainment and of course anything that a passenger might request. The production entertainers put 110% into all of their performances. The cabins were well appointed and always well maintained by the cabin staff. We were even fortunate to have the weather in our favour with only 1 rainy day and 1 overcast day at sea. Most shore excursions were value for money and the arrangements for departing the ship were co-ordinated with great precision. Well done Princess Cruises!!!! Read Less

We cruised with Princess some five years ago, and loved it. Food was amazing, service exemplary and cabins comfortable. We were excited about this cruise around the Far East. Oh dear. Embarkation was in Singapore. Fairly efficient if your a sheep.... One holding pen to another, and eventually we got on board. Obviously straight to the buffet. There we were met by a long line waiting to get in. Princess has now installed two wash hand basins in the entrance and a crew member instructed all passengers to wash their hands. (Apparently the alcohol sanitizer wasn’t effective against norovirus.) Can you imagine how long it takes two thousand people to wash their hands using four sinks? The cabin next. (Superior balcony) Superficially clean enough, but dust was everywhere. They have installed two large TV, but have left the old fitted cabinets as a complete waste of space. The table on the balcony was rusty then simply painted over..... The tiles in the bathroom was very worn and looked blue moulded. That led to the best experience on board. Guest services. I took photographs down and they agreed it looked terrible. They were covered over with new grout the next day. (Semi successfully) They then phoned to officially apologise and add a $250 credit to our shipboard account. This is customer services and in all my dealings with them they were all efficient, polite and a pleasure to deal with. That is a real credit to the company. To dinner. What a disappointment. Much less choice, tiny portions, and a reliance on fish and shell food. It was the worst MDR menu in all the twelve cruises we have taken. Four nights we ate in the buffet as none of us four travelling could find anything desirable. The international cafe. This is open 24/7 for snacks that are complimentary, but charge you $1.35 for a coffee?? Please. This ship was updated in 2018. This seem to amount to new, and very stylish carpets. This ship still looked it fifteen years old. It was superficially clean but when I retrieved my cruise card from the side of the sofa it was filthy. A wee word for the smokers. You are a second class citizen. There are three areas you can smoke. A small area on deck 15, with chairs and tables (always packed) A small area on deck 7 (promenade) with no chairs, just a small wooden storage bench. And Churchills cigar lounge. (Filthy) Good luck to you with that.... To me it appears that the accountants have nickel and dimed Princess into a second class three star vessel. Yes the staff were lovely and customer services were excellent. But the food on offer is poor, except in the buffet which was great but always crowded. (Unsurprising) Will I cruise with Princess again, probably not. I would need to be seriously cheap. Even then i would rather go with someone else..... Read Less

Arrived Singapore with two full days before embark on Feb 28th. Split our nights between Sofitel City Center and Marina Bay Sands - while Marina Bay Sands is quite an experience and everyone should go see it, we preferred the overall elegance of the Sofitel. We booked in Club Class - essentially a nice sized, mini-suite sized cabin with some nice perks. Our cabin - Dolphin 329 - was quiet, in good shape and centrally located. My only gripe would be that the balcony had no privacy from cabins above us. Dining for Club Class is in the Santa Fe Grill - a lovely setting with nice decor and great acoustics. We were a table for eight and could actually hear from one end of the table to the other without shouting. The overall experience - food and service - we experienced was amazing - best non-specialty dining experience we've had on 20+ cruises across a fairly broad segment of the cruise industry offerings. We tried both specialty restaurants - Sabatini's was good; Sterling Steakhouse was a total disaster. We called on Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Phuket - ship excursions in Bali and Phuket; private excursions in both Malaysian ports. Private excursions were excellent (Tours by Locals - Tony - in KL; Simply Enak - Liz - in Penang); ship excursions were acceptable (Bali) and unsatisfactory (Phuket - James Bond Island - 3+ hours each way on a bus...) In Summary - really enjoyed the itinerary and will definitely book Club Class again. Read Less

This cruise started in Singapore. We flew in a two days before and got a chance to see the city. Our hotel was a decent walk to the Marina Bay Sands and the Gardens by the Bay. Great location. the Gardens were some of the prettiest anywhere and the view from the top of the Marina Bay Sands was beautiful. We also did a general tour of the city that went to other districts. But I think we were in the prettiest area. Embarkation was very smooth. We got to the cruise terminal very early, so there was almost no line. We walked right up, got our room cards, went through security, and were in our room a few hours before the ship left port. Having been on the Regal, the Sapphire seems a little small, especially the buffet area. But it was easy to get around and had everything you need. We had a Club Class mini-suite, which was a very spacious cabin for the two of us. The extra space is nice, but the huge upgrade from a balcony to a mini-suite is that you have a real tub and a decent amount of counter space. Being Club Class also meant we had a special area of the dining room to eat in and an extra meal option every night. We ate in the buffet for breakfast and lunch, but had dinner in the dining room. We had a great waiter. The food in the buffet was average, almost the same breakfast choices every day. The food in the dining room was excellent. Just about everything we got was really flavorful and was absolutely beautiful to look at. I'm not normally a person who takes pictures of food, but some of those I had to. Portions were small, but enough for us. If it wasn't, our waiter was happy to bring a second or third of anything we wanted. Our waiter was the nicest guy. One change I was happy to see was that there were some local dishes on the menu each night. On previous cruises, the food was always American, no matter where in the world we were sailing. This time there were Asian style dishes that reflected where we were. The main reason we chose this cruise was the ports - all of them new to us. We hadn't been anywhere in Asia before. On Bali, we hired our own driver, arranged before the cruise. It is a tender port, and it took us a long time to get off the ship. Which meant we had to skip some of what we planned. We did get around the south and west part of the island. Tanah Lot is a temple right on the ocean, incredibly beautiful. We also went to a palace, and to some of the villages surrounding Ubud, each specializing in a different craft. We love woodwork, so we spent the most time with that. We ended the day at a small Balinese cafe on the beach. It is interesting to drive around. The roads are small, only two lanes. Almost every house has it's own temple, some simple and some very elaborate. And they're right next to modern stores and restaurants. There were two stops in Malaysia. On day in Kaula Lumpur. We did the ship's tour that included going up into the Petronas Towers and walking on the bridge between them. That was definitely worth doing. The bridge is at floor 41. After that, you go up to floor 83, which is where the visitors center is. Other than that, the city is just a city. It's very metropolitan. The next day was on Penang. We did a private tour with another couple, arranged on the Roll Call for the cruise. The highlights of the day was the funicular to the top of Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si temple, and the reclining Buddha temple. Kek Lok Si was amazing. It is enormous, and so pretty and so peaceful. We stopped at a food court. We all ordered things we recognized and our guide got us some local dishes for the table, something with yams and Malaysian ices. Both good, although they looked pretty strange. The last stop was Phuket. We took a bus to get to a smaller boat dock, where we boarded a speed boat, which took us out to the Phi Phi Islands for swimming, a lunch, and then some snorkeling. There are no words to describe how beautiful these islands and the ocean around them are. The days on the ship were relaxing and fun. Depending on your interests, there are lots of activities all day. I like the games and arty stuff. My brother did more of the exercise and sport stuff. We're not really show people, so I can't comment on that. We saw a comedian one night, who was pretty good. This was a really nice cruise, and I'd definitely recommend it. Read Less

I recently completed a 10 day cruise on Sapphire Princess, sailing out from Singapore on February 28, 2019. I encountered some serious issues that I have not experienced on Princess before. While in the men's changeroom, I witnessed the spa staff give a master locker key to a passenger who claims he found his locker locked but he had not locked it. The passenger was allowed to use the master key in the men's changeroom unsupervised as spa staff said no male staff was available to accompany him. The passenger then opened the locker that he thought was his, found out it was not his and then promptly used the master key to open every locker near the one he thought was his, violating the privacy and security of property of the other passengers who had locked their belongings in the lockers. In addition, on two occasions when I was in the men's changeroom, once when I was in the sauna with another passenger also in the sauna and a second time when I was standing at the lockers while changing, I heard a woman's voice in the men's changeroom and found the female spa manager had entered the men's changeroom during operating hours unannounced and without any prior warning. I reported both the locker master key incident and the female spa manager intrusion into the men's changeroom to both the spa manager and front desk but did not see any serious response to the incidents from the ship (as shown by the spa manager intruding into the men's changeroom a second time when I was in there just a day or two after I reported the first intrusion). It was only after I e-mailed my cruise agent to complain and he passed on my complaint to Princess sales office that head office contacted the ship and arranged for the Customer Services Director to meet with me to explain they have reported the locker master key incident to the captain as a breach of security and that they have instructed the female spa manager not to enter the men's changeroom during operating hours. It was quite clear to me from my experience on this cruise that the spa manager and the ship was not taking these matters very seriously until head office contacted the ship and likely because I pointed out in my complaint that had a male spa staff member intruded into the women's changeroom unannounced while female guests were in the changeroom, there would likely have been a much more serious reaction. The cruise would otherwise have been much better rated by me but this serious breach of security of property of other passengers by the careless release of the master locker key to a passenger unsupervised and the repeated intrusion of the female spa manager into the men's changeroom unannounced, and the initial tepid response from the ship and front desk does raise serious doubts in my mind about the attitude of Princess to very basic expectations of passengers to security of property and privacy. I do want to credit the Customer Services Director Miguel Netto Rocha though with making every effort to reassure me the issues were being seriously dealt with and to ensure other aspects of my cruise met my expectations, once he became involved in the matter (he indicated he was off the ship when the incidents occurred and returned to the ship only the day before he met with me). He sent the supervisor of my cabin steward to drop in on me to make sure I was happy with my cabin cleaning and condition, and he did offer perhaps complimentary spa service but I declined the offer as I only use the gym, sauna and steam room and not the massage or salon services. He also gave me his card and his phone local number and asked me to call him with any other issues or concerns during the balance of my cruise. Part of the issue, according to my understanding, may be that the spa is subcontracted to a spa operator so the spa manager and spa staff are not Princess employees but employees of the contractor. Therefore the spa staff may be less focused on Princess cruise passenger concerns as long as the spa contractor retains its contract to operate the spas for Princess. The above serious issues aside, my cruise experience was generally good, noticing some improvement in food offerings, interesting ports even on an itinerary with only 4 port calls, some noticeable wear and tear on an old ship that could perhaps be better maintained and some sloppiness in materials provided to passengers. I boarded in Singapore and boarding was very efficient. I arrived before noon well before the official time of boarding for my cabin but had no trouble checking in and boarding quickly in time for lunch at the buffet. My cabin was ready when I boarded and luggage delivery was fairly quick. One thing I noticed is that my cabin steward did not put out the plastic mats on top of the bed for unpacking luggage on boarding day (or for packing the day before disembarkation) so this appears to be a change in procedure for Princess compared to prior cruises. I thought food offerings was improved on this cruise due to a new pastry/baked goods/dessert station being added to the Horizon Court buffet outside of the original buffet area. This allowed more appetizers and main courses to be offered in the original buffet area since it no longer needed to allow space for baked goods and desserts, and also as the new baked goods/dessert station is quite large, there were many more desserts and baked goods on offer during breakfast, lunch and dinner - pretty much as broad as the dessert and baked goods offerings on a Royal class ship with its separate bakery section in the buffet. Dishes on offer in the main dining room for dinner looked familiar compared to prior cruises, except that there was a local dish offering or two each evening such as Bak Kut The (or meat bone tea, a pork rib cooked in herbal broth dish from Singapore/Malaysia) which I had one evening. The local offerings are definitely toned down for Western tastes and so not quite authentically local in spiciness or herbal flavour, but still an interesting alternative to the dishes you can have on any other Princess cruise in the world. The ports on this cruise were Bali (tender), Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Phuket (tender). I particularly loved Penang as I enjoyed the visits to the Chinese merchant mansions and clan houses, and also the convenience of the ship being docked just off the main part of Georgetown where all the sites, shopping and food outlets are located (Chinatown and Little India both within easy walking distance, 5 minutes to an outdoor hawker stall market for many choices of cheap local food). Phuket was a bit inconvenient as we had to tender to a small town that had nothing and then take ship tours or local taxis to get to anywhere interesting and traffic was quite congested in Phuket. I opted for the Phi Phi Island excursion. We had two snorkelling stops but snorkelling was not great - some fish and corral but not as abundant as many other sites in Asia. We were not allowed to land on Maya Beach, made famous by the filming of the movie "The Beach" due to the government closing the beach indefinitely to repair the ecosystem but we were able to take photos from offshore and then snorkel in the waters a bit offshore of Maya Beach. Bali (Denpasar) was also a tender port and tender service was not very good - my excursion was about half an hour late departing as tenders were late getting to shore and returned about an hour late to the tender point where I found a very long line-up for tenders and no tenders in sight (thought Princess should have done better to coordinate with its tour operators to know when their excursion buses would be returning and making sure tenders were on hand to quickly transfer passenger back to the ship, the late return was particularly inconvenient as the late return of the excursion and the long wait for tenders meant I missed the lunch service hours so only sandwich/snacks at Horizon court or International Café was available). Kuala Lumpur was not a tender port but there was a long bus ride from the port to the city itself. I took a Princess excursion that visited the Batu Caves (very interesting), the Royal Selangor Pewter factory (very quick factory tour and explanation and equally short time for quick shopping of pewter products) and the National Museum (not much to see and no inside guided tour, just view on your own). I chose anytime dining and made a reservation each night at the Pacific Moon dining room on deck 6. Even if I call as soon as the reservation line is open, the only time slots offered are 5:30 to about 6:30 pm or 7:30 pm and later. I found arriving early before about 6:45 pm, there was no problem getting a table with or without a reservation, The busy time appears to be 7 to 7:30 pm. The first night, the service was very slow - over 90 min for one person dining by myself compared to the 30 to 45 minute range that is my usual experience on other Princess ships. However I spoke to the Head Waiter about this and every evening after that, he made sure I was served as quickly as I could eat (kudos to head waiter Luigi and Alex, my waiter for most evening, who were wonderful in addressing my concerns and ensuring my dining experience was to my satisfaction). I used the gym onboard frequently. It had the usual equipment. The gym was quite busy much of the time but I was able to figure out the slow times to go so that I would not have to wait too much to use the equipment that I wanted to use. As I mentioned above, I also used the sauna and steamroom in the men's changeroom, often after using the gym. The sauna was fine but the steamroom was not operating for the first 6 days of the 10 day cruise and there seemed to be confusion about the steamroom being out of operation as front desk said they were not aware the steamroom was broken notwithstanding passengers reporting the problem to spa staff continuously (I saw the engineers working on the steamroom on several days but they did not seem to do a good job of making sure the repairs actually worked after they were done and in addition to the steam generator issues, there were also issues with the steamroom door failing to close properly thereby letting all the steam out). According to other passengers who were on a back to back 20 day cruise prior to the start of my 10 days cruise, the steamroom was working fine during the prior 10 days to the start of my cruise so it may be a matter of bad luck on an old ship with the steamroom issues. The out of operation steamroom also meant the much smaller sauna was often over-crowded and sometimes, passengers would have to wait to take turns in the sauna. There were also problems with the showers in the changeroom - for several days, one of the three showers were out of operation causing line-ups for showers and for the first several days of the cruise, the shower stalls were missing the full set of toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, shower gel). The spa manager said the changerooms were considered to be part of the spa. That might explain the issues with the steamroom and shower stalls in the changeroom, the delay in getting things fixed, and the lack of knowledge at front desk of issues with the changeroom facilities - generally bad management by the spa manager and staff and very poor coordination with front desk and ship management. I also ran into issues with sloppiness in materials provided to passengers. There were obvious errors on the Princess Patter, such as listing a sushi buffet for lunch at Horizon Court one day when there was no such offering (I think they got the date wrong as there was a sushi buffet at lunch at Horizon Court on the final at sea day). There were also obvious errors in the maps provided as part of the port handouts for Bali and for Kuala Lumpur. When I pointed the errors out to the shore excursion staff, they indicated the handouts are provided by head office and not onboard so they do not control the information in the handouts - a bit surprising that obvious errors in the maps would be provided to passengers going to these ports on all Princess ships and not having anyone notice or point these out. I have been on many Princess cruises and earned up to the Elite level on Captain Circle. This cruise on the Sapphire Princess was one of the most problematic cruises I have been on with Princess. I normally have no reservation in recommending Princess as a good mid-priced cruise line with generally good ships, food and service, and good itineraries with strong infrastructure set-up in ports for excursions and issues. However this cruise has certainly shaken my confidence in Princess so I hope my next cruise on Princess in Japan in June will be back to traditional Princess standards and restore my faith in Princess. Read Less

Choose this cruise due to the ports of call offered by Princess in South East Asia. Overall we were very satisfied with this cruise. In fact we completed two back to back 10 day cruises which covered different ports of call. A couple ports of call had 2 to 3 hours of driving to the main City attractions which took a lot of time away from actually seeing attractions. Princess should allow more time in port or overnight to be able to spend enough time at attractions. Two different ports only allowed about 2-1/2 to 3 hours before having to drive back to cruise ship. We usually love the entertainment on board Princess cruises except both of these cruises had mostly singers as their main attraction and only 1 comedian over the 20 day cruise experience and two acrobatic performances which both were great. There were no ventriloquists, illusionist or Hypnotists etc. to give some variety to the show offerings. A second comedian would have been a nice since this cruise was 20 days long. Meal quality at the main dinning room varied. We were not pleased with any of the steaks offered in the dining room. You have to pay extra to get better quality steaks in the main dining room which we did not want to do. This was new to Princess other than going to a specialty dining room. Other dishes were very good though and the deserts great as always. Service in the dining room was top notch. We had several excellent waiters & waitresses which always adds to the dining experience. Rooms are not large but the most annoying aspect is the Showers are way too small. The cold water coming out of the tap is not cold and was very warm probably due to the water desalination systems that use sea water. The Ocean temp. was in the Mid 80's. and they do not cool the water very much after purifying it. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the destinations. We had visited vietnam in 2004 and wanted to see how it had developed. Never visited Thailand and Indonesia. So this cruise was to tick off these destinations. Vietnam was a dissapointment. It was dirty, smoggy and the touts are really in your face. Want to remember it the way it was on our first visit. Bali was a lovely surprise, a beautiful island and lovely people. Phuket I am glad I have seen, but have decided won’t bother to visit again. Loved Singapore and Kuala Lumpah. Basically I now feel I dont need to visit this area again, unfortunately Asia is smoggy everywhere and it was sad how much rubbish was floating in the oceans. Saw very little sea life or birds. Biggest dissapointment of the cruise was our dining experience. The buffet was repetitive, basically same thing every day. They were not strict enough with hand hygiene and there were many people coughing and sick. The dining room menus for all meals were rotated and after not many days became boring. I do like Princess but the Sapphire although a beautiful ship would not be my first choice. The staff however were as always magnificent. They are all friendly, courteous and efficient. Read Less

We wanted to visit the South Asian ports on this 20 day cruise and check them off our list to see. The ports o call were average with some exceptions. Some were very 3rd world and not very clean. Phuket was the worst. We have sailed all over the world including last year to NZ & AUS and the cruise and ports were outstanding. The food on the Sapphire was not as good as on the Sun Princess. Not very tasty lacking in menu selections with many of the same things offered every meal. Dinner seating being only 60% around our table reflected the lack of menu selections We and others went to the Lido Deck to eat instead of the dinning room. We are not big eaters but what we do eat should be flavorful and with several selections. Some items were the same every day listed as "Special" The Sun Princess chief now has transferred to the Royal Princess so I expect the food there is grest. We really enjoyed the meals aboard the Sun Princess last March 2018. Read Less

Well just back after a cruise visiting Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. Check in was relatively easy at Singapore and luggage delivered to room quickly. Balcony room on Baja floor basic but adequate. No bottles of water or bottles in room as advertised, no tea or coffee and no pictures on wall. Room attendant was fabulous and nothing was to much trouble. Bed very comfortable. Restaurants struggled to seat 6 of us. All except Vivaldi where we ate most nights. Lovely menu. Changes every day but it’s the same in all restaurants other than the ones you pay extra for. The steaks were lovely. Staff seemed to struggle daily with a my white wine and soda. Please train staff on this it’s not a difficult drink. A few annoying aspects of the cruise other than the above, staff eating in guest restaurants and drinking and taking part in bars on a night time, some childish entertainment, staff at the coffee bar who seem frustrated with you when busy and the urgency to get you off the boat on check out day. Good points, food, polite and helpful staff in shops, great choice of bars, The tours. One tip. Bangkok is advertised as 2 1/2 hours away. This is rare and it was 3 hours 45 to our first temple. A refreshment stop on Route was overcrowded and disgusting. Malaysia tour was disappointing and upsetting. The animals at the zoo were clearly distressed. Please please please stop the tour of riding the elephants at Koh Samui. The show is upsetting with baby elephants dancing to pop music and staff continually prodding the elephants ears with sticks with hooks on. READ the reviews on this awful place. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the itinerary. We started with a 3 day cruise Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and back and then Singapore to Kota Kinabalu, 2 stops in Vietnam and 2 stops in Thailand and then back to Singapore. As I stated in my first review, the ship was great, crew was great and our cabin Steward Catherine and dining room waiters Alexander and Katherine were outstanding. We only ate at the buffet a few times and it was what you would expect, we ate ate Sabatini's and it was very good. We saw a couple fo the the shows in the theater and they were good. Since we were already aboard there was no issue with embarkation but when we did embark a few days earlier it was quick and easy. The lectures on the ports were very informative and though we did not see them in person, we were able to watch them on the TV in our rooms. Read Less