Pre-cruise: We flew into LAX on Alaska Airlines on Friday the 4th. All aspects of the flight were smooth, except when we picked up our one checked bag from the carousel to discover that the handle had been ripped off and our vintage luggage tag was missing. Oh well. I had booked us into the Long Beach Marriott because I had a meeting at my company's regional office in Long Beach that afternoon and dinner with colleagues that evening. We used Super Shuttle for our transfer ($40 plus tip) and other than the fact our driver was a bit odd and we toured LAX 3 or 4 times before getting on our way, it was fine. We had a nice dinner at PF Chang's at the SeaPort Village complex in Long Beach. Embarkation: We took a town car (Mr. Kim) from the Marriott to San Pedro arriving about 11:30 a.m. We found a nice porter immediately who whisked away our bags. We tipped him $5.00 for 3 bags. Princess personnel were very prominent and friendly, directing people through the process. We stopped and filled out our health questionnaire and proceed up the escalators. A very short wait in line and we were checked in with our cruise cards in hand. They were pre-boarding a private group so we were given a boarding group number of 5 and directed where to sit and wait. Within 20 minutes our group number was called, we sailed through security, the obligatory embarkation photo and we were onboard. We dropped our carry-on bags in our cabin at about 12:15 p.m. A very smooth process. Cabin: There isn't any other word than WOW! We splurged and booked a full suite for this cruise in celebration of the fact I am one year cancer free. Cancer teaches you life is unsure - eat your chocolate first! The cabin was beautiful with a sitting room area, wet bar, bedroom area with a vanity and large bathroom with a (be still my heart) Jacuzzi tub. The balcony was huge with a teak table and 4 chairs plus two teak loungers. It would prove to be where we spent the majority of our cruise. We did avail ourselves of some of the perks that came with being in a full-suite, free laundry, free internet, breakfast at Sabatinis (what an absolute treat!), and the nightly canapEs. We kept thinking we might have dinner in the room one night to take advantage of the expanded room service, but enjoyed our table partners too much to avail ourselves of that perk. The Ship:I had read that the Sapphire was a beautiful ship and it is; the extra wide Promenade Deck with the teak loungers evokes the more elegant era of cruising. The ship was enough similar to the Golden Princess that it didn't take us long to acclimate ourselves. The Promenade Bar on the Golden is called Crooners on the Sapphire but other than that is identical and like the Golden would become our favorite place for a pre-dinner drink and people watching. Sit there long enough and everything you can imagine will come walking by. I had read on Cruise Critic about the aft pool so we went by there to check it out. That too would prove to be a favorite spot. It is a much better design than on the Golden, as it is not shaded by Skywalkers and is open to the sun. We found the ship to be very well-maintained and clean. The sailing was full but the ship rarely felt crowded except in the venues you would expect - Horizon Court and the main pools. There seemed to be no shortage of spaces that people found to tuck themselves away for some quiet. There were no issues at all with its condition. Service: Lawrence our room steward proved to be a good steward, unobtrusive and our room was always cleaned almost as soon as we left it and the few things we asked for (wine glasses, ashtray) were delivered promptly. There was always ice at the wet bar, laundry was delivered as requested so all services were provided. He was not the most friendly staff member we met on the ship, but he was polite and did his job. Our dining room waiters were adequate if not as great as the team we had on the Golden. One note - my husband has food allergies and I had notified Princess of that fact. On our first cruise the Head Waiter of the dining room found our table the first night, introduced himself and made sure to go over the next day's menu with my husband so his meal was pre-ordered. We never saw or spoke to the Head Waiter on the Sapphire. We did mention to our waiter about the allergy issue but he never seemed to be able to remember. We muddled through fine on our own, it is an obvious allergy (shellfish/nuts) so it was relatively easy to decide what he might have - but the personal attention was lacking. This, however, was the only lapse in service we had. Every crew member we encountered from the bar staff to the guys varnishing the rails were friendly and efficient. Special kudos to Chris and Martin in Crooners who after the first night always had our perfectly mixed martinis at our table shortly after we sat down and to Gabriel and Stefan in Sabatini's who were also superb. Unfortunately for those who follow us, they are going home for vacation and then will be reassigned. Entertainment: Not much that we can say here. We had a hard time dragging ourselves off the balcony. Our tablemates did enjoy the comedian and the magician very much and we heard from others on our roll call that they also enjoyed those shows. It was mentioned that the production show was the same one as others had seen on previous cruises. Movies were shown during the day in a couple of venues - we did not attend. The Patter seemed full of interesting activities for those who like to be busy on a cruise. Food: We all know that food is very subjective and we are certainly not gourmet by anybody's definition. However, we did feel that the quality/taste of the food was less than we had experienced on our first cruise. Not bad, just not as good. I only had one dish - a pasta carbonara at lunch one day that was a "too die for" meal. Everything else was certainly fine - but just not the "wow" factor we had experienced before. Even the Fettuccine Alfredo and the cheesecake did not seem as good. The pizza was as good as I remembered though! Sabatini's for breakfast was wonderful - the Brioche French Toast was very good as were the Belgian Waffles, and of course the Mimosa's. We only went through the buffet one day for lunch and were definitely not impressed with the selection. Maybe it was an off day, but that did it for us. Passenger Mix/Dress: It seemed a nice cross-section of passengers. Age range was from probably the 20-30 year old range and up. There were some scooters etc but no one age group dominated. There were some small children and teens but we never saw anybody in the children/teen areas. As far as dress goes - during the day you saw some amazing outfits. One woman was in the Horizon Court in the morning in her bathrobe, slippers and curlers! It did seem that a lot of people opted out of the formal nights and for those that did dine in the main dining rooms we saw everything from shirtsleeves and ties to tuxes and formal gowns to cocktail dresses to sundresses. We opt to do the tux/cocktail dress attire as we rarely have a chance to dress up at home. Disembarkation: Because we were staying in LA Saturday night we selected a Princess transfer to the Marriott LAX. We had time for breakfast in the dining room Saturday morning and were out of our room by 8:00 a.m. - to give Lawrence time to get our lovely suite ready for the next lucky passengers. We were Purple 2 which gave us a debark time of 9:00 a.m. We found a quiet spot outside of the Wheelhouse Bar to sit until we could join our group in Crooners (no martinis though - shame). We were about 15 minutes late disembarking but the line moved smoothly, Princess personnel were on hand to keep things flowing and answer questions. We were directed to the appropriate bay where our luggage was off-loaded, found a porter immediately and walked right through customs. We had about a 10 minute wait for our bus and it was off to the Marriott. Very smooth and efficient. It amazes me how they can get that many people off and back on in such a short time. Extras: My husband took the Ultimate Ship Tour and said it was a fascinating, if tiring, experience. I believe it varies some by ship but on the Sapphire they saw backstage of Princess Theatre and met some of the production show cast, the M5 corridor which runs the length of the ship, engine control room, smoke stack, print shop, laundry, galley and the bridge. A ships photographer accompanied them throughout the tour and took group photos at the various locations. Each person got an individual photo with the Captain which he signed. The only "disappointment" was that once the photos were done, the Captain left and did not stay to answer any questions. The helmsmen who were on duty on the bridge were more than accommodating though. We received the pictures plus a signed picture of the Sapphire Princess, the plush robe, a chef's jacket and personalized notepad. The whole experience was well worth the $150 and made for a very happy birthday boy. Overall it was a wonderful cruise. We thoroughly enjoyed our probably one and only sojourn in a suite and took full advantage of the cabin. We met some truly nice people through our roll call and just talking with fellow passengers on the ship. One member of our roll call coordinated a cabin crawl and that was very interesting, followed by a nice lunch in the dining room. Many people on the roll call were very experienced cruisers and it was fascinating to hear their stories. The weather was perfect with the exception of the first day out and the morning we arrived in LA, but we expected that. This cruise just reaffirmed that we are absolutely and completely hooked on cruising and can't wait until our next time.