LIVE - Coral Princess - Circle the Pacific - 09-19-2018

[gardenbunny]

I have so enjoyed your posts and will enjoy meeting you when we board the Pacific Princess in LA Jan 20 for 96 days to FLL!!  I have also been keeping up with this cruise because 2 friends we met on the 2017 WC (we did the 54 days from Sydney to Venice) have also been on your cruise - Rich and Francine from Mytrle Beach.

We have reserved a rental car in Honolulu and going to the North Shore in hopes to see the massive waves at Bonsai Pipeline!  So excited to be back on PP and see all the updates.  Continued safe travels home and have a Happy Thanksgiving.  Be good to have you back on our roll call!

[ccrain]

CRUISE WRAPUP – CRUISE CRITIC NOTES

 

Note for all my fellow cruise critic travelers on this cruise. I will be working on a detailed heavily illustrated travelog when I get back home, as well as scanning all the patters, uploading all my stills and videos to a to be determined site for you all to download (I have a lot of pictures of lots of people), as well as, hopefully, creating a video of the cruise like I did on the 2015 Crown 28 Day Tahiti, but I promise that it will be shorter. Give me a few weeks to sort things out, but we have the World cruise in January to prep for as well. I will try my best.

 

I will also leave the Shutterfly site up as long as I can since there is really no reason to shut it down.

 

What was memorable? In a good way!

 

Fellow cruise critic people.

 

They made the cruise. And there are too many to name them all (over 300 on the roll call), although those we spent lots of time excursioning with (Pam, Ralph, Marty, Sue, CL and Meei, Ken and Susie), dancing with (Jadine and Sean, Suzanne and Jim) and people watching with (Jane and Bill) will be very hard to forget! And we can’t forget John and Cheryl (TheRabbit) as he became a milepost in the crowd – literally! It was so great being able to walk down the hallway and actually recognize people and talk to them. It was like one big neighborhood.

 

Pam (Pamandcookie), especially, gets major kudos and thanks for all the excursions she put together. All of her excursions were better, longer and far cheaper than the corresponding Princess ship excursions. I don’t think I could have survived putting all of those together.

 

Jane has to get major props for the on-board activities she handled. The slot pulls, the luncheons, the farewell dinner and the IPAD classes.

 

Other people stepped up and handled Mah Jong and bridge as well, which were well attended in the Bayou Café and the card room. They made the sea days a bit more bearable for a lot of people.

 

The ports.

 

This itinerary, despite the weather issues and the immigration issues, offered a once in a lifetime overview of Asia with a round trip to LA. Missing Kushiro and Osaka was disappointing, especially Osaka and access to Kyoto. But overall, with the early arrivals and late departures in most stops, the ports made this trip worthwhile.

 

Private Excursions.

 

Four ports stand out as the most memorable excursions of all times. Incheon – DMZ, Ha Long Bay – the Junk Cruise, the Keelung Night Market with CL and his college buddies and the Korean BBQ dinner in Seoul.

 

In Incheon on one of Pam’s tours, we ended up getting adopted by a Korean Village Party Bus and treated as honored guests. It was a very memorable experience.

 

The junk cruise in Ha Long bay was incredible. Everything was nearly perfect. The weather was perfect, the sights fantastic, the food great, the entire day was everything you wanted in a foreign port.

 

CL and his two college buddies gave us one heck of a foodie tour of the Keelung night market in Taiwan. The food was definitely local and authentic, but it was CL and his buddies – their taking care of us, guiding us, getting us lost and found, picking out the right food stand – that made the trip so memorable.

 

The Korean BBQ dinner in Seoul during the Incheon port call, something else Pam set up, was fantastic. All of us had a great time eating, drinking and cooking in the middle of Seoul. The food was great, the company and comradery even better.

 

DIY Ports.

 

Hong Kong, Hiroshima/Miajima and Kodiak. These three ports were the most memorable from a DIY point of view.

 

At Hong Kong I did the Ngong Ping cable car to the Big Buddha via the subway system. Complex and scary to plan, but oh so easy to execute. And breathtaking views from the cable car and the mountain top alongside the Buddha.

 

In Hiroshima, we went to Miajima first via the trams and ferry, tried all types of oysters, and then went to Peace Park. Again, scary to plan, but very easy to execute.

 

In Kodiak, as in Icy Strait, we rented a car and caravanned with 3 other cars looking for bear. And found them, both live and tracks. While the rainy weather could have been better, the picnic on the shore of the bay, the mother and her two cubs, the black sand beach, the sign warning fisherman that bears were stealing their catch – all were an experience we will never forget.

 

Next up – Memorable Cruise Moments

[jagsfan]

This has been a wonderful cruise, full of unforgettable moments, and I wasn’t even there!

thank you. 

[XBGuy]

I've enjoyed reading your reports, Charles.  You've put a lot of effort in it for our benefit.  Thank you, very much.

 

Now, I'm going to pull your chain a bit.  The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is informally known as "The Punchbowl."  A "bowl" is way different from a "bowel."

 

A very wise manager once taught me that the only people who don't make mistakes are the ones who aren't doing anything.

 

Again, thank you for your hard work.  I hope my ribbing caused you to chuckle.

[ccrain]

11 hours ago, XBGuy said:

I've enjoyed reading your reports, Charles.  You've put a lot of effort in it for our benefit.  Thank you, very much.

 

Now, I'm going to pull your chain a bit.  The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is informally known as "The Punchbowl."  A "bowl" is way different from a "bowel."

 

A very wise manager once taught me that the only people who don't make mistakes are the ones who aren't doing anything.

 

Again, thank you for your hard work.  I hope my ribbing caused you to chuckle.

 

Yep, I realized that a little while after I posted it, but I can't find the edit button on this new forum format and I don't want to spend minutes trying to find it...

[ccrain]

Memorable Moments We Will Talk About for Years to Come

 

Whenever cruisers come together, they swap stories of memorable moments. Things and events that happen during a cruise that we will talk about for years. Here are some of the most memorable moments of our 60 day cruise:

 

Off the Ship -

 

Dolores taking a picture of Flat Stanley and Flat Stephanie next to a steaming pile of bear scat in the middle of the road at Icy Strait.

 

The Japanese school kids at Peace Park practicing their English on us, asking questions.

 

CL translating the Kanji script at the Forbidden Palace revealing that the word “Deportment” carved into the gate should have said “Department”.

 

The welcoming ceremony at Okinawa with kids of all ages doing drum and dance routines.

 

The applause I got from the South Koreans when getting back on the ‘party’ bus after going down into the DMZ tunnel and coming back out literally soaked in sweat.

 

The sheer beauty and solemnity of the Punchbowl cemetery.

 

CL and his two college buddies, standing in the middle of flow of people, all three pointing in a different direction as they argue over which way to go next in the Keelung night market.

 

Pulling up and seeing a bear across the little creek, everyone getting out of the cars so quietly as to not disturb the bear, about 100 yards away, and then Harvey accidently hitting the panic button on his keyfob setting off the horn, lights, etc. during the driving around Icy Strait. (The bear took one look at all of us and went back to eating…)

 

The sound 100’s of feeding koi make when boiling up around fish food being dropped in the water at the “extreme” fish feeding event outside Manila.

 

People in several different languages cheering on the little turtles as they tried to get a piece of bread tossed on the water before the koi in Sankien gardens.

 

Stopping in the middle of a Beijing freeway during rush hour to drop off the tour guide on the dashed white line between lanes.

 

Negotiating with the lady in the Shanghai market.

 

The cyclo ride in Vietnam and WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!

 

On the Ship –

 

The curious case of the morning orange juice – and the trials and tribulations of Marty. Morning breakfast was always a fun and ‘noisy’ affair. But Marty (BIGKAHUNA) always ordered a ‘large’ OJ. What he got was indicative of how the morning would go. Early in the cruise he would get the one glass. Sometimes 2. One time it was FIVE. And then once it was 3, but only, according to the waiter, 2 on the table at a time. It became an unwritten test and morning starter to our day.

 

Dancing at night with Sean and Jadine (JACruise200) in Explorers.

 

On the balcony overlooking Hong Kong harbor, at night, with the lights all aglow, with my sweetheart.

 

Our farewell get together with Pam and Ralph(Pamandcookie), Dennis and Barb(gus617), at Ken and Susie’s(SandKinWA) place during sailaway in Nawilliwilli.

 

Our verbal communications used during tours to communicate with the back ranks – WALKING, STEP (Step Ralph, step!), RAMP, STAIRS!

 

Emptying the atrium into the gangway line one morning by loudly announcing WALKING to our group as we trooped off the ship…and then being followed by almost everyone in the atrium…

 

Next up, the inevitable gripes and bad moments of the cruise...

[AF-1]

Your memories will last forever; what a wonderful trip you had and you have it all documented with pictures.  I say you had a trip for the history books

[XBGuy]

6 hours ago, ccrain said:

 

Yep, I realized that a little while after I posted it, but I can't find the edit button on this new forum format and I don't want to spend minutes trying to find it...

 

Yes, and the stupid thing disappears after a few minutes.

 

 

 

I just tested.  It's next to the "Quote" link at the bottom.

Edited November 16, 2018 by XBGuy

[caribill]

12 hours ago, XBGuy said:

 

Yes, and the stupid thing disappears after a few minutes.

 

 

With the old format, it stayed active for 20 minutes. I do not know if it is still 20 minutes with the new format.

 

By the way. If you are subscribed to a thread that sends you a post when it is made, be aware you get the original post, not one that has been subsequently edited (modified).

[ccrain]

The not so memorable parts of the cruise –

 

I would have had this up two days ago, but the internet on the ship has suddenly gone severely downhill. Don’t know what happened, but we had better internet coming across the northern pacific than the last couple of days and this morning is not an exception. Something has failed somewhere.

 

Note – the following issues are those of our experiences that I can accurately convey. Lots of people have come up to me wanting to add their issues to my blog, but I can’t and won’t do that. I can defend my opinion on the problems we ran into because we personally experienced them. If anyone had issues and wants to make them known, they need to post them themselves for accuracy and also be prepared to defend those opinions.

 

Furthermore, I’m going to be a bit harsh in this part. I’ve been nice and positive so far, because, after all, this cruise was for the itinerary. But on the other hand, we’ve had a lot of sea days. And the 15 sea days from Manila to LA, with only 3 port days, were as much a part of the cruise, and cost the same amount, as a port day.

 

And I won’t just say this sucked, or was terrible. I will provide specific examples of the issues and also discuss what could have been better based on past cruises with Princess. We’ve only sailed Princess, so I’m not going to say Carnival does this, or Regent does that, or Holland America did this, that or the other. I can only compare experiences on past Princess cruises, and we’ve done two major ones in just the past year (Panama Canal – 34 days, Australia to Japan – 42 days), so we have some pretty specific recent experiences to compare to.

 

The weather. The crossing from Alaska to Japan was fraught with the outer bands of a typhoon tossed ocean. Judy spent a lot of time horizontal in the bed. Likewise the crossing from Guam to Hawaii, most of the 7 days, were not the roughest, but enough to keep us from dancing most of the time. It has made me rethink our cruising plans in the future after the upcoming world cruise. After the March and April cruises on the Diamond that required long flight times to Sydney and back from Narita, I believe we actually prefer those long flights to sea days that could be wracked with bad weather – especially on a ship with just so so entertainment like the Coral had. Princess can’t control the weather, but they can control the itinerary scheduling, and scheduling this cruise during typhoon season may not have been the best idea. I understand that they wanted to get Alaska in the mix, but they might want to consider an April – May version of this in the opposite direction, hitting Alaska in May. But I doubt they will ever do this particular itinerary again.

 

Missing Kushiro was weather related. Missing the refueling in Yokohama, and thus missing Osaka plus the wasted day in Tokyo Bay at anchor was entirely on Princess – regardless of any issues with the fuel vendor or the Tokyo Bay regulations on bunkering while at anchor. Princess has compensated us $150 each for this episode, so they consider the matter closed. Hopefully they have learned that a good backup plan for these once off cruises would be a good idea. Likewise the long immigration lines at a variety of ports was not Princess’ fault. The changing processes and procedures as to the line numbers and private tours, the meeting locations for getting a number, the crossover crowding between getting a number and a gangway – those were entirely on the ship and I have detailed them elsewhere. In fact, we the passengers started organizing the pre-line lines, just to avoid the chaos. It should never be the passenger’s responsibility to the ship’s job for them.

 

Ship’s Food. As I have previously mentioned, on a 60 day cruise, the food on the ship will get tiresome. Especially when you run out of lettuce for green salad! Unlike the Diamond in March and April, in which the food was pretty bad, the food on the Coral was ok, but not spectacular like on the Island last October. Maybe it was the 60 days, maybe it was just us, but definitely nothing that stands out other than the Brunch we had on the way back to LA. That, and Chef’s table, was the culinary highlights of the cruise.

 

Entertainment – and this is where the majority of the issues will reside. We got bored. A lot of us got bored. Boredom on a cruise ship, for us, is rare, but getting more common in the past couple of years. Shipboard entertainment simply did not meet expectations. Yes, corporate cutbacks are noticeable in the quantity and quality of the on-board entertainment. Especially in the 15 sea days from Manila to LA. Without Elua on board, there would have been almost no activities beyond trivia during the day, and the night time entertainment left much to be desired – as in the T-Rex chasing the weenie around the theater and headlining the Crooner’s piano player (Daniel) into the theater and calling it a show. Daniel actually said it best in the show between Kodiak and Japan where he and Miranda, the CD, did a show in the theater and he said – we’ve run out of entertainment!

 

Daily activities were basically Zumba, no Tai Chi disk, line dancing, limited ballroom classes, trivia (3 times a day), two lectures (on most days, not all), Kinect or Wii, a crafting class (from HI to LA only). Elua activities took up 4 line items from Guam to LA per day and a couple of nightly line items. It almost seemed like the ED was going through a checklist. Zumba daily – check, 2 lectures – check, Paper Airplanes once – check, ring toss a couple of times – check, egg drop once – check. Basically just going through the motions of making sure everything typically done on a 7 day cruise is done at least once in a 60 day cruise.

 

There were a few bright spots in the entertainment. Josh Young, a singer from Broadway, was fantastic, Levenstein, a comedian, was pretty good, but the guy who brought the house down was Kieran Powell, a ventriloquist who put together a show, with audience participation that was memorable. And every one of his shows would prove different because of the different audience members he would pick. The ‘Dating Game’ segment was LOLUYPO funny. He even got a standing ovation from the theater, which is rare for a ventriloquist act. The Hula show in Honolulu was also outstanding.

 

The entertainment staff was also very accommodating to our cruise critic group. We came on the cruise with a plan and cruise critic coordinators for Mah Jong, cards and pickleball. Corporate and the staff brought additional Mah Jong sets to the ship. After the cruise started, Kieran edited the playlist for ballroom dancing down to a good subset of dance tunes for a 1700 to 1900 dance session in Explorer’s. Mike (the ED to Hong Kong) added in an extra hour starting at 1600 at our request for people having dinner at 1700. The 1700 to 1900 dance session was deleted after Manila, but reinstated at our request. After all, nothing was happening in Explorer’s anyway.

 

Mike also stopped by on several occasions to chat about schedules and activities. He took our feedback seriously and implemented a lot of the suggestions the cruise critic group had. I even got a few phone calls from him. After Mike left in Hong Kong, nothing. We rarely saw the new ED and never chatted beyond saying hello in the hallway – and even then left feeling like we were bothering him. Any messages to him were relayed through the CD or ACD’s which were much more visible and active.

 

We had plenty of dancing and the Sound was a great band to dance to. But one of the best and biggest dance floors on the ship, the Universe, was not used. In the HI to LA segment, Elua did Hawaiian music dance segments in the Wheelhouse. The floor and the venue was packed. Why not move them to the Universe? Especially in the Guam to HI segment. Could have put them in Explorer’s instead of another music trivia game. Once again, ELUA in wheelhouse – check. Sound in Explorer’s – check. Other segments in Wheelhouse filled – check.

 

The production shows were just ok. Nothing that wowed me or Judy. The last production show, What the World Needs Now, was an extra show thrown into the 60 day cruise and it was literally phoned into the ship from the looks of it. A lot of vocals, some choreographed walking, hand movements and sitting by the dance troupe, the show band doing the music and some color graphic icons thrown up on the big LCD screen just in case you didn’t know what was going on in the show itself. My biggest issue here was the sound. Where we sat, the microphones were simply not balanced between the singers and the band. One of the male lead vocalist’s microphone, since he has such a soft voice, needed to be boosted, but it wasn’t and the band music blew him out, as it did, but not so much, to one of the female leads. BTW, sound balancing in the theater was an ongoing problem depending on where you sat, between the band sound and the vocalist.

 

During the days from Japan to Manila, sea day entertainment was not a big issue for us as we had lots of resting up and prepping for the next port to keep us busy. (The sea days from Kodiak to Yokohama were pretty rough.) The 7 sea days from Guam to HI were bereft of entertainment at night for the most part, and then suddenly, major shows and activities (a production show and a comedian) are all scheduled on one night! The Universe Lounge was greatly underutilized and when it was used for rebroadcasting the show in the Theater, the sound and video was very poor quality. Nightly movies would have been a much better option.

 

The 5 sea days from HI to LA had a pretty full nightly entertainment schedule, which was good, but that still did not make up for the 7 days from Guam to HI, or the 3 days from Manila to Guam. Some of the scheduling did not even make sense. For example, we had the Love Boat Disco Deck Party, one of our favorite activities, on the night of Nawilliwilli, rather than the following night after a day at sea. Most of us had just spent two long port days in a row, in hot weather, walking our rear ends off, and now disco dancing is scheduled after that? That’s just not doable. Country Western night was also on a busy port night. I do not remember a 50’s/60’s night, or a disco night, or any of the other major party nights. Once again, checklist item or trying to schedule to maximize passenger participation?

 

One of my pet peeves was the scheduling a production show 3 times in one night. On prior ships I have seen additional shows scheduled on consecutive nights in order to accommodate everyone and give the dancers a bit of a break. Again, with 10 at sea nights from Manila to Honolulu to fill, you’d think the ED would want to stretch things out rather than bunch them up in one night, while leaving other nights empty. And where is the rule that you can only have one Liar’s Club, or one Marriage Match Game per segment or cruise? What’s wrong with multiples? Too much work? (Nightly variations on trivia was more the norm at night, and after 30+ days on a ship, some trivia players were taking it way too seriously. Above and beyond the norm.)

 

The daily sea day activities were really lacking from Manila to LA. A lot of the activities on the patter were sales related events. Art related, Spa related, Casino related or Effy related. A lot were unhosted and several were hosted by Cruise Critic people – Mah Jong, Bridge, Knitters and Knatters, pickleball, etc. Where was Giant Jenga, ring toss, scavenger hunts, the Quest, paper airplanes, fruit carving, bar wars on those 15 long sea days from Manila to LA? There is no rule that says you can only do one on a 60 day cruise! People on a 60 day cruise with so many sea days are desperate for something interesting to do besides trivia. Digital photography classes? Computer classes? Future Cruise presentations? A lot was missing from a normal sea-day schedule. Once again – checklist?

 

Future Cruise presentations for Princess cruises were lacking as well. Only a few presentations, 2-3, were given during the entire cruise! I specifically invited the Future Cruise Consultant to give a World Cruise presentation. He did not show up. We could have had several covering all of the 2019 and 2020 destinations, but did not. Too bad. A great marketing opportunity lost and at least something to do for some of us.

 

Likewise, the photography department left a lot of time on the table to enhance their sales, and provide some daily entertainment. Rentals of GoPro’s were offered at $30 per day – a ridiculous amount BTW – but where was the class explaining the use of the GoPro? Or highlighting the cameras on sale? Or the binoculars? You’d think in 15 days at sea you could have at least 2 or 3 photo classes? Again, a missed opportunity to improve sales and provide a little more meat for the customers.

 

The enrichment lecturers, quite frankly, left a lot to be desired. Some attempted to actually talk about subjects that I happen to know a lot about, and they got it cringingly wrong. Some tried to give the impression that they knew a lot about the supersecret black defense world, but anyone who has actual knowledge of how the CIA or NSA operates is completely forbidden to talk about it EVER – even from “open” sources. One series of lectures on cyber crime was completely devoid of anything practical on what or how to prevent or detect it. The lecturer just tried to impress everyone by throwing in random acronyms or IT jargon to impress, not to inform. There was only one lecturer (Chris Impey) that discussed physics (from particles to astro-physics) that I enjoyed. His lectures were good, although his briefing format (video + audio clips in Powerpoint) had content and playability issues that sort of ruined the flow of his actual presentation.

 

Likewise, destination lectures pre-HI were ok. Not the best, not the worst. Dave’s (Elua) lectures on HI were really, really good, but only two of them. He covered the important points – access, transportation, brief history, money, food, local customs, must see’s, must do’s. He did not shill for the Shore Excursions desk. Heck even a couple of shore excursion presentations would have been a welcome addition to the schedule.

 

No computer classes? Jane held a few small IPAD classes within our group that were greatly appreciated and she volunteered to do ones for the whole ship, but was never taken up on her offer by the staff or the IT guy. And it wasn’t like space was an issue on the ship. Explorers had empty time, as did the Universe, as did Hearts and Mind and wheelhouse. When we were only Island last October, the lack of the Universe was noticeable in Mike and Callie’s scheduling – packing Explorer’s, the Wheelhouse and MUTS with stuff. This time, as I’ve stated before, the Universe was underutilized.

 

This was very disappointing compared to prior cruises. So much could have been done, but wasn’t.

[brucedodge]

5 hours ago, ccrain said:

We had plenty of dancing and the Sound was a great band to dance to. But one of the best and biggest dance floors on the ship, the Universe, was not used.

Charles,

 

How we relate to this!  You would think it would be obvious to an Entertainment Director, that when there are lots of dancers on board, the Universe Lounge would be a natural place to use --  at least sometimes.  The Wheelhouse is too small, plus they put tables, a couch, and chairs on the dance floor.  Explorers is not bad, but the dance floor can get quite crowded at times.

 

Princess has gone to the trouble to separate the Cruise Director and Entertainment Director into two positions, but we've been disappointed with some EDs who don't open their eyes, and who don't respond to passenger suggestions (we've had one  twice who could care less).  Like yourself, we have asked for recorded music in Explorers before early dinner (obviously only if Explorers is not being used for another function).  When done, and when the recorded music is good ballroom music, dancers start to use the opportunity.  And what a difference the one time we got the Universe Lounge used at night -- the band loved it as much as the dancers!!

 

We have always accepted that ballroom dancing is not for many, but some cruises have lots of dancers (plus others who enjoy watching) and Princess can do a better job.  

 

Not taking anything away from the EDs who do a great job.

 

FWIW,

Bruce

[ccrain]

20 hours ago, brucedodge said:

Charles,

 

How we relate to this!  You would think it would be obvious to an Entertainment Director, that when there are lots of dancers on board, the Universe Lounge would be a natural place to use --  at least sometimes.  The Wheelhouse is too small, plus they put tables, a couch, and chairs on the dance floor.  Explorers is not bad, but the dance floor can get quite crowded at times.

 

Princess has gone to the trouble to separate the Cruise Director and Entertainment Director into two positions, but we've been disappointed with some EDs who don't open their eyes, and who don't respond to passenger suggestions (we've had one  twice who could care less).  Like yourself, we have asked for recorded music in Explorers before early dinner (obviously only if Explorers is not being used for another function).  When done, and when the recorded music is good ballroom music, dancers start to use the opportunity.  And what a difference the one time we got the Universe Lounge used at night -- the band loved it as much as the dancers!!

 

We have always accepted that ballroom dancing is not for many, but some cruises have lots of dancers (plus others who enjoy watching) and Princess can do a better job.  

 

Not taking anything away from the EDs who do a great job.

 

FWIW,

Bruce

 

Considering the number of dancers during the live music, less to the canned music, you'd think the ED, who did float around various venues, would consider a concert/dance event in a larger venue. When Elua got on board, the wheelhouse was crowded with dancers and non-dancers to listen, and dance, to the music.  A regular live event in the Universe would have given a lot of us more options, and possibly increased the liquor sales, over the re-broadcast of the main theater show or an evening movie. 

 

There is nothing wrong with too much to do on a cruise ship!

 

The only response we got was this - several of us requested, after Guam, that the 5-7PM canned music dancing be reinstated to Explorer's via messages to the Wake Show. (Although it had been taken out of the patter - Russel, the A/V guy, started it up for us anyway since Explorer's was not being used and they were playing elevator music in it anyway. Russel was GREAT BTW!) So the night it shows back up in the patter again, for that night and that night only, the ED comes in at 5PM and sits with a group of entertainers that came into Explorers on a regular basis for 1 hour till 6PM, I timed it precisely, watching us and a few other couples dancing to the canned music, looking for Russel every once in a while (Russel had left and went to do other things) and glancing over at us every now and then. After he left, we never saw him again.

 

I got the feeling we were being checked up on...

 

But again, Explorer's was not being used for anything else except to play elevator music till 7PM when the Sound showed up and the dance floor got pretty crowded. 

[Barry H]

Read the blog from day one. We joined the ship in Shanghai and want to share our opinions.

 

The staff on the ship was the most pleasant, hardest working and most helpful in years (with one exception). I heard the staff singing on a few mornings. Maybe it was because the many of the staff were meeting their families in Manila.

 

For me the food has improved in the Buffet and MDR for dinner. I found a decent meal most nights without having to resort to the anytime salmon. After the seeing the markets I am glad the ship did not pick up food in Vietnam. Charles forgot to mention that the bars ran out of mint leaves for Mojitos before Hawaii. All the out of stock food items returned in Hawaii,

 

Positive, the private tours we organized on Taiwan, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City (Siagon) and Guam were all very good with enough time to see the important sites and lunch (Michelin star Dumpling Lunch in Taipei, Spice Viet authentic Vietnamese food in Hue, Eon 50 Café on the 50th floor with a spectacular view of the Saigon River and even a Jamaican Grill lunch on Guam)!  It pays to check out tour operators on Trip Advisor and then go with the highest rated, if available. In Hawaii we did a roof top Luau at Hilton Hawaiian Village, excellent food and entertainment without the hour transfer each way.

 

Negative was the Princess Luxury Beds. These beds have been in service for 2.5 years and many are well past their best before date. We didn't get a full night's sleep for the first week due to the mattress being worn out and slumping in the middle (not jet lag). The memory foam had amnesia. It took four mattress changes before the Housekeeping staff found us mattresses from empty cabins that allowed us to sleep without waking up in pain or discomfort.  The Housekeeping Supervisor Efrem and Executive Housekeeper Roger Galvan were extremely caring and went out of their way to find a solution and the best mattresses available. When we buy a mattress it comes with a 10-15 year guarantee. These mattresses do not last 3 years on a cruise ship. Hopefully the mattresses will be replaced when the ship goes into dry dock in January.

 

The Customer Relations Director, Sofia, showed no empathy for our plight and treated us unprofessionally. She and CR Manager were only concerned that our comments were forwarded to head office and wanted the complaints about the beds stopped, not about solving the problem with the beds.

 

Ms Le did a lot of work to organize our Halong Bay trip. I personally found six hours too long. We did sampan and the caves. Some guest were not physically able to do caves and extended the caves to the point we could not stop at the pearl farm.

The step to get off the boat at stops was really high and not very stable. This trip and many others are not suitable for people with mobility issues.

 

[MTJSR]

What an incredible "Live From" thread, so much great information. Thanks to CCRAIN and others for sharing the inner workings of this amazing cruise itinerary.

[c-boy]

Ouch !  I'll stick with 2 week cruises.

[Elua]

On 11/18/2018 at 2:59 AM, ccrain said:

The not so memorable parts of the cruise –

 

I would have had this up two days ago, but the internet on the ship has suddenly gone severely downhill. Don’t know what happened, but we had better internet coming across the northern pacific than the last couple of days and this morning is not an exception. Something has failed somewhere.

 

Note – the following issues are those of our experiences that I can accurately convey. Lots of people have come up to me wanting to add their issues to my blog, but I can’t and won’t do that. I can defend my opinion on the problems we ran into because we personally experienced them. If anyone had issues and wants to make them known, they need to post them themselves for accuracy and also be prepared to defend those opinions.

 

Furthermore, I’m going to be a bit harsh in this part. I’ve been nice and positive so far, because, after all, this cruise was for the itinerary. But on the other hand, we’ve had a lot of sea days. And the 15 sea days from Manila to LA, with only 3 port days, were as much a part of the cruise, and cost the same amount, as a port day.

 

And I won’t just say this sucked, or was terrible. I will provide specific examples of the issues and also discuss what could have been better based on past cruises with Princess. We’ve only sailed Princess, so I’m not going to say Carnival does this, or Regent does that, or Holland America did this, that or the other. I can only compare experiences on past Princess cruises, and we’ve done two major ones in just the past year (Panama Canal – 34 days, Australia to Japan – 42 days), so we have some pretty specific recent experiences to compare to.

 

The weather. The crossing from Alaska to Japan was fraught with the outer bands of a typhoon tossed ocean. Judy spent a lot of time horizontal in the bed. Likewise the crossing from Guam to Hawaii, most of the 7 days, were not the roughest, but enough to keep us from dancing most of the time. It has made me rethink our cruising plans in the future after the upcoming world cruise. After the March and April cruises on the Diamond that required long flight times to Sydney and back from Narita, I believe we actually prefer those long flights to sea days that could be wracked with bad weather – especially on a ship with just so so entertainment like the Coral had. Princess can’t control the weather, but they can control the itinerary scheduling, and scheduling this cruise during typhoon season may not have been the best idea. I understand that they wanted to get Alaska in the mix, but they might want to consider an April – May version of this in the opposite direction, hitting Alaska in May. But I doubt they will ever do this particular itinerary again.

 

Missing Kushiro was weather related. Missing the refueling in Yokohama, and thus missing Osaka plus the wasted day in Tokyo Bay at anchor was entirely on Princess – regardless of any issues with the fuel vendor or the Tokyo Bay regulations on bunkering while at anchor. Princess has compensated us $150 each for this episode, so they consider the matter closed. Hopefully they have learned that a good backup plan for these once off cruises would be a good idea. Likewise the long immigration lines at a variety of ports was not Princess’ fault. The changing processes and procedures as to the line numbers and private tours, the meeting locations for getting a number, the crossover crowding between getting a number and a gangway – those were entirely on the ship and I have detailed them elsewhere. In fact, we the passengers started organizing the pre-line lines, just to avoid the chaos. It should never be the passenger’s responsibility to the ship’s job for them.

 

Ship’s Food. As I have previously mentioned, on a 60 day cruise, the food on the ship will get tiresome. Especially when you run out of lettuce for green salad! Unlike the Diamond in March and April, in which the food was pretty bad, the food on the Coral was ok, but not spectacular like on the Island last October. Maybe it was the 60 days, maybe it was just us, but definitely nothing that stands out other than the Brunch we had on the way back to LA. That, and Chef’s table, was the culinary highlights of the cruise.

 

Entertainment – and this is where the majority of the issues will reside. We got bored. A lot of us got bored. Boredom on a cruise ship, for us, is rare, but getting more common in the past couple of years. Shipboard entertainment simply did not meet expectations. Yes, corporate cutbacks are noticeable in the quantity and quality of the on-board entertainment. Especially in the 15 sea days from Manila to LA. Without Elua on board, there would have been almost no activities beyond trivia during the day, and the night time entertainment left much to be desired – as in the T-Rex chasing the weenie around the theater and headlining the Crooner’s piano player (Daniel) into the theater and calling it a show. Daniel actually said it best in the show between Kodiak and Japan where he and Miranda, the CD, did a show in the theater and he said – we’ve run out of entertainment!

 

Daily activities were basically Zumba, no Tai Chi disk, line dancing, limited ballroom classes, trivia (3 times a day), two lectures (on most days, not all), Kinect or Wii, a crafting class (from HI to LA only). Elua activities took up 4 line items from Guam to LA per day and a couple of nightly line items. It almost seemed like the ED was going through a checklist. Zumba daily – check, 2 lectures – check, Paper Airplanes once – check, ring toss a couple of times – check, egg drop once – check. Basically just going through the motions of making sure everything typically done on a 7 day cruise is done at least once in a 60 day cruise.

 

There were a few bright spots in the entertainment. Josh Young, a singer from Broadway, was fantastic, Levenstein, a comedian, was pretty good, but the guy who brought the house down was Kieran Powell, a ventriloquist who put together a show, with audience participation that was memorable. And every one of his shows would prove different because of the different audience members he would pick. The ‘Dating Game’ segment was LOLUYPO funny. He even got a standing ovation from the theater, which is rare for a ventriloquist act. The Hula show in Honolulu was also outstanding.

 

The entertainment staff was also very accommodating to our cruise critic group. We came on the cruise with a plan and cruise critic coordinators for Mah Jong, cards and pickleball. Corporate and the staff brought additional Mah Jong sets to the ship. After the cruise started, Kieran edited the playlist for ballroom dancing down to a good subset of dance tunes for a 1700 to 1900 dance session in Explorer’s. Mike (the ED to Hong Kong) added in an extra hour starting at 1600 at our request for people having dinner at 1700. The 1700 to 1900 dance session was deleted after Manila, but reinstated at our request. After all, nothing was happening in Explorer’s anyway.

 

Mike also stopped by on several occasions to chat about schedules and activities. He took our feedback seriously and implemented a lot of the suggestions the cruise critic group had. I even got a few phone calls from him. After Mike left in Hong Kong, nothing. We rarely saw the new ED and never chatted beyond saying hello in the hallway – and even then left feeling like we were bothering him. Any messages to him were relayed through the CD or ACD’s which were much more visible and active.

 

We had plenty of dancing and the Sound was a great band to dance to. But one of the best and biggest dance floors on the ship, the Universe, was not used. In the HI to LA segment, Elua did Hawaiian music dance segments in the Wheelhouse. The floor and the venue was packed. Why not move them to the Universe? Especially in the Guam to HI segment. Could have put them in Explorer’s instead of another music trivia game. Once again, ELUA in wheelhouse – check. Sound in Explorer’s – check. Other segments in Wheelhouse filled – check.

 

The production shows were just ok. Nothing that wowed me or Judy. The last production show, What the World Needs Now, was an extra show thrown into the 60 day cruise and it was literally phoned into the ship from the looks of it. A lot of vocals, some choreographed walking, hand movements and sitting by the dance troupe, the show band doing the music and some color graphic icons thrown up on the big LCD screen just in case you didn’t know what was going on in the show itself. My biggest issue here was the sound. Where we sat, the microphones were simply not balanced between the singers and the band. One of the male lead vocalist’s microphone, since he has such a soft voice, needed to be boosted, but it wasn’t and the band music blew him out, as it did, but not so much, to one of the female leads. BTW, sound balancing in the theater was an ongoing problem depending on where you sat, between the band sound and the vocalist.

 

During the days from Japan to Manila, sea day entertainment was not a big issue for us as we had lots of resting up and prepping for the next port to keep us busy. (The sea days from Kodiak to Yokohama were pretty rough.) The 7 sea days from Guam to HI were bereft of entertainment at night for the most part, and then suddenly, major shows and activities (a production show and a comedian) are all scheduled on one night! The Universe Lounge was greatly underutilized and when it was used for rebroadcasting the show in the Theater, the sound and video was very poor quality. Nightly movies would have been a much better option.

 

The 5 sea days from HI to LA had a pretty full nightly entertainment schedule, which was good, but that still did not make up for the 7 days from Guam to HI, or the 3 days from Manila to Guam. Some of the scheduling did not even make sense. For example, we had the Love Boat Disco Deck Party, one of our favorite activities, on the night of Nawilliwilli, rather than the following night after a day at sea. Most of us had just spent two long port days in a row, in hot weather, walking our rear ends off, and now disco dancing is scheduled after that? That’s just not doable. Country Western night was also on a busy port night. I do not remember a 50’s/60’s night, or a disco night, or any of the other major party nights. Once again, checklist item or trying to schedule to maximize passenger participation?

 

One of my pet peeves was the scheduling a production show 3 times in one night. On prior ships I have seen additional shows scheduled on consecutive nights in order to accommodate everyone and give the dancers a bit of a break. Again, with 10 at sea nights from Manila to Honolulu to fill, you’d think the ED would want to stretch things out rather than bunch them up in one night, while leaving other nights empty. And where is the rule that you can only have one Liar’s Club, or one Marriage Match Game per segment or cruise? What’s wrong with multiples? Too much work? (Nightly variations on trivia was more the norm at night, and after 30+ days on a ship, some trivia players were taking it way too seriously. Above and beyond the norm.)

 

The daily sea day activities were really lacking from Manila to LA. A lot of the activities on the patter were sales related events. Art related, Spa related, Casino related or Effy related. A lot were unhosted and several were hosted by Cruise Critic people – Mah Jong, Bridge, Knitters and Knatters, pickleball, etc. Where was Giant Jenga, ring toss, scavenger hunts, the Quest, paper airplanes, fruit carving, bar wars on those 15 long sea days from Manila to LA? There is no rule that says you can only do one on a 60 day cruise! People on a 60 day cruise with so many sea days are desperate for something interesting to do besides trivia. Digital photography classes? Computer classes? Future Cruise presentations? A lot was missing from a normal sea-day schedule. Once again – checklist?

 

Future Cruise presentations for Princess cruises were lacking as well. Only a few presentations, 2-3, were given during the entire cruise! I specifically invited the Future Cruise Consultant to give a World Cruise presentation. He did not show up. We could have had several covering all of the 2019 and 2020 destinations, but did not. Too bad. A great marketing opportunity lost and at least something to do for some of us.

 

Likewise, the photography department left a lot of time on the table to enhance their sales, and provide some daily entertainment. Rentals of GoPro’s were offered at $30 per day – a ridiculous amount BTW – but where was the class explaining the use of the GoPro? Or highlighting the cameras on sale? Or the binoculars? You’d think in 15 days at sea you could have at least 2 or 3 photo classes? Again, a missed opportunity to improve sales and provide a little more meat for the customers.

 

The enrichment lecturers, quite frankly, left a lot to be desired. Some attempted to actually talk about subjects that I happen to know a lot about, and they got it cringingly wrong. Some tried to give the impression that they knew a lot about the supersecret black defense world, but anyone who has actual knowledge of how the CIA or NSA operates is completely forbidden to talk about it EVER – even from “open” sources. One series of lectures on cyber crime was completely devoid of anything practical on what or how to prevent or detect it. The lecturer just tried to impress everyone by throwing in random acronyms or IT jargon to impress, not to inform. There was only one lecturer (Chris Impey) that discussed physics (from particles to astro-physics) that I enjoyed. His lectures were good, although his briefing format (video + audio clips in Powerpoint) had content and playability issues that sort of ruined the flow of his actual presentation.

 

Likewise, destination lectures pre-HI were ok. Not the best, not the worst. Dave’s (Elua) lectures on HI were really, really good, but only two of them. He covered the important points – access, transportation, brief history, money, food, local customs, must see’s, must do’s. He did not shill for the Shore Excursions desk. Heck even a couple of shore excursion presentations would have been a welcome addition to the schedule.

 

No computer classes? Jane held a few small IPAD classes within our group that were greatly appreciated and she volunteered to do ones for the whole ship, but was never taken up on her offer by the staff or the IT guy. And it wasn’t like space was an issue on the ship. Explorers had empty time, as did the Universe, as did Hearts and Mind and wheelhouse. When we were only Island last October, the lack of the Universe was noticeable in Mike and Callie’s scheduling – packing Explorer’s, the Wheelhouse and MUTS with stuff. This time, as I’ve stated before, the Universe was underutilized.

 

This was very disappointing compared to prior cruises. So much could have been done, but wasn’t.

Aloha Kakou!

Mahalo nui for the kind words and compliments. Leialoha and I had a wonderful time on the Coral and we’re surprised and delighted by the level of participation and enthusiasm for all of our activities and music performances. Everyone on the Coral was 100% receptive to the Aloha Spirit, and this is an assignment that we will reminisce on for many years to come.

 

To all, we send our aloha until we all sail together again!

 

Aloha Nui,

Tiki Dave

(Of Elua)

www.facebook.com/eluamusic

www.facebook.com/tikidavemusic

 

[ccrain]

13 hours ago, Elua said:

Aloha Kakou!

Mahalo nui for the kind words and compliments. Leialoha and I had a wonderful time on the Coral and we’re surprised and delighted by the level of participation and enthusiasm for all of our activities and music performances. Everyone on the Coral was 100% receptive to the Aloha Spirit, and this is an assignment that we will reminisce on for many years to come.

 

To all, we send our aloha until we all sail together again!

 

Aloha Nui,

Tiki Dave

(Of Elua)

www.facebook.com/eluamusic

www.facebook.com/tikidavemusic

 

Thanks guys for making the trip from Guam to LA a bit more special! Great turnout for the Hula and Ukulele show! Enjoy your season on the Emerald and I hope we run into each other again soon!

 

Mahalo and Aloha!

[PescadoAmarillo]

On 11/18/2018 at 1:59 PM, ccrain said:

After the March and April cruises on the Diamond that required long flight times to Sydney and back from Narita, I believe we actually prefer those long flights to sea days that could be wracked with bad weather – especially on a ship with just so so entertainment like the Coral had.  

Almost those exact same words have been said our house multiple times since we did a North Atlantic TA in December on the Pacific Princess two years ago, followed by flights to/from Australia last year. The flights are hard, but they’re like ripping off a Bandaid...over and done quickly, with a couple of days of jet lag afterward. And the more sea days we so, the less we enjoy the.  

 

Still, we are having a quasi-sea day on our current cruise (the kind where the ship is docked and everyone is off on tours) and, with decent cellular internet I just got caught up with your entire Live From. Thanks again for taking the time to post such a complete summary of your cruise experience. I especially appreciated the information on Guam, as we are hoping to get there this winter via a Space A flight from Oahu. It sounds like a land stay is the way to go there. 

 

Wishing you you a fun and safe WC2019. We are currently on the Pacific Princess and she is in wonderful condition. The best ship (and crew) in the fleet! We’re thrilled she’s returning to Alaska in 2020 (and quite curious about what she’ll be doing after that). 

 

[ccrain]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

 

Wishing you you a fun and safe WC2019. We are currently on the Pacific Princess and she is in wonderful condition. The best ship (and crew) in the fleet! We’re thrilled she’s returning to Alaska in 2020 (and quite curious about what she’ll be doing after that). 

 

 

At the Captain's Circle, Capt Poggi basically said there are no plans to get rid of her right now.  We already know the Star and Golden are going to P&O, and they have 4 new ships on order (Sky, Enchanted, LNG#1, LNG#2). The Sun and Sea can't be too far behind. Since Princess is leaning toward larger ships, the Grand, Coral and Island should be next in the P&O que since they have spent so much to upgrade the Caribbean with OM.

 

The interesting thing is that Poggi talked about the 1000 PAX ships the other lines are ordering. (I suspect he is going to work for Fincanteri after his retirement from Princess.) Either he was wishful thinking that Princess would order one or two or he was plugging for Fincanteri or both!

[ccrain]

3 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

 

Wishing you you a fun and safe WC2019. We are currently on the Pacific Princess and she is in wonderful condition. The best ship (and crew) in the fleet! 

 

Could you give me some idea of the internet packages and speed of the internet on the ship? I assume she doesn't have the Medallion Net upgrade and is still using the older system. But one could hope!

[PescadoAmarillo]

On 11/19/2018 at 10:47 PM, Barry H said:

.Negative was the Princess Luxury Beds. These beds have been in service for 2.5 years and many are well past their best before date. We didn't get a full night's sleep for the first week due to the mattress being worn out and slumping in the middle (not jet lag). The memory foam had amnesia. It took four mattress changes before the Housekeeping staff found us mattresses from empty cabins that allowed us to sleep without waking up in pain or discomfort.  

 

Couldn’t agree more. We started noticing the early breakdown of the mattresses last year on the Golden and are seeing it this year on the Pacific Princess after less than 18 months in service. 

 

CCrain, I thought I had posted earlier in response to your question about the Pacific Princess internet situation but it must have been lost in the ethersphere, which kind of tells you all you need to know about internet on the ship. I don’t think it’s been updated at all since we first sailed on her in 2014. I believe I saw the upgraded internet packages available when I first logged in but I can’t imagine how they can offer them. Maybe those folks are getting the big pipes...

 

And do bring some video options for the WC. The TV programming is limited and we had to stand in front of the monitor today to watch key football plays on ESPN. It’s small. Very small. But we’ve survived on this ship for nearly 100 consecutive days in the past. I think we’ve all just come to expect so much more. It’s still my favorite ship...but it’s not a technological leader by any means. 

[ccrain]

1 hour ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

 

CCrain, I thought I had posted earlier in response to your question about the Pacific Princess internet situation but it must have been lost in the ethersphere, which kind of tells you all you need to know about internet on the ship. I don’t think it’s been updated at all since we first sailed on her in 2014. I believe I saw the upgraded internet packages available when I first logged in but I can’t imagine how they can offer them. Maybe those folks are getting the big pipes...

 

You probably did but I definitely slept since I asked the question!

[TheRabbit]

Does anyone have ACD Skyler's last name?

[jagsfan]

On 11/19/2018 at 4:47 PM, Barry H said:

 

Negative was the Princess Luxury Beds. These beds have been in service for 2.5 years and many are well past their best before date.

 

Ms Le did a lot of work to organize our Halong Bay trip. I personally found six hours too long. We did sampan and the caves. Some guest were not physically able to do caves and extended the caves to the point we could not stop at the pearl farm.

The step to get off the boat at stops was really high and not very stable. This trip and many others are not suitable for people with mobility issues.

 

I sure hope the mattresses are replaced in January, but Princess waited so long to give us comfortable beds in the first place, they may make us suffer for a while. I’m sure they won’t have toppers for us any more. 

 

Regarding shore excursions, whether ship or private, it’s getting harder for anyone balance or mobility challenged to be able to fully enjoy their tour.

I never realized before having my agility compromised, how difficult it can be to climb up into vehicles, bend over to get into the back of vans, step back down, and steps, especially without handrails, are a nightmare. 

Unfortunately, getting older and more fragile is a fact of life, but it would be nice to have more opportunities to do more than ride through a city on a large motor coach. 

On the good side, cruising offers a wonderful vacation to everyone, in spite of life’s challenges. 

[abbydancer2003]

40 minutes ago, jagsfan said:

I sure hope the mattresses are replaced in January, but Princess waited so long to give us comfortable beds in the first place, they may make us suffer for a while. I’m sure they won’t have toppers for us any more. 

 

 

What strikes me as really bad about this is that they are selling the beds (as do most hotel chains).  If they wear out after 18 months, that's ridiculous, since a mattress should last a lot longer than that.  Ours is "if it still has the don't remove tag it's way too old", so we are debating between Princess and Marriott.  I think we'll go with Marriott if this is the case.