There were six of us. My husband and I did Seward to Vancouver on the Crown, my sons first cruise, my moms second to Alaska (her first was on NCL) and sister and her husbands first cruise.
EMBARKATION: Got to Pier 91 around 2 p.m., it was farely organized but the line was pretty long so we got on ship just before 3 p.m. As soon as my sister saw the lovely Atrium she said "I'm gonna enjoy this!"
CABIN: Although I tried to get the Starboard side there was only one so we took the Portside and had cabins C 600, 602 and 604. The attendant removed the balcony barriers so we could visit each other easily which worked out great. We all liked our cabins and found the balconies to be a great size compared to the A and B deck which were half the size. Plus our balcony was half covered so it was nice the we could sit out there without the upper decks being able to see us. I had requested egg crate pads for all rooms but none had them so I requested one from the attendant who placed one there that evening. No one else minded sleeping on the very firm beds. I have to admit that the shower stall was really tiny! I am only 110 pounds but found it difficult to manuever without getting the floor outside the shower wet. There was plenty of shelf and closet space for all our things and the safe was put to good use as well.
ATTENDANT: Our cabin attendant Cristian was great. He always fulfilled our request quickly and kept our cabin spotless and neat. We liked him so much that my husband gave him a business card to contact us so we could mail him some goodies.
SHIP: Reading some of the previous reviews, I guess some people are nick picky and really look for things to critique because I found the Sapphire to be a lovely ship in and out. The areas were clean and although not brand new, in good condition overall. The entertainment areas that we actually sat in were the Princess Theater, Explorers Lounge, both very nice.
DINING: We had traditional dining at 5:30 which was actually too early for my taste but it worked out great for all six of us. The International DR was very nice, our waiter and assistant were friendly and efficient. They were flexible in that when two from our group were late one night, our waiter asked if we wanted to go ahead and order or wait for the others. The food was very good, I especially liked the mussels on the last night, YUM! The only dish I didn't like was the venison.
Horizon Court is the standard buffet, we normally ate breakfast around 8 a.m. and there was rarely a line. We tried International DR once and the food was better and definitely the coffee was better. Everyone wanted to go back to HC so they could have more selection. I have to admit that I did not like the coffee there so ended up asking the waiter to make a mocha for me by mixing the coffee and hot chocolate which turned out pretty good. We took plates of food up to the room at times when we got the muchies at night.
ENTERTAINMENT: We only saw comedian Jim McDonald, he was okay. My sister went to the "Do you Wanna Dance", they enjoyed that. We just got busy enjoying the ship and each others company so we pretty much missed all the other entertainment onboard.
We passed through the casino once and the smoke smell was something we steered clear of from then on.
SPA/FITNESS: I got the Elimis Aromaflex massage which I totally enjoyed! My sister got the Ionithermie Duper Detox and lost 4 inches around her waist! Everyone in the spa was very nice.
Hubby went to the fitness center, the first two days he said it was packed at 6:15 a.m., but after that there were only five or six of the same people, LOL!
PHOTO: Thought the ships photographers did a pretty good job of posing us but the photo's are rediculously expensive. The lines on first formal night was crazy long. We did not like taking pics at every port AT ALL! We would simply find the photo's and toss them in the unwanted bin. I did buy the formal night photo and the Panraven album.
EXCURSIONS: There were some pretty good excursions but we only too the Bering Sea Fishermans Tour throught Princess. It was pricy but also our favorite excursion! We did Mendenhall Glacier on our own and took Dyea Dave's Yukon Tour and saved big time on that plus it was such a great tour.
The time in Victoria was too short to really do much. By the time we wanted to take the shuttle bus back to the ship just before 10, the line went around the corner. The wait was about 15 minutes which we didn't think was too bad.
PURSERS DESK: We wanted our son (13) any mom to be in the middle cabin so my sister and hubby switched with them. Well, we never got things straight after that. Both cabins only had one card that would open their cabins door. We went to the desk four times and never got it fixed. Oh well, it's a good thing we had our balcony dividers open as we went back and forth frequently.
LAUNDRY: I sent my gown to get cleaned and they did a great job removing the spot that I have no idea how it got there. We used the self serve laundry room and it really wasn't that busy.
LIBRARY: Okay so it's smallish but I wouldn't expect much more for a cruise ship. I always bring my own reading material anyway. My hubby is a voracious reader so he was in there a few times. It was nice to just sit in there and read.
OVERALL: We were just a little disappointed that we didn't see any whales, bears or dolphins but we did see an abundance of eagles and overall we all had a wonderful time. We enjoyed the ship and most everything on it. We even signed up for a future cruise!
EMBARKATION: Got to Pier 91 around 2 p.m., it was farely organized but the line was pretty long so we got on ship just before 3 p.m. As soon as my sister saw the lovely Atrium she said "I'm gonna enjoy this!"
CABIN: Although I tried to get the Starboard side there was only one so we took the Portside and had cabins C 600, 602 and 604. The attendant removed the balcony barriers so we could visit each other easily which worked out great. We all liked our cabins and found the balconies to be a great size compared to the A and B deck which were half the size. Plus our balcony was half covered so it was nice the we could sit out there without the upper decks being able to see us. I had requested egg crate pads for all rooms but none had them so I requested one from the attendant who placed one there that evening. No one else minded sleeping on the very firm beds. I have to admit that the shower stall was really tiny! I am only 110 pounds but found it difficult to manuever without getting the floor outside the shower wet. There was plenty of shelf and closet space for all our things and the safe was put to good use as well.
ATTENDANT: Our cabin attendant Cristian was great. He always fulfilled our request quickly and kept our cabin spotless and neat. We liked him so much that my husband gave him a business card to contact us so we could mail him some goodies.
SHIP: Reading some of the previous reviews, I guess some people are nick picky and really look for things to critique because I found the Sapphire to be a lovely ship in and out. The areas were clean and although not brand new, in good condition overall. The entertainment areas that we actually sat in were the Princess Theater, Explorers Lounge, both very nice.
DINING: We had traditional dining at 5:30 which was actually too early for my taste but it worked out great for all six of us. The International DR was very nice, our waiter and assistant were friendly and efficient. They were flexible in that when two from our group were late one night, our waiter asked if we wanted to go ahead and order or wait for the others. The food was very good, I especially liked the mussels on the last night, YUM! The only dish I didn't like was the venison.
Horizon Court is the standard buffet, we normally ate breakfast around 8 a.m. and there was rarely a line. We tried International DR once and the food was better and definitely the coffee was better. Everyone wanted to go back to HC so they could have more selection. I have to admit that I did not like the coffee there so ended up asking the waiter to make a mocha for me by mixing the coffee and hot chocolate which turned out pretty good. We took plates of food up to the room at times when we got the muchies at night.
ENTERTAINMENT: We only saw comedian Jim McDonald, he was okay. My sister went to the "Do you Wanna Dance", they enjoyed that. We just got busy enjoying the ship and each others company so we pretty much missed all the other entertainment onboard.
We passed through the casino once and the smoke smell was something we steered clear of from then on.
SPA/FITNESS: I got the Elimis Aromaflex massage which I totally enjoyed! My sister got the Ionithermie Duper Detox and lost 4 inches around her waist! Everyone in the spa was very nice.
Hubby went to the fitness center, the first two days he said it was packed at 6:15 a.m., but after that there were only five or six of the same people, LOL!
PHOTO: Thought the ships photographers did a pretty good job of posing us but the photo's are rediculously expensive. The lines on first formal night was crazy long. We did not like taking pics at every port AT ALL! We would simply find the photo's and toss them in the unwanted bin. I did buy the formal night photo and the Panraven album.
EXCURSIONS: There were some pretty good excursions but we only too the Bering Sea Fishermans Tour throught Princess. It was pricy but also our favorite excursion! We did Mendenhall Glacier on our own and took Dyea Dave's Yukon Tour and saved big time on that plus it was such a great tour.
The time in Victoria was too short to really do much. By the time we wanted to take the shuttle bus back to the ship just before 10, the line went around the corner. The wait was about 15 minutes which we didn't think was too bad.
PURSERS DESK: We wanted our son (13) any mom to be in the middle cabin so my sister and hubby switched with them. Well, we never got things straight after that. Both cabins only had one card that would open their cabins door. We went to the desk four times and never got it fixed. Oh well, it's a good thing we had our balcony dividers open as we went back and forth frequently.
LAUNDRY: I sent my gown to get cleaned and they did a great job removing the spot that I have no idea how it got there. We used the self serve laundry room and it really wasn't that busy.
LIBRARY: Okay so it's smallish but I wouldn't expect much more for a cruise ship. I always bring my own reading material anyway. My hubby is a voracious reader so he was in there a few times. It was nice to just sit in there and read.
OVERALL: We were just a little disappointed that we didn't see any whales, bears or dolphins but we did see an abundance of eagles and overall we all had a wonderful time. We enjoyed the ship and most everything on it. We even signed up for a future cruise!
