Left Heathrow on 4/1 on my least favourite airline - British Airways, flight was uncomfortable and food was mediocre, as British Airways always is.
Shanghai - An airport and a cruise terminal to be avoided. Endless form filling, endless fingerprint scans, endless photos, endless baggage scans. Then we were told that the ship will be late docking due to poor weather visibility. Thankfully ...
Original ship boarding time was 2pm. Princess sent out notice of 3hr delay because of Chinese Fingerprinting of passengers. Sent out 2nd delay for 2hr because of Fog & late arrival. We arrived at terminal at 5pm to find about 2500 people stuffed into terminal waiting. They finally started boarding the "Elites" around 7pm, and we started about 8pm.. Had to trek thru rain to Chinese Immigration ...
This past January we went on an Asian Cruise with Princess Cruises. We were to board our cruise in Shanghai, reporting to board our cruise beginning at 12:00PM, Jan. 5fth. Then, the night before, I received an e-mail indicating the ship was late arriving on port and we should report beginning at 4:00PM. As we arrived at the terminal, our taxi driver noted the main gate was closed and a worker was ...
We chose this cruise for its itinerary. To be upfront we are usually Celebrity cruisers, but decided to try Princess.
Embarkation in Shanghai was a pure day, and evening, from hell. This was not the fault of Princess, but the Chinese Port Authority who randomly closed the port to the inbound ship and refused to provide customs and immigration facilities.
Princess sent emails, updating the ...
The Sapphire Princess met most of the needs of those that were on the cruse. Staff tried to help with any problems addressed. They were friendly, courteous, and pleasant to deal with from the room service, customer service, and Horizon kitchen staff. They kept the ship clean and tried to make sure no one got sick on board. The food became routine after a few days, but you did have some choices ...
We just got home from our cruise. We really enjoyed this cruise, particularly because of the itinerary and people we met. The entertainment was sub par...first time ever on a Princess ship. They had a guy making balloon sculptures one evening in the theater...very disappointing. Also the music offered in the lounges was limited. Few opportunities to dance. However, the food was good and we ...
The January 5th Southeast Asia Cruise from Shanghai to Singapore aboard the Sapphire Princess began with the worst boarding fiasco I have ever experienced, and I expect that holds true for most the other 2600+ arriving passengers as well as an untold number of those trying to disembark and catch a flight home.
I started to get the impression that this was not going to be a ‘smooth’ embarkation ...
We picked the cruise (Far East Explorer) as something of an afterthought... We are very frequent cruisers but hadn’t been to the Far East previously and therefore took the opportunity.
The itinerary was the attraction, Shanghai, Nagasaki, Busan, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Min City, Bangkok, Koh Samui, then Singapore... It was a fabulous itinerary.
We hadn’t sailed with Princess before but had been ...
We had friends going on this cruise and joined them. We are getting more and more disappointed in the nickel-and-diming done by Princess. Everything seems to cost more every time we cruise. They have taken away "Happy hour". The Elite Lounge used to have $5 for any drink, now its over $6 for crappy syrupy drinks. No more coffee cards, so they don't roll over - use them or lose them. If you ...
This was to be our 7th cruise with Princess and when I stepped into my stateroom I felt like I had come home again.
Stayed 2 nights in Shanghai in the Radisson New World which was very central for sightseeing around this fabulous city, across the road from the Peoples Park and bus stop for Hop-on-off tours.
Taxi took us to the cruise terminal at 12.30pm and I have to say this was the worst part ...