Sapphire Princess Review
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This is our fourth consecutive cruise with Princess after sampling five other lines, and we decided to stay with Princess because they just seemed to get more things "right" that the others.
We travel with another couple and we (the husbands) are both ex-military career officers so we know that in a complex organization, no matter how well planned and organized everything is, there are things that are going to go wrong. Thus, we travel with the full expectation that there will be problems, and this trip met expectations. The measure of the ship and crew's competency is not that they make minor mistakes, but how flexibly and quickly they are able to deal with them.
We had originally booked partially obscured Oceanview staterooms (the best bargain on the ship) on Emerald deck, but three days before sailing, we were up-graded to a balcony stateroom on Aloha deck (our companions were not), so
Cabin Review
Balcony
The balconies on this deck are very small, but since this was an upgrade from a partially obstructed oceanview on deck 8, we have no complaints. The location was great since we prefer aft, close to Horizon Court, the International dining room, Club Fusion, the laundromat, etc.
The cabin size is fine, adequate considering that about all one does in it is sleep, shower and change clothes. We did not use the balcony very much because of the relatively cool temperatures, particularly the transits to and from Hawaii.