I am a yearly cruiser who has sailed on Princess, Carnival, RC, and Norwegian. I sailed on Freedom of the Seas last year. I sailed on a 7-day repositioning "winery" coastal cruise from Los Angeles (Long Beach) to Vancouver on the Sapphire Princess. Overall, the cruise had some wonderful ports and was very port intensive with only one sea day. The cruise was enjoyable and relaxing. However, if there were more sea days, it would have been a bit boring on Sapphire.Getting on the ship was a breeze. I saw lines wrapped around many times over with the Norwegian ship sailing next to us. I arrived around 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and it took about 10 to 15 minutes to get onto the ship. There was staff everywhere to direct traffic. As stated on cruise critic, lunch in the dining room is not open to people getting on even though the flyer they gave you said it was (I did not actually go into the dining room to try to get in, but a staff told me buffet only). The muster drill was the quickest and easiest one I have been on, much better than Carnival or Royal Caribbean. You got to sit inside and staff was everywhere to direct, and it was over quickly.ROOM:We had an interior cabin on Baja. The cabin was very spacious, despite it being smaller than the cabins I have had on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. I think it is because the layout (no sofa and open closet by bathroom) is better. I don't care about sitting out on the balcony or having a window, so the cabin was sufficient. Also, because over 75% of the cruisers were seniors, it was extremely quiet at night, which made for good sleeping. The mattress could be better, and there was no duvet cover.DINING:Dining on this ship was hit or miss. The good items were wonderful, but there were also more than one night in the dining room I found nothing that I liked, which had never happened before on the ship. Also, with anytime dining, I feel like they stuff too many people together with too few waiters. So, there were long periods of time when you were ignored, and service was not on par with other cruising experiences. Also, food would get cold because the waiters were too busy serving the other 5 or 6 tables in your area.The buffet is the most horribly designed buffet on a cruise ship I have seen recently. The food area is way too small and is very congested. On Freedom of the Seas, even though there were way more people, they spread out the different food stations, so if you wanted dessert, you could just go to that station. Well, on Sapphire, they shoved all the stations together, so if you want to get dessert, hot food, salad, you start from the same area and stand in line. Also, there was not enough seating in the buffet, and sometimes, they only opened one side. About 50% of the time, we ended up having to share our table with other parties because not enough tables were available. The food was okay, but they really need to redesign the buffet and have more tables.PORTS:This cruise had a wonderful itinerary: Santa Barbara, San Francisco, sea day, Astoria, Seattle, and Victoria. I did not purchase any shore excursions. I noticed that Princess excursions cost almost double the ones on Carnival or RC (i.e. a one or two hour excursion city tour averaged around $70 per person). However, if you take this cruise, you really do not need to take the excursion. These are major U.S. cities, and there were cabs everywhere. If you have a smartphone, you can just navigate to the major sites yourself easily. Astoria was a bit small and boring, but other than that, great ports, and the reason why I took this cruise.ENTERTAINMENT:Sapphire had the worse entertainment I have seen recently. The funny thing is they would have multiple activities planned while you were in port and nothing other than shows after 5:00 p.m. So, there was very little to do once you got back from the port, unless you wanted to play bridge or do trivia. The casino was open up until we reached Seattle, but not many people were in it, except for the final night it was open. Also, because there were many seniors, not people participants in the sporting events. The good thing is there were many pools on deck and very few people in it. The spa was also great, and because we had so many ports, they had great specials.Overall, good cruise because of the ports, If I had more than 1 or 2 sea days, I would have been thoroughly bored, but I definitely recommend this itinerary. It was a quiet rocky between Santa Barbara and halfway between San Francisco and Oregon, more so than any of the other cruises I have taken to Mexico or in the Caribbean. But, nothing too terrible. Overall, other than the itinerary, I prefer the bigger, newer ships because they have more to do. The service was better on Princess, and the "hits" for the food and overall food quality seemed better although there were dishes that were not good.