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Sapphire Princess - Sydney to Auckland |
| Reviewed By: Fryer, Southampton on 10th May 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Princess Cruises |
Times cruised before: 10+ |
| Cruise Ship: Sapphire Princess |
Sailed:
October,
2008 |
| Destination: Australasia |
Age: 56-65 |
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After spending 3 glorious sunny days in Sydney (What a City!!!), we left Sydney to spend a day at sea before arriving in Melbourne on Easter Sunday. Although a Holiday Weekend, with most of the shops closed, there was still plenty to do in the city. We spent most of our time at the pretty Botanical Gardens (free entry). The next day we were in Hobart, Tasmania (we had an interesting town tour). Two more days at sea saw us off the spectacular west coast of the South Island, New Zealand, where we spent the whole day cruising through Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound and Dusky Sound. Then it was on to Dunedin on New Zealand's east coast (where we had a small boat cruise to see the Royal Albatross colony - excellent), Christchurch (we did the tram and city tour), Tauranga (where we visited a Kiwi fruit farm) and finally ending in Auckland.
The cruise was 12 nights long altogether, and the seas throughout were mostly calm, and the weather generally warm and sunny.
Having done a number of cruises previously we found The Sapphire Princess to be a very good ship. It was very clean, the crew were friendly and helpful. We had booked on "Anytime Dining" which worked very well for us. This meant we were not restricted to fixed mealtimes and had the choice of 4 different themed restuarants in the evening and the International Restuarant for lunch (none of these restuarants were ever over busy), and also the excellent buffet (which was open for 24 hours). There were also 2 other restuarants in the evening where an additional fee was applied.
The entertainment on board was very good quality with a excellent theatre and a spacious showlounge.
We had a balcony cabin which was larger than the average we've been used to, which had plenty of storage room.
We found that embarkation/disembarkation at the beginning and end of the cruise and for port days was very efficient.
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, and would definitely consider a Princess cruise in the furure.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| We ate mostly in the buffet, and least in the additional fee restuarants. We ate mostly salads and chicken meals and least burgers and hot dogs. | | Entertainment | |
| The stage productions were the most enjoyable. There were no shows we didn't like. | | Shore Excursions |  |
| All the excursions were good, but the most enjoyable was the albatross colony at Dunedin. | | Staff | |
| Our room steward was brillant. | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities | |
| Yes | | Cabins | |
| Yes | | Overall Rating | |
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