Princess Cruises Sapphire Princess

Internet Café

This bright, welcoming facility with its informal café for coffee drinks and pastries was a great environment for surfing the web. We found ample stations and varied seating arrangements. Alas, on our cruise we (and others) seemed to suffer even more technical snafus than is typical at sea, racking up a big bill with little return.

The basic rate for internet access—using our own laptop anywhere on the ship or using the Internet Café’s computers—was .75/minute, plus a $3.95 activation fee. Packages sold on the first day of the cruise offered a discount off those rates, but were not available subsequently. A few other packages became available on the last full day of the cruise.

Youth and Teen Centers

Sapphire Princess offers various rooms for their kids programs, clustered on Deck 15 aft. The general hours on sea days was 9 a.m. to noon, 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m.; on port days the facilities were staffed 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m.

The entry-level program is Princess Pelicans, for ages 3-7, and activities include arts and crafts (T-shirt coloring), a disco night, scavenger hunts, ice cream and pajama parties. There was a small open-air splash pool for this facility.

Pre-teens age 8-12 were grouped into a program called Shockwaves, which featured arts and crafts, Playstation 2 tournaments, sports, a spelling bee, and scavenger hunts.

Teens played in Remix, and activities included T-shirt graffiti, dance parties, a casino night, DJ workshops, mocktail parties, teens-only formal dinners, and games like Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Pictionary, Scrabble, Jeopardy.

We were told that the age groupings sometimes shifted when a larger-than-usual component of kids were booked on an individual cruise. Group kid-sitting was also available from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., for $5/hour per child.