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I woke up early this morning around 5:30 AM and saw this very bright object in the sky out our balcony cabin windows. I was certain it had to be a planet rather than a star due to how large and bright it was. Doing a bit of seaching on the web I found it had to be Venus. There also appears to be a smaller dimmer object below and to the right of Venus. I am guessing it might be Mars. According to the diagram above, Mars should be a little above and to the right of Venus. But possibly because I viewed the sky a bit later than the time indicated in the article, the path of Venus had taken it such that it was now in a bit different position relative to Mars. If anyone has the answer, please let me know. That other object near Venus can be seen clearly in all 4 photos above. You may want to click on each of the photos and then click on the image that brings up in order to see a full screen image of each of the above.
To get to the Skywalkers Nightclub you have to take the aft elevator to Sports Deck 16 and then take either the escalator or the dedicated elevator from Deck 16 up to Deck 18. Since the Skywalkers Nightclub normally doesn't open until 10pm, the escalator was not operating and I had to walk up the static escalator. Coming back down I took the elevator that only goes between Deck 16 and Deck 18.
The Skywalkers Nightclub is probably the largest lounge of any on the entire ship. It has a fantastic view not only out the front of the ship, but also out both sides of the ship. Though it doesn't open until 10pm, you are welcome to come up here anytime. You can easily find a comfortable private spot up here as it is so huge and only a few people come up here before the bar opens at 10pm and the music starts.
They said these martinis are only available in the Crooners and Wheelhouse Bar, such as the Cherry Martini, but I could not find any of the Martinis that they made listed in the cocktail menus of either bar.
The Sapphire Princess is now my new FAVORITE CRUISE SHIP of any cruise ship of any cruise line I have ever been on. My favorite used to be the Carnival Splendor ("The Pink Lady"). The Carnival Splendor used to operate out of Los Angeles (Long Beach), California, but now operates out of Sydney, Australia. It has been replaced by the much larger and newer Carnival Panorama. My wife and I were actually on the repositioning cruise of the Carnival Splendor from Los Angeles to Singapore where it was refurbished before being sent on to Sydney.
The reason it is now my favorite cruise ship is that it still has the layout of some of the older Princess cruise ships. The Sapphire Princess entered service in 2004 and was refurbished in 2018. It was built in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. When it was built it was one of the world's largest cruise ships with a capacity of 2,670 passengers. Under today's standars with new cruise ships having a capacity for over 5,000 passengers, this would now only be considered a midsize cruise ship.
What I like most about this ship is that EVERY lounge is huge! The Wheelhouse Bar, Crooners Bar, Explorers Lounge, Club Fusion and especially Skywalkers Nightclub are far larger than any Princess ship that I've ever cruised on. My wife and I have never had a problem finding a seat in any lounge no matter how popular the performance might be in each. Most newer Princess ships have lounges by these same names but they are smaller than in this ship. The ones in the newer ships are almost of adequate size, but sometimes it is difficult to find a good seat, or sometimes any seat at all. One reason I don't like the newer NCL and Royal Carribean ships is because their lounges tend to be of totally inadequate size even though they carry far more passengers. On NCL and Royal Carribean my wife and I have found you often have to arrive an hour before a music performance starts in order to find a seat at all. On our most recent Wonder of the Seas cruise, the Karaoke Bar was a very popular venue and it was always packed with people standing. The Karaoke on this ship is usually held in Club Fusion which is huge. Even when a lot of people attend, there is still plenty of empty seats available. The reason the lounges in the newer ships are smaller is because they have turned more of the space of these lounges into either extra cost specialty restaurants or into more cabins.
Another reason I like the Sapphire Princess is I believe the Promenade Deck has an outside walkway that goes all around the entire ship. One complete walk around the ship is 1/3 mile, so walking around the ship 3 times is a mile. Most newer ships have a dedicated walking track on an upper deck that does not go around the entire ship. Thus, it often takes 10 trips around the track to equal a mile, which can be quite dull and boring. Older ships always used to have an outside area that went all the way around the ship. But most newer ships have done away with this in order to be able to add more cabins and more extra cost specialty restaurants. By eating up a lot of what used to be open public space with more cabins and more restaurants and more passengers, the newer ships often feel much more crowded than the older ships even though these newer ships are much larger than the older ships.
It would not surprise me if Princess soon disposes of this ship, or refurbishes it by turning some of the large lounge spaces into either additional extra cost specialty restuarants or into more cabins. I'll be disappointed if and when that happens. There aren't many ships with such large lounges that make the ship never feel crowded.
Another thing I love about this particular cruise and might be true of all cruises on this ship is that there is a huge diversity of live musical entertainment. Starting about 5pm and often earlier, there are live music performances being held simultaneously in many of the lounges. We've sampled just about every performer and band on this ship and they are all quite good. We often find ourselves having to chose between 3 or 4 live music performances every night, including Karaoke every night so far. Sometimes we just wander from one performance to the next without staying through an entire performance. It is just so hard to decide sometimes!
One more side note of why I like this ship: they have one of my favorite Scotch whiskys: Talisker. My wife and I both love the smokey peaty Scotchs from Islay, Scotland. Talisker is NOT from Islay, but because of its smokey peatiness, it tastes like it is from Islay. As a matter of fact, many bars that list their Scotchs by source mistakenly list Talisker as from Islay. What also surprised me is that on this ship it only costs US $12. On many ships it is listed as a Premium Scotch at $18 per shot or more which would have made it out of the range of being included in the Platinum Plus upgrade without paying more.
I do have a few complaints, however. The buffet is very small for a cruise ship of this size with a very limited selection of food items. It is probably the smallest buffet I've ever seen on any cruise ship. Maybe that is because they have 5 Main Dining Rooms and figure most people will be eating in one of those rather than in the buffet. My second complaint is the layout of The Piazza on this ship. On newer Princess ships they seem to have figured out the optimum layout of The Piazza. The Piazza is very small on this ship and the entertainment stage is located in a spot where it can not be seen my most parts of the public venues that surround it. A lot of space in The Piazza is also taken up by two grand staircases. There are cooking and serving areas that directly face the entertainment stage which eliminates them as places where people can sit and watch the performance. On the newer ships, they have rearrange the venues surrounding The Piazza such that you can sit in many of the adjacent bars and watch the performance. In the newer ships, they have also placed some of the lounges on the second and third levels in a location where you can at least hear the performanes in The Piazza even if you can't see them. But they have also placed some of the seating of the venues on the second and third levels right up against the railing overlooking The Piazza so there are many locations on those levels where you actually can see the performances in The Piazza.
And one last complaint that I might change my opinion about as the cruise progresses: the food quality. So far I have not been impressed by the quality of the food in either the Main Dining Rooms or the Buffet. But selections change every day, so this ship still has the opportunity to reverse my opinion. However, I do think the pizza by the slice from the Prego Pizzaria outdoor stand is fantasic as I have found it to be on all my Princess cruises! I think it is much better than the pizza from Alfredo's Pizzeria even though the pizze from Prego Pizzaria is free and the one from Alfredo's Pizzaria is an extra cost restaurant.
Join Captain Todd McBain and the Senior Officers of the Sapphire Princes to this time honored tradition.
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