Coral Princess Panama Canal 1/19/2014 Review

[suejoe]

Thanks for the great review and beautiful pictures. Just 33 more days for us to set sail on the Coral......can't come soon enough!! So glad you had a good experience on the ferry ride to the Pacific side. We have that excursion booked and looking forward to it.

 

Susan

[Whimsy]

Thank you for very much for the review. I really enjoyed it. It was very nice to know that you had a good trip. It will be our first time on the Coral and I just keep reading wonderful things about her getting us more excited.

 

Do you remember if there was horse races on the ship?

[5soccer9]

Welcome to Florida:eek:!!

 

 

Where is this in Florida? OMG -

[BananaAnna]

Loved your review - thank you for sharing!

Could you (or anyone) elaborate on the Scrap Heap Challenge? I noticed it on someone's youtube video recently and thought it looked intetesting.

Edited February 10, 2014 by BananaAnna

[stinky1]

Thank you so much for the review Jazzbeau and Jazzbelle ! It was a wonderful trip and it did exceed all our expectations also. It was wonderful to read and remember the trip. So much of your description is our point of view also ! Thank you Donna

[Bimmer09]

Thanks for a well-written review of your Coral cruise. I read it bow to stern in one sitting.

 

It's a bucket-list cruise for me.

 

Thanks again,

Norris

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thank you for very much for the review. I really enjoyed it. It was very nice to know that you had a good trip. It will be our first time on the Coral and I just keep reading wonderful things about her getting us more excited.

 

Do you remember if there was horse races on the ship?

 

Yes they kept advertising the horse races. We heard one going on while we were waiting outside the venue - it sounded like the Subway races they run at Yankee Stadium, but we didn't see what it looks like. I certainly wouldn't bet real money on those fake Yankee races [or the current fake Yankees either, for that matter...]

[Host Jazzbeau]

Loved your review - thank you for sharing!

Could you (or anyone) elaborate on the Scrap Heap Challenge? I noticed it on someone's youtube video recently and thought it looked intetesting.

 

I didn't keep the rules sheet, but what I remember is that you had to construct a boat out of materials you scavenged during the cruise that could transport a load of 6 cans the length of the main pool. Now building a raft that can float would be easy (borrow a tray from the buffet and tape 6 empty water bottles under it for buoyancy. Buoyant enough to hold up six cans?--don't know. Stable enough to survive possible waves on the pool?--don't knowl How to make it move down the pool?--really don't know. And I can't tell you how people solved those problems, because no one entered--if you saw a youtube video, you probably know way more about it than I do. :D

 

The Egg Drop contest was a much easier engineering challenge. Most of the successful entries took an empty water bottle, cut it in half, put a little weight on the bottom and then bubble wrap, then the egg, then more bubble wrap. Tape the bottle back together and throw it off the Deck 8 balcony. It will land on its bottom with a thud, but the egg will survive. You won't win, however, because you don't get any style points for that approach. The winners gathered a bunch of the Happy Birthday helium balloons that Princess puts on people's doors--and either by luck or some calculation they had just the right amount of helium to gently float the egg-in-a-bottle down to the atrium floor for a gentle landing. Nobody else came close on style. [Now you have a cheat sheet for how to win this one! ;)]

[rescuemom]

thanks so much for the review we are going in april. can you tell me how much the ship tour was? is it something you sign up for on the excursions deck? sounds like you thought it was worth it?

[BananaAnna]

Thanks for the challenge info!

The video I saw showed folks pulling their 'boats' thru the pool with a string.

[BillB48]

Where is this in Florida? OMG -

 

Up in the panhandle, don't know exactly where. Someone sent it to me, in our part of FL we've just been shoveling sunshine:).

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. My cousins and I are thinking about this cruise. I appreciate your thoughts.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SATELLITECRUISER]

Thanks very much for your comprehensive review. We are currently making a 2 week trip down to Fort Lauderdale to catch the 21st Feb sailing. We are in Charleston, SC at the moment, and the weather is not very good. Can't wait to get somewhere warm.

[Harley0711]

thanks so much for the review we are going in april. can you tell me how much the ship tour was? is it something you sign up for on the excursions deck? sounds like you thought it was worth it?

 

Go to the princess web site, reg with your criise conf - then sign up for any and all youe excursions, all info is there, super easy cancel policy, if you wait till you get on the ship, your choices just may well be GONE

[Host Jazzbeau]

thanks so much for the review we are going in april. can you tell me how much the ship tour was? is it something you sign up for on the excursions deck? sounds like you thought it was worth it?

 

It's $150 per person (but you don't both have to do it). I was afraid that DW would think it was pricey, but she loved it so much that she felt it was completely worth it -- and that was BEFORE the tote bag with the nice robe and other goodies arrived!

 

You have to sign up at the Passenger Service Desk, not the excursions desk. They keep a note book with the form. They have to hit a minimum number [we only had 8, so I know that number works] and have a maximum of 12 [but we heard about one cruise where they bent that rule and allowed 16]. It's supposed to take about 4 hours, but we asked a lot of questions so our tour was almost 5 hours long -- and we enjoyed every minute of it.

 

One takeaway was that if you get sick on board, the medical center is much better equipped that you might think. The other stops were awe inspiring more in the scale of what they do and the professionalism with which they do it. All in all it leaves you feeling that you are in very good hands when you're on a Princess ship.

[mimi217]

Wonderful review! I so enjoyed it and your humor :) We will be on the Coral on April 6th our first Panama canal cruise and have gotten many ideas from you. Thanks for sharing.....well written :)

Edited February 12, 2014 by mimi217

[skyline]

:)Thanks for a great review. Hope we can do this trip next year.

[Grammyluvs]

This has been my favorite review ever!!! Love your writing style and your sense of humor had me laughing out loud. I bet you are a lot of fun on a cruise . Have you written a review on a cruise to Hawaii with Princess?

[Host Jazzbeau]

This has been my favorite review ever!!! Love your writing style and your sense of humor had me laughing out loud. I bet you are a lot of fun on a cruise . Have you written a review on a cruise to Hawaii with Princess?

 

Thanks. No we haven't done Hawaii yet, but we are planning to in 2016 -- on NCL since they have the only ship that cruises in Hawaii [we'd rather fly, despite the length, than cruise across the ocean].

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your great review and pictures.

[speedbird]

I really enjoyed your review. Thank you for posting it.

 

My wife and I are booked on the Coral Princess for the Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver cruise on April 28th. We're both looking forward to sailing on the Coral Princess. We sailed on the Sea Princess a number of years ago and enjoyed it very much.

[Momma Mojito]

I really enjoyed your review. The photos you shared were beautiful We sailed on the Coral two years ago and are doing it again on April 28. We too have made the Coral our favorte ship! I thought maybe 15 days might be too long but as you can see we are doing it again!!

[Momma Mojito]

I really enjoyed your review. Thank you for posting it.

 

My wife and I are booked on the Coral Princess for the Fort Lauderdale to Vancouver cruise on April 28th. We're both looking forward to sailing on the Coral Princess. We sailed on the Sea Princess a number of years ago and enjoyed it very much.

 

Speedbird,

We have a roll call with a Meet n Greet planned If you would like to add your names to it just go to the April 28 listing on the roll call

[Thrak]

Host Jazzbeau:

 

I don't know you, have never met you, but the more I read of this review the more I have to say that I definitely think I like you.

 

Many thanks for your review. The information is useful and I find your attitude pretty darn hilarious. :D

Edited March 22, 2014 by Thrak

[sweet carol]

Hi

 

Was great to meet you on the cruise and really enjoyed reading your review. Our paths may cross again some day. If you ever make it to the capital of Alberta, Canada look us up.

 

Sweet Regards

Sweet Carol and Candymaker