For those not keeping track....SAPPHIRE was/is brand new....I was on the 5th Voyage weekly roundtrip voyage from Seattle to SE Alaska and back.
Ship: all in all misc amenities are GREAT. I'm not a highly experienced cruiser, with only one previous Caribbean 10 day voyage on the Radiance of the Seas. Sapphire food was very good and the misc dining room options give you many choices of menu and reservation or walk up times. As with Royal Caribbean I don't understand why carbonated soft drinks are NOT included with meals......Princess sells a REFILLABLE FOR FREE ALL CRUISE Coke Glass for $20.00 which many people bought....
My BIGGEST Complaint is about NOT seeing any GLACIERS. My #1 off ship incentive for this particular cruise itinerary was cruising TRACEY ARM (a body of water) and SEEING the Face of SAWYER GLACIER with spectacular views of ice calving off, etc. Other cruise people with me, had been to TRACEY ARM in 2003 aboard a different Princess ship and gone the entire length of Tracey Arm to SEE the Glacier. This time apparently there was too much "ice flow" in the water and the ship didn't want to hit any of this broken off glacial "ice flow".....so they turned around and left Tracey Arm and sailed onto Juneau. At this point I was so upset, that I booked a floatplane excursion with Wings Over Alaska at there dock side office close to cruise dock, at a cost of $145 which was $20 less than princess charged for same excursion........This flight took me OVER the Juneau Ice fields and Mendenhall Glacier. An interesting airborne perspective that was GOOD, but still not the excitement or spectacular view of face to face with GLACIER VIEWING at close up sea level..... My point is watch your itinerary and ASK questions...as Tracey Arm "cruising" is NOT Sawyer GLACIER viewing !!!!!!!!!!