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Sapphire Princess - Voyages H406 & H406A
March 13, 2024
Dear Princess Guest:
I hope you are enjoying your time aboard Sapphire Princess.
I wish to advise you of additional changes to our scheduled itinerary. The latest weather forecast shows high winds and heavy swells off the west coast of Chile. As the safety of our guests and crew is always our highest priority, we will no longer depart at 8:00 PM today, and will instead extend our call to remain in the sheltered waters overnight in Punta Arenas and allow the worst of the system to pass. We plan to depart at 7:00 AM tomorrow (March 14).
Guests will be required to stay on board overnight as our water shuttle operation will not be in service. While regulations require that the boutiques and casino remain closed while in port, please feel free to enjoy our restaurants and bars, spa and entertainment on board.
On departure from Punta Arenas tomorrow morning, we will proceeed toward Santiago (San Antonio), Chile, for our scheduled call on Monday (March 18), which includes disembarkation for those leaving the ship.
Regrettably, this means we will no longer conduct scenic cruising of Amalia Glacier tomorrow (March 14) or call to Puerto Montt, Chile, on Saturday (March 16). For guests with Princess shore excursions booked for Puerto Montt, your onboard account will be credited automatically (you do not need to visit the Shore Excursions or Guest Services desk to receive your refund).
Although weather-related changes are beyond our control, we understand this is not the cruise experience you expected. As a goodwill gesture, we will apply an onbaord credit (non-refundable) of $100 USD per person to your shipboard account, which can be used for purchases in our bars, boutiques, or photo gallery, as well as for dining and spa treatments.
When we create itineraries, we look forward to taking our guests to the exciting destinations we have selected. When unexpected weather necessitates a change in our itinerary, we ahare in you disappointment.
We appreciate your flexibility and understanding. On behalf of the officers and crew of Sapphire Princess, we look forward to continuing our voyage together and remain, as always, at your service.
Best regards,
Captain Todd McBain
Master, Sapphire Princess
My wife is a bit disappointed as this cruise first had to skip scenic cruising of Cape Horn and now scenic cruising of the Amalia Glacier, both times due to bad weather. It is not a big disappointment for me. We've seen glaciers on Alaska cruises. Though I'd like to someday experience both of these scenic cruisings, for me it is just an excuse to retake this cruise again in the future. I don't mind missing the port stop at Puerto Montt, Chile, as I wasn't really inspired with the content of that shore excurions, but was the only one that fit in the activity level, time, durating, and price that we were seeking. Personally I can just enjoy being on a cruise at sea, and now I get to enjoy four Sea Days in a row! It is mostly my wife that feels that if we are in a port that we need to go see things. I just enjoy the activities on the ship, mostly the live music and the wine and spirit tasting events. There are some ports that we've been to many times, like on Mexican Riviera cruises, where we've done every shore excrusions that we've wanted to do many times over. At those ports we'll often not even get off the ship and just enjoy a much less crowded ship while most of the passengers are ashore.
I definitely won't mind being refunded the cost of our shore excrusion and getting $200 ($100 each) of complimentary onboard credit to spend during the rest of this cruise.
Another wine or spirits tasting event canceled. We went to the Wheelhouse Bar at 2pm which is when and where the event was to be held, but didn't see anyone that looked like they were waiting for the wine tasting. We asked a wine server about it and they confirmed that we were in the right place at the right time for the wine tasting. In a few minutes one of the sommeliers came over to us and explained that had to cancel the wine tasting had been canceled as two of the other couples that had signed up were in quarantine. That might also be why the Premium Cognac Tasting that we had signed up for was canceled. It may be that the only other couples who are interested in wine or spirit tasting on this ship are in quarantine. The sommelier did not explain what they were sick with to have to be in quarantine.
Evidently there are not many wine or spirit explorers on this ship. I would think on a ship with over 2,000 passengers that there would be enough wine and spirit lovers to hold these events, especially when the one today only required 4 participants. There were plenty of people at the $35 Fine Wine Tasting event and the $29 International Wine Tasting event, but I guess most people on this ship are just not willing to pay $80 and up for a tasting event. I don't gamble in the casino or buy artwork, jewelry, or anything else on the ship, so these wine and spirit tastings are my only vice and thus don't mind paying whatever they charge for them. However, the wine dinners are a different story. I'll pay whatever it costs for wine and spirit tastings, but not necessarily the food that goes along with them at the dinners. We did sign up for the Super Tuscan Lunch as I love Super Tuscan wines even more than Chianti's, I love Italian food and $60 is not much for a wine pairing lunch. But for now I'm passing on the $140 Camus Dinner and the $120 Stanley Whole Lamb Dinner. Those are per person prices. I wonder if enough signed up for those or if they had to cancel those also. I'll give some thought to signing up for one or both of those on the second part of this cruise.
The Sapphire Princes has a very serious Piazza problem. They start live music in The Piazza in early afternoon and have live music pretty much throughout the day. But there is very little seating in The Piazza. We've found it impossible to ever find a seat in The Piazza. The Sapphire Princess has the smallest amount of seating in The Piazza of any Princess ship we have ever been on, and almost none of the adjacent venues have a view of The Piazza stage.
Considering how many events are held in The Piazza, these events really should be held somewhere else where there is far more seating. The Princess Sapphire does have many more underused venues with far more seating where these events should be held to allow many more passengers to enjoy these events all day. The first place that comes to mind is the Skywalker Bar. That is a very big venue that seats far more than The Piazza and rarely has any events scheduled until 10pm in the evening. That would be a perfect place for these all day events. The Skywalker Bar also has a fantastic 180 degree view out the front of the ship. I've look at the design of some of the newer Princess ships and they have increased the size of The Piazza tremendously. But considering that this older Princess ship has an extremely inadequate size for The Piazza, they really should move these all day events elsewhere. My wife and I just cross off every event that is held in The Piazza knowing there will be no seating available. For us, that means there are no live music events that we can attend until evening.
In all of our prior Princess cruises we have always been able to make dinner reservations the night before or even the morning of each day. On this cruise, it is extremely hard to find any dinner reservation slots for any day for the rest of the cruise. I really don't know why that is considering there are less than 3,000 passengers on this cruise and they have 5 Main Dining Rooms. My wife and I like private dining at a table for 2. That is almost able to get on this cruise unless reservations were made far in advance of boarding this ship. We've never before had a problem getting a private table on a Princess cruise, even walking in with no reservation. I don't know what the problem is, but I think it is something Princess should resolve.
You might think I'm crazy rating the Sapphire Princess with so many problems as my current "Favorite Cruise Ship", but I think its advantages outweight its problems, which are many. Previously, our favorite cruise ship was the Carnival Splendor that operated out of Long Beach (Los Angeles), California. We took many Mexican Riviera cruises and one round-trip Hawaii cruise on that ship. We even too its final repositioning cruise from Los Angeles to Singapore on it, where it was refurbished and then sent to its new home port in Sydney, Australia. What I super like about the Sapphire Princess is that every lounge is huge. Someone said the Explorers Lounge is too small. The Explorers Lounde is not small at all. It does fill up when there is a popular performance making it hard to find a seat, but it is still a very big lounge compared to what is found on most newer cruise ships. My wife and I will no longer cruise on either NCL or Royal Caribbean as we have found their venues way too small for the music performances in the bars. The new ships of both of those cruise companies are huge but they have made their bars that feature live music way too small. If you don't arrive at least an hour before a performance you'll be standing if you can fit into the lounge at all. Every Princess ship we have ever been on has had much larger lounges compared to these other cruise lines. That is why we are loyal Princess cruises, and the Sapphire Princess is my favorite ship as I have never found so many very large lounges on any other cruise ship, or so many live music performers on any other cruise.
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