Stops were due in Cai Lan,Da Nang and Phu May in Vietnam, Laem Chabang and the island of Koh Samui in Thailand. We had three other overnight stops in ports besides Hong Kong and Singapore too.
Plenty of time to reacquaint ourselves with the Sapphire Princess then! Once again we chose an inside cabin to minimise costs, we wouldn't spend much time in there anyway. Claire is happier on a sun bed up on deck and I like to keep an eye out for wildlife both over the sea and under it!
It appeared , well so we learned, the Sapphire Princess had been sub let to a Chinese company for the previous couple of months and that explained why the crew , many of who were newly on board, needed training and lots of the provisions, particularly alcoholic ones were in short supply. No excuse as far as we were concerned though, we expected the "Premium Cruising' advertised in the brochure.
The ship carries nearly 3000 passengers but what became immediately apparent was there was huge group on board who were all disciples of some health drink additive . The owner of the South American company had paid for 600 of his employees across South and Central America to take this 2 week cruise. Lucky them!
When you pay for that many people I guess you can make demands too. For a start two of the four restaurants allocated to "anytime dining" were reserved for their guests making it difficult for everyone else to find space in the remaining two. Why? Because it seemed the majority of the 600 preferred to go to the self service buffet where you could eat yourself stupid if you wanted to and many of them did. Hardly a good advert for their health additive as many were quite obese. Anyway, it took a few days for the ship's management to work out why two restaurants were empty and lots of folk were getting fed up waiting for a table elsewhere.
To be honest the management was a bit of a joke and I witnessed a constant queue at the customer service desk for the duration of the cruise.
It wasn't just the management though they were probably to blame for so much. They just weren't organised.
The day we sailed from Hong Kong we had a queue through the ship that took 45 minutes to complete just to hand passports in for immigration procedures.
You could put up with the fact the ship is starting to look tired, it is due a refit very soon, overall it's still quite impressive.
Walk around open decks and an enclosed one too.
Although it was always closed when the weather was poor as the floor was too slippery when wet I presume.
Most passengers seemed to prefer to lounge around in the middle of the ship where the open air cinema is situated.
as well as two larger swimming pools. one outdoors and one enclosed.
Personally the loudspeakers were so loud I preferred to stick to the peace and quiet at the rear of the ship.
In fact we had chosen a cabin for the convenience of being near to here and also to the buffet for breakfast.
Last time we were near the front and believe it or not it would take 10-15 minutes to nip back to the cabin.
Like most cruise ships there is entertainment of sorts laid on. The theatre shows in the evening weren't enticing enough to make me look for a seat but there were few to be had so some must enjoy them.
The casino is always interesting to have a wander through.
I haven't a clue how to operate a slot machine but it looks a bit boring
I didn't risk the card tables because I know I would lose more than I wanted to. It's addictive!
Anyway, they allow smoking in there so i didn't want to hang around too long as it stinks in there!
Most of the enrichment classes though were aimed at getting you to spend money in some guise or other. Photography tips were aimed at getting you to buy a camera or a personal photo session, lectures about cruise destinations were to sell trips, even the one on bad backs that I attended in the hope of finding out why mine hurts was with the object of selling you some heavily discounted insoles for your shoes reduced from $299 to $199. Really? You can buy similar at home for $30.
Some people can't do without shops though. there were several expensive ones around the centre of the ship for those who needed to spend
I wasn't bothered about being entertained though, happy to entertain myself looking for wildlife. Even that was in short supply though. During the entire cruise I saw three Red-footed Booby.
That one gave great views too!
On our last trip we did at least have a few stowaways, this time just two Wagtails that made the trip from Hong Kong to Vietnam.
but other than two Barn Swallows flying around the ship as we neared Singapore there were no other birds to be seen. On the sea on our very last day we saw a small school of whales, possibly Pilot whales and soon after a shoal of Tuna breaking through the surface of the water too. No photos though as I didn't have the camera!
Overall I can't say I was over inthralled with the ship this time around. I guess what really made the difference though was the food wasn't as good. Most things were perfectly acceptable, they were just that though. Uninspiring and I would struggle to tell you anything I ate 8 weeks after the event! I wasn't alone in my opinion either, it was surprising how many people were commenting about how nice the freshly made pizzas at the snack bar were.
Yes, they were good but it's not what you want to remember a cruise by is it!
TBC
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