Coral Princess-A short Review

[daydreamer16]

We are just off the Coral/Panama Canal on March 2. It was a great cruise with only one negative which I will describe at the end of the review. We loved the Coral!  Last Panama Canal cruise we were on the Island in 2015, before the changes. At the time that was our favorite, now it's Coral. This cruise was the second after dry dock and it seemed that there was a lot of new carpeting and the rest of the ship is in great shape! We had good experiences with food, our cabin steward,  entertainment and bar service. It never feels like there are over 2,000 people on that ship.  We didn't participate in a lot of activities but enjoyed relaxing on deck on the many sea days. I did join the book club, which was fun!

 

Ok, here's the negative. This was our first time with the beverage package which we booked with sip & sail. The bar service was great out on deck, in the lounges and in the theaters. Our problem was in the MDR. They list about  20 wines by the glass on the menu. When you eliminate the sparking and dessert wines which we don't drink with dinner it leaves about 15 glasses of red &white wines. The very first night they were out of one red wine and on subsequent nights it was 10-15 minutes before we could get a glass, since the waiter would put an order in and if it was not available we had to go back to the menu. The waiters were very overwhelmed by this issue. This was in anytime dining. I asked " do you have a list of what's available?" No!  I went to guest services and suggested they could make a list of the red wines available to save time. I was told that if I spoke to the Head waiter maybe he would be able to find what I want. We ended up drinking more white wine than usual.

 

We have had the beverage package on several Celebrity cruises and when they run out of one wine they substitute another wine, it's never an issue especially since they have a wine steward. We are booked on the Crown in September, again with the beverage package, hopefully this is only a one time issue.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thank you for your comments.

 

We gave up on the wine by the glass choices in the DR for the S&S. 

It has been this way for a few years.  🙁

[daydreamer16]

1 minute ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Thank you for your comments.

 

We gave up on the wine by the glass choices in the DR for the S&S. 

It has been this way for a few years.  🙁

That is not making me feel better.  My husband's suggestion is to get a glass of wine at the Wheelhouse & bring it to the MDR. If this is the worst thing to happen on a cruise, I'm really ok! 

[Colo Cruiser]

Just now, daydreamer16 said:

That is not making me feel better.  My husband's suggestion is to get a glass of wine at the Wheelhouse & bring it to the MDR. If this is the worst thing to happen on a cruise, I'm really ok! 

That means I would be getting up quite often to replenish my Wheelhouse Wine (if you know what I mean)

[jwattle]

We used the discount and bought a bottle of wine with dinner.😃

[daydreamer16]

5 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

That means I would be getting up quite often to replenish my Wheelhouse Wine (if you know what I mean)

I know exactly what you mean!

[Thrak]

The cruises where we had the beverage package we would usually have a pre-dinner glass of wine in Vines and then get a second glass to take with us to dinner. It worked out fine. When I have ordered a drink after dinner it has always come in a timely manner.

[ErLee]

Glad to hear you loved the Coral - we’ll be on her in June for the first time!

[FineAsFrogsHair]

Thanks for your review!  The Coral is one of our favorite ships and we've sailed on her 3 times, the last was in 2017 thru the Panama canal coast to coast.  We're going on her again in August on the Alaska southbound so we have been interested about her condition after her refit.  I've been told by a Princess Rep that she will be Ocean Ready beginning 5 April and we are looking forward to this new experience.  We've done the all-inclusive beverage package in the past on the Coral and didn't experience a long wait, but we do Traditional Dinning and our waiters always know our preferences in advance and look out for us (we tip pretty well and always take in interest in the staff).  Since Coral doesn't have a Vines, we frequent Crooners a lot and get a glass to take to our table like Thrak suggested.  We are looking forward to hearing from others that have/will travel on Coral Princess.  ErLee, please let us know how your experience with Ocean turns out on your trip.  Thanks

[JSandage]

Thanks for this review. We sailed through the Panama Canal on the Coral in 2004 and are looking forward to our southbound Alaska cruise on the Coral this May. We are in a mini-suite and chose Club Class dining, anxious to see if it was worth it or not. We also got (I think) a good cabin location with the Club Class. We are in C503. I keep hearing that the Coral with be "Ocean Ready" in April, does that mean Ocean Medallion?? Because the Princess web site doesn't mention the Coral in the list of Medallion ships. Maybe an upgraded internet package? Thanks for any feedback! 

[GloriaF]

Coral is my favorite ship in the Princess fleet.  Glad you feel the same!

[OCruisers]

13 hours ago, Thrak said:

The cruises where we had the beverage package we would usually have a pre-dinner glass of wine in Vines and then get a second glass to take with us to dinner. It worked out fine. When I have ordered a drink after dinner it has always come in a timely manner.

 

We do the same ... and order yet another glass of wine as soon as we are seated.  

[AF-1]

1 hour ago, GloriaF said:

Coral is my favorite ship in the Princess fleet.  Glad you feel the same!

What makes this ship your fav?

[daydreamer16]

3 hours ago, JSandage said:

Thanks for this review. We sailed through the Panama Canal on the Coral in 2004 and are looking forward to our southbound Alaska cruise on the Coral this May. We are in a mini-suite and chose Club Class dining, anxious to see if it was worth it or not. We also got (I think) a good cabin location with the Club Class. We are in C503. I keep hearing that the Coral with be "Ocean Ready" in April, does that mean Ocean Medallion?? Because the Princess web site doesn't mention the Coral in the list of Medallion ships. Maybe an upgraded internet package? Thanks for any feedback! 

 

The Club Class dining looked pretty good. We often sat near the Club Class area and it seemed a little less hectic there. Also,  someone(chef or waiter) did some kind of tableside dish every night, it often smelled very good! Have a great time!

[GloriaF]

On 3/14/2019 at 1:14 PM, AF-1 said:

What makes this ship your fav?

 

I'm surprised to be asked, but glad to answer.

 

It has been a while since we've been on Coral (Alaska and Panama Canal FLL RT) so assuming things are the same as when we sailed her -- she has a small ship feel while still having the amenities of the larger ships, or most of them.  Evening entertainments were in both Princess Theatre as well as Vista Lounge, and smaller venues scattered about, so a decent amount of choices.  Also the enclosed pool/hot tub area. We also liked the forward area in the buffet with windows for Alaska scenic cruising/viewing. There are only about 1600 pax, if memory serves me, and onboard that creates a more intimate atmosphere - I see the same people over & over.

 

We were booked for B2B Alaska on Coral for June, 2018 but had to cancel.  We've had a period where health issues intervened.  I look forward to sailing Coral again when the timing, itinerary and price is right.  

 

Next up is a 50th birthday celebration for our son on RCCL in Nov 2019 (his choice, an Oasis class ship), then a trans-pacific on Ruby in April 2020 Sydney to Vancouver.

  

Edited March 16, 2019 by GloriaF

[AF-1]

Thank you for your answer.  I appreciate your feedback. Oasis or allure are great ships. Lots to do 

[GloriaF]

5 hours ago, AF-1 said:

Thank you for your answer.  I appreciate your feedback. Oasis or allure are great ships. Lots to do 

 One last note about RCCL, after all this is the Princess board!  Our son mentioned Symphony.  I'm leaning toward Harmony bc they sail out of Port Canaveral and we can drive there in half the time and a lot less stress than to Miami.  It will be fun to see a different cruise line but my loyalty lies with Princess.  20+ cruises.  

[happy cruzer]

Every experience is unque I guess, we have had the same wine by the glass at dinner issue on Celebrity.  And even on many lines when ordering by the bottle sometimes the bottle is late arriving.

 

The only way we have been able to get the wine timely is to not eat a bite until the wine is delivered to the table.  We order the wine first sometimes specifying we want a particular wine with a particular course.  If they bring a course and there is no wine for it, we don't start eating.  A good waiter will pick up on that and make sure the wine gets there, either himself or the wine steward depending on the line.  As one can tell, the wine does matter to us :).

[Daniel A]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 11:22 AM, JSandage said:

I keep hearing that the Coral with be "Ocean Ready" in April, does that mean Ocean Medallion?? Because the Princess web site doesn't mention the Coral in the list of Medallion ships. Maybe an upgraded internet package? Thanks for any feedback! 

I am sailing on Coral in April.  According to the MedallionNet (Princess' updated high speed internet) web page, MedallionNet is rolling out on Coral April 5.  I don't know what Ocean Ready means in total but it sounds like an app that replaces the Cruise Personalizer for the Medallion Class ships.  Coral getting MedallionNet only means the ship will have improved WiFi - not the Medallion Class cruising.

[AF-1]

Ocean Ready would be the ship has been outfitted with digital screens at all the cabins and the medallion would be used instead of your cruise card.  Medallion Net would be the high speed internet wifi.  Ocean Ready is an app that you can download to your smartphone or tablet prior to your cruise.  You can also go to ocean.com to fill out this info