Coral Dec 28 Panama Itinerary Change

[flowery]

I haven't seen a posting about this. I just noticed a change on Jan 5- the Coral is now docking in Ocho Rios, Jamaica instead of Grand Cayman due to "congestion at Grand Cayman" -too many ships there on the 5th according to a Princess rep. This change was confirmed on Sept 1!

[joeyancho]

Imho, Jamaica is a far better port. Much more fun and cheaper.

[easyboy]

I haven't seen a posting about this. I just noticed a change on Jan 5- the Coral is now docking in Ocho Rios, Jamaica instead of Grand Cayman due to "congestion at Grand Cayman" -too many ships there on the 5th according to a Princess rep. This change was confirmed on Sept 1!

Not a bad change IMO. We liked snorkeling around the reefs in Ochos Rios.

[piper28]

My TA sent notice about the change today, which I thought was kinda weird. It's been listed as Ochos forever. Heck, I think Princess had it listed as Ochos back when I booked, and it's been a while for that (although the TA had Grand Cayman listed for a long time). Heck two years ago the same route over the christmas/NY break also used Ochos instead of Grand Cayman, even though most of the other trips around it did Grand Cayman. (Oddly, the graphic they showed always listed Grand Cayman, but the itinerary was always Ochos.)

 

Personally, Ochos is the cesspool of the Caribbean, I'd far rather have Grand Cayman, but I knew booking it that we weren't getting it.

[flowery]

OK- thanks for your replies. Now I know what happened- I like to use an internet discounter with a fabulous "custom search" option when researching itineraries. I just assumed all their info was correct/up to date and didn't check every port on their listing against the Princess website.

 

I actually like Jamaica but would have rather gone to Grand Cayman. The Cayman Islands used to have a terrible mosquito problem but after introducing genetically modified mosquitoes, things really improved.

[piper28]

That may be the same one I use, and yeah, they did have the itinerary listed as grand cayman for quite a while - my original booking confirmations showed it, even though princess was showing ochos at the same time. They seem to have finally caught on a couple days ago, since I got an email from them about the "changed" itinerary. Even cruisett shows the ochos stop, and they tend not to be all that good at catching updated itineraries.

 

Interestingly, I'd actually say the cruise before us would be more crowded in grand cayman. 15k passengers there that day, while it'd be closer to 10k if the jan 5th stop was still at grand cayman. So I'd say the port congestion excuse is questionable at best :).

[yuccaman]

I haven't seen a posting about this. I just noticed a change on Jan 5- the Coral is now docking in Ocho Rios, Jamaica instead of Grand Cayman due to "congestion at Grand Cayman" -too many ships there on the 5th according to a Princess rep. This change was confirmed on Sept 1!

 

I researched and booked first week of August, and it always has been Ocho Rios- at least since then. Several trips during the season tend to be Ocho Rios.

 

HOWEVER, what WAS a bit misleading was that on their website and in some printed materials, the map nevertheless always, confusingly, showed Grand Cayman as the stop- and unless you actually looked carefully at the accompanying text portion of that cruise's schedule you would not see that the stop was actually Ocho Rios.

 

I'm glad on this trip that this is the case. Have family members that haven't done Dunn's River Falls, and looking forward to them doing the climb. I live near Ft Lauderdale, and the Caymans are too much like home.

[Lucky TGO]

I know it's just me but I hate when that happens.

Tony