We chose this cruise because of the price and cabin. Having sailed with Princess before and in a rear-facing cabin which we loved. The only thing that was not as expected was the restaurant. We normally opt for Any Time dining and usually eat late 8.30pm and have not had much trouble getting a table for two, but on this cruise, everybody seemed to want to eat at that time and tables for two. The system when this happens is that you are given a pager and they call you when a table becomes available. This worked very well as the bar is adjacent to the restaurant and was handy for pre-dinner drinks. I think the longest we had to wait was 15 minutes, no time at all. The shows were a bit low on the quality side and having cruised with Princess many times we have noticed that the resident dancers seem to be doing less and less. Read Less

I am going to keep this short and to the point. The sapphire princess is a beautiful ship (slightly older and less gimmicks than other ships) but what an amazing time we had. A little background:- my wife, son and I mostly cruise with Celebrity, princess and rcl. What stood out for me on this cruise was the standard of service princess cruises provide. The staff honestly couldn’t do any more - vs P&O where they need to do a lot more. We cruised on the Azura the week before this cruise and the quality is night and day. It was my first P&O cruise and a major shock to my system. Anyway, onto the Highlights:- 1. Main dinning room food was fantastic. Varied and excellent with the most excellent service. 2. The singers on the ship were 10/10. Best I have seen and they have really moved away from some of the tacky cruise shows they provided previously. 3. Never seen so many pools on a ship - great variety and always a hot tub to myself. 4. Movies under the stars - it was rather cold some nights, but I love this concept and enjoyed it immensely. Popcorn and ice cream is a great touch. 5. Alfredo’s Pizza - complementary pizza restaurant onboard - excellent. 6. Sky walkers viewing lounge - what amazing views up there. Beautiful. 7. Table service during breakfast at the buffet restaurant was always excellent. What they could do differently: 1. Keep painting. Seems never ending work but passengers appreciate a fresh looking ship so keep up the maintenance. 2. Bathrooms in cabins look little tired. Need a refresh. 3. The platinum and elite drinks reception in sky walkers is a bit rubbish. Instead of the food (served between 5-7pm) if they enhanced the range of lower price drinks from 1 to say 5 they would bet a much larger crowd and sell far more. Also, they should keep that bar open during sea days - they would make money from drinks. Read Less

We chose our cruise mostly for the port destinations and because family were already booked. We were really impressed by space in our mini-suite cabin and the club-class dining exceeded our expectations. Didn't go to any speciality dining venues because we had everything we needed including lobster, steak and baked alaska! Nothing was too much trouble for our waiting staff and they anticipated every need - remembering personal preferences. Wine list was good with a good selection of bottles starting at about $37. Entertainment was of a very high standard with stars from the west end. Elevator roulette is not to be missed! Scavenger hunt was frantic but great fun. The only downside was the excessive cost of princess shore excursions. Local options are invariably a better bet. Tip - always remove automatic gratuities and reward special staff individually. Embarkation and disembarking were a breeze. Would happily return onboard - in fact, cannot wait! Read Less

On boarding the sapphire princess for the second time the CPS meet and greet car was amazing. On board within 20 minutes. The cabin was very clean we were on Deck 14 at the front this is situated behind the pizzeria. The only problem I can say is people above on the walkway going for cigarettes with their stilettos on also cabin L302 is opposite the lift which can me noisy and a lot of traffic. Weather was bad from Southampton so we did not leave until 1:30am supposed to leave at 4:30pm this meant that you missed Copenhagen. They gave everybody a refund for missed port tax of 12.63 dollars. We also had many problems with ship accounts not working and the TV in the room would constantly stop working which they never fixed. In main the food in the Horizon self service was good, not always hot but if you think like mash potato is going to be cold then put it in a dish and ask the to heat it up. The staff are very friendly and will get you water and tea or coffee when you are sat down. Remember to order room service FREE at least once. The coffee shop on deck 5 is good as you can have FREE sandwich hot or cold, cake also. You will have to pay for tea in a tea pot there cost of $1.89 . There is a pizzeria restaurant on deck 5 which is good more choice as for deck 14 it is made by the slice as many as you wish put only 2 variety’s. Read Less

No words can describe this excellent ship & our cruise to Scandinavia. Embarkation was speedy & very smooth. The ship was refurbished last year, & it's looking great. New furnishings& carpets were lovely. Inside cabin was large enough, comfortable bed, Egyptian cotton sheets on Queen sized beds were a delight!!! Food in the dining rooms was fine & with good choices. As for the entertainment, rhis is where the sapphire comes into it's own. I have never seen such superb shows both production ones & individual artistes. Standout star was Phil brown who is now in London West end in the lion King. He had the entire audience in the palm of his hands & received a standing ovation which was well deserved. The staging of all the shows both in lighting, sound & sets was incredible you would not believe you were on a ship in the middle of the ocean. As for the itineries, we went to Copenhagen, skagen & Oslo. All of these places were very interesting & luckily the weather was sunny & quite mild. The ship is not too big, about 2800 people, but it never appeared crouded. To conclude, we have been on many cruises over the years, & we can honestly state that this was easily the best, so much so, that when we disembarked we shed a few tears to leave this lovely ship!!! Read Less

I have sailed on many ships over the last few years P&O, Cunard, Royal carribean and Fred Oslen but Sapphire Princess April 27th 2019 was my first cruise with Princess and the first time I've felt the need to write a review. Bad weather initially delayed our departure from Southampton and resulted in the cancelation of our first port of call which is no fault of the ship but it marked the begging of a cruise plagued with problems. Our Inside room was suffocatingly stuffy even with the aircoditioning at full blast to a point that after 30 minutes inside we began to feel like we couldn't breath and there was not enough oxygen in the room. This it seems was a problem also suffered by others who had to frequently spend the entire night sleeping in the conservatory section of The upper deck with bedding and pillows. After complaints were made to the front desk an engineer visited the cabin and fully opend the air-conditioning vent that had been closed to less than 30%. But this revealed the reason the vent had been closed in the first place, Water was now running down the walls from a crack at the top. Leaks were not isolated to our own cabin however, throughout the cruise leaks began to appeare in the main corridor between the plaza and Club Fusion and also in the Buffet. We were forced to stay in our cabin with water running down the wall for 3 nights before another passenger disembarked the ship for personal reasons and we were finally allowed to move. On a number of occasions throughout the week unhappy passengers could bee seen transferring luggage from one cabbin to another and I found towards the end of the cruise other passengers had been moved Into the leakey room after we had gone. The ship is relatively old and its really beginning to show, the jacuzzi's looked inviting until seen from decks above where the discoloured grime made them look more like over heated fishponds. Overall the food onboard was between good and avarage but far from excilent. The worst part of dining aboard was eating from Plastic Plates, and drinking from Plastic beakers for juice and water, and even plastic cups for tea and Coffee! The 2 wash basins at the entrance to either side of the Buffet were really inadequate for the numbers of passengers and always resulted in long lines out of the doors and into the pool area. And Buffet itself is poorly layed out with multiple large round tables that could hold up to 8 people but generally only sat 2 as most European passengers don't like to share tables for dinner, this made finding a table at peak times in the Buffet a challange. Changing these round tables to multiple tables for 2 could probably double the seating capacity of the buffet. The entertainment was great but this is not exclusive to Princess Cruises as all the guest artists hired by Carnival corporation can also be seen during the year sailing on P&O and Cunard. But evening entertainment always seemed to coincide with each other and the second sitting for dinner which resulted in a number of missed shows and often a difficult decision between one show or another. However the Comedian Jeff Stevenson was Amazing. The one thing that cannot be complained about was all the crew who were friendly, kind and really made us feel like we were a part of a big family. I had been mislead to believe from reviews and recommendations that Princess cruises was to be considered a 4★ Cruise line and superior to P&O and Royal Caribbean both companies I have sailed with multiple times before this was supposed to be reflected in the price but Sapphire Princess was a disappointment. Its NOT any better in my opinion, P&Os Brittainia if far far better and cheaper by comparison and the Prices for drinks was extortionate $5.50 for a single can of Coke! Sapphire Princess is showing her age and is far from the image Princess cruise want you to see. I believe she is due to drydock later in the year for a refit before returning to Asia. I think most cruise lines (Except a few) have an ugly sister within the fleet perhaps at its best Princess is a 4★ fleet but Sapphire Princess alone is only a 2/3★ ship. Read Less

We chose this cruise due to the destinations offered and we immediately disappointed when we weren't able to stop at our first port due to a 7-hour late departure due to wind at Southampton. My question about this is why didn't the captain dock aft end first, like the other 4 cruise ships in the harbor who were all able to leave on time? The afternoon wind was well reported and a known issue. The second problem was the Horizon Buffet. We like casual dining but were quite disappointed in the quality of the food as the week progressed. Powdered eggs, frozen hashbrown patties, rubbery fried eggs from sitting under the heat lamp way too long are NOT my idea of quality food. The lack of variety was another issue. They served virtually the same menu every day of the week. Also, they frequently closed half of the buffet which caused us to have to sit out by the pool which reduced our enjoyment. We did enjoy dinner in the larger dining rooms. The food was well prepared and flavorful. All of the main dining rooms serve off of the same menu. There were a limited number of excursions available. The excursions we took went to interesting places, but most of the stops were too rushed and crowded to enjoy. When they say photo stop, plan on spending most of the time walking to and from the site, with a few brief moments to snap a shot or two if you can get them through the crowds since all of the buses seem to arrive and depart at the same time. One of our tour guides said the tour we took was designed to be 8 hours but was condensed into 4.5. Read Less

Superb: Service from all waitresses and waiters and cabin steward: cheerful, polite, considerate. Excellent: Food, as always. Menu, quality and presentation the best; also inside cabin (P210 absolutely fine, no need for anything higher). Very Good: Relaxation, on deck and the two lovely evening venues, Crooners Bar and the Wheelhouse Bar, also this time very good DJ in Skywalkers. Good: Entertainment - Princess singers and dancers, Crimson Duo, Sunshine Duo, Stephen Jaymes (but miss the very funny pianist Paul Burton), ventriloquist (very clever), but oh dear the two comedians were dire - miss the very funny Jeff Stevenson. So-so: Why do the restaurant staff give their 'recommendations'? I much prefer to give them mine (Princess Love Boat dessert the best!). Cause For Concern: Environmental Issues - paper paper everywhere - surely in 2019 the ship should be paperless. As a Lighting Engineer, I had the impression the lighting was very wasteful - all inefficient light sources from the last decade, no LED's that I saw. Poor: Drinks - I think (stand to be corrected) 'short' measures (by UK standards), glass packed with ice, sky high prices - small whiskey $8.32, small beer $7. Formal dress code poorly enforced (if at all), I found disrespectful to fellow guests. All in all enjoyable cruise, love the ship, relaxing, wonderful staff - the more junior the rank seems the better they are. But .. oh .. one final point - shouldn't a ship's captain have at least the most basic of public speaking skills? Read Less

We wanted a holiday with the whole family to celebrate my wifes 61 birthday and my daughters 30 birthday looking forward to a fantastic 11 nights cruise. We were totally amazed to find that we were being charged gratuities up front before we started our cruise at what only can be described as extortion even my 18 month old grandson was charged and the total bill between us was more than 1500 dollars in addition to this we were charged 18% gratuities on all drinks I did manage to get the upfront gratuities removed but the 18% on drinks have not been removed even after I requestid this before we disembarked the ship at the end of the cruise. The price of beer and wine was extortionate with a bottle of beer costing 7$ plus 18% gratuities and a medium glass of wine 10 -12$ plus gratuities We were forced to have 4 sea days due to weather after missing a port stop in Lanzarote we were not offered any compensation or reduction in barr expenses while on the extra see day. The food was OK but not great and we all found that food in the buffet was bland and the area felt like a cattle market. On a positive note the staff generally were great. Overall we fell as if we have been robed and it feels like every attempt was made to squeeze every last Dollar out of us even when it came to the options for paying in Dollar or Sterling we were not told the best currency to pay in and it felt as the cruise line were even trying to take advantage of the exchange rates. Our view is that these additional charges should have been advertised clearly and simply in the upfront price of the cruise, we feel we have been mis sold this holiday by the cruise line who seem not to have been totally honest about the hidden costs. In short if you are a teetotaler who likes bland food then you may find this OK but we will never book another holiday with Princes Cruises. Read Less

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