Sunday, November 10, 2019; Transfer from Rome to Sapphire Princess
We awoke to see bright blue sky at the top of the hotel courtyard, so we packed up, had breakfast, and then made a quick walk to the Trevi Fountains to see them during daylight. It was easier and less stressful navigating in daylight- things didn’t seem so scary. We were surprised to find the crowds were’t really any more than what we had encountered when it was raining and dark. Photo-wise, the lighting was harsh with shadows cast by neighboring buildings, so it was probably better looking and more impressive at night and in the rain.
Our travel agent had arranged a private transfer for us from our hotel to the Sapphire Princess. Any transfer has the potential for adding stress, but this transfer went extremely smoothly and efficiently, even though Princess Cruises and the Hotel weren’t directly engaged, everyone was very helpful, and we were spirited off even a little ahead of schedule. We had a 9 passenger van to ourselves, and the traffic at 11am was nothing like it had been during last night’s excursions. We went through a long tunnel where it seemed like we were then only car in the tunnel. There were areas of congestion, but these were intersections within the city where we had been in the tour bus yesterday. As we left the city center, traffic was much lighter in the outer spokes of the roads leading away from Rome. Once we got into the countryside, we felt much more relaxed. There are lots of rolling hills covered with agriculture between the last of the ring roads around Rome, and the coastline.
When we got our first glance of the Mediterranean, our hearts soared. We are definitely coastal people and prefer the sea to the big city. Our van dropped us off less than 50’ from the bag drop off and Princess Cruises check in. The embarkation procedures went very smoothly, although they still had our old passport information on their computers. We had changed the information on the Princess website, but that information was still outdated. We need to get new passports because our old ones only had 3 or 4 blank pages left, and we were advised we would need at least 4 pages to complete this trip because we are going to so many different countries. Our new passports now have 50 pages to fill.
This is our first time on the Sapphire Princess, but we have sailed on her sister ship, the Diamond Princess on our first Japan and SE Asia cruise. The layout of the ship is also very similar to the Star and Emerald Princess ships that we have recently sailed on to Hawaii and Alaska. This ship was placed into initial service in 2004, but has been well cared for. The TV over the mini fridge has been replaced by a flat screen TV on the wall, but there is still a shelf and electrical outlet above the mini fridge, which is very handy. Our biggest surprise was the enormous deck associated with the room. C629 is on the Caribe Deck, which has deluxe balconies that are roughly square and the full width of the cabin. You could put a king sized bed out there. There are two reclining deck chairs and a small end table, with lots of room for calisthenics.
Oddly, they seem to have shrunken the Sabatini’s Restaurant and created a huge Internet cafe in the middle of the ship. There is still an international cafe in the Piazza. The ship has not yet been fitted with the Ocean Medallion system, so we still have to use magnetic cards to access our room and the internet is SLOW.
We unpacked our suitcases, and are always happy to find so much storage space. This ship has 3 real drawers in the desk and two real drawers in each night stand. They have also added USB ports to the lamps on the night stands. Our safe had a bad keypad, but our Steward was able to get someone to replace it with a new one less than an hour after we had reported it. We do love the service on Princess. To top that, we took our dirty laundry from the last 2 weeks of working our way from Prague to Rome, and sent it off to the Sapphire Princess’s laundry service - FOR FREE! A huge perk for being loyal Princess passengers. There is, however, a 72 hour turn around for the laundry on cruises like this where the majority of passengers are Platinum and Elite status.
There were no surprises in the Buffett for lunch, and we had some downtime for napping and exploring the ship before our mandatory muster drill. Fortunately, this was done only in English, so it didn’t take much time at all. When we were on the Diamond Princess in Japan, everything was done in English and then in Japan, and it just took forever.
It appears that there is a good mixture of Americans, Australians and Englishmen on this cruise. There is just a smattering of Asians, which surprised us a little, considering how many Asians we encountered in Europe and in Rome.
It is interesting that we are now running into people we have met on prior cruises. A pair of women standing in the Piazza recognized us from having previously played trivia with us on the 60 Day South America cruise.
Our first Trivia was a Music through the decades game. There we were joined by another couple we had met on our Diamond Princess Japan cruise from Houston, who had played a game or two with us then. We did OK on the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, but bombed the 90’s and 00’s. The host, Martin from Brisbane, Australia, really stretched out the game and required Artist, Song Title and Year released. So out of 20 songs, there were a possible 60 points. We managed 26, which seemed respectable, but a team in the front row managed 32 points for an impressive win.
The game ran so long that we missed the early comedian show, and ended up going to the 8:45pm welcome Trivia, which was broken up into 5 flag, 5 general trivia, 5 sports trivia and 5 food trivia questions. We teamed up with Bob and Mary, whom we had run into at the Vatican Museum tour, and with whom we had played trivia on our 60 Day S. America cruise as well. We managed a respectable second place finish with 18/20. Both of the evening’s trivia prizes were champagne bottles.
There are a lot of passengers who started this cruise in London, and so have been on the ship for 10 days already, traveling about as long as we have been. Tomorrow, we arrive at Naples, where we have booked an excursion to see Pompei and Sorrento. The excursion originally also included a ferry to Capri, but that was cut from the itinerary due to anticipated rough sea conditions, and the price was reduced to compensate for the alteration. We do have to be up before daybreak to get our breakfast in before disembarking.
