As someone who spends her days discovering and reviewing places to vacation and honeymoon, it does make it incredibly hard to choose where I spend my time away for my personal vacations. This past November we decided to travel with our families to Mexico to enjoy a cruise down the Pacific coast. Since we were heading out with our parents, we wanted a vacation that would be accommodate all of our ages and keep us together to still feel like a family vacation. We didn’t have a lot of time to plan and knowing that we wanted to visit LA, we had an idea of where to look and with the trip around the corner we searched cruises and booked the first one we found that fit the time frame we knew we had.

The Princess Sapphire
That being said we booked the Sapphire Princess Mexican Riviera 7 day cruise. We booked a variety of suites for our group; we had two Penthouse Suites and two mini suites. It was great to see the difference in rooms and if you have never cruised before then you know you will want to spend the extra money to get a room with a balcony, it makes a huge difference. And if you like space, you will want to book the biggest room your budget allows.

The Portinfino Suite
We flew private out of NJ the morning of the cruise, so we were not concerned about missing the boat or being late, however with airports and security as tight as they are today, you need to leave plenty of time! Remember, the BOAT does not wait for anyone. If your flight is more then 5 hours and the window is very close to the final boarding time, you should consider traveling the night before to ensure you do not miss the boat. ALL cruisers should also know that you can usually board the ship much earlier then the paperwork says, so you will want to be at the ship on time, if not earlier! The best way to check this is to call the ship and ask them what time they are going to be letting passenger’s board. You will also want to ask if your room comes with any special boarding time or VIP service. We landed with a few hours to spare, so we had brunch and arrived at the boat in time for the VIP boarding offered with our suite.

Our Deck Chairs
VERY IMPORTANT. When you book your cruise you must take the insurance. If you wake up the week you are going on a cruise with an upset stomach, cold, flu or anything contagious, you risk being quarantined in your room for your entire trip. You will be asked, the second you arrive at the dock, to fill out a health questionnaire. You need to be honest here, but be reasonable, if you have a headache and travel has you feeling nauseated and exhausted do not put that down! You only have to put down if you have a virus, flu, or anything that can be contagious and if you do, you should consider postponing your cruise. A week in your room with no outside contact can really ruin a trip.

After boarding the ship, which was flawless and easy, even with the brief security check and a short line, we were on the ship and heading to our room. We were very happy with our room, The Portifino Suite, and were thrilled to find chocolate covered strawberries in our room in addition to a complimentary mini bar set up with both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. Our room was spacious with a sitting area, two TV’s and had an amazing balcony with a table for four in addition to two lounge chairs. Our suite also had a large bathroom with shower and a great Jacuzzi tub. Also, with the Penthouse suites you are welcome to take advantage of the boats DVD library in addition to in suite balcony dining. Taking a suite on a boat like this can be the difference on how you enjoy your cruising experience and for your honeymoon or special occasion, shop around and splurge for the room.

Sunset from our room
My overall experience on the ship was quite disappointing & a bit frustrating. When I think about the best part of the cruise, aside from spending time with our family, it was our suite. To list all the items that were disappointing would become cumbersome and honestly get me aggravated all over again. However, with interest to those planning a cruise, I will list a few things so you can avoid them should you decide to take a cruise, and more importantly a Princess Cruise.
1) You will want to plan your evenings and days in advance. Do not rely on the ships entertainment and schedule. We were shocked to find out that although it was listed in the Princess Patter, it would not mean it was guaranteed to happen. On more then three occasions we went to scheduled events and were told they were canceled and or to just find an empty room.
2) Should you be up past midnight, the food at the buffet was not edible and the only entertainment on the ship is the disco. So if are not willing to sit in at an empty disco listening to loud music, you should plan to play some cards or a game together.
3) They spent more time trying to sell us on additional items i.e. wine tastings, art auctions, photos & food items not included in your package then they did on entertaining the guests with what they paid for.
4) In the past when I was on a cruise ship, I always looked forward to the cruise director and being entertained with the traditional not-so-newly -wed game show and other fun shows, however on this ship not only did we not see the cruise director, his assistant was so obnoxious it was the talk of the boat. Making it near impossible to sit through any of his shows.
I could go on and on with lists of things we felt were wrong, but I think you catch my drift. What was the most discouraging thing about this entire vacation was that after our cruise experience I tried to contact Princess to ask them questions and see what they had to say for this and to check if this was just a rare occurrence or unique to this particular voyage. However, I was told that any problems I had should be put in writing and in 4 to 6 weeks I would, possibly, hear back from someone regarding this! I was completely taken back that they spend so much money and time to get people on the ship but take so little effort to care for any customers after leaving. I didn’t let this stop me, I even put a call into the director in charge of customer service to ask if I could speak to her before I wrote my review to give them the opportunity to explain why things went so differently then I expected. However after two calls and no call back, I assumed that it is not important enough for them to handle individual problems.
My purpose for this blog is to make anyone aware before they travel that you NEED to do your homework before you book and be your own travel advocate.
Ask for:
1) Copies of what entertainment is usually like on board
2) A sample of the itineraries and ship details
3) Take nothing for granted, ask as many questions as possible and more importantly be sure to be aware of what your package includes to make sure you get it! Once you are on the ship you won’t remember what was part of your deal and what was not!
4) Before you book, you should investigate what the cruise lines customer service policy is before you book! If it is 4 ~ 6 weeks till someone addresses your issues, you can assume that they are to inundated with complaints to keep up or they simply do not care.
5) You will want to ask your room steward to explain how things work on the first day.
6) Arrange your post travel arrangements BEFORE the trip and do not rely on the cruise ships Internet. At 5am on the last day of our trip we went to confirm our car service on line and when we had no more Internet we were told the cruise was over and Internet was over. We still had 5 hours to disembark and no way to confirm our arrangements. It was a real frustrating moment.
Not everything about this trip was a bust for example we took some of the excursions the ship offered and we were thrilled with the service and arrangements of each one. In addition to that, we enjoyed the ships food, aside from the midnight buffet, and found that he dining selections were way above average and the wait staff at our table was wonderful. Would I ever go on a cruse again, yes there is no doubt? However, the bad taste left in my mouth from no return call or a care that we were unhappy left me certain to never board a Princess Ship again.

In Puerta Vallarta on a ship excursion as a dolphin trainor for the day!