Roll Call--- Coral Princess Nov. 4-14

[dananddoug]

Anyone else on this sailing. Would love to meeting everyone.

[TorontoTL]

Hey there, Benny and Fabian here. We'll be on your sailing of the Coral Princess to Panama. Two of our friends, Dan and Anthony who we have cruised with before will also be on this cruise. Glad to know there will be other gay people on this cruise. Where are you guys from?

 

By the way, there is a general roll call for this cruise that was started a while back. The link to it is below in my signature.

[dananddoug]

We are from Washington DC area. We sailed on the Sapphire Princess last December-January. and there were over 50 of us. We took over the Wake View Bar every evening for drinks before dinner. I will ask them to schedule a FOD get together for the first day at sea.

[TorontoTL]

As I'm sure you guessed are from Toronto. Sounds like you had a great group on the Sapphire. On the Caribbean Princess we had a group of over 20 that attended the first meeting. Later in the cruise it was more like 10 who hung out in the evenings together. How was the Sapphire?I wanted to somehow contact the Coral to request FOD meeting as well. That would be great if you did it because I don't actually know how it is done. I read in another post a while back that there is a group of over 10 FOD's that are booked on this cruise as well. I haven't been able to contact the original poster however as he isn't accepting emails.

[dananddoug]

It would be great if we had a large group on board.

The Sapphire was great, we sailed in Austraila and New Zeland, most of the guys were from that part of the world. I was a Christmas-New year cruise. Lots of fun even though it was not greatest weather, it was much colder than we expected.

 

If you want you can send me an email so you can get my email address.

 

Dan

[TorontoTL]

Hi Dan, your profile doesn't allow me to send you an email. When I checked it said that the system is not currently allowing emails.

 

My email is bennychangmd@yahoo.ca

 

 

 

Benny

[dananddoug]

We have decided to change to the Sept 16 Vision of the Sea from Vancouver to LA. We have friends on that sailing.

[TorontoTL]

We have decided to change to the Sept 16 Vision of the Sea from Vancouver to LA. We have friends on that sailing.

 

Hi guys, sorry to hear that you're cancelling the Panama Canal trip. I'm sure you'll have a great time with your friends on your coastal cruise.

[TorontoTL]

Reviving this thread. Any other FOD's on this cruise?

[sls4818]

Hi there, Sam and Moe here. We are looking forward to sailing on the Coral Princess on the 4th of November. We are coming from Atlanta, Georgia. Please add us to the list of FOD!

 

Sam

[TorontoTL]

Hi Sam and Moe, great to see that there will be other FOD on our ship. We are Benny and Fabian, and our friends Dan and Anthony will be on this cruise. Have you been on this ship or Princess before. This will be our fifth Princess cruise but have never been on this ship.

[sls4818]

Hey guys,

 

Nice to meet you all. This will be the first Princess cruise for Moe and I. Any recommendations you care to share specifically relating to a Princess cruise- i.e. dining, etc? Any would be greatly appreciated. I have sailed this itinerary before and am looking forward to it again. The locks are pretty cool.

 

Sam

[TorontoTL]

Well in terms of food, we have always enjoyed the dining rooms for all three meals. As you likely know, Princess has anytime dining so you can decide to show up at a dining room whenever you want and get seated when they have an available table. We have never had to wait more than 15 mins for a table and if there isn't one available they give you a pager so you can wander around or go to a bar. Alternatively you can make a reservation if you like. None of us has ever gone to any of the alternative restaurants as we have always enjoyed the food in the dining rooms. The buffet is available 24 hours a day so if you like more casual dining it is a great option. I have usually found something interesting there to eat as well. Although I do like table service on vacation so prefer the dining room.

 

What else would you like to know?

[sls4818]

Thank you for the insight. My travel agent informed me that Princess does have a policy of anytime dining in addition to choosing either an early or late fixed seating. I was interested in your opinion as to which option you preferred. It seems that the anytime dining is your choice. I think we will opt for that as well. There are pros and cons to both options. My experience has been limited to the freestyle dining on NCL which was great. In addtion to NCL, I have sailed with Costa, HAL, RCCL and a few others which I believe are not sailing any longer! We are looking forward to the "Princess Experience". Do you guys recommend bringing formal attire for those dinners? As time has gone by I have done this with less frequency but didn't know if Princess warranted packing the tux.

 

Sam

 

By the way-just curious- who am I communicating with here thus far?

[TorontoTL]

Hi Sam, it's Benny btw, sorry for not id'ing myself. We have fully enjoyed the anytime dining experience on Princess so far. If we meet new people it allows us to dine with them when we want, or do a dinner for just the two of us. We have found that if the table size is larger though, like more than six, it is often better to call ahead and make a reservation, at least on the Grand class ships.

 

As far as formal dining goes, we often see most men in tuxes or suits. We have never brought either, as we prefer to be less formal. In fact, we just have dress shirts and ties and have never had an issue on formal night. However, if you would feel uncomfortable with most people around you dressed formally and you too casually, then you might want to dress up to fit in. We don't mind not fitting in and just wearing a tie without a jacket. We already over pack and don't need to have even more to bring LOL.

 

By the way there is a roll call on the regular forums going on too, link is below in my sig.

[sls4818]

Hey Benny:

 

Again thanks for the information. I shared much of what you said with Moe, and I think we are both in agreement to go with the anytime dining. We also liked the idea of just a dress shirt and tie as an option for the formal dinners. Yes, there would be so much less to pack!

Besides your partner and your two friends, are there any other FOD on this sailing that you are aware of? Moe and I have had some really good experiences meeting other guys form all over the world on other cruises. It has been a lot of fun.

I think cruising is my most preferred means of travel. I assume with as many cruises as you have been on, especially so many with Princess, that you share the same enthusiasm. But as excitied as I am about the cruise, the anticipation of the time leading up to the cruise is just as exciting. Let the countdown begin!

 

Sam

[TorontoTL]

Hi Sam, we are both always excited about going on cruises. I have found them to be exceptional vacations in that you can do as much or little as you want on any one day. We have often found that all-inclusives are very boring after the first few days. The cruise lines offer so much, but yet we can do nothing if we want too. On the longer cruises I have sometimes found myself just laying in bed watching new movies on the TV in the cabin. I'm not sure what you other cruises have been like, but on Princess, the movies on TV are often ones that aren't in the theatres anymore, but haven't yet made it out on DVD yet. There usually are a few movies at least that I haven't seen that I want to see.

 

Other than Fabian and me, Dan and Anthony ( our friends ) I don't know of any other FOD yet. But with 1900 pax I expect there will be others. We will have to email the CD beforehand and request an FOD party. Hopefully it will be like our last cruise on the Caribbean Princess where about 30 showed up and we met alot of really great people.

 

Benny

[TorontoTL]

Anyone else coming along with us, less than 2 months now. :D

[TorontoTL]

35 days and counting. Watched the Coral go thru the Gatun locks on kroozecams. Can't wait to board.... Any other family joining us?

[TorontoTL]

Got my docs yesterday and we are down to three week until we board the Coral Princess. I know of one other gay couple on this cruise, there must be others? Are you out there?

[TorontoTL]

Still looking for other family on this cruise. Just got an email reply from the Coral Princess' current CD who said there will be a FOD meeting on the first Sea Day. Hopefully lots of other fmilay will be there.

[TorontoTL]

Ten days until we board. Hopefully no hurricanes to interfere with the cruise especially the embarkation and disembarkation days. Anyone else joining?