The Sapphire Princess

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Cruise review of our Sapphire Princess cruise to Mexico with stops in
Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

Our cruise lines review of the Sapphire Princess.

Well here we are, off on another cruise vacation holiday.  Our trip involved flying from Portland to Sacramento, renting a car in Sacramento, and driving down to Stockton to spend Thanksgiving with our relatives.

Our timing must have been perfect.  Here we were traveling on the day before thanksgiving, the busiest air travel day in the year,
and we had no waits or delays of any kind.  No lines at all.  

Since Kathy lined up this cruise on her own, I asked her to write a little about how she chose this cruise, so here is, in her words, how we ended up on the Sapphire Princess of the Princess Cruise Lines on a trip to the Mexican Riviera.

Take it away Kathy...

When I am getting ready for a cruise, there are two sites I visit regularly. Both have a ton of information about any ship and any itinerary and often the shore excursions. In addition, you can meet other cruisers going on that cruise.
They are Cruisemates.com .. and cruisecritics.com. 
 
I read the message boards on those two sites for crucial information about  upcoming cruises. 
When I decide to go on a cruise, I am relentless. I am also cheap. So Here is how I find the best cruise for the best price. 

I decide what time of year I want to go and then I start searching. My favorite searching tool is Vacationstogo.com. I check weekly to see what the best prices are on the region I want to go and then I look at the web sites for that cruise to see what the cruise line prices are. 
 
I watch for the prices to go down ... and I worry that it will be sold out if I wait too long. So it is a bit of nail biting and a bit of experience. However, I am very flexible on dates so I can watch the prices on multiple cruises . 

I usually don't book a cruise more than 90 days in advance. Now If I wanted a really specialty cruise I would book when it was available, but if I just have a destination and time of year, 90 days is way more than enough for us.
 
This year is a little different and may have taught me a lesson. I subscribe to the Vacations to go cruise newsletter. I was totally impressed with all that the people, from Alan Fox to the staff did for the victims of Katrina. So instead of just looking up prices
and going to the cruise lines with those prices, I called Vacations to Go and made the reservation through them. It turned out that when I called they had a cheaper price than what was on the web site.

 I booked with them. I got all the cruise documents exactly when they said I would. We leave on Saturday and today I got a Bon Voyage message from Sean at Vacations to go. 
 
Keep this link .. and I recommend that you subscribe to the newsletter .. it is really very informative!  www.vacationstogo.com