My wife and I were on the December 11th sailing of the Sapphire Princess to the Mexican Riviera. We flew from Kansas City to Los Angeles on Southwest Airlines, and we actually got off on time and arrived 30 minutes early. Add to that the fact that Southwest allows 2 free bags per person, and we were very happy. This was our fifth cruise with Princess, which means that after this cruise we became Platinum members. We had purchased transfers to the port, so we met the Princess people in baggage claim. They picked up our luggage and loaded us on a bus and took us to a local hotel to complete our check in. They loaded us back on the bus about 11:30 and took us to the cruise port. Since we were already checked in all we had to do was stop at a table and pickup our room cards, go through security and get on the ship. All in all it was a nice alternative to going to the cruise port and sitting around until the ship was ready.
We had a balcony room B746 at the back of the ship on Baja deck. The room itself was a standard balcony room, but the balcony was oversized, and had a nice view forward as well as to the side. Our room steward Mario he was rather reserved, but he did a good job of keeping our room nice. Unfortunately our first issue with the ship popped up as we entered our room. First look at our bed you could tell that the mattress was worn out. Now granted I can't say that Princess has the best mattresses, but this one was just old. We knew that replacing the mattress wasn't an option so we asked Mario for a mattress pad. Much to our chagrin Mario said there was a mattress pad on the bed. And he wasn't kidding! Needless to say we spent 7 rather uncomfortable nights on that bed.
Regarding the Sapphire Princess she is a nice ship, but having recently cruised on the Crown Princess and Ruby Princess the ship is sorely lacking some of the updates that have been added to the other older Grand class ships. The alternate dining steakhouse was just a corner of the Horizon court. We seldom noticed anyone eating there. We dined at the Horizon Court for most meals. We do this because we just prefer the convenience of eating when we want. The food over all was good. We went to see a couple of the comedy shows, which were both excellent, and visited the casino a few times. Otherwise we spent as much time as we could on the balcony.
Room B746. This is a great balcony room at the back of the ship. Large balcony with a great view. Will always try and book this or similar room.