Coral Princess Review Jan 14-24

[lhall85917]

We have been back for a week and finally have time to post a review and some pictures. Thanks to all that have shared reviews and information in the past, it is invaluable and I hope that this helps someone else.

 

A little background - DH and I are in our mid-50's and recently retired. Most of our cruising has been on NCL, this was due in large part to wonderful benefits from using their credit card - those benefits were changed a couple of years ago so we are now more flexible with choices, basing our trips now on itinerary, ships, and pricing. We don't gamble, drink, or shop a lot so this may not be helpful to many of you. Mainly, we enjoy being on the ship and visiting new ports.

 

Our trip began from the Huntsville airport. As mentioned, we recently retired and moved from Cincinnati to the Huntsville area. When we moved, we were told it never snows there and if it does, it is gone by noon. Not this winter! Four days before leaving we had 9 inches of snow and were concerned with flights making it out of Huntsville on time. There was no need for worrying, after a quick deicing of the plane we were on our way, switched planes in Atlanta, and arrived in Fort Lauderdale about 15 minutes late.

 

 

Our pre-cruise stay was at the La Quinta Airport North. This was booked with credit card reward points and we deliberately chose it because they have a shuttle from the airport and also to the port. In addition, we had read moderately good reviews and felt that it would be fine for the night before the cruise. Their shuttle arrived at the airport about 15 minutes after we called and our room was ready upon arrival. The exterior looks nice, and it is within walking distance of a shopping area, but the location wasn't the greatest. The rooms seemed to be fairly old and a bit rundown. Overall, we weren't too impressed with the hotel and wouldn't stay there again. Last year we stayed at the Hyatt Place North and would prefer to go back there.

 

Upon check-in, the clerk put our names on the list for the shuttle to our ship. There were times for each ship and ours left at noon. There were a lot of us on the shuttle and on shuttles to other ships, and it was quite obvious that the hotel is catering to the cruise ship business.

 

When we arrived at the port, it wasn't very crowded and it didn't take very long to go through check-in and go to our cabin (I think we were in our cabin by 1:00). We had booked a balcony guarantee and were assigned a BA category (C609) shortly after booking the trip last fall. The room was very nice and we really liked the large balcony. I had read about small showers before leaving and didn't think too much about it - aren't they all small?! However, this really was the smallest shower we have ever had. I am a fairly small person and found it uncomfortable to use, my DH is larger and I'm sure it was even less comfortable for him. Good thing he didn't walk in while my leg was up on the toilet trying to shave my legs!:eek:

 

We really enjoyed the size of the ship and liked all of the public areas. We ate most meals including breakfast and lunch in the dining rooms and found the food to be consistently the best we have ever had on a cruise. The few times we tried the buffet, we were a little disappointed in the choices - this may be because we have seen much larger buffets on larger ships with stations that have many choices. Service was excellent at all times both in the dining room and in our cabin. A lot of people don't seem to enjoy MUTS but it was a wonderful option for watching the football playoff games!

 

 

I'll add port information in separate posts as soon as I can...

[LARGIN]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. The Coral/Island sister ships are our favorite.

[lhall85917]

Normally we prefer to find private excursions; however, on this trip we ended up doing a Princess excursion in every port except Cartagena. Princess prices seemed reasonable for the most part and with our time frames and and the ports of call this seemed to work out well for us.

 

Aruba:

 

We did the Aruba by Land and Sea excursion. We were only in Aruba for 1/2 a day and this was our first time there so we wanted to see the island. Surprisingly, our bus was fairly small - about 20 passengers - which made the excursion more private than some ship's excursions we have taken in the past. The tour took us to the California lighthouse, then a chapel and then on to rock formations which could be climbed. The sea part was on a small boat which took us from the one end of the island back to the ship and included a cup of rum punch. We really didn't see much from the boat so in hindsight it may have been better to book something that was all land-based.

 

 

 

[lhall85917]

Cartagena:

 

Other CC members organized a tour with Lee Miles and we joined them. There were 12 in our group and we were able to see much of the city and had a great guide. First we went to La Popa and enjoyed the monastery along with the wonderful views of the city. Cartagena was much larger than we thought and the new city is very modern looking.

 

 

From La Popa we also enjoyed a view of the Coral Princess from a distance.

 

 

Next, we stopped by the fort for some pictures. Our tour didn't take us inside the fort, we did talk to some others on the ship that went inside and they really enjoyed going in there and exploring the tunnels and various rooms.

 

 

Following the fort we went to Old Cartagena. This is the part we had looked forward to the most and we really enjoyed it and wished we had more time to explore on our own. One thing I should mention is that all over the city the vendors, fruit ladies, and people with sloths were quite aggressive. I started the day by saying "No Thank you," each time, moved on to "No," and finally just ended up shaking my head. The Old Town is undergoing a lot of restoration and there is quite a bit to see including the Gold Museum, beautiful architecture, and old cathedrals. This is one place where you may want to bring extra singles for tips for the street mimes, artists, and young dancers.

 

 

[lhall85917]

Panama Canal:

 

We awoke early to experience as much as we could of the canal. I had read many posts and explanations of the canal, but I still didn't really understand the process and the layout of the canal - I'm not sure you can without experiencing it. The ship started going through the first locks at Gatun Lake at about 6:30 and we went to the front of the ship to watch. I'd read about the door on deck 10 but still was unsure if it was something for public use or not. At the front of deck 10 there is a door with a sign that says "Caribe Deck 10", we opened it, followed a very short hallway to another door which opened to the front of the ship. There were several people already out there when we arrived so we found a nice place at the rail to observe the ship's progress.

Not long after beginning our journey it began to rain, fairly hard at times, but most of us remained out there throughout the process. Gatun Lake has 3 locks to go through before arriving at the lake which was the end of the ship's journey. Immediately following passage through the last lock, the shore excursion desk began calling for tour members to meet. We booked the Panama Canal Excursion by boat since we wanted to go all the way through the Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific side.

Ship's tenders took us to the shore where we boarded a bus for the trip to the boat that would take us the rest of the way through the canal. The bus ride was about an hour and a half - basically taking us the length of the lake. We then boarded a ferry for the rest of the crossing. Because the ferry is smaller, we went through each of the remaining locks with a larger ship - a large car carrier that had gone through the Gatun Lake locks ahead of us. One of the best experiences was the first entry into the lock with this huge ship - it pulled up within 100 ft of our ferry, incredibly close!

Going through the remainder of the locks took quite a while and it was quite a long day. We ended up outside of Panama City for the bus ride home (about 2 hours). Others on the ship had done a Panama City excursion and enjoyed it immensely. Ours was a very nice excursion and we were happy that we did it for the experience; however it is a VERY long day. One thing that really stuck with me was the incredible and never-ending poverty we viewed from the time we got past Panama City all the way back to Limon. It was miles and miles of very small shacks with obvious poverty - so sad. I think it struck me more because we had heard all day about the large amount of money brought in each year by the canal, but this money doesn't seem to be going to the citizens in this part of the country.

 

 

 

[lhall85917]

Limon, Costa Rica

 

Another shore excursion through Princess! This time we booked Costa Rica's Favorites with Lunch. This tour includes a gondola ride over the top of the rain forest along with a boat cruise through the jungle. This was a great tour and I highly recommend it. We were slightly disappointed not to see a lot of animals in the rain forest but that certainly couldn't be helped. The scenery from the gondolas was amazing! Following the gondola ride we did a nature hike, again we were hoping to see some animals, perhaps one of the beautiful blue butterflies or some of the brightly colored frogs, but none of those appeared either. At one point our guide silenced us and had us look up - anxiously my eyes went up hoping for a sloth, monkey...something...it was a brown squirrel! Lots of jokes were made about that discovery in the rain forest!

 

After lunch our next stop was almost 2 hours away for the jungle boat ride. This was much more productive in the animal-hunting mission. We had a wonderful guide who knew where to look for many animals - this time we saw sloths, cayman, howler monkeys, many types of birds, and more.

 

 

 

 

Look close...those dark spots on the tree are 5 bats - I'll never know how the guide was able to spot them from the river!

 

[lhall85917]

Our last port was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We chose the Dunns River Falls and Botanical Gardens excursion. Again we were in a smaller van which was very nice and had an excellent guide. We went immediately to the Falls before it got crowded, this was a pleasant surprise for us - we really enjoyed the falls. Following the Falls we went to Shaw Botanical Gardens, they were really pretty and we enjoyed them. The final portion of the tour was devoted to shopping - first we went to an old house that had some stores, no one was very interested in what they had and we didn't stay long. Next we went to a larger shopping center for about 45 minutes then back to the ship.

 

 

 

[mrsafety]

We did the cruise in November it was the best hope you enjoyed the great ship you were on.

 

 

Karen and Jamie:)

[srpilo]

Very helpful & detailed review.

 

 

 

 

 

It's great you took the time to share it with us ..Thanks

Srpilo

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your detailed review. Pictures were great.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Bonnie1750]

Thank you for your review. It is most helpful. We are on the Coral in March.

[lhall85917]

I just finished our photo book and uploaded the pages to a video, the link is here for anyone interested -

[Pam in CA]

Great posts. Thank you so much for sharing!

[Caribbean Sunsets]

Thanks for your review. I've stayed at the same LQ and agree that the facility could use some updating. The hotel was clean and the staff very friendly...just a dated decor.

[Cruisin'BusyBee]

Nice review and great pics. Are u able to give some more info about cruise: when are the Formal Nites on Coral (Panama)? Also, comments on ship activities and (of course - LOL) the Food!? Any chance that u are able to download the Princess Patters (I know that is a pain to do.....)?

 

Thanks so much,

C/BB:)

[orangetabby]

Thank-you for the review. We are on the Coral the first full week in April for the same itinerary. After reading many of the reviews about the Coral, we can hardly wait. The next two months cannot go fast enough.

 

Cruise History

December 2010 – HAL Oosterdam Mexican Riviera

March 2010 – Caribbean Princess – Classic Southern

March 2009 – Caribbean Princess – Southern Explorer

[YadaYadaYada]

What a fascinating review! We will be on thisncruise in March and your review with pics really got me excited to go! Do you have the menus posted anywhere? Thanks!!!

[lhall85917]

Nice review and great pics. Are u able to give some more info about cruise: when are the Formal Nites on Coral (Panama)? Also' date=' comments on ship activities and (of course - LOL) the Food!? Any chance that u are able to download the Princess Patters (I know that is a pain to do.....)?

 

Thanks so much,

C/BB:)[/quote']

Lets see what I can remember...I think the first formal night was on Sunday after leaving port on Friday, the other was a couple of nights before returning home. Most activities seemed to be geared toward the older demographic on the cruise (as they should have been, DH and I joked that they were going to open the Kids Club just for us - lol, actually I heard that there were 8 kids onboard, a far stretch from the 800+ we have had on other cruises!). There were port talks for each of our stops, dance classes, bridge meetings, ice carving demonstrations. Several days there were movies in the theatre, one night we watched The Social Network in the main theatre and there was a very large crowd in attendance. There were also galley and behind the scenes stage visits. One day they were supposed to have volleyball by the pool but no one wanted to participate.

As far as food, we thought it was the most consistently excellent food we have ever had on a cruise - and that says a lot because we have been on many cruises AND I am a very picky eater. The beef dishes were especially good - the filet was wonderful the night it was served and each night beef medallions were available that were wonderful. One formal night they had lobster and prawns, it was very good.

Sorry, I do have the Patters but don't have the technology to scan and post them easily.

[TGHRS]

Nice review and great pics. Are u able to give some more info about cruise: when are the Formal Nites on Coral (Panama)? Also' date=' comments on ship activities and (of course - LOL) the Food!? Any chance that u are able to download the Princess Patters (I know that is a pain to do.....)?

 

Thanks so much,

C/BB:)[/quote']

 

 

Is there anything specific you were looking for??? I have them but scanning them would be about 50+ pages.

 

 

Mark

[Cruisin'BusyBee]

Mark: just was wondering what days the formals were and mentioned was a theater on the Coral. I thought that there was only MUTS? Thanks.

 

C/BB

[lhall85917]

Mark: just was wondering what days the formals were and mentioned was a theater on the Coral. I thought that there was only MUTS? Thanks.

 

C/BB

 

Formal nights were Jan 15 and 21 - we boarded on the 14th so that would be day 2 and day 8. There isn't a designated movie theater, the show theater was used a couple of times to show movies.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[Cruisin'BusyBee]

Thank you for your quick reply to my questions. You are very helpful and appreciated! :)

 

C/BB

[snoodqueen]

Great review and pics - thanks for posting them! I'll be back on the Coral in September - reading all about it makes me want to go now!