New Zealand Cruise Reviewed by Marleneann

We have arrived home from our wonderful cruise. Yes? the Sapphire Princess cruise ship is a magnificent venue for the holiday or a lifetime.

First of all price?We paid for an inside cabin. When we got on board we found out we had been upgraded to a window cabin?.can you imagine how delighted we were! After checking our prices against the Princess smaller ship in the Pacific?our cruise was the ?special? of all specials.

Embarkation: I don?t want to remember this as it was not what I expected?.long lines of people standing in the rain ?just waiting for some movement. No cover! Auckland Port is not geared for a large ship like Sapphire. However?I think by the time the Sapphire has to do this again, things will have improved because of all the complaints that would have been received.

The Princess Sapphire: A beautiful and wonderful staffed cruise ship. Cleaning goes on around the clock so everything is spotless and polished.

Our Cabin: We paid for an inside cabin and enjoyed a window cabin. We didn?t know about the upgrade until we went looking for our cabin. Wow!?I felt like a Queen. Our cabin steward Victor was great. We tipped him $20.00 as soon as we meet him and during the cruise. My hubby and I were amused as to how he arranged my ?nighty? each night. It was so pretty I didn?t want to spoil his artistic efforts. As the weather wasn?t the best in New Zealand a cabin with a balcony wasn?t necessary. The chocolates on the pillow at night were appreciated.

Dining: We choose early sitting in the Traditional Dining Room. We had a table of eight fun loving cruisers. Our waiter Alex and assistant waiter Ceceileo were the best. They joined in the fun and were always eager to please. Our table did get a name for having the most fun. We ate our breakfast and lunch in the Santa Fee, Pacific Moon or Horizon?s Buffet. All the food was excellent. The steaks were the best I have ever eaten. Don?t forget to go to the Horizon?s Buffet between 3.30pm and 4.30pm for free ice cream. This is not advertised and a lot of people only find out about this when it is too late. Early dinner sitting fitted in with our early show times. Everything was timed to perfection.

Entertainment: This is as good on the Sapphire as what you can find anywhere in the world. The four dance productions were amazing. My grand-daughter just finished a university course in dance so I have viewed some of the best along the way. The magicians and comedy entertainers were outstanding. One comedian DON WARE was the writer for the Cosby Show. Music by Julie Wallace in the Crooners Lounge was delightful.. Alistair Greener was our fabulous cruise director with Frankie his very funny fall guy. I could go on and on?..

Ports of Call:

Wellington: I could recommend Rover Tours $35.00 for two hours or all day (Hop on hop off) We got the shuttle to town ...then walked to Information Centre. We boarded the cable car back to the city. Shuttle to ship. However ...if you can get someone to share a taxi...it will be less expensive and you will not have to wait around for transport.

Christchurch: The Antarctic Centre is a must. We got the shuttle to town? then a local bus to the Antarctic Centre. An all day bus pass is the way to go. I pre-booked the Hagglund Ride and it was lots of fun. You must go into the Snow Storm Room. This is for real. Warm clothes are supplied. Fred could barely last the distance as it was SO COLD!

Dunedin: The Cadbury Chocolate Factory is in the town centre. You must have a booking if you want to do a tour. I did this by email.

Fiordland National Park: Up until now the weather hadn't been very nice....then we cruised into Fiordlands. A perfect day greeted us as we entered the Park. The cameras were clicking away and some beautiful scenery was captured in the many photographs taken. One could see a little snow still on the high peaks.

Hobart: As we walked to the city centre we stopped at Constitution Dock to take some photographs. Then a visit to the gardens and Salamanca Place. A local bus will take you around the area for a small cost.

Melbourne: We had family pick us up and take us to Geelong for the day. There is a free tram for the city tour.

Disembarkation: The port at Darling Harbour was well organized. We waited in the lounge until our colour was called and then walked straight off the ship. Collecting luggage was a breeze...it is lined up in colour code and a Porter is there to help put it onto a trolley. Taxi service is arranged if needed. Our Taxi to the domestic airport cost $30.00 for the two of us.

Anyone going on this cruise ship is assured of a wonderful time. Things like seasickness ?. I had this for one night when the sea was very rough?. can be fixed by going to the desk and buying some Dramamine. I felt better in two hours.

There is much to do onboard...the swimming pools and hot tubs were popular. There were so many people onboard and yet it never did seem crowded.

Bermuda Cruise Reviewed by Dave S.

I was traveling with my wife and 5 of our friends. We had go to the Philadelphia Airport to pick up the RCCL bus which would take us to the NYC pier. There was a bus already there and I asked the driver if he was the only bus going to NYC. He didn't know. There were 7 of us in my party and at that time, only 4 of us were present. Another bus finally came and the remaining 3 from our party arrived. We got to NYC by 2:00 and we made our way up the elevator in the terminal to get to our ship. There weren't many RCCL personel around to instruct the crowd where to go. We made it to the embarkation line and even had a little snack while waiting to board. As we boarded the ship, we had our first encounter with the ship's photographer. We did end up buying that picture later in the cruise.

The ship is very nice. It is not really too small and it is in good shape considering it is 10 years old. We went down to our rooms which were on the 3rd deck. The rooms were small, which we expected, having been on Premier a few years ago. We had a window and what a large window it was!! The 2 single beds were pushed together and that left only a small amount of room along one side of the bed. There wasn't enough room for us to open our 2 suitcases at the same time. The bathroom was extremely tiny. We found out later that when drying off from a shower, you had to open the door in order to turn around. But anyway... We explored the ship. The main showroom, Strike UP the Band, was very large and it had 2 floors. If you are upstairs, you'll have trouble seeing the stage if you sit away from the railing. The casino is nice and it takes up 2 floors with a couple slot machines on a 3rd level, along with the Internet Computers. The main diningroom was very nice also. It is in the front of the ship and it is also 2 floors. We had table 19 on the top floor and our waiter/assistant were very nice and funny. I think he enjoyed our group a lot--we were always making jokes with him and he was talkative and social, and provided us with excellent service.

The food was good. I had some of the best steaks I've ever eaten and I think we all enjoyed our meals. I will say that the desserts were not as good as they looked. It took us until Saturday night(the last night) for us to get a really good chocolate dessert. The cakes all seemed to be a little spongy. The food in the diningroom was definitely better than the food in the Windjammer. Everyday they had hotdogs, hamburgers,fries and salad in the Windjammer. We made it to lunch in the diningroom once or twice and we had breakfast almost everyday in the diningroom. It was open seating for breakfast and lunch except on the last day--breakfast was served at your reserved table.

Bermuda is a very nice island. The main drawback was the Dockyard stop. There is not much in the area although I heard that the area has been built up--built up from what, I don't know. You really need to take a bus to get anywhere. The bus system seems to be ok. The drivers are polite and I think the locals are all used to the tourists causing delays. The buses get very crowded and there is a lot of 'standing room only'--the buses are small to begin with and there is no rear exit door. When people have to get off, everyone must squeeze in between the seats to make room. The ferry system is pretty good--we did take a ferry to Hamilton from the Dockyards and it was very convenient.

We went to Church Bay to snorkel and it was a nice beach. We saw plenty of fish and the beach was not very crowded (unlike Tobacco Bay). We are not really beachgoers so we only went to the beach one day. Hamilton is nice. We went there the day before the ship did and there were two ships in port that day. The port is right there in the center of town. We did the normal tourist stuff--walkin up Front Street and in the side streets to do shopping. Plenty of stores and souvenier shops to visit. One of our gang even got a haircut while we were there. The weather was very hot. We didn't think it would be this hot and even the locals said it was unusual. There was no rain, of course we have no control over the weather, but luck was on our side this trip. Make sure to visit the Gibbs Lighthouse. You will get some excellent views of the island and you can see all the ports.

We made the mistake of staying on the ship when it changed ports. We should have gone to St. George's that day but we decided to sail with the ship when it went to Hamilton from the Dockyards. We did get to pass the Pacific Princess along the way though. Everyday there were activities on the ship to keep you busy. The cruise staff was very good and we became buddies with one of the staff, Bobby Brown. He is good at his job and very entertaining. We did get his email address and hope to stay in touch with him. He also taught some line dance classes. The entertainment on the ship was also top notch.

Debarkation was a bit of a disappointment. We were supposed to be back at Phila. Airport by 12:00 and here we didn't get off the ship until "of-12". Everyone just sat around the lounges until they finally got us all off the ship. And the port people did not check luggage tags or ID, nor did they check us at customs.

I'll wrap this up by saying that we had a great time and would definitely recommend this ship to others. As long as you don't have high expectations as far as room size and can deal with the lack of activities at the Dockyards, you will enjoy it. Any questions, feel free to email me.

Mediterranean Cruise Reviewed by Liz

Day 1
Barcelona is a beautiful city. Since we weren't embarking until 13:30, RCI took us on a 4-5 hr tour of the city, stopping at Gaudi's "LaPedera House" and the famous Sangrada Familia, truly a city landmark. One could spend an entire day walking the Los Ramblas promenade, the heart and soul of the beautiful city. The site of the Olympics was also visited. Check- in took approximately 15 minutes from start to finish with the photographer occupying 5 of those minutes! We were greeted at our cabin by Joel, our cabin steward, who wasted no time in "breaking the ice". There was a six-pack of cold beer and pop waiting for us as well as peanuts and snacks, (which my TA must have sent, but denies). Patti, a first-time cruiser, accompanied me so she was anxious to explore the Legend, as was I. She's a beautiful, well set up ship and immaculately clean. She stayed immaculately clean the entire cruise. The Windjammer was open for a buffet with T-Bones cooked to your liking, as well as a good selection of anything else you might want. I did notice that some of the fruit/veggie displays looked as though they could have been left over from the previous cruises midnight buffet. Went to bed immediately following the fire drill.....all lagged out only to.........

Day 2
.....wake up at 0:400 am and couldn't sleep. We ventured down to the solarium and had pizza and coffee..(UGH), I found that RCI's coffee on this cruise was the best I've ever had! The pizza left allot to be desired. (must have been left over from the previous cruise as well). This was my first experience of bad pizza on a cruise. (usually it's the coffee that's bad). We arrived in Palma de Mallorca at about 10:00 am so we had time to have breakfast in the Romeo & Juliet dining room. It is situated on two levels which makes it seem not so huge and impersonal. Breakfast was boring....the same menu everyday. The kipper was tough and boney. Something like you would feed your cat. Needless to say we didn't have breakfast in the dining room often. It was raining so our trip to Camp de Mar beach was off. This gave us time to do some more exploring...which ended up fruitful, as we had a body massage which included a Hydro Aroma Bath...to die for. This was all done without an advance apt. They weren't very busy that morning which was amazing, but picked up as we were leaving. I was impressed with the spa. We departed at17:00 and off to the Captains Welcome Aboard Party. It was as usual-----boring with the pre-fab drinks served. However, the Anchors Away Lounge is large, well ventilated, and includes both smoking and non-smoking sections. Since this was the first formal night I was interested to see how long people kept their formal attire on. 80-90% of the guys had tux's on and everyone remained "formal" for the entire evening! It was great...did not see one tee-shirt! There were very few children aboard this cruise. The food in the dining room was a B+, our waiters both great, scoring an A, wine list a C-, and Maitre D a D-. He finally learned our names the last night of the cruise. Judy Kolba was featured in the "That's Entertainment" Theater, which is of adequate size with a great sound and lighting system. She was funny, as usual.

Day 3
Arrived in Marseilles, France at 08:00. We opted for the Cassis tour, truly a fantastic summer resort. Boutiques and waterfront cafes surround the old Provencal fishing port. The city of Marseilles was closed due to some type of religious holiday so we got the "inside scoop" that Cassis would be open for shopping regardless of the holiday from Joel. Nice little town but don't expect to get any "good deals" on fragrances or designer attire. I purchased a Louie V. purse for my daughter and paid the same price as I did for mine in the U.S. One nice thing about Cassis is that most of the merchants spoke a little bit of English and were proficient with the money exchange. Back to the Legend with arms and hands full of shopping bags. Our tablemates had done the Marseilles tour and were disappointed. The Wave Review Singers and Dancers put on a great "jump jiven swing" show that evening.

Day 4
Got into Livorno early. We had coffee and danish in our room, as usual. The room service on the Legend was an A+ and so was their laundry service! Off at 07:30 to tour Pisa and Florence. There is way too much to see in a 10 hr tour. The Leaning Tower and Michaelangelo's David were breathtaking. Our tour guides all received an A+, except for one which I'll get to later. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant in the heart of Ponte Vecchio. Opportunities to shop were available. I highly recommend this tour. Make sure to wear comfortable shoes as there is about 10 miles of walking involved...and watch your wallets! We had been warned several times about the gypsies and got to witness one in action, as pointed out by our tour guide. Low and behold....to find out later that one of the ladies on our tour's wallet was missing after returning to the ship! She claims she didn't get close to the particular one we witnessed, however they are "slick" and tend to work in groups, involving children as well. Back to the stateroom to find that Joel had left us canapes, cocktails of choice and an invitation to join Captain Rick Sullivan and wife for cocktails after dinner. We accepted the invitation and joined them. This was a new thing for me, and on the spur of the moment so I was kind of nervous. After meeting Capt Rick & wife I was at ease as he is a "down to earth" kinda guy, as was his wife, and believe it or not, very concerned with our likes and dislikes of the cruise. I asked him if he'd rather be drinking a beer and eating cheese when his wife excused herself to the restroom. He replied no, actually, since his wife was on this particular cruise, he preferred to show her what his job really entailed. He also told us not to miss the pizza in Naples and a story about King Ferdinand and how pizza originated. I shared with him my thought of the pizza in the solarium. He laughed, wrinkled his nose, and said they were "working on it". All in all a very pleasant experience----not dinner with the Captain but at least cocktails. I had two martini's, extra dry, then to the Casino Royale. I did hear a number of guests say they were doing well or at least "holding their own"...won't talk about my luck......Back to our cabin, late, late and Joel had chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us along with the regular mints.

Day 5
Arrived in Naples at 08:00. We chose to do the Amalfi Drive, Sorento and Naples tour. This was, by far, the most panoramic tour I have ever had. Being raised on a farm, I was amazed at the diversity in the agriculture; terrace farming, mostly lemons, tomatoes, and grapes and so many other fruits and veggies. Amalfi is a luxurious little town where, we were told, allot of Italian and French movie stars have villas. We were able to see Sophia Loren's original villa as well as several others from atop the Vietra Sul Mare. We had a four star lunch, (and it truly was), overlooking the emerald Mediterranean. The serenity of this quaint village is remarkable. I hope to go back to Amalfi and spend a week or so. Coral and linen are plentiful and expensive in this coastal mountain town. Words cannot explain the beauty. On or way back to the ship we stopped at a cameo factory. A heavenly 10 hr tour. Dinner with our partners that evening and to the Crown & Anchor Society cocktail party. There were only about 50 guests attending so I'm sure there were quite a few first time cruisers aboard this cruise. Capt Rick gave the usual "song and dance" about RCI and how important return cruisers were to RCI....yadee, yadee, yadee.

Day 6
Arrived in Olbia, Sardinia at 0:900. We took the Tradtional Sardinia Excursion which turned out to be a 9 hr bus ride, to sum it up. We heard all about the fantastic restaurant we were going to, (for 4 hrs), by our lush of a tour guide who seemed to be more focused on getting drunk than showing us any sites. And he did get drunk and sang to us on the 4 hr return bus ride. So, as far as Sardinia is concerned, I really don't know what to suggest as I really didn't get to see much. I do suggest not getting this particular tour guide. Back to the ship and straight to the purser to write a formal complaint. This was our second formal night and we stayed up until wee hrs since the next day was at sea, as did everyone else. Great bands playing in all the lounges, anything from 50-60's music, ballroom dancing, piano sing-alongs, ragae and disco. It was a fun-night for everyone.

Day 7
At Sea.......and by the looks of everyone, we all needed this one! Not enough room by the pool, as usual. Since this was our first and only day at sea, we met a whole lot of people and had a great day. Too much sun, as usual, but since most of our cruise was overcast, a perfect ending. At dinner Capt. Rick got on the intercom to announce that a fellow guest had become ill and he was speeding up and we were to arrive in Barcelona at 2300 instead of 0700 the next day. We found out later that night that it was a pregnant passanger that was having difficulty. No details though. We started disembarking at 0730 and things went well. No lines, problems with luggage, customs or anything! Barceloa airport is great and we had a great flight home to Denver. Please excuse the typo's and spelling, as I've just surrvived another holiday. Everyone should consider this cruise. Best itinerary I've ever had! Oh, average age was about 40-50 and probably 80% Americans......Liz

Eastern Caribbean Cruise Reviewed by Paul Mc.

We finally made it! With our close friends (and neighbors!), Steve and Kim, we cruised on one of the biggest class of cruise ships in the world, the Explorer of the Seas!!! Along with the original ship of the class, the Voyager of the Seas- and their sisters the Adventure of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas and this year's Mariner of the Seas- the Explorer of the Seas is a cruise ship of such immense dimensions (they weigh in at 142,000 tons- the next class of ship to come close hovers around 100,000 tons, and the vast majority of cruise ships are below 80,000 tons!) that the cruise ship itself actually becomes a destination. The ship is HUGE- and the added space is a pleasure. (The Voyager of the Seas is said to have it's own zip code- I forgot to find out if the others in the class do as well). The commercials for this ship, the pamphlets, the advertisements- none of it compares to the real thing- this ship is by far the most incredible cruise vacation we've ever experienced. In fact, we now have no interest in cruising aboard anything but this class until we've done them all! Without a doubt, this was the BEST cruise and BEST vacation we've had to date!

This ship has so many amenities and places that it's difficult to pick a favorite- but personally, my favorite place is the "Royal Promenade"- a four story, 120 meters (390') long central "street" running through the very heart of the ship! You actually feel as though you're in some quaint little town perusing the shops and pubs- and you often lose track of the fact that you're inside a ship! We had a great time walking up and down the "avenue" - going into the bars, eating at the restaurant, and shopping. We also enjoyed the actors who engaged the passengers in silly banter throughout the day. The Royal Promenade also had at least two parades while I was on board.

Below the Royal Promenade is an immense casino - and there's a two story disco called, "The Chamber" festooned with medieval suits of armor and gargoyles- a fantastic late night destination. There's the three story theater up at the bow featuring RCCL's typically very entertaining shows, but there's also the ice skating rink on another deck that has two exquisite shows during the 7 day cruise (GET TICKETS for this show as soon as they become available). Aft is the three story main dining room- very beautiful in it's appointments, but there's also the incredibly upscale and reservations only "Portofino" Italian restaurant that's a bargain at a mere surcharge of $20/person. (Expect to pay 5 times that to eat at such an upscale restaurant in the real world). There's also Johnny Rockets serving up burgers, dogs and malted milkshakes- and of course the line's venerable buffet location, the Windjammer (also called the Island Grill) Cafe. Needless to say, you'll never have a hard time finding something to eat on this ship (or any other respectable cruise ship- but this one has food options everywhere).

Our ports on in this voyage were from Miami: a day at Sea (a pleasure on a ship this big!); San Juan, PR (we toured a rum distillery- my recommendation, stay on the ship next time); St. Martin (absolutely don't miss the beach at Orient Bay!!!); St. Thomas (Magen's Bay or a trip to St. John's Trunk Bay beaches are a must!); another day at Sea (we ice-skated and golfed and explored this incredible ship!); Nassau in the Bahamas (do the Yellowbird rum cruise or just stay on ship- not much here on this island.); then back to Miami. The ship itself is so much fun, it wouldn't really matter to me if it was a cruise to nowhere.

What can I say? I learned to ice skate (after a very shaky and slow start- I got the hang of it- and I didn't fall down), I saw an ice show, I saw terrific shows in the main theater, I played miniature golf (in the middle of the caribbean sea!) and used a golf simulator to work on my driving skills (which have withered considerably since I was a teenager), I worked out in an incredible gym, I watched the stars from the front of the ship, I watched bridge operations from the "peek-a-boo" bridge over top, I almost did the rock climbing wall (a foot injury the week before the cruise made me decide not to do this), I danced the night away in an incredible disco and laughed at the singers in the pub, I gambled in the casino, I swam in the pool and sat in the hot tub at 2am- there's always at least one pool and hot tub open 24 hours (!) on this ship... In short, all of us, Steve and Kim and Diane and I had a great time!

Mexican Riviera Cruise Reviewed by Paul Mc.

This is a newer ship then Grandeur of the Seas, and again, she's somewhat larger at roughly 78,000 tons. She's also markedly classier then her sister- much cooler artwork throughout the ship and less glitzy then Grandeur. Her dining room, the Aquarius, is much brighter then the subdued lighting on Grandeur's. Food preparation and service seemed a big improvement over both the Majesty and the Grandeur but the bar waiter in the dining room was just plain terrible. Food taste was impeccable- even in the oft maligned Windjammer Cafe. The Windjammer on Vision was quality all the way (okay- maybe the scrambled eggs were egg-beaters... but for real eggs, go to the Aquarius- Windjammer's for those on the run!)

This Cruise was our first with a balcony cabin and BOY ARE WE HOOKED! How did we ever live without one? The cabin was #7066 located on deck 7 (Commodore Deck) not too far from the Centrum which is an excellent landmark for getting around this gorgeous ship. The cabin featured two twin beds (already meshed together as a queen- Hooray!), a small "living room" with a couch (which doubles as a fold out bed) and table. Across from these was the gargantuan make-up table (which Diane loved) and plenty of drawers for clothes. In this same assembly was our safe, TV and small refrigerator (which our cabin steward always kept full of ice!). The bathroom was the BIGGEST yet in a typical passenger cabin - at least as big as my bathroom at home. There was probably enough room for three people to fit in it- not that we plan large parties in the bathroom. The shower had a circular wrap around curtain (so cool) and adjustable/removable shower head and shampoo dispenser. There was also a hairdryer in the room as well as bath robes!

The Crew and Staff for this cruise were incredible- every soul I passed always has a quick smile and/or "Hello!". All sales aboard were completed with "It's been my pleasure!" The Vision of the Seas and her staff are to be commended for their excellent and professional customer service. Even the ship's Captain was fun and funny- telling jokes at the captain's reception party- I've never seen a captain do stand up! The passengers were all having a great time.

The shows aboard the ship- which were housed in a wonderful theater- were only okay (I've seen much better acts on the line's sister ships) however, the RCCL performer's show, Rhythm Nation was a spectacular review. The comedians were very good as well.

Our ports of call were good to great in the order of visitation: Cabo San Lucas is a naturalist's dream where you can see sea lions sunning themselves on exquisite rock formations (Land's End) and Cabo also has some nice beaches. Mazatlan is a shopper's paradise and the Papalanta dancers (not to be missed here) are a great slice of Mexican traditional dancing. The beach resort we visited (Los Sabalos) on our side trip had a great beach and nice Mexican buffet! Finally, Puerto Vallarta was the gem of the bunch- we visited the gigantic Mayan Palace complex with it's enormous pool and beaches. Puerto Vallarta was much more cosmopolitan in outlook. As you'll notice, all of our side trips included beaches and I should point out that there were people selling wares on all three sites- mostly in Cabo but very few in Puerto Vallarta. None were rude and all knew the meaning of "No thank you..." (Unlike the beach hawkers on Grenada).