Although other reviews highlight that the Sapphire Princess is not a "new" ship, I found the ship was in a very acceptable state of repair and looked good visually. The most outstanding characteristic for me was how clean the ship was. Day or night, all of the public spaces were maintained in a spotless condition without being overwhelmed by cleaning crews everywhere. It had a been a while since I had been aboard a Princess ship and I would have to say that it is not as luxurious as it used to be. The level of service is still good, but it used to be great. Same with the food, it was good, but not outstanding as in the past. We used the Dine Anytime option and the dining room service was adequate but nothing more. The servers were clearly pressured to up-sell drink packages as every meal included a sales pitch. Service in the buffet was generally satisfactory but there were days when service in the buffet was inconsistent. The food in the buffet was decent but not outstanding. Even though we were in tropical ports, the fresh fruit selection was mediocre at best.

The area of greatest disappointment was in the entertainment. The primary rock band was a complete flop. The lead singer had no voice projection and was hard to hear most of the time. The bass player and drummer often were at different tempos. The piano player was good, but after listening a couple of times, you realized he played the exact same songs even in the very same order every night. The bright spot in the entertainment were the guest performers and the production numbers. Both of these were first rate. The other problem on the cruise was the cruise director, Calle. He was the worse cruise director I have encountered in more than 20 years of cruising. He failed in almost every aspect of his job. He did not communicate with the passengers except at the bare minimum. When the ship sat in port 3 hours after the advertised departure time at the embarkation port, there was no communication as to why we sat there. The first time change was communicated via a note in the cabin not by the cruise director or his staff. The second time change was announced by the deputy cruise director at a show at 10 pm, not by the cruise director at the end of the production show. Most scheduled on-board events started late and without apology which is also direct reflection on the cruise director. There was also ongoing problems with the television system. Many of the information channels and webcam was just jumbles of pixels rather than clear pictures. They reset the television system over and over again without fixing the problem.