Sapphire Princess Sydney to Auckland February 2008 Cruise
Sapphire Princess Cruise 2/2/08-2/14/08
Sydney to Auckland
My wife and I, along with a few friends had planned this trip for almost a year, and I can tell you we were really looking forward to it. I am sharing some experiences with you, and hope you enjoy the commentary. Let me know what you think!
This trip we decided to do nothing but carry-on luggage, and to a big degree it was a huge success, except in Auckland which I will get into later. We were picked by Jeff (one of our other travel partners) and after a small sip of scotch to celebrate, we started our way to Sydney. DFW wasn’t too busy, even though the winds were 50-60 MPH…It was very convenient to use the American Airlines self service booth to print our tickets from Dallas to Los Angeles, and from LA to Sydney. Easy process. Security took a little longer when we got in the line for the individual booth that blows air on you to see if you are carrying something you shouldn’t. After a quick bite at Champps we were boarding the plane for our first leg. When we landed in LA we had a 3 hour wait which went by pretty quick, but we were getting tired as well. Finally, we boarded Quantas flight 12 and it appeared things were fine until a drunk and disorderly Aussie was escorted off the plane which took only 5 minutes. What took 45 minutes more, was the process needed to get his baggage out of the luggage hold. Not a good way to start, especially with a 14 ½ hour flight coming up, but what can you do about it.
Immediately upon sitting down, I took an Advair and basically slept for 4 hours until my wife nudged me for dinner, and I think it was good??? Then I went right back to sleep for another 5 hours so I was all set to go. Landing at Sydney was easy, and I could see the Opera House off into the distance. Customs was easy to breeze through, but the quarantine process was a mess. Our friends went right through, but we had to stand in line for about 45 minutes to go through the lines. From here, it was time for the Princess Transfer process to start, right? It took them 30 more minutes to get the group together, and were escorted outside for our bus. Did I say Bus? It didn’t show up for at least 30 minutes but when we finally boarded, we were ready to go to the hotel. Wait, we needed to sit there for another 10 minutes for someone else. It wouldn’t have been too bad if the bus had air conditioning, but it wasn’t working. No real big deal, but we had no windows to open. Anyway, we finally were on our way to the Hotel Intercontinental.
As part of a pre-cruise package, we chose this hotel since it was relatively close to the pier, and it was. Very nice place to spend a few days, but we arrived at 10:00, very tired, but weren’t allowed to check in until 3:00. Our friends got a room but was told on the side that Princess doesn’t want the rooms released until 3:00? No reason why, but what can you do? So, we walked to the Quay and found an ATM close to the Opera House and headed off to the oldest pub in Sydney called the Fortune of War on George’s Street. It looked like a wake in the place, so we moved on and found “The Orient Hotel” a nice place for lunch and a pint! On the way back to the Intercontinental we stopped at the Wine Warehouse to get a few bottles for our trip, and after seeing the wines I asked for the “Value” wines. The gentlemen pointed us to the $14-20 bottles so we got a few and hoped for better pricing at the wineries we planned on visiting. Back to the hotel by 2:30 and the room still was not ready. My wife went to a different desk and immediately got a key. Go figure. At this point there was a total lack of coordination from Princess, and the staff at the hotel was not at all friendly. But, we were not going to allow anyone to put a kibosh on any fun we were going to have. We found time to rent a car for the following day to drive to Hunter Valley and see the 120+ wineries and the concierge was happy to get that done for us.
Day 2… We were ready to go to the wine country and left about 8:45, hoping to miss most of the city traffic. WRONG! Got on Highway 1 and headed north where it did rain most of the way. We found our way to the exit, and stopped at the Freeman Dairy Bar where we met the most incredible woman who was selling some crafts, and she filled us in on where we needed to go to get to the information center. We found the valley around noon, and stopped for an Irish Pub lunch, then tasted wine from a dozen wineries, but the prices were soooo high so we stopped in town to ask where we should go, and were told Wooly’s. Found out later it was Woolworth’s Liquor store where we stocked up on wine for our cruise.
We turned the car in back at the hotel, and strolled to Zia Pena’s for perhaps the best pizza I have ever had. The spicy pepperoni was outstanding! Strolled the Quay for ice cream and headed back to the hotel.
Day 3… We both got up at 3:30 am but didn’t venture out until 6:00 where we walked by the Quay. Beautiful first thing in the morning and we could see the Sapphire Princess tied to the pier. It sure looked HUGE. Checkout at the hotel was very confusing. Princess had 3 rooms at the hotel for information, all on different floors saying different things. Since we had a transfer, we wanted to know when we would leave, and one said 11:30, one noon, and the other had no idea. After all, they would have 11 buses taking people to the ship. So, we just walked over to the ship with our carry on luggage, and left our other bags with Princess. We lined up at the pier about 11:00 and were among the first to get on the ship by 11:45, after having our bags x’rayed and other details attended to. This part of the process was smooth as silk. After check-in we grabbed a quick bite at the Horizon court, and left the ship to walk through the local street fair and under the Harbour Bridge. We decided on a mini-suite on Dolphin Deck, Port side room 202 towards the front of the ship. 73 degrees and beautiful. Upon our return, I took an hour or so just to get oriented on this big ship.
For dinner we went to the Santa Fe restaurant where my cousin (was on the ship a few weeks earlier) suggested we see Rita, who totally took care of us and we had a wonderful meal. Following that we attended the mandatory muster, drink in hand, and the boat slipped out of Sydney Harbour. Beautiful start to the cruise!
Day 4, a sea day. It was off to breakfast at the International Dining Room. Since this ship is bigger than we are used to, it took a few days to understand that we needed to go to deck 7 to go aft to get the elevator to 4. The wait staff here was grumpy and slow, and the food did not measure up to what we saw on the Coral the previous year (this is a recurring theme throughout the cruise so I won’t harp on it anymore, maybe).
After letting the food settle, I made my way to the Fitness Center where it was amply supplied with stationary bikes and weights, my choice of exercise equipment. After this we tried a few trivia games, and paddle tennis above the Lotus Spa. We really enjoyed the Lotus Spa pool as well. Adults only pool with a resistance button which can be set. GREAT workout then into one of the 2 hot tubs right next to it. Wonderful….. We also tried the Line Dancing lessons, but it was too crowded, but the wives continued on. One more trivia that afternoon but we didn’t do very well. The questions were the same as the previous week, and a few people did a back to back cruise and I guess they wanted to win the nice luggage tags they gave away. It was still fun though, knowing how much you really don’t know. Bingo at Club Fusion every sea day, and we lost $40 each and every one of them. Came close, but no cigar. We also tried the mini golf, bit it was impossible to do much on the putting surface. I believe the person who put this in never has done this before. We gave up after 9 holes and didn’t go back. We found a sanctuary on deck 18 and it was called Skywalkers Nightclub. During the day for the first 5 days there was nobody up there. We would take our drinks and head there to play cards. It overlooked the back of the ship, and was beautiful. This night we went in to the Pacific Rim café, and had a table by the window with our servers Ronald and Erwin. These two guys were tremendous and had all our dinners at this table for the duration of the cruise. The Maitre ‘d was Marcel, who after a few days said we would not be able to have the table due to reservations, but over time we charmed him into moving the party of 90 around us. This is what customer service is all about! We also saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming next to the ship during dinner which helped to make it magical. The first sea day was also the first of two formal nights, but we decided not to make a big deal out of it. With anytime dining, we were always there at 5:30 and left before the majority of “formal people in formal clothes” had their dinner. Just because we didn’t want to participate, it didn’t mean we wanted to get in the way. After dinner, a bottle of wine, game of cards, and finding the best entertainment…Overall, the Princess entertainment team was aloof and non-caring, except for Sam, who was by far the best. I think this may have something to do with the size of the ship, over 3,000 passengers. In a way, we all liked the atmosphere of the Coral Princess much more, and I have booked 10 times more clients on it, rather than the Sapphire since this trip. That’s all for now anyway, I will update this blog next week. So far, what do you think??
PART II
Monday in Melbourne…Named in honor of Lord Melbourne, Prime Minister of England in 1835. Melbourne was Australia’s first capital, and was the first Australian city to host the Olympic Games in 1956.
Our group isn’t one to do many excursions through the Cruise lines, so in Melbourne we took the City Circle Tram around the city. We paid a little to get to the center of town and got off at Flanders Street. Melbourne also has a free shuttle service to most tourist destinations with a very good Tourist center is on the corner of Swanston and Flinders. Some of the highlights were the Immigration Museum, Aquarium, and my favorite, the Old Melbourne Goal (Jail). We took the Ned Kelly Walk and it was absolutely fantastic. This was a self-guided tour which took an hour, and we saw numerous people from the ship, but they paid more since it was a formal excursion. Why not venture out by yourself? We spent a good part of the day exploring some of the back streets in the central city, shopping, and taking the 25 minute ride back to the ship. If you do excursions, the Puffing Billy steam train, is very popular.
Back at the ship (after another quarantine check) we were able to get in Afternoon tea, prior to our early dinner. When all were safely on board, there was a perfect band playing at the Neptune’s Reef Pool, Deck 14. When you depart a city, it’s always special to see the locals in their sail boats and other various watercrafts hailing us as we depart. After dinner, the Piano Man has a very nice performance at the Princess Theater.
Tuesday at sea on our way to Hobart. We ended up hugging the coast line of Australia before entering the Bass Strait where we experienced some adverse current. This is where the current gets narrowed in between Tasmania and the small group of Flinders Islands. I got up at 6:00 am and proceeded to the gym. Although the doors were closed, I found a back way in, and had the whole place to myself. On these sea days, the Casino is very active, and tables galore over the ship selling opals, shirts and other trinkets. Another HUGE crowd at Bingo, and the ship itself seemed like it really did have all 3,000 passengers. I can’t believe they are building even bigger ships, some over 4,000! This day was a little cooler than we expected, but the Lotus Spa Pool was nice, with just a few people, so swimming against the current was in order for a short time. What I was really interested in was the Art Auction. The Princess Patter said “Take advantage of the opportunity to buy fine works of art at a fraction of the price on land”. Being an auction junkie, I wanted to test them on this, so I took careful notes and when I got home, I realized that you are buying the EXPERIENCE of buying art at sea. In most cases, you can save quite a bit, if you buy it at home. Some of the artists work for the cruise lines, so it was hard to find details on some of the artists. eBay itself, had prices 60-70% less than what some of the people paid during this auction. There are a few web sites that discuss art auctions at sea, so I encourage you to look at those, before you sink a lot of money on a piece of art at these auctions.
From here, we went Wine Tasting! Again, I hate to say it, “Ok, but not as nice as the Coral Princess”. For just $9.50, we tasted a variety of wine, but nothing really that good. At the end of it, they announced a “superior” wine tasting event with better wines and champagne, but we decided to pass. Bingo was crowded, and a bust for us as usual, but still a lot of fun.
The Princess Patter did have an interesting to discussions of the origins of the terms “port” and “starboard”. These terms derive from the days before ships were fitted with rudders as a means of steering. In these days, the ship was steered by means of a long, large bladed oar known as the “steer board”. As most sailors were right handed they would stand on the right hand side of the vessel, when facing forward, to steer the ship, and therefore this side became known as the steerboard side. This was then corrupted over the years to become the starboard side. Due to the location of the steering oar on the right hand side of the vessel, to avoid damage to the steering oar, ships would always come alongside a berth with the left hand side to the quay. Therefore this was referred to as the “port” side of the vessel. INTERESTING!
Wednesday Hobart, Tasmania. 61 degrees when we arrive…I thought it was summer? When we pulled into port, you could immediately smell the eucalyptus in the air. We were close to the first to leave the ship, and we walked about half a mile to rent a car for our own tour for the day. Our goal, Port Arthur, a penal colony established in 1830. By 1840, over 2000 convicts, soldiers, and civil staff lived there. During this period of history, convicts at the age of 9 could be transported there from England, but if they were really bad, could be hung at the age of 8! We visited the Isle of the Dead; saw an English Submarine in the harbor (took the 20 minute harbor tour). Other highlights included the Point Puer Boys’ Prison, and you could spend the whole day here if you wanted to.
From here, we drove out and stopped at the Tessellated Pavement which was on the way. This looks like a pattern on the rocks, that looks man made, but it is all natural. If it wasn’t on the way, we probably wouldn’t have stopped. While driving Tasmania, it is amazing the amount of road kill. Wallabies I believe, and it reminded me of part of Texas with the armadillos! Right before we returned to the ship, we stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park to see wildlife of all nature, along with a Koala, the famous Devil, and more. Took the car back, and walked back to the ship in a rainstorm.
One of the coolest things was the Tasmania Police Pipe Band that serenaded us in the theater, due to the rain. Regardless, this is a NOT TO BE MISSED event, if you ever get the chance. They were absolutely wonderful. After dinner, we went to one of the lounges with a bottle of wine we brought on board, and was told by one of the wait staff, “You can’t do that”! I just explained to him he doesn’t need to be so rude, so he ended up bringing us 4 glasses and just walking away.. We were at the Explorers Lounge, taking in the Jeopardy game with the Cruise Staff.
Thursday & Friday at sea so it was filled with workouts, rough seas (7.5-12’ wave action), 33 knot winds, and playing cards overlooking the wake at Skywalkers Lounge, country western trivia that was hard. Do you know Dolly Parton’s middle name? (It’s Rebecca). Throughout the next 2 days, New Zealand Customs and Passport Inspections took place. Since we went to a wildlife park, it took a little longer, but no real issues. A real lazy couple of days.
Saturday -Milford Sound, Thompson Sound, and Dusky Sound/Fjordland. This day started off at 63 degrees with drizzle. Seals, dolphin, trout are surfacing all over the ship as we have breakfast on our balcony. Princess brought on a naturalist and announced in the public areas, all the highlights. Hard to hear in the room, but that is to be expected. There had been a pretty good drought, but you could still see some of the waterfalls, but certainly not as many during a regular season. Morning trivia was so full, there were quite a few people sitting on the ground. Not much to do outside due to weather conditions. We made the most of it though, and did Line Dancing, Scattergories, that darned bingo, and more. Once again, I did the Art auction with free champagne and mimosas, but it is pretty cheap stuff, so I stayed away. Once again, I just observed, and jotted down some prices that I found out weren’t that good. My feeling is that if you like it, that’s fine, just don’t buy it as an investment (that was a pitch, so I hope you don’t buy for that reason)! All the show venues were quite full, and the juggler/comedian wasn’t that good or funny, but it’s a good time anyway.
Sunday, Port Chalmers/Dunedin, it was pretty rough. Nothing to be concerned about since it is a big ship, so actually it was kind of fun! Dunedin spreads out over the hills at the head of one of the country’s loveliest harbors….A Kiwi city with Scottish Heart, and is nicknamed the “Edinburgh of the South”. Dunedin itself is quite impressive. We took a shuttle bus to the town center ($15) and took the bus tour around the city for another $20 and it was a hop-on, hop-off. Highlights included a TERRIFIC Tour of Speight’s Brewery, with free beer tasting at the end. Prior to that we had lunch right next door at The Ale House. Much better food here than on the ship! (I’ll stop nagging about the food now). Speight’s has a fresh water tap that allows local residents to fill up their containers free for the freshest water I have ever tasted. Just walking around the city was very pleasant and relaxing, with a terrific visitors center just full of information. They do it right here...Other stops that were interesting were the Gardens, Otago Museum, Cadbury World, Railway Station, and Baldwin Street, which is the world’s steepest street. We didn’t stop at the Botanic Garden, but it looked impressive. One thing we didn’t do, but heard was terrific was the Pacific Coast Railway. We missed the Royal Albatross Colony and Yellow-eyed Penguin Reserve…ran out of time, so back to the ship for an uneventful evening while we make our way through the Canterbury Bright, towards the Banks Peninsula and our next port of call, Lyttleton.
Monday Christchurch/Lyttelton. You don’t have to go to England to punt down the Avon River, you can do it here, and we did! It was a 30 minute ride, and even though it was shallow, it was still nice. You can walk right up, but we did wait about 30 minutes. This reminded me so much of England, with the fantastic gardens, double-decker bus, and Gothic Cathedrals. There was a free shuttle to Lyttleton where we picked up a bus (make sure you take the #18) to the city center. Cost here was about $20.00 round trip. From here we climbed the Cathedral’s winding steps (134 total) in the steeple and got a nice view of the city. Christchurch is known as the “most English city outside of England” and I can understand why. We had lunch at Monteith’s, good food and beer, at a good price! Don’t miss the Botanic Gardens. It’s an easy walk from Cathedral Square and has BEAUTIFUL plants, and trees brought from England in 1876. This is all FRE! From here we took the bus back, but stopped at the Christchurch Gondola and took it to the Summit where we had a 360 degree view over the Canterbury Plains, the high peaks of the Southern Alps, the Banks Peninsula, Lake Ellesmere, and the Lyttelton Harbour. The price on this was $22 NZ Dollar, and well worth it. Once back in Lyttelton, we couldn’t pass up buying a few bottles of wine to bring back on board for our final leg of the trip. That evening, we stayed up and attended the Skywalker’s Club, after the champagne waterfall, and had a great time with the Pop Icons and 1 Hit Wonders show.
Tuesday, at sea, usual work out in the morning, sprinkled with trivia and a TERRIFIC Culinary Demonstration. Princess has these on most sailings, and I highly recommend it. This was followed by a tour of the Galley, again, terrific. Did you know that the Sapphire serves 300 pounds of shrimp a day, and 2,100 pounds of beef? The afternoon was filled with the ice carving demonstration, bingo, line dancing, completed by the 5k non-profit Walk for the Cure where money is raised for the Susan G. Kolman for the Cure Foundation. Very relaxing day.
Wednesday, Tauranga, New Zealand. WHAT A PORT in the Bay of Plenty. We left the ship in search of a car to hire, or rent for the day. One cab wanted $400 for a half day, another wanted $500. We ended up renting a car for $145 for the whole day, and spent $27 on gas. By far, the best way to see this beautiful city! The leasing agent gave up a good map, good directions and detailed instructions on the return. We started by taking highway 2 out of town, on our way to Rotorua, the oldest and best known resort city in the country, and its thermal pools. Mother Nature created a geothermal wonderland here, and the smells of brimstone was very strong. We ended up at the Whakarewarewa Village, also known as the Living Thermal Village. A true Maori experience. The cost of admission was $27 each, and included a corn on the cob that was actually cooked in the pools. We spent half the day here, just marveling at the whole experience with steam rising everywhere, boiling mud, geysers, and sulphur ringed steaming ponds. From here, we traveled to the Green and Blue Lake, and Kiwi Land. When we got back, we had a chance for a brief visit to one of the very nice beaches that are walking distance from the ship. I wish we had 2 days here since the weather was perfect! Back to the ship, and packing for our final night.
Thursday, Auckland, the City of Sails. It’s Valentine’s Day, so the Horizon Court and atrium was decorated beautifully. Disembarkation was late, but fairly organized. We actually did a tour of the Maritime Museum, harbor tour, and bus tour of the city. Some of the sights were Mt. Eden, where you could see Harbour to Harbour with cows roaming, Old Burial Grounds, and the city sights. Princess charged quite a bit for this, and it was just ok. If you price in the cab fare to the airport, it worked out pretty well though. By 1:30 we were done, so they dropped us of at the Crown Plaza Hotel, before our transport to the airport. Lunch here as about $50 for a club sandwich….After our 2 hour wait, 7 buses took us to the airport for an extensive check in process that included a $50 charge to leave the country. Here is where our carry on luggage caused a problem. At the ticket counter everything was fine. After our 10 min walk to security, they weighed our bag and told us we needed to check it. So, we went back, and waited another 30 minutes to do just that. When we went back to security, they were no longer weighing ANYTHING! Timing is everything I guess. Good flight to LA, and back to Dallas, where one again I slept most of the way. Next stop, Alaska with Princess in August!
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Thank you for your time, and Louise and I hope things are going well for you and your family!
Kind Regards,
Tom