Overall, another very enjoyable cruise on Sapphire Princess. We've only cruised with Princess so far, but other companies will have to be a lot better if we are tempted away from Princess. On-board service, activities and food as well as accommodation and entertainment was all very good.
Areas for improvement which Princess need to try to address is the number of wheelchair spaces in Princess Theatre (only 6 provided) and how they manage accessible transportation at ports of call.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
As a disabled driver and wheelchair user, embarkation at Southampton was once again excellent. Parked car through CPS, who took the car away minutes after the porters had removed our cases from the car. The next time we saw them was outside our stateroom. Quickly through check-in with wheelchair assistance we were on-board by 11:45.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Pop Choir was once again very enjoyable with around 70 participants. Rehearsals good fun with Holly and performance in Piazza on second last day was well received
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Peter Howarth, Jeff Stevenson and Phillip Browne very good but others not worth going early to Princess Theatre to get one of the limited availability wheelchair spaces. Princess Singers and dancers quite good. Enjoyed on-board entertainment in bars, particularly Crimson Duo in Wheelhouse Bar and Moonlight Duo in Piazza.
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Staff always willing to help
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Good sized accessible cabin. Plenty of room for me, as a wheelchair user, around bed and in bathroom. While drop down seat in shower is functional, it's slatted design is a little uncomfortable.
We shared a large taxi with 4 other guests (who we hadn't previously met) who took us to Florence and left us for 4 hours. Driver, who was very friendly and spoke excellent English then picked us up and took us to Pisa for an hour before returning us the ship. Good value at 50 Euros each. Could have taken 8 passengers at 320 euros. Taxi wasn't wheelchair accessible, but I was able to transfer in and out reasonably well, although it was a little high and wheelchair was put in back. We'd been recommended to look out for this taxi service who were prominently located just inside terminal building. Well worth visiting Florence and glad I went to Pisa, although nothing else there other than some leaning tower which you have to see.
Ship docked at La Seyne Sur Mer and offered a boat shuttle to Toulon, which was supposed to be accessible for wheelchair users. We chose as an alternative to take the short level walk to local town centre where there was a market and and a nice marina and plenty of places to eat or have a coffee.
A bit complicated to get from ship at Dock D to City Centre as 3 other ships in on A, B, C, one of which was terminating in Barcelona. This meant that the port shuttle bus (4 Euro return) was always full when arriving at Dock D. Myself, another wheelchair user and our partners were stuck for over half an hour, but thanks to Port Mobility staff, they arranged for a shuttle to by pass other Docks and come to us first. We were told that special shuttle arranged for the ship wasn't wheelchair accessible, which we complained to Guest Services about, who understood it was meant to be. In Barcelona, we used the Hop On/Hop Off service, but it was very busy and slow to get around. It's also not ideal for viewing from lower deck as wheelchairs cannot access upper deck.
We did not visit Lisbon due to problems getting accessible transport from ship. Princess provided a shuttle at 16 euros return as we were parked quite some distance from city centre. Although not publically announced, Guest services told us there was a free shuttle to the local railway station where we could get the tram which was accessible. Unfortunately, that shuttle wasn't wheelchair accessible contrary to what we were told by Guest Services. We then went for provided shuttle but the queues were massive. Only 1 wheelchair accessible bus capable of taking 2 chairs, but a queue of 4 other chairs after those on board would mean us waiting nearly 3 hours to get into Lisbon, so we decided to stay onboard. I feel Princess need to get more involved in organising and managing accessible transport ans there are many passengers using wheelchairs, scooters, etc.
Again excellent arrangements for disembarkation. We were due to leave ship at 9:30 and got off at 9:25 with the help of the excellent wheelchair assistance guys who had helped at every port. We quickly acquired the help of a friendly porter who helped get our cases and took them to the car in the CPS car park no more than 100 yards from the ship. We were on the road out of the port within half on hour of leaving the ship.
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