We wanted to do something special – getting married being one of those things considered worthy enough to warrant something special, after all – and so we had a travel agent arrange for us to fly out to China in order to undertake a cruise on the Diamond Princess. We knew people who’d got married and spent a fortnight on a beach somewhere tropical but beaches bore us senseless. We knew we wanted to go abroad, we knew we wanted to experience the history and culture there when we did, and when we saw this cruise itinerary we knew that the chance to visit and get a taste for a lot of countries in one go was absolutely perfect. Princess Cruises had an option to spend three days before the cruise in Beijing with a number of excursions included and we eagerly took up the offer.

To give you some idea about how excited we were to be visiting a foreign country after all this time together the first photo I took was from the coach ride from the airport to the hotel and it’s of a parked car near a road toll gate. Other thrilling photos from the ride to the hotel include construction work and busy roads so make sure you’re seated before viewing them below.

The hotel that we stayed at was the Great Wall Sheraton.

We were handed our keycard and checked in.

You can see the view from our room in the video below (edit: no you can’t, as I’ve removed it for now). You’ll also be able to see some of Beijing’s famous smog against the buildings in the distance. We could tell that there was smog in Beijing but it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as we’d been led to believe, although that may partly be because our visit was just a few months after the 2008 Olympics had taken place when there’d been a concerted effort to reduce pollution in the Chinese capital.

After seeing the prices for food in the hotel restaurant we decided to eat elsewhere in the evenings during our stay and you can read about that in a separate post on Beijing Restaurants.

We only did a little bit of exploring in the area around the Great Wall Sheraton; the novelty of a foreign trip, our generally cautious nature, and the extremely different culture in the country we were visiting being contributing factors in our lack of bravery there. We’ve got a lot better since this first spot of overseas travelling. We even found an Irish pub in Beijing not far from our hotel and never went in! To be fair, it would have felt wrong to travel to China and do so at the time but, again, that’s very unlike how we are these days where the thought of visiting a place like that in a location like that appeals to us.

Not far from the hotel was a river with a bridge over it. This are made for some pleasant evening walks, especially so when the bats would come out and fly around.

We also had an encounter with a local Chinese man in this spot. His English was flawless and he asked a lot of questions about where we came from which we were happy to share and talk about. It was when he asked if we wanted to follow him to a little art shop down a small alley that we started making some excuses about finishing our walk first. There was probably nothing nefarious in his suggestion at all – we certainly came away from China with the impression that it was a very safe place for foreigners to visit – and it was likely exactly what it now seems like: an attempt to sell some art at inflated prices to rich, foreign travellers. If only we’d actually been rich and less timid we might have come back with an interesting souvenir of our time in Beijing.

We enjoyed our stay in the Great Wall Sheraton, Beijing, and our only regret is that we didn’t make more notes and take more photos at the time. We’d have no hesitation in returning and we’d probably be more likely to try the food in the restaurant as well as explore more of the nearby area should that ever happen.

On a couple of nights we dined at the restaurant next door. The first night’s meal was something specially made for the tourists – dried cod, cured shark, pickled herring, lamb testicles, lamb blood pudding, guillemot, foal, and minke whale, all washed down with Black Death schnapps – and it was… okay. Guillemot I would eat again. Minke whale I would not.

I didn’t have my proper camera on me when we went to the restaurant but we were quite amazed to see (considering we were in a bright parking lot next to the hotel and main road) the aurora bright in the sky above us. I managed to capture a shot on my phone which surprised even me.

We knew from our previous day in Vietnam that the country was hot and humid and we also knew that the coach ride to the tunnels would take around four hours. We’d assumed that the coach would be air conditioned. We assumed wrongly. Four hours in a mobile oven with a bottle of water and a moist towelette and with a couple of rest stops (not that there were any fluids to excrete out that hadn’t already escaped in the form of sweat) with the interesting Vietnamese countryside passing by…

We eventually reached the tunnels and set off for a walk into the jungle area, home of many battles in the Vietnam war. We saw bomb craters, remnants of war machinery, and spike pits, and listened to the guide telling us about the tunnels, the people who lived in them, the way they cooked and sent the smoke away from the tunnels to avoid exposure, stories of Americans going insane when pursuing the enemy below ground, and even how an American base was built right on top of a tunnel entrance allowing the Viet Cong to eavesdrop on plans.

We got to see a local enter one of the tunnels showing just how small they were – none of us could possibly have fitted down it – before we were invited to take a trip through a “widened for Westerners” tunnel for ourselves.

There were two coaches on this trip with around eighty tourists on board. How many of us took up the offer to climb down the tunnels? Eight. Including me and my wife, naturally. The tunnel was almost pitch black; you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face but there were occasional low lights along the route. These were needed so you could see where there were ledges to drop down and also used to provide some excitement by lighting up dummy soldiers hidden in recesses along the tunnel. Moving along the tunnels needed to be done in a crablike crouching manner. It was a fantastic experience but no less cooler below ground than it had been above and the exertion left us with rivers of sweat pouring as we emerged several minutes later to rejoin those who hadn’t bothered with the adventurous portion of the excursion.

There was an opportunity to fire weapons from the Vietnam War era taken up by many people but I didn’t bother for the two reasons that guns don’t really interest me and I didn’t trust I’d be able to hold onto any weapon due to my damp hands. We left the tunnels and headed southwards to the northern outskirts of Ho Chi Minh city where we stopped at the lovely Ben Nay restaurant situated on an island between two rivers. The views and food were lovely but it was the cool beers that we fell in love with; our meal came with a drink included which barely touched the sides but when someone on our shared table asked if it was possible to buy another one and discovered how cheap it was we all flooded the waiters with more beer orders. I think we probably had three each and several bottles of water.

We finished up with another sweltering coach trip back towards Vung Tau and the beautiful air conditioning on the Diamond Princess with more of the occasionally chaotic but still fascinatingly attractive views of the Vietnamese landscape to view on the journey.

For two-nighter taster cruises on P&O if you book with CPS (and we did) you simply park your car in the designated car park and walk into the terminal. We were due to embark at 15:00 but I like to leave early not to try to get on board ahead of time but just to make sure traffic problems don’t cause pre-cruise heart attacks. Subsequently, we arrived at 14:10, got out of the car, and quickly snapped a shot of Oriana from the phone as we staggered through the cold with our single carry-on bag.

It’s quite amazing just how much luggage some people carry for a short cruise. We saw couples with medium-sized suitcases plus carry on luggage ahead of us. Anyway, in the terminal, handed a card, filled in our “Yes, we’re healthy (honest)” declaration form, a short wait, then called up, through the proceedings and security, and we were in our cabin, unpacking, and taking photographs by 14:55.

Oriana Cabin B127

Our cabin was B127, starboard side forward, our preferred location on cruise ships. The room was a good size length-wise although it felt a touch narrower than our experiences on other ships. Having a seating area was a nice touch, though unused for this particular cruise, and the additional glasses and surprise of a pair of binoculars were very welcome too, and these were put to the test.

Other cabin facilities were much as you’d expect from any cruise ship – hairdryer in the room, plenty of wardrobe and shelf space, TV – and the staple of P&O cruises in particular was there as well in the form of a kettle for making tea (although we’re not fans of having kettles in the room as it makes it feel more like a hotel and less like a cruise ship; that’s possibly just us).

The bathroom was a very good size and surprised us again (we should probably research these things more to avoid this) as it had a bath and lots of shelf space behind the two angled mirrors. Some of the fittings were a little past their best; the plastic in particular was the yellow side of cream and far from its original white. However, it was all clean, it all did what it needed to do.

The balcony was a very reasonable size but again underused on this particular cruise, although less to do with the duration (we will typically venture onto the balcony before bed to watch and listen to the waves in the dark) and more to do with an aversion to getting hypothermia.

Oriana Theatre

We ducked into the theatre for a quick nose before finding somewhere to grab a first drink. It looked very nice inside although we never attended any shows during the short cruise on Oriana so can’t attest as to the performances therein.

Lord’s Tavern

My wife was on a mission to send a photo to her sister as soon as possible of her drinking as she would still be at work. These things are important. Down to deck seven we found that the Lord’s Tavern pub was one of the few places serving drinks and so grabbed a seat and placed our order. The first beer I wanted was not available which was a disappointment as the ship was in its home port and there really shouldn’t have been any excuse for not being fully stocked. More on that later. We enjoyed our drinks and tried not to think too much about the jingoistic decoration of the venue.

Exploring Top Deck Of Oriana

After muster (held in the casino for us and thankfully very short at around 18 minutes) we decided to take advantage of the availability of the evening light to grab some photos from up top. We headed straight down the corridor outside our room towards the rear of the ship and out onto Oriana’s tiered aft. We didn’t spend much time there because as pretty as it was it was also bitterly cold and filled with the aroma of other passengers gambling with lung cancer.

We then headed forward past deck games, the pools, and people braving the temperature that was dropping along with the sun. There was a crisp feel to the photography conditions and some lovely, long shadows were being cast.

The Crow’s Nest

We weren’t far from the Crow’s Nest lounge at this point so ducked inside out of the cold and headed there for a drink as the ship disembarked Southampton. As it turned out there was a bit of a delay leaving because a container ship needed to get past us first – and it was a huge container ship! – so we ended up with more than the one drink. The photos of the lounge are from the second day when it was quieter but the Crow’s Nest was packed with people at this time, understandably so, and we were told it might take a while for our drinks to arrive. This, we had no problem with at all. We could see it was busy. It was explained to us. We were fine with this. What we weren’t fine with was when the rum flight I’d ordered for our second round was completely wrong and had to be sent back. A short delay and an irritation, yes, but we tried not to let it bother us too much. Also, there was no indication what each of the drinks was; when we’d previously had flights on Azura there were paper coasters telling you what the drinks were and they would have been handy here too.

First Evening Food And Drinks

Showered and changed into somewhat smarter clothing and with the ship finally underway we headed off in search of a pre-dinner drink. This brought us to Tiffany’s at the top of the atrium where my wife had a glass of Argentinian Malbec (we know P&O keep this well and we weren’t disappointed again) and I risked the French red from Olly Smith. We know France just can’t do nice red wine but this was probably the best I’ve had from the country. Once again, P&O and wine are a good mix.

We had freedom dining so wandered down to the dining room once we’d finished, watched as person after person in front of us was handed a buzzer to let them know when a table was free (including a solo traveller), then realised it was because nobody wanted to share a table; we’re always happy to share a table so we were seated immediately with a group of four, two of whom turned out to be from a couple of miles away from us. Small world. Good conversation, very good food, although service was a tad slow and the meal lasted over two hours. We weren’t in a rush to see a show, though, so not really a big problem.

We hit Anderson’s next which we noticed was pretty quiet throughout the weekend aboard Oriana.

We spent the end of the evening next door in Harlequin’s. After initially finding a seat that was apparently invisible to the stewards things picked up after another group left and we nicked their vacant spot closer to the dance floor. The DJ was pretty good and obviously a big fan of mixing. There were three annoyances from our time there that evening: firstly, a couple joined our table (no problem) and then went off to dance while she left her handbag on the table; I know it wasn’t our responsibility and we could have just ignored it but I’m a considerate sort so I ended up staying there, fending off people asking if the vacant seats were taken, and guarding a stranger’s belongings for the next hour with no thanks for the job. Sigh. Secondly, a table of four younger couples next to us included one girl who obviously wanted to dance and wanted everyone else to; they didn’t; she didn’t want to go on the dance floor alone; she danced right beside my face for most of the evening, shouting, waving her arms around; bloody annoying. Sigh. Those two were no fault of P&O but the third one was; for the second time in not many hours the wrong drinks were delivered; this time it was not because they’d just served the wrong drinks but because the steward hadn’t heard us properly; we couldn’t be bothered getting them replaced (not that there was any indication that the steward was going to take responsibility for it) but it was not great. Sigh.

Belgium Shore Excursion

We’d booked a shore excursion called Scenic Villages and Chocolate through P&O. Two posts detailing the beautiful sights we saw on the Saturday of our cruise can be found in the following posts:

• Belgium Excursion: Damme
• Belgium Excursion: Loppem Castle

Oriana Promenade

Our Belgian excursion had us back on the ship by 14:00 so we dropped off the goodies we’d bought back in our room then went for a stroll around the teak promenade of Oriana. While it was wide and the wooden decking was lovely I found the height clearance in places quite low making it a little claustrophobic. For some reason I’d assumed the promenade was a complete wraparound one but that wasn’t the case. The forward section of the promenade was shielded from passengers in order to permit crew access to a pool area while there was no access at all to a wake view. Nevertheless, it was still a pretty pleasant, if achingly cold walk while the ship was docked in Zeebrugge.

Oriana Interior Spaces

Coming in from the cold we popped into some of the mostly empty venues on board for a handful of photographs.

Tiffany’s

We were peckish at this time and we had options available to us but I suggested we head back to Tiffany’s at the top of Oriana’s attractive atrium and grab something from their light bites menu.

This snack would be a small supplement and there weren’t many choices but we figured in the absence of a Glass House venue (present on Azura and Ventura) this might be a close approximation. Oh, how wrong we were!

This is how busy Tiffany’s was:

This is my plate of food that turned up after 45 minutes.

The cutlery had appeared after 20 with an assurance the food was on its way. The condiments had turned up after 30 with an assurance the food was on its way. The steward had passed our table and mentioned the food was being plated after 40. Another couple who had turned up and ordered after us – making them the only other people to order food since our arrival – went back to find out where their food was three times.

And after this wait my food was of a lower standard than something microwaved in a Wetherspoon’s pub. There was so much fat on my minute steak it almost made me gag. My wife’s was worse; it was supposed to be a panini but was a baguette and the one element she was looking forward to – the cheese – was very noticeable by its complete absence. The thought of how long a wait we could expect if we complained meant we scoffed down the barely adequate food as quickly as possible in order to go find a drink to soothe our complete dissatisfaction at this point.

We headed for the Lord’s Tavern as I fancied rehydrating with the volume of a nice beer on account of not drinking anything during our tortuous wait at Tiffany’s. I ordered my beer. My wife ordered an Aspall’s.

Pictured above are the beer I didn’t order and a Bloody Mary. Why’s that? Well, there was no Aspall’s on board.

“Oh, you are fu… I don’t believe this!” exclaimed my wife loudly.

“We’ve got Strongbow,” offered the flinching steward.

“That is not a fu… That is not an alternative for Aspall’s. Just get me a Bloody Mary!”

The steward left. A minute later the steward returned. They didn’t have the beer I’d selected either. For the second time in two days. Oriana’s stock management was an absolute disgrace if this really was supposed to be a taster cruise designed to entice in cruisers on longer trips.

Oriana Formal Night

The second evening on Oriana as she headed back towards Southampton was a formal night. We were pleased to see a large percentage of men in tuxedos; P&O does seem to bring this out in men better in this respect than Princess. Fast becoming a formal night tradition we started the evening with champagne then while my wife had a second glass of fizz I had a Vodka Martini. I always take it with olives until a third of the way down the glass when the olives are removed. The olives are never eaten because olives are nasty. That’s not open for debate.

We were seated immediately for dinner once again as we were happy to share. Our companions this evening were a young couple from Shrewsbury on their third cruise, I believe, with Oriana being the largest vessel they’d been on (as opposed to it being the smallest for us), and a pair of older women travelling together who were veteran cruisers. Conversation was, let’s say, interesting once I’d given the young couple an opening to leave early as they didn’t want dessert. I won’t go into details here but some old-fashioned views may have been hinted at and some clenched fists and gripped knees under the table may have been utilised to stop certain people from saying things they might regret.

The food in the dining room was lovely, again, although the service was slow, again, and we were pushing two and half hours before making an excuse to escape. This time we headed straight for Harlequin’s to people watch. We caught the tail end of a band before the disco and ended up being joined briefly by the foursome we’d had dinner with the night before which was nice but otherwise we made sure we were on a table just for two so that we wouldn’t get stuck looking after someone’s seat or possessions again.

Young People On Oriana

There had been some concern before the cruise (and, indeed, before our other short cruises with P&O) that these taster cruises bring with them a younger crowd and hen or stag parties. We saw no hen or stag groups on board, possibly because P&O have changed their rules in that respect, and only one all-female group who were celebrating a birthday and they were no trouble at all.

There was a good range of ages overall on Oriana and no over-rowdiness from the younger members but where there were groups of six or more young people together there was – without trying to be snobby or fuddy-duddy about this – a lack of cruising etiquette and respect; there was a lack of awareness for how loud they were laughing or shouting in Harlequin’s; there was a complete disregard for the rule about not carrying drinks on the dance floor and I even overheard one person in a group saying loudly “Look, he’s got a drink on the dance floor. Let’s all join him!” before a gang of them went up for a dance with pints in hand. I got this impression that many of them thought they could and should behave as if they were at a club or hotel on a Mediterranean island and everyone was their own age.

Are you a young person going on a cruise with your friends? Please be considerate and aware of who’s around you. That’s all.

Oriana Taster Cruise Conclusions

There were some good and bad things about this short trip. Embarkation, disembarkation, the excursion, the atrium, the promenade deck, variety of lounges, cabin facilities, and general layout were all really good. We had no complaints about the breakfast at buffet (and were able to find seats of both days easily enough) although it’s an area that P&O could improve on in general. Our first impressions on Oriana were overwhelmingly positive and even getting into our cabin on that first day saw my wife beaming and saying how much she really liked what she’d seen so far and what a nice feel the ship had. But there were issues as I’ve said:

• Bar service was slower than it needed to be; there were far more people taking drinks orders than making drinks which meant long waits for a lot of people. To be fair, getting drinks was not an issue for us but we heard some people had to wait 40 minutes for their order.
• Wrong drinks on two occasions. I know things like this happen and if it had just been once then fine but twice makes you wonder just where else people aren’t paying attention properly.
• The Tiffany’s light bites experience was utterly unacceptable. Awful food, the wrong food, and slow for no reason. From our experience I would recommend nobody ever order from there.
• Dreadful stock management. This was marketed as a taster cruise and it was coming out of and into the ship’s home port. There’s simply no excuse for not having the beers and ciders that are printed up in your menus on the ship. Far from being a chance to show off the cruise line and the ship and encourage new cruisers it all just felt a bit like “Well, we’ve got a couple of days to fill between the longer cruises we’re more interested in so let’s just pack some people on for cheap and let them have whatever’s left over from the last trip.”

Those issues, I know, would be things that just wouldn’t happen on another cruise most likely and we were unlucky to have them happen to us. I’ve no doubt other passengers had a perfect time. They did somewhat spoil an otherwise lovely trip for us but not enough to discourage us from considering Oriana again for the right itinerary and price.

The west of the island includes the cruise ship terminal where our vessel, the Crown Princess, was located and from where we’d left in the morning but our stops were both closer to the main tourist points of interest on the east of the island. First up was a photoshop near the Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange building and the Rostral Columns. From this position we had some nice views out over the Neva towards sights such as the Peter And Paul Fortress and the Hermitage Museum although the weather – as it had been all morning – was overcast and occasionally spitting with light rain so it didn’t make for the most appealing of photos (luckily, the weather would improve later during our trip to Saint Petersburg).

The Rostral Columns were built in 1811 in the Doric style and were originally built as beacons, though they are more typically only lit for ceremonial purposes these days. Together with the Stock Exchange building there is a very clear Greek revivalist influence in the architecture of the area of the island.

Around this part of Vasilyevsky Island, on account of its impressive views and obvious appeal to visitors, there were a number of stalls and salespeople wandering around trying to get tourists to part with their money. While many would take dollars (we were on an American cruise, after all) and roubles (grudgingly), their preferred currency was actually the Euro. A word of advice, that I’ve mentioned before, is that if you are coming to Saint Petersburg on a cruise ship it’s worth checking out the merchandise at the cruise terminal and making a note of prices there; the market was not good value for money for things such as the reproduction Ushanka hats (made in China, tags removed) or Matryoshka dolls but there were some things there that we didn’t see elsewhere. The “Putin riding a bear” t-shirt, for instance, would’ve been purchased if they’d had it in my size.

Back on the coach and another very short ride to the rear of the Stock Exchange building followed where we hopped off and entered Restaurant Academia for a meal. The service was good and food was very nice indeed, and it was good to have some red caviar in Russia because it feels like that’s the sort of thing you should do when you’re there. There was also a shot of vodka for everyone because, again, you’re in Russia so you should drink vodka if only to say you’ve done it. I quite like vodka but I drink it very, very chilled at home or with mixers; the room-temperature and neat approach to drinking that we experienced was one that saw a great many faces of torture around our dining table, some sips and discards, and some people not even risking it. My wife and I downed ours because to do otherwise felt like failure.

Following the meal there was folkloric entertainment from some musicians and singers, all very good and very entertaining and taking advantage of those feeling pleasantly merry from the vodka by getting people involved up front with them and by passing around some weird, wooden, clacking instruments (that you could buy, naturally).

As we left the restaurant it became suddenly evident that the weather had changed dramatically; the clouds and light drizzle of earlier had been replaced by clear blue skies. Indeed, we’d have good weather for the remainder of our time in Saint Petersburg.

Our next stop would involve a short drive back over the Neva to visit the Hermitage Museum.

June 3rd: Southampton

It’s a tradition when we’re cruising with Princess Cruises these days that we always head for Crooners Bar for the first drink and this trip on the Crown Princess was no exception with our first two drinks happening there. On the Grand-class ships operated by Princess this is a lovely place to sit and people-watch and invent back-stories to explain away what they’re wearing. “Lost a bet” features a lot.

We had a lovely summer sunset to see us off from Southampton.

This was our first Princess cruise travelling at Platinum level loyalty which meant we could indulge in a discounted cocktail of the day and some free snacks in Skywalkers early evening so we took advantage of this on our first night aboard. For the most part, though, we didn’t bother with this as the cocktail offerings weren’t to our taste. This was also our first time in the Adagio bar at the aft of the ship. Convenient both for our cabin and for Skywalkers above it at night this would become a regular haunt mostly because of the superb service of the bar staff there.

June 4th: Belgium

Drinks and views from Adagio and Skywalkers again with the great BOGO hours being taken advantage of in a few of the photos. BOGO (Buy One, Get One For A Dollar) has sadly now been discontinued by Princess with no explanation as to what might replace it (if anything) despite repeated requests to their media and PR people. Like many PR groups you can only get a response so long as your question and their answer fall within the “positive propaganda” guidelines of communication and voicing a dissenting opinion or asking something they don’t want to answer gets met with silence. The current Princess alternative to paying for every drink at full price is to pay for a drinks package and this is a sensible move if you are a raging alcoholic but we aren’t and haven’t decided if we’ll go down that route yet. Let’s see how much the world falls apart and make a decision later.

June 5th: Sea Day

A day at sea meant a chance to try out a wine-tasting onboard. Canapés were nice and the hosting was reasonably entertaining but the wines were very hit and miss. Princess are no P&O when it comes to wines but we keep persevering. We’re little troopers.

The great thing about having a balcony is that you can retreat to it if you want to have a read or look out at the view and you can always take a drink back with you from one of the bars. So we did.

The rest of the day included spotting the champagne fountain being poured (we’ve never really bothered with it but are happy to oblige ourselves to a glass of fizz if it’s being passed around, just out of politeness you understand) and grabbing a few drinks at our usual venues.

June 6th: Denmark

We’d had a long day in Denmark (and had tried some local beer) and with a long cruise out past the country in order to look across at Hamlet’s Castle (although we’d already visited it) there were only a few drinks on this day. But they were nice ones as you can see from the photos.

June 7th: Sea Day

Our to-date only Movies Under The Stars experience happened on the second sea day. The sun is, of course, a star. “Let us watch a movie outside on a cruise ship!” “What a splendid idea! Something action-packed? Something invoking the surroundings, perhaps, a pirate movie or something of that ilk?” Yeah, you can tell this conversation is heading straight towards The Boss Baby can’t you?

The rest of the day included a smattering of cocktails and I was taken with dessert at dinner that evening which was a Norman Love signature chocolate piece.

June 8th: Sweden

More cocktails after we’d returned from our excursion in Stockholm as you can probably guess from looking at these photos.

We also decided to try out Vines wine bar at the bottom of the piazza on the Crown Princess. We weren’t expecting great things as we’re familiar with the rather thin offerings and low variety of wines on Princess and our expectations were met. Would it kill Princess to have just one full-bodied red wine on a ship? Apparently, it might. Cannot fault the service, though.

June 9th: Estonia

The part of the Baltic Sea between Estonia and Russia (our next stop) was ridiculously calm and beautiful to look at.

We didn’t have very many drinks on account of having had a few in Tallinn during the day and knowing we’d have a very long day ahead of us in St Petersburg.

This was the night, however, that we booked in to dine at the Crown Grill. We’ve had fabulous experiences at the Crown Grill every time we dined on Princess with the exception of the infamous Royal Princess Cruise Of Immense Disappointment (read more) and this one was everything we hoped for. We even got a window booth seat so we could stare out at the sea between gorgeous courses. The steak was fantastic, as usual, and those flavoured salts are just wonderful.

The end of the evening included some more gazing out at the sea and, as we were heading east, staring at the long, drawn-out sunset that was occurring later and later as we cruised towards Russia. I don’t think it got dark before one in the morning at this point in the cruise.

June 11th: Russia

No chance for a drink on the ship on the first of our days there with us having a full day in Russia culminating in a trip to the ballet (highly recommended) but we returned to some attractive cocktail-imbibing along with my favourite tipple, Lawford’s Libation, as we started on our return leg back to the UK.

June 12th: Finland

It had rained the entire time we were in Finland and as we set off from Helsinki it was in a thick fog so while this post is supposed to focus on sea views you’ll have to make do with the same volume of water, just in cloud form in this video (removed temporarily).

Fortunately, that dissipated pretty quickly.

You can tell it’s a formal night if you spot a photo of a Vodka Martini with three olives in it. It’s the only time I’ll drink it and, amazingly, I’m getting used to the taste. Of course, one never eats the olives; they’re there to add some saltiness to the drink until about a third of the way down after which they are removed and stared at with pure hostility.

We grabbed what had become our regular seats by the dance floor in Skywalkers for the evening to see the people in their formal wear strutting their stuff to the sounds of DJ Iron Mic who we quite often talked to in the evenings.

June 13th: Sea Day

The odd drink as you’ve come to expect and the decoration changed in the Crown Princess’s piazza enough to warrant some photos too.

In the evening we were treated to more wonderful sunsets to stare at. We’ve yet to see any sign that we’re getting bored with looking at sunsets at sea. I suspect that becoming bored of views like that are a sure sign you died somewhere on the ship and you’re now haunting it so definitely a goal to aim for but I’m not there yet.

And there was more dancing into the early hours in Skywalkers with dancers being led on the floor by the DJ himself.

June 14th: Poland

Drinks from a couple of BOGO hours and just in general rounded off our final port stop on our Baltic cruise aboard Crown Princess.

June 15th: Sea Day

Our penultimate sea day began with another flat stretch of water and long wake to look out on from our balcony as we rose.

With a fair chunk of the day having been spent securing our viewing spot to experience cruising under the Great Belt Bridge, then quizzing and swimming there wasn’t quite as much drinking going on during the day that saw balloons installed in the piazza ready for some celebrating later in the evening.

Our evening, though, was spent at Sabatini’s, the Italian specialty restaurant on Crown Princess. This was the first time we’d booked at Sabatini’s with all our previous specialty dining having taken place in the Crown Grill. In terms of service and general range of food on offer it was an exceptional experience indeed.

The only blot on the evening was my wife’s steak which she’d asked for rare (the only way to eat steak and I will fight to the death with a lump of myoglobin-dripping meat anyone who argues differently). It and my food arrived and we tucked in except that on slicing into her meat we could both see immediately that it was medium well done. This in itself would have been a minor problem except that our very friendly waiter also spotted it and whisked her food away to have it re-done. In principle, a great idea; in practice, it left me with a plate of food that would go cold unless I ate alone. So that’s what I had to do. When her food returned the waiter was accompanied by the head waiter and they gathered to make sure that the steak was better. My wife said yes, there were smiles all around, and we were left alone once more; me with my nearly-finished plate and my wife with a plate containing a steak almost as well done as the previous one but which she couldn’t face telling anyone it was still hopelessly wrong. Again, a minor thing in the grand scheme (although if you’re paying extra you expect it done right), and the service was so good we can overlook it this time. It certainly won’t put us off trying Sabatini’s again although, as I told my wife, probably best leave ordering steak to the steak house in future.

June 16th: Sea Day

In all our cruising this was the first time we’d been at dinner when they did the traditional Baked Alaska Parade. Surprisingly noisy and long.

Our last day at sea and on a wonderful cruise ship was so depressing I clearly forgot to take any photos of drinks during the day. I’m pretty sure we had some, though. Instead, enjoy this final view from our cabin of the wake view after we’d rounded the top of Denmark and were heading down towards the English Channel and home.

With about an hour to go before we needed to be back at the coach we decided to prioritise grabbing a drink (preferably something local) in a bar. Figuring that the majority of drinking establishments would be close to the cathedral and main square, Praza da Obradoiro, we headed roughly back in the same direction we’d originally come. There were definitely more signs of life in the city than we’d seen earlier in the day although we didn’t spot anything too enticing at first.

We eventually came upon Praza de Cervantes, a stretched town square surrounded by shops and bars and with a fountain containing a bust of the aforementioned Cervantes himself atop a pillar.

The most prominent building around the square’s exterior was the Church of San Martiño Pinario, most notable for its bell tower under normal circumstances I’d imagine but mostly drawn to our attention by the low stage for musicians that had been set up in front.

Being deductive souls we reckoned there might be some form of performance about to start and keen to see what it might be but also still sate our thirst we settled our eyes on a bar on the corner of the street heading southwards away from the square. This turned out to be a place called Cafe Pub Agarimo. Entering, we found ourselves in a long, narrow room with a bar along one side. We caught the attention of one of the staff and with some pointing at the taps we asked for a beer and a cider. The Cafe Pub Agarimo was doing tapas which we hadn’t realised so there was a moment of confusion as we looked at the bowls of soup that arrived first before we realised everyone was getting them. There was no request for payment so we took our beer and soup into a cramped backroom of the bar that did at least have seats and tables.

We hadn’t been hungry but the soup was simple yet satisfying. We think it was probably a Galician white bean soup with chorizo. I can’t say the drinks we had were anything special but when we’re drinking abroad it’s as much for the experience as it is for the taste. We’d spotted a member of staff going around some of the tables and collecting cash and returning change which led us to believe we’d soon be able to pay for our drinks and surprise lunch but by the time we wanted to leave we still hadn’t been seen to. I decided to pay at the bar on the way out but as we’d been drinking the bar area had filled to standing room only capacity. It took around ten minutes to get “served” in order to actually pay and it would have been insanely easy to leave without doing so, but we are not that sort of people. We’d not checked the prices before ordering our imbibements but they were very well-priced, especially when you consider the included tapas. So, I can definitely recommend Cafe Pub Agarimo but with the caution that if you’re in a hurry to be anywhere keep an eye on how busy the place is and pay as soon as you can.

Back outside we found that Praza de Cervantes had also filled up and the musicians were playing.

The festival was part of the Ascensión Festivities, a yearly event, with us having turned up on the second day. We stood around enjoying the ambience, listening to the music, and firing off a few shots of the people doing likewise for several minutes.

We like a good excuse to drink in the sunshine and listen to bands performing but we were starting to run short of time in Santiago de Compostela so our next task was to hunt down a souvenir shop. This was not a difficult thing to do as you probably could have guessed and we bypassed half a dozen or more before selecting one at random. Mugs, a bookmark, and a shot glass were all picked up for a surprisingly low price although we steered clear of anything with the ubiquitous shell design on it that you’ll typically find hard to escape in the Spanish city.

As we approached the main square from the south we happened upon a nice little square – Praza de Fonseca – with some greenery in it, a little unexpected oasis from the sparse streets and alleys we’d encountered elsewhere throughout the city.

Back in Praza do Obradoiro we spent a short period of time taking a few more photos of the impressive buildings around it including the town hall and cathedral’s western façade. It was particularly interesting to see the number of people, many of whom had probably completed the Camino pilgrimage, simply sitting around, some in contemplation, some in conversation.

It was about time to leave by now, though, so exiting through the north side of the main square of Santiago de Compostela along Rua de San Francisco and towards the church and convent of the same saint we made our way back towards where the coach had dropped us off at Parking Xoán XXIII.

I had just enough time to get sidetracked after spotting some street art near the coach pick-up spot. Though the artwork was more stylised tagging than imagery it was all still of a very good quality.

This concludes our cruise excursion from the Sapphire Princess into Santiago de Compostela. The medieval city was better than we’d expected partly because we came away feeling unfleeced. There’s often a sense when travelling – especially if you’re hitting obvious tourist hotspots – that the prices are inflated and the stuff being peddled is pretty awful but Santiago de Compostela didn’t have any of that; it felt like a generous, trusting, honest place befitting its religious heritage. Very cheap to spend time there and with far more to see than we had time to during our half day it’s a city I’d have no qualms about visiting again or recommending.

We knew roughly what we were going to be getting as we’re old hands at cruising with Princess Cruises these days but this was to be our first time on Sapphire Princess and there was a special reason we were looking forward to it. Our very first cruise was our honeymoon, it was to the Far East, and it was on Diamond Princess (view the cruise posts here: Cruise: Far East 2008). Diamond and Sapphire are sister ships, both being the only ships of the Grand-class design built in Japan, and both sharing some features not present on other ships of the class in the Princess fleet. This would be our chance to see with more cruise-experienced eyes elements of the ship that we’d likely overlooked when awed on our first cruise almost a decade earlier. In fact, Diamond was originally named Sapphire and vice versa; some last-minute name-swapping took place in the wake of a fire after promotional material had been sent out in order not to delay sailings. Had it not then our honeymoon would likely have been on the ship bearing this name instead.

Embarkation is usually pretty slick and probably would have been for this cruise too had the port worker in Southampton realised our tickets gave us priority boarding (from your fifth cruise with Princess onwards you reach Platinum level which includes this as one of its benefits). That was sorted after a few minutes when I queried it and subsequently followed the normal route: short queue, advance to the desk, get passports scanned, get credit card read, get handed cruise cards, wander through security, then onto the ship to have the cruise card scanned and a photograph taken to match against when getting on or off. Princess take your photo at the security gate on the ship when first boarding; this differs from P&O, for instance, who take your photo in the port building.

The atrium (or piazza as Princess like to refer to it on their ships) is the first thing you’ll then see (well, after you’ve run past the photographers trying to snap you for the gallery if you’re us, that is) and it follows the fairly standard Princess style you’ll see on any of their ships; warm, light, fairly neutral colours are the norm here. Typical arrangement was followed with, generally-speaking, drink and food options off the lowest level, shopping and customer services off the middle, and main lounges and bars off the top.

I didn’t bother taking any photos of our cabin or bathroom as they were in most respects identical to every other one we’ve been in on Princess ships. Unlike our Diamond Princess cruise, though, where we were in an inside room, for this cruise aboard Sapphire Princess we’d chosen a balcony room and had selected one on Caribe deck. There are three types of rooms on Princess cruise ships that have balconies: suites, mini-suites, and balcony rooms. Mini-suite rooms are a little larger than standard rooms and have a double-depth balcony that is fully exposed above. Standard balconies are covered but those on the C-deck have a double-depth balcony too, half-covered, half-exposed. If you like the idea of a large balcony with the chance to sun yourself or look at the stars at night and don’t mind the chance that someone might see you from above (quite why you’d be bothered by this is a mystery) then I’d recommend C-deck balcony rooms. If you take a look at this post from our first time aboard the Crown Princess cruise ship you can see the C-deck balconies and below that the mini-suite balconies as seen from our room; you can see a couple of shots of the room itself which was identical to that we experienced on the Sapphire with the exception of new, larger, wall-mounted TVs featuring an entertaining safety drill video to the tune of The Love Boat and a good selection of movies and programmes on demand.

Something I drew my wife’s attention to were the carpets along the hallways as these provide a visual queue as to which side of the ship you’re on if you get turned around at any point (something she’s prone to do). The red and green accents indicate port (left) and starboard (right) sides respectively. Another guide on these sorts of Princess ships is that most of the standard elevators (not some around the atrium area, though) face forwards. As our room was on the starboard side we simply had to remember to turn right when exiting an elevator and to make sure the carpet had green markings.

Many people head straight for the buffet when they first board, the source of almost-around-the-clock eating on a Princess ship. We like to get a drink instead as it really brings home the feeling we’re actually on holiday and makes for a great photo to post on social media to annoy anyone you know who’s working. Our bar destination of choice is Crooners at the top of the piazza as you’ll find the other lounge bars won’t typically be open at the time you’re getting on. We headed there from our room via a quick nose in the Princess Theatre and walk through the Wheelhouse Bar.

A fantastic introduction from Princess Cruises over the last year has been the removal of the need to bring your lifejacket to the mandatory muster that takes place before you leave port on the first day. May every cruise line bring this in please. The muster was gratefully short too so with that done we headed up to the top of the ship to see the Sapphire Princess casting off from Southampton on its week’s cruise down to a handful of all-new ports for us.

This was our second cruise on Princess at the magical Platinum level status (the first being our Baltic Heritage cruise of the year before) so it was our second chance to try out the Elite Lounge. Effectively, Skywalkers Nightclub (usually) is set aside for Platinum and Elite members for a couple of hours in the early evening and free snacks are provided along with discounted drinks. On our previous cruise we hadn’t been too impressed with the set-up; there was one discounted cocktail each day which we mostly weren’t interested in and the food choice was pretty poor. I’m pleased to say that it was a vastly improved situation on the Sapphire Princess. A set selection of cocktails were offered and the food range and quality (expect dips, chips, breadsticks, cheese; that sort of thing) was substantially better too. Needless to say but it didn’t take many evenings to make our way through the cocktails offered.

One of those parts of the Sapphire Princess it shares with Diamond and no other Princess Cruises ship is the Wake View Bar. We have fond memories of this location from our honeymoon cruise in the Far East where we disappeared to it on a number of the sea days. Technically located on deck 6 but only accessible down a spiral staircase at the edge of the dance floor in the lounge at the aft of the ship on deck 7 it’s a small bar with some seating, a few porthole windows to gaze out at the ship’s wake (hence the name) and was generally a quiet spot ideal for reading on our first cruise. We were happy to see it again but its usefulness on this particular cruise was limited; we never found if or when the bar was actually open there and on the one day we decided to read in it there were no lights on and a noisy game of bingo taking place in the lounge was thundering down into the spot. I’d like to think on a longer cruise it could be better utilised.

The other notable difference on Sapphire and Diamond is the arrangement of the dining rooms with some additional splitting down the middle taking place to form more separate venues. They’re still served from the same kitchen areas so it’s arguable as to what benefit this brings, if any, and the effect is of making the smaller rooms a little more intimate at the expense of reducing the potential views in both directions of the sea. What it does seem to do is increase the chances of getting in without standing in a long queue or being handed a buzzer (we always go Anytime Dining if we can as we don’t like to commit ourselves to a set time or group of people with whom to potentially share a table). I will cover food and drink aboard this Sapphire Princess cruise in more detail in a separate post but I will state here that the general quality of food (i.e. not speciality dining) aboard Sapphire Princess was the best we’ve had on any cruise ship.

In the past we’ve been disappointed with the wines aboard Princess ships. They’ve probably been very good for what they are but our palates prefer heavy reds and this has been something that we’ve found impossible to get hold of; it’s something where our P&O cruises have really exposed an area in which Princess could improve. I’m happy to report that there certainly seemed to be some progress in that respect as our daily visits to the Vines wine bar at the bottom of the piazza can attest to. While still not as heavy as we’d like we were happy to see a Malbec aboard for the first time and although the venue was understaffed our actual service by Ronnie and the knowledge he demonstrated there (as well as the impromptu wine-tasting he provided in my hunt for the heaviest red they stocked) was exemplary.

Adjacent to Vines was Alfredo’s Pizzeria where the pizza is made fresh and free for you. There’s not a huge range of pizzas to choose from but what they produce is fantastic. We were lucky enough to decide to eat there one lunchtime when there was only one other couple present so we were seated right by the window. On other occasions when we considered going (even one evening we thought we might skip the main dining room in favour of a pizza) there was a queue waiting for tables to free up which tells you all you need to know about the quality. One thing to note was that they had an Italian red that wasn’t offered next door and which was probably the best of the wines we drank on Sapphire Princess.

Skywalkers Nightclub was a daily fix at the end of every evening for us. It’s a place, again, that triggers great memories, not the least of which being listening to disco music and watching a thunderstorm on the horizon while leaving Singapore in 2008. We tend to sit around the dancefloor area as we like to people-watch and it’s a good place to strike up conversations with the DJ who is usually perfectly happy to play whatever you like (Rob Zombie for us, second cruise in a row). The removal of the drinks promotion hours on Princess ships clearly had an impact as the nightclub was practically empty most evenings and you can read the Hits And Misses article linked at the top of this post for more problems here too. A shame, but it’s still possibly our favourite place on these ships. What was good, though, was that we got to see a couple of celebrities in there. The first was a soap actor who was every bit the alpha male around any group of people who talked to him (if the group had an attractive woman in it); amusing to watch. The second was Gareth Gates who looked terrified when approached by some of the passengers and didn’t stay long but whom we bumped into on the way back to our cabin and had a quick chat with; an absolutely lovely person.

We left Southampton on the Saturday. The following day found us anchored off St Peter Port in Guernsey. This was a port we’d decided not to take an excursion at simply because it’s a fairly notorious port for cancelling stops altogether. As it was the weather was warm, the seas were calm, and there was no trouble getting ashore at all. We’d taken a later-than-usual breakfast then headed down to the photo gallery area where numbered cards were being handed out for the tender boats. With some spectacular timing on our part we were told we could leave immediately and were on the boat and heading from the Sapphire Princess to Guernsey inside five minutes. Individual posts covering what we did can be found here:

• The Bluebell Woods and Ozanne Steps – We went for a walk along a coastal path south of the island’s capital in search of a set of steps built for a former governor to provide easy access down the cliffs to a private beach.
• Clarence Battery – On our way back to St Peter Port we stopped for a look around an old gun emplacement.
• Guernsey Aquarium – We’re fond of an aquarium and we couldn’t pass up a visit to one housed in former World War II tunnels used by the Germans during the occupation.
• La Valette Underground Military Museum – More tunnels but this time housing a museum dedicated to wars.
• Castle Cornet – It’s hard to miss the castle when you’re in the island’s capital city.
• St Peter Port – We finished up our visit to St Peter Port with a wander through its streets in search of beer.

Monday was a sea day. As regular art-purchasers on Princess ships we’d been invited to a gallery viewing the day before and had met with the staff there. We’d later received a handwritten letter inviting us to a private preview on the sea day before the auction which we duly attended and indicated that one of the Lebo pieces had caught our eye. You can try to guess which one. No surprise then when we bought it and another piece too. What was more of a surprise was that I won a free piece (to be selected from four) as I’d been the most enthusiastically clapping. Anyone who knows me will know this to be… unlikely. Nevertheless, as luck would have it, one of the four pieces was another Lebo print. You can never have too many. Art auctions aren’t for everyone and they could generally do with being a bit shorter but we enjoy them.

Tuesday saw us arrive in France. Not the port we were supposed to be at because of yet another French dockers strike but at least we actually got to set foot in the country from a cruise ship for once. Our original plan had been to visit a cognac distillery but with the change of location for the Sapphire Princess to La Rochelle we opted to simply take a walk around on our own to see what the coastal city had to offer. The answer to that was: a surprising amount. La Rochelle was absolutely beautiful and filled with all the sorts of things we like, topped off by discovering a little gem of a drinking location that ate up the whole afternoon. Posts of the French city are:

• La Rochelle – Our bus ride from the port into the city and first impressions from a wander along the waterfront.
• La Rochelle Towers – We took the opportunity to climb two of the three medieval towers along the city walls.
• Charruyer Park – A pleasant walk through a former marsh turned into a park thanks to a generous donation.
• La Rochelle Aquarium – Another port, another aquarium. You can’t keep us away from them.
• Belle Du Gabut – The surprise discovery was an area given over to street art and temporary structures providing musical entertainment, festival-type activities, and food and drink.

In the evening we saw that Black Panther was showing on the Movies Under The Stars screen and as we’d not seen it and not seen any movie on the screen on a cruise ship at night we decided to try it out. Almost everyone was staying inside for entertainment provided by the Sapphire Princess staff because it was windy and the air had a bite to it so the ship felt deserted on the top deck. Ultimately, only around six of us braved the movie and we only managed it with multiple blankets covering us. We’d heard that popcorn and hot chocolate were supplied for these movie viewings but if that is the norm then we managed to choose the exception night. Glad to have seen the film at sea, though, as it’s something to say you’ve experienced.

On Wednesday we arrived at Bilbao, Spain. You already know that we’re art fans and you might know from reading any of my other travel accounts that I also keenly appreciate architecture so the obvious draw for us was the Guggenheim Museum. We took an organised excursion which also included a walking tour of the old town area of Bilbao. This was not without its problems, covered in the individual posts:

• Bilbao Walking Tour – A wander through the winding, pedestrianised streets of the old town.
• Guggenheim Museum – An all-too-brief visit to the architectural masterpiece that is the building itself and a viewing of some of the impressive art pieces inside.

The final stop for us was the next day at A Coruna but the place we wanted to see was inland via coach: Santiago de Compostela. Rather than go for anything guided we decided to pay for the Princess ride into the city with free time to wander as we wanted; the main reason for this was that we’d done some research and had our eyes set not just on the famous Santiago de Compostela cathedral but on a nearby museum too. We really enjoyed this stop and found the lack of exploitation of the pilgrims who regularly visit surprisingly nice to see (being the cynical atheists we are). Posts describing our visit to this Spanish city are here:

• Sapphire Princess At A Coruna – Views from our balcony of the port.
• Santiago de Compostela, Part One – Our arrival in the city and visit to the cathedral.
• Part Two, The Museo do Pobo Galego – The museum we wanted to visit with an incredible triple helical staircase just begging to be photographed.
• Santiago de Compostela, Part Three – A little bit more exploration, a stop for a drink, and discovery of a festival taking place.

Friday was a sea day as the Sapphire Princess sadly headed northwards back to England. Checking the daily guide that tells you what’s going on around the ship, the Princess Patter, we spotted a few activities taking place that we decided we’d take a look at. First off, though, was a walk around the ship to grab some photos. The weather wasn’t ideal and you can probably find almost identical photos from other ships of the class on this site but it typically takes more than that to stop me and my camera.

Prior to cruising out of the UK the Sapphire Princess had been based in Asia and evidence of this was present throughout the ship with the bilingual signage. We’re looking forward to seeing similar touches when we next board Diamond Princess later this year for a tenth wedding anniversary treat to ourselves.

The first time that a cruise ship visits a port it is usually presented with a plaque and these are prominently displayed on Deck 7. I love the variety of styles and the pride in their port cities that the designs demonstrate.

One of the activities we stopped to watch was the ice carving demonstration. This was something we’d last seen ten years ago and our memory of that occasion was flimsy to say the least so it was nice to see it all fresh. Taking photographs of blocks of ice in a way that shows the shape is not the easiest of tasks so the two carved pieces are a mermaid and a fish (possibly an angelfish) in case it’s not easy to see.

The main activity we were interested in was the culinary demonstration. This took place in the Princess Theatre and was hosted by the maître d’hôtel Generoso Mazzone and the executive chef Ottavio Bellesi. We were shown how to make Trenette alla Moda Ligure (pesto sauce), Gamberi alla Fra Divolo (flambéed shrimp in hot and fiery tomato sauce with pearl rice), and Tiramisu. As reasonably interesting as that was it was mainly the constant chatter from Ottavio that made the demonstration worth viewing; he was typically Italian and very funny indeed.

Cooking demonstrations are all well and good but that wasn’t the real reason we were interested in this cruise activity. At the conclusion of the food preparation we were all led to the rear of the ship for what was described as a “Galley Tour”. In fact, this was simply a wander through the kitchens rather than any real tour but it was not something we’d done before and still interesting enough for us to be pleased to have done it. And videoed it.

A regular activity that we do whenever we can is the trivia. Our track record with Princess is that we’ve won at least one quiz on every cruise we’ve taken but things weren’t looking good on Sapphire initially. We had paired up with another couple on the first two days on the ship but despite our best efforts we weren’t getting anywhere close to the people who were winning. However, there were mutterings from various quarters in that regard; the people winning had been on the ship during its transitioning cruise from Asia to Europe and it was suspected that the quiz questions were not rotating slowly enough. We resigned ourselves to not really having a chance on this cruise but still kept on at it as we like a good testing of our general knowledge. I’m pleased to announce that on the very last quiz and on a tie-break we won and our track record is still intact. Quiz prizes are not fantastic on a Princess cruise – that’s arguably part of their charm – but if you’re taking part in the quiz to win the prize then you’re doing it wrong anyway.

Being on a cruise is better than not being on a cruise; this won’t come as a surprise to anyone. Our cruise on Sapphire Princess wasn’t perfect by any means but the issues we encountered with occasional drinks orders being wrong or being missed out by staff we can assign to it being just one of those things. We’re not the sort to put in major complaints about a bit of bad luck especially when people work as hard as they do onboard. If we had to pick the worst thing about this cruise it was that it was too short. We are most definitely fortnight-long cruising people at heart.

Sapphire Princess was in good condition overall and wasn’t really showing her age anywhere. A Princess cruise suits our temperament perfectly; it’s the right mix of attentive service and relaxed attitude we like while at sea taking us to the destinations that fulfill the itinerary that is the prime driver for our holiday choice. We’re simply not interested in ships with climbing walls, zip lines, or racing tracks. La Rochelle was the standout port on this cruise (a surprise as it was a late replacement) and our decision-making at Bilbao is the one area we’d have loved to do over. However, the week from Southampton to Guernsey, France, and Spain was a great, short cruise that would make an ideal first cruise itinerary for would-be cruisers. Much as we enjoy the weekend cruises they’re really just too short to give a true cruise experience so this was perfect in that respect.

In a few months (from time of writing this) we’ll be flying out to Tokyo to get back on Diamond Princess and we’re very much looking forward to seeing our first cruise ship again and comparing elements with her sister ship, Sapphire.

For another review of Sapphire Princess on a cruise taken just before we boarded her see Cruise Lifestyle‘s Cruise Ship Review: Sapphire Princess Public Areas & Dining. If you’re interested in gluten free options on the ship then Gluten Free Horizons has a post about it here: Cruising Gluten Free on Sapphire Princess.

At first glance, especially for a week on a cruise, it might look like we had a lot to drink and, indeed, the first couple of days saw us go through quite a number of cocktails, even though we’d had the great majority of them numerous times before on other cruises. We’ll put that down to the excitement of being back on a ship. However, we drank surprisingly little (for us) on the sea days and our evening drinking tailed right off after the first couple of days as well. We can easily identify the reason for this and that’s the removal of the BOGO (Buy One, Get One For A Dollar) promotion on Princess ships. When that was present in the mid-afternoon in one of the lounges and the late evening in Skywalkers previously it would keep us around for not just the hour we were there but also some considerable time after, and we wouldn’t be the only ones. On this particular cruise, the first on Princess without BOGO for us, the venues were quieter, we were barely inclined to have one drink during the day let alone two or three (and the continued drinking that would then lead onto) and earlier-finishing evenings in a mostly empty nightclub was the rule. It’s my hope (probably forlorn) that Princess has seen a drop-off in spending as a result of this move and I hope not as many people have been convinced to go for the drinks package as I assume they were expecting because, quite frankly, for you to get your money’s worth across the duration of a cruise you’d have to be an alcoholic.

Main Dining Room Food

That’s the end of my regular Bring Back The BOGO rant and now on with some pictures of food and drink. I’ll start with some food, that being from the main dining room, most of the photos below having been taken on the first night where to our surprise and pleasure, despite indicating we were fine to share with other people, we got a table to ourselves (something that happened on two other nights on the Sapphire Princess; a very unusual thing indeed).

First up is a sample menu showing what you can typically get to eat in the main dining room on a Princess Cruises ship. On one side you’ll see the “always available” options as well as a description of any particular theme to go along with the dining options (it’s often quite tenuous). On the other side you’ll see the starters and mains for the evening with the dessert menu making an appearance at your table later on. As a general rule, if there’s a frozen soup starter with alcohol in it then I’ll often go for that. If you’ve never dined on a cruise ship before then it’s perfectly fine for you to order multiple starters, no starter, multiple mains if you want, etc. They’re very accommodating in that way.

Now for some starters, mains, and desserts.

The quality of the food on Sapphire Princess was the best we’ve ever experienced on any cruise ship to date. It was so good that we didn’t actually feel the need to book any specialty dining for a change although it being only a week-long cruise and the lack of a Crown Grill with the simple setting-aside of an area of the buffet for the Sterling Steakhouse instead (and its subsequent less-than-special appearance) also played a part there. That said, with a longer-duration cruise on the Diamond Princess coming up later this year we shall certainly be testing the steakhouse out there as well as the sushi restaurant they have on that ship.

Gluten-Free And Vegan Food Options On Princess Cruises

If you’re wondering about gluten-free dining options on Sapphire Princess or any other ship in the Princess fleet please take a look at Cruising Gluten Free On Princess Cruises Sapphire Princess.

For vegan food options on Princess Cruises please check out Can you cruise vegan on Princess Cruises? and keep an eye out for future updates on that site as there is an upcoming cruise on Crown Princess in their future.

Vines Wine Bar

A location we’ve only previously tried once or twice on previous cruises aboard Princess ships and found disappointing turned out to be a nearly daily pre-dinner drinks venue for us on the Sapphire Princess. Generally speaking, the wines that Princess have on board – and I’m only speaking about the reds here because we only drink red wine – have tended to be on the thin side and not very varied. Our experiences aboard P&O ships have shown that this might be a British versus American idea of what constitutes a good wine as we’ve never failed to be impressed there by way of comparision. However, there were definite improvements in the available wines on Sapphire Princess including a Malbec for the first time which, though still not as full-bodied as we’d have liked, ended up being the drink of choice for my wife.

I took more of an experimental approach to picking wines and in this I was helped out by Ronnie, the sole member of staff whose job it was to oversee the wine bar on the cruise ship (which sometimes led to long waits though that was not his fault). Ronnie was, in fact, a star among the Sapphire’s staff, chatty, funny, and knowledgeable in all the right amounts. A discussion about wine heaviness was followed by a quick, free wine-tasting for me and my wife to determine which drink’s body most suited my palate.

Glasses of red wine aren’t the most photogenic or varied things to show but that’s not going to stop me.

Alfredo’s Pizzeria

Adjacent to Vines at the bottom of the piazza on the Sapphire Princess is Alfredo’s Pizzeria. This is one of two places on the ship where you can get free pizza most of the day, the other being Prego Pizzeria up by the swimming pool. Whereas Prego serves pizza by the slice from one of two (usually) that have been recently made and kept hot, Alfredo’s makes an individual-sized full pizza for you (although there’s nothing to stop you sharing if it’s too much) from a slightly larger choice of options. You can take your Prego slice and wander off with it but Alfredo’s is more of a sit-down location for your pizza. The important thing is that both are very different but both are absolutely lovely (and if you’ve tried the equivalent offering on P&O cruise ships then Princess beats them hands down here). We were so taken with our pizza from Alfredo’s we even considered it as an option instead of the main dining room one evening but the place was rammed and with a queue of people obviously thinking similar things. As it was, we only went the once, fairly early on the first sea day when there was just one other couple present. This allowed us to be seated by the window with a lovely view out at the water undulating past and we complemented our lunch with a glass of Italian wine (naturally) which was exclusive to the location and superior to anything available in Vines. It might have been a Barolo but I can’t quite remember right now.

Culinary Demonstration

On the last sea day we attended a cooking demonstration. Taking place in the Princess Theatre and hosted by the maître d’hôtel Generoso Mazzone and the executive chef Ottavio Bellesi we were shown how to make Trenette alla Moda Ligure (pesto sauce), Gamberi alla Fra Divolo (flambéed shrimp in hot and fiery tomato sauce with pearl rice), and Tiramisu whilst being presented with various facts and figures about number of staff and volumes and quantities of foodstuffs, etc. The self-deprecating, often very humorous general commentary from Ottavio in particular made the event very enjoyable. Overhead cameras were supposed to show what was taking place in the bowls or on the plates on the preparation area on the stage of the theatre but what we quickly saw was that the chefs’ tall hats when they leant over to do whatever it was they were doing often completely obscured the view shown on the TV screens. Something for Princess to work on there.

At the conclusion of the demonstration we were taken to the opposite end of the ship in order that we could walk through the Sapphire Princess’s kitchen area. There were a few people at work, some carved showpiece fruit arrangements, numerous attempts to offer a cookery book for purchase, and we finished off in the dining room which was having its traditional final day sale. There were chances to talk to Generoso or pose for photos with him during the galley tour but we didn’t have any desire to do so. Still, an interesting activity just to see how large and how spotless the galley on the cruise ship was, and well worth trying out even if only once if you’re cruising.

Cocktails

I’ve been putting off photos of the cocktails we consumed on Sapphire Princess so we didn’t look like complete lushes but I can do so no longer. Behold the sorts of pretty drinks you find materialising onto your tables when you least expect them.

If you’re Platinum (we are that fancypants) or Elite (one day we’ll be that fancypants) cruisers on a Princess ship then you get exclusive access to the Elite Lounge in the early evening. This took place in Skywalkers Nightclub on the Sapphire Princess for all but one day when a private function was taking place and the event was relocated to the aft lounge instead. In the Elite Lounge you can choose from a range of discounted cocktails not available elsewhere on the ship – this differs from how the Elite Lounge worked on the Crown Princess during our Baltics cruise where a single drink, changing daily was offered instead; the new way of having a set selection of drinks worked far better in our opinion – and there are a range of free nibbles to select as well.

Cruise Excursions Food And Drink

When we’d originally booked this Sapphire Princess cruise we’d paid for an excursion to the Hennessy Cognac distillery, a trip that included not only cognac-tasting but also a restaurant meal. We’d very much been looking forward to it. But the French had other ideas and so one changed port and one cancelled excursion later our actual cruise didn’t end up with us eating anything while ashore anywhere with one exception, that being the tapas we were surprised with when ordering beer in Santiago de Compostela. This consisted of a (we think) Galician white bean soup with chorizo and it was delicious enough that when the weather gets a bit cooler we’re going to have a go at making this ourselves.

Local beers were also consumed after considerable exertions in the heat in both St Peter Port, Guernsey and La Rochelle, France though it’s only the latter location I thought to snap any photos at.

Conclusion

As already mentioned, the food on Sapphire Princess was impossible to fault. When you consider that everything we ate on board during our short cruise was included in the price and that we didn’t spend any extra on the specialty dining options available you shouldn’t have any problems should you be thinking of taking a similar trip soon. I didn’t discuss the buffet food options simply because we only used it for breakfast and we’re pretty much creatures of habit in that respect, rarely varying the few things we choose in the morning. No complaints there either and since we tend to eat away from the main Horizon Court area and near the pools we never had any issues with finding a table or being served coffee or juice in the mornings either (with one exception).

Drinks options, similarly, were very good and a notable improvement from cruises we’ve taken in previous years except, of course, for the removal of the BOGO promotion.

Food and drinks service was a little bit hit-and-miss as I’ve covered here – Sapphire Princess Cruise: Hits And Misses – but it’s something that as part of a review you can moan about, be upset about, rant about a little but as a recommendation or as a basis for determining whether you should cruise with Princess or any other line, for example, it’s something you should ultimately ignore. These things just sometimes happen. One person can have a flawless experience and another might run into an avalanche of little gripes on exactly the same vacation. It’s the luck of the draw and you should always accept that there’s always a chance that no matter how good something is one time it might be dreadful the next and vice versa. The great thing about these sorts of things taking place on a cruise, though, is that you’re in the most relaxing environment in which it’s possible to holiday (in my opinion) and everything’s better a few minutes and few more sips of a cocktail later.

Absolutely loved what we ate and drank aboard Sapphire Princess in May and it’ll be very interesting indeed to see how it all stacks up against and what sort of new culinary adventures we can experience aboard the more Asian-oriented Diamond Princess in October.

Embarkation at Southampton was a very familiar affair. Living in Portsmouth allows us to leave packing and driving along to the cruise terminal fairly late, queue for a little while as CPS sort out the parking for the car, then wander in with our hand luggage (as it was just a short trip), grab a card to allow us to queue briefly to get our cruise cards, pass through security, then board. We know what to expect in terms of CPS parking times and rough travel conditions so our timing is pretty much spot on at this point for boarding and entering our cabin precisely when we’re supposed to.

When we booked our cruise on Arcadia we left it fairly late as we were trying to work out how to use up what remained of our holiday allowance in the year. Subsequently, for the first time since our second cruise many years back now we didn’t choose where we would be on the ship (where we wanted wasn’t available), opting instead to pay for a guaranteed balcony and leaving it to chance. The main pros of doing this are that you know you’re going to get a balcony and you’re going to be paying the lowest price. The cons, of course, are that the balcony could be anywhere; fore, aft, mid, high, low. You might be near where the smokers congregate. You might be beneath the running track or pool. For a weekend cruise we took the gamble and it turned out absolutely fine. Our actual grade was a couple above the lowest class of balcony and we were situated just forward of midships on the port side. We prefer the starboard side but as you can read in our dolphin encounter this turned out to be a very fortuitous allocation.

Cabin D72

Our cabin on Arcadia was D72, an EB grade classed as a Deluxe Balcony. A little wider and a little shorter with just a minor layout difference but in all other respects comparable to a mini-suite on a Grand-class Princess ship (such as our Star Princess room in 2016). A curtain separated a seating area from the bed and the bathroom contained a bath and shower rather than simply a shower unit. Storage space was more-or-less identical to any other ship although a small cupboard over the sofa in the seating area was a novel addition. This would be a good cabin to have on any cruise with the only thing to be aware of being the single UK plug socket available by the dressing table. For some reason there were two European sockets also available but for a UK cruiseline this seemed an odd configuration. P&O provide tea and coffee-making facilities in their cabins which we’re still not keen about but each to their own and it’s not as if we’re forced to use it.

The balcony depth was somewhere between a Royal-class balcony (too shallow) and a Grand-class balcony (fabulous) making it just about adequate (i.e. you could turn a chair to face outwards and sit on it, just). The view was perfectly fine and the lifeboats just below, partially obscuring the promenade deck, did not spoil the scenery at all.

Bars On Arcadia

Now, while we’re keen to review cruises and share information about the ships that isn’t our primary reason for getting on them; like most sane people we’re there to enjoy ourselves and relax. On a longer cruise we can do both things because there are sea days and plenty of opportunities for heading off, exploring. With this Arcadia cruise only having two full days aboard and both of those being port stops there was less chance (and less inclination if I’m being honest) to check out every lounge, every bar, every type of entertainment, etc. in detail. Prior to muster, though, we took a quick wander up to the top deck to have a nose at one of the two pools up there. This was the centrally-located Neptune Pool, capable of being covered by the Skydome apparatus and the pool we determined to be the quieter of the two on that deck. Another pool, Aquarius, is at the aft of the ship but its exposed location, large deck area for sunbathing, and loud sound system meant it was absolutely rammed with people when we briefly visited it after our stop in Guernsey. Aquarius appears to be the party pool and Neptune is the more relaxing pool. We’re not party people. The downside to Neptune is that there are limited seats and loungers around and no easy access to the deck above (no steps up from around the pool area) but it would certainly be our preference as a place to swim on a longer cruise on Arcadia.

We had time for one drink before muster drill so walked through the East Bar (not serving drinks until the evening) then forward to the Crow’s Nest.

Muster for us took place in the Ocean Grill speciality restaurant, a place we’d booked a table for that first evening prior to embarking our cruise as we’d chosen a Select Price cruise with P&O and had some on board spending money to play around with. Even though we couldn’t choose our cabin we still opted for the Select Price option in order to make sure that for the following two nights we would be able to dine when we wanted and not when decided by Arcadia’s staff. We’re not fans of fixed dining times. The muster was pretty reasonable as P&O musters go although I’m still going to take the opportunity here to recommend that P&O (and everyone else) adopt the Princess Cruises approach of not needing to take the life jacket with you; it means the stairs aren’t packed afterwards with people returning the safety equipment to their cabins and proper cruise drinking can commence immediately.

Muster done we had a decision to make: the sailaway party by the Aquarius pool or grabbing some drinks at wherever was open. You might remember that we’re not party people so a tour of the three bars in close proximity on F deck was our very easy choice.

First up was the Rising Sun pub. It’s odd to admit but P&O are not our first choice for cruising as, if we’re travelling abroad, we like to get away from things we consider British. A foreign holiday is better if it’s culturally and socially different as much as possible from what we could get at home; it just makes the break better. That’s mostly why we don’t really like seeing kettles in cruise ship cabins. All that said, we do like the pubs they have on P&O cruise ships and the Rising Sun on Arcadia is a really nice example of one. I’d go even further and say that Arcadia’s pub is the best pub on any of the four P&O ships we’ve cruised on.

However, in what has fast become a P&O cruising tradition where we’re concerned, yet again the pub did not have the first beer I tried to order. I know, I know, it’s a first world problem, but cruises aren’t super cheap, the ship had literally docked in Southampton that morning, and there’s just no excuse for not having all the things you’ve seen fit to print up in your bar menus actually on board at the very start of a cruise no matter how short it is. On the plus side it was just this one drink that wasn’t available making our Arcadia experience significantly better than our cruise on Oriana earlier in the year.

From the pub we headed through the gallery, past the atrium, and aft to the Spinnaker Bar. A bell and model ship decorated this otherwise very quiet location.

By the atrium was a long, thin bar area called Intermezzo that we then had a couple of drinks in before heading off to shower and change for our meal. We had some nice views of the Isle of Wight that we were passing by on our starboard side but the most memorable thing about this bar was the manner in which the Martinis we ordered turned up. Call us old-fashioned but we like our Martinis in Martini glasses. The drinks were fine, of course, but for many drinks the drink is an experience that includes the glassware and we felt this did change it somewhat and not positively.

Ocean Grill Speciality Dining

Our first evening on Arcadia saw us try the speciality dining at Marco Pierre White‘s Ocean Grill restaurant. Food on cruise ships is generally very good so the speciality restaurants have to put in a little more effort to warrant parting with your money. Was the Ocean Grill worth the extra? This is a tricky one to say for certain. For us, we weren’t blown away by the food with one exception and on one of the subsequent nights on the short cruise they had a Marco Pierre White menu in the main dining room which included several of the elements we’d paid extra for but for free, putting a bit of a dampener on the experience too. You want to feel you’ve got something you couldn’t have got otherwise and that was only partially true here. The food was all cooked perfectly and tasted fine but it overall just lacked a little something difficult to describe. This isn’t a unique observation of the Ocean Grill on Arcadia as we felt the same about the Epicurean on Azura last year too. We’re possibly just spoilt.

For starters I had the Cured Gressingham Duck Carpaccio and my wife had the Crevette Cocktail

The main course for my wife was the Fillet of Bass while my main course, the Pork Cheek and Pork Belly, was the standout course. Had everything else been as tasty, as good-looking, and felt as special as that one course then we’d have no hesitation in recommending the Ocean Grill dining experience on Arcadia.

Dessert was cheesecake for my wife and chocolate tart for me. The cheesecake felt like another case of style over substance – it looked impressive in its bowl but this ended up making it awkward to eat properly – while the tart seemed to be not far removed from what you’d expect in the main dining room anyway. Both fine, just both unspectacular.

Some chocolates (that were also presented in the main dining room) and a quick visit and a smile for the camera from the head chef rounded off our Ocean Grill evening on Arcadia. We’re glad to have done it and on a longer cruise on the ship we might even do it again as there are plenty of other dishes to try and see if they would impress more but we’d possibly try to arrange it for the same night the similar menu was being offered in the ship at large so as to not feel quite so aggrieved at the extra cost.

One final gripe about our speciality dining night: my cruise card was taken twice, the first being when we bought wine (as expected), the second being… for no reason we could think of. More importantly, it wasn’t returned – something we didn’t realise until later – so I had to get a replacement from reception. This process was very swift, though, so well done P&O there.

We concluded our first night on Arcadia with a couple of drinks in The Globe, listening to the live band then the DJ, and watching some of our fellow passengers get up and dance. I’d like to say this part of the cruise was uneventful but another P&O staple made an appearance here in the form of completely the wrong drink being delivered.

Ports

For this cruise we visited Cherbourg (see: Arcadia, France posts) and St Peter Port (see: Arcadia, Guernsey posts). Disembarkation at both ports was simple and efficient and different in each case. Cherbourg simply involved walking off and into the French city while St Peter Port required taking a tender ashore, a process as simple as taking a ticket and waiting in the very attractive theatre until our number was called before being led to the boat.

We didn’t choose this cruise because of its itinerary in particular (although it was nice to actually dock at the French port we were supposed to, a first on any cruise for us) which was just as well as Cherbourg on a Saturday and St Peter Port on a Sunday aren’t exactly overflowing with activities for casual tourists. The weather was good, though, and we knew mostly what to expect on each day and weren’t disappointed at all.

Main Dining Room

Arcadia’s main dining room is split over two floors, a feature present in quite a few ship designs but a first for us. Its large size and openness made it very attractive indeed – probably the prettiest room we’ve dined in on our cruises – but our experiences on the two nights we ate there were very different affairs. While the final night was without fault the previous evening had been bad enough to lead us to see if there were any speciality options instead (no luck; we’d been handed a leaflet for Sindhu’s, a restaurant we’ve never tried on P&O to date, and phoned to book soon after to be told it was booked up, making us wonder what the purpose of the leaflet had been). That bad experience was the formal night and started with the longest wait to be seated we’ve ever had followed by some shocking service on our table for ten: two people were handed courses before they’d finished the ones before while I entered a now-traditional P&O invisibility period and ended up being offered no bread nor any water (much to the amusement of the people with whom we were seated). I did eventually get a glass of water when everyone had a top-up to get their second glass but this was simply not good enough for a four-course meal. Our waiter couldn’t have been more indifferent to our table if he’d tried. If we hadn’t had similar poor service on previous P&O cruises we’d have made more of a deal of it but we’ve started to accept that they’re just not quite good enough in this area of cruising and it’s one of those things. Food, as mentioned earlier, was very good.

Gameshow

We’re not ones for cruise ship entertainment usually but we did find ourselves in The Globe one of the evenings just as a gameshow based almost exactly on The Chase started. Called The Pursuit, it was well produced and hosted and sated our desire for a bit of trivia that we’d not been able to fulfill to that point. I was particularly pleased with our seating location which produced some great light and shadows for photography during the show.

Prior to the gameshow taking place we’d been in The Globe along with one other couple (not together; they were seated away from us) and we’d had a drink. Finishing our drink we’d looked around to see if we could get another. We counted seven stewards in the lounge (so staff almost outnumbered passengers 2-to-1), all of whom were as far from us as possible and talking to one another. We were in clear view of them and decided to see how long it would be until one of them noticed our empty glasses. After nearly ten minutes of sitting there and looking at one another with raised eyebrows and shakes of the head I then pulled out my phone and started a timer running then left it on the table. That did the trick and we were then served inside a minute. Not good enough by far, P&O.

Miscellaneous

The following photos were taken at various points over our short cruise on Arcadia.

The art gallery and various bits of artwork around the ship were very nice and a lot of it suited our tastes; some of the best we’ve seen at sea.

A prominent feature of Arcadia should be the colourful glassware at the top of the atrium. Something that shouldn’t be so prominent are buckets to catch leaks from air conditioning units. There were an awful lot of these around the ship in lounges and corridors (we saw at least half a dozen) but hopefully this is just a temporary thing until the equipment is fixed properly.

We did finally get to have a drink in the East Bar on one of the nights when we took one look at how packed the Crow’s Nest was and thought better of trying to find a seat. East was practically empty and had some lovely views across the pool at night but there is a doorway to the right side of the bar through which the staff members would periodically walk and every time resulted in a flash of intense white light from the room the other side flooding the otherwise subdued, atmospheric bar. Our recommendation would be to sit to the left of the bar if you can.

We also finally did spend a little time by the Aquarius pool at the ship’s aft on the final morning as it was the only place with seats where we could have breakfast before departure. The buffet offerings on Arcadia were better than we were expecting from our past cruises with P&O so another plus point foodwise there.

Arcadia Cruise Summary

I know there’s a lot of moaning in this review of Arcadia but there’s no point reviewing something if you’re not going to pick out the bad points as well as the good; the world doesn’t need another person claiming everything is fantastic and you’ll never get the cruise lines to improve their offering if they don’t get honest feedback. P&O still have a problem with consistency of service and in our opinion they need to just ramp their speciality dining offerings up a notch, though that’s partly the fault of having such good quality offerings in the main dining room.

We liked Arcadia a lot. We’re still Grand-class fans more than we are Vista-class but the ship design had a lot to recommend it. She’s at the lower end of the size of ship we’d like to take a longer cruise on but we’d have no problem at all taking one on her and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her if asked.