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Island verses Coral capacity

DougMacP

By DougMacP,
in Princess Cruises

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DougMacP

DougMacP

Posted
Posted

I have an upcoming cruise on the Island and have been reading the reviews and posts about how they stuffed a bunch of extra cabins on her....taking away part of the promenade deck (hate that) and rear lounge (sort of hate that). Looking at the Princess Website.....

Lists the Island with 2,214 lower berths

Coral at 2,000 lower berths.

 

What you would expect if cabins were added to the Island, right? This is where it gets interesting. Because according to Princess the Coral has more cabins 1,000 than the Island 987. The biggest difference is the Coral has more outside cabins.

 

So if Princess jammed more cabins on the Island to make more money....why haven't they don't that to the Coral??

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fishywood

fishywood

Posted
Posted (edited)

Double-occupancy capacity of both Coral and Island was 1,970 passengers (thus ca. 985 cabins) when first launched. Coral was the first to slightly add capacity to reach the 2,000 pax/1,000 cabins it has currently. Island suffered a much larger refit reaching 2,214 double-occupancy capacity. So the fact that Island is still listed as having the same 987 (sic) cabins as when built should be obvious as an error on the website.

 

As for Coral: she was originally scheduled for a six week drydock eight months after Island's was done. Which presumes the plans were the same--until said drydock was shortened to a standard two weeks. Not only were all those extra cabins not added but the plans to add Curtis Stone's SHARE restaurant to Coral were scuttled at the last minute. So hopefully Princess learned from their mistakes with Island--and please do not give them even the remotest hint that you wish that fate for Coral.

Edited by fishywood
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sunsetbeachgal

sunsetbeachgal

Posted
Posted (edited)

And in spite of adding more passengers and taking away and/or relocating some of the ships features, to not even add an International Cafe' shows that absolutely nothing was done for the benefit and enjoyment of the passengers.

Edited by sunsetbeachgal
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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

Posted
Posted
Isn't Coral having another dry-dock next year? There are deck plans on the website that show now and later next year. Could changes be coming next year?

 

No..... if you look at every ship that you pull up deck plans for it shows the same 3 dates.

They are changing around the cabin 2 letter designations.

So no physical changes.

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tiessa

tiessa

Posted
Posted

Was on the Island at the end of January. A crew member who seemed to be in the know was complaining about what a mess they had made of the Island and they still had plans to do the same to the Coral saying Princess had learned nothing. There is no IC. They did not enlarge the dining rooms and the theater was built to only hold 600. If you wanted to see shows you had to line up 30-45 minutes early in a line that stretched past midship so many never got in even with 2 shows. The worst effect was that the work load increased on the crew and it definitely showed. They were unhappy in general and downright surly and rude in some cases. You never want to hear crew and Elite guests complaining about the cruise line but it was fairly common. I'd never sailed Princess and was not disappointed by the changes since I had no expectations. It was the worst cruise I've ever taken. Hopefully Princess does not create these problems on the Coral but it sounded like the changes were delayed not canceled.

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Gopherpharm

Gopherpharm

Posted
Posted
perfect timing... I just was interviewed on Cruise Radio talking about this exact issue. We were on the Island in the Fall for a month and sadly it does impact the public venues, especially dining venues.

 

 

 

Vickie

 

 

I just listened to you this morning! Glad our forst time on Princess is on Coral!

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted

Yet other reviews subsequent to the re-fit have said that there was no evidence of any problems with the additional pax. Most complaints seem to be coming from those who have not sailed on the Island post re-fit. Go figure.

Tiessa seems to be in a minority of one - no one else has posted a similar disparaging review.

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted
Yet other reviews subsequent to the re-fit have said that there was no evidence of any problems with the additional pax. Most complaints seem to be coming from those who have not sailed on the Island post re-fit. Go figure.

 

Those in traditional dining would see no change as there will be no additional passengers lined up for that dining room.

 

Those in anytime may or may not see longer lines depending on when the mix of passengers on that voyage decide what time they want to eat.

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tiessa

tiessa

Posted
Posted
But this review

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2287571&highlight=island+princess

gives a totally different, and very complimentary viewpoint.

 

 

I hope everyone's experience is different than ours! I wouldn't wish anyone a cruise like we had! I just shared our experience. People must take every review for what it's worth. I wish everyone happy cruising!

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ggprincess2004

ggprincess2004

Posted
Posted

Princess did indeed learn from their mistake with Island, and cancelled plans to add additional berths to the Coral.

With the Island, not only did they loose public space, not increase dining options, and destroy the Promenade deck, they didn't increase berths for crew, so there we not additional cabin stewards or wait staff to handle the increased passenger load.

 

Coral will remain herself, with the aft lounge, wrapping Promenade deck - thank goodness. She is a joy to sail on.

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

Posted
Posted
Yet other reviews subsequent to the re-fit have said that there was no evidence of any problems with the additional pax. Most complaints seem to be coming from those who have not sailed on the Island post re-fit. Go figure.

Tiessa seems to be in a minority of one - no one else has posted a similar disparaging review.

 

 

Really?

Its in my review from Nov.

Lines out into the atrium from 4:30-8:30. :(

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wowzz

wowzz

Posted
Posted
Really?

Its in my review from Nov.

Lines out into the atrium from 4:30-8:30. :(

 

Fortunately we do not eat dinner before 21:00 so we should have no pronlems on our next cruise.

I can understand the issues with the extra pax, but I would not have thought that an additional 200 would cause such queues. Is it not more likely that cruises with a large percentage of US pax, who are known to be early eaters, is the root cause of the problem. Cruises with a higher percentage of European pax, who will be wanting to eat later, would ensure a more gradual flow through the dining rooms.

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Colo Cruiser

Colo Cruiser

Posted
Posted
Fortunately we do not eat dinner before 21:00 so we should have no pronlems on our next cruise.

I can understand the issues with the extra pax, but I would not have thought that an additional 200 would cause such queues. Is it not more likely that cruises with a large percentage of US pax, who are known to be early eaters, is the root cause of the problem. Cruises with a higher percentage of European pax, who will be wanting to eat later, would ensure a more gradual flow through the dining rooms.

 

 

Well that was the opposite on our Med cruise.

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