On board coral Princess now

[yes!yes!yes!]

I'm on coral Princess now. This is my first Princess cruise. I had 4 cancelled due to covid. I have cruised on royal Caribbean many times. I'm  travelling with my mother who is elite and cruises on many different cruise lines.

I'm not really using the medallion, except  what you would use a key card for previously. I'm not tech savvy  and happy to  speak to staff when I need to order something.

We had 11.30am boarding time, got to the terminal  before 11am. Got in the elite queue  straight to the front and on board as soon as they processed the usual stuff.

[yes!yes!yes!]

We are on this ship for 4 cruises, 22 nights in total. 

For anyone interested, alot of people are not wearing  masks when they should and there are many people  wearing them below  their nose. Mostly  the  older people.

I think the Princess plus is popular. There were many drunk people  by 5pm yesterday.

Ask any questions  and I will  try and answer them when I can

[MicCanberra]

Good work, enjoy your cruise of North Queensland 

[MicCanberra]

3 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

We are on this ship for 4 cruises, 22 nights in total. 

For anyone interested, alot of people are not wearing  masks when they should and there are many people  wearing them below  their nose. Mostly  the  older people.

I think the Princess plus is popular. There were many drunk people  by 5pm yesterday.

Ask any questions  and I will  try and answer them when I can

We will be joining you for the last of your b2bs.

Shame that others are not wearing their masks properly  or at all. Keep safe

[yes!yes!yes!]

My first thoughts on the ship are that it is similar to the radiance of the seas on royal Caribbean. Without the Viking crown lounge and the diamond lounge. The lounges and bars look nice. Rooms are smaller than royal Caribbean but still adequate. I'm easily pleased. The crew are all friendly  and helpful.

[yes!yes!yes!]

There doesn't seem to be  many children on board. I'm  surprised  that there are a fair few younger people  on board. Maybe that's because  carnival hasn't  started up in Australia yet. Or has it?

 

[yes!yes!yes!]

The Princess logo shop had a fair bit of clothing marked down quite considerably. I got a couple of bargains.

The perfume shop is really low on stock and the sales assistant  said they will get a major restock before the next cruise 

[OzKiwiJJ]

6 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

There doesn't seem to be  many children on board. I'm  surprised  that there are a fair few younger people  on board. Maybe that's because  carnival hasn't  started up in Australia yet. Or has it?

 

It's not school holidays so I wouldn't expect many children onboard. 

 

No, Carnival hasn't started operating here yet, and neither has Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. So avid cruisers only have P&O and Princess to cruise on.

[RosieCanberra]

Did they ask to see evidence of your RAT result on boarding? Some are saying they were asked for proof, so they showed a photo of the negative result. Others have said they were just asked if they tested negative. 

I plan to take a photo of it anyway.

[yes!yes!yes!]

They never asked. I took a photo. But they never mentioned it. I just had to show my proof of vaccination  and my passport. They retook my photo as the one I uploaded must have been too ugly.

Edited August 13, 2022 by yes!yes!yes!

[yes!yes!yes!]

That was a reply  to rosiecanberra.

I'm still trying to master this on my phone

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

The Princess logo shop had a fair bit of clothing marked down quite considerably. I got a couple of bargains.

 

Did they still have those South America jackets for $15? They were good value.

[yes!yes!yes!]

5 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

Did they still have those South America jackets for $15? They were good value.

I saw some for $14.95 not sure if they said south America 

[yes!yes!yes!]

Just played trivia and did badly. 5 out of 20. A lot of people at trivia.

At the end they announced the venue is a sip and cover location  and would everyone put their masks on.

For anyone interested  the public toilets are spotless and very large cubicles.

They have one Australian  powerpoint in your cabin with 2 usb plugs next to the hair-dryer.

Two American power points below them.

[SinbadThePorter]

8 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Just played trivia and did badly. 5 out of 20. A lot of people at trivia.

 

Was there someone at the back who got 20 out of 20? There always seemed to be when we played.

[yes!yes!yes!]

Yes. I saw that.

I hope they enjoy their coasters

[MicCanberra]

Repeat cruisers with the same questions asked on consecutive cruises perhaps or just very knowledgeable on cruise ship trivia.

[yes!yes!yes!]

You mark your own answers. So easy to  cheat if you take it that serious.

[MicCanberra]

2 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

You mark your own answers. So easy to  cheat if you take it that serious.

Okay that makes it less challenging for some.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

You mark your own answers. So easy to  cheat if you take it that serious.

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if some people cheat. Pre-covid you swapped papers with another team for marking and it was fun to see what their answers were. But sensible not to do that now.

[queenslander]

1 hour ago, RosieCanberra said:

Did they ask to see evidence of your RAT result on boarding? Some are saying they were asked for proof, so they showed a photo of the negative result. Others have said they were just asked if they tested negative. 

I plan to take a photo of it anyway.

I was BtoB on the July 22 and 29th cruises. I wasn't asked to show the RAT test that I had downloaded and was showing as pending on the app nor were others I spoke to. Some people weren’t wearing masks properly but most were. Some people stood too close in the lifts - one older man just squashed me into the corner and probably didn’t even see me! Perhaps he had too much to drink! I tested myself a couple of days after I got back and wasn't surprised that I tested positive. I was fully vaccinated and doing the right thing but some weren’t! One old lady sat next to me at dinner on the last night and told me that the person sharing her cabin was really ill but refused to go to the doctor or take a test. I'm not surprised that so many of the crew got Covid on the earlier cruises if some passengers weren’t following the protocols! 

I enjoyed the ship which I had sailed on in Alaska years ago when she was newer. The crew were wonderful and I had a great cabin steward as well as excellent waiters! Looking forward to my next cruise on Coral in September ! 

 

[yes!yes!yes!]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, it wouldn't surprise me if some people cheat. Pre-covid you swapped papers with another team for marking and it was fun to see what their answers were. But sensible not to do that now.

Agree. Don't see why some take it so seriously.  Years ago people used to google  every thing.

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

There doesn't seem to be  many children on board. I'm  surprised  that there are a fair few younger people  on board. Maybe that's because  carnival hasn't  started up in Australia yet. Or has it?

 

There are also restrictions on the number of unvaccinated children that can travel (less than 5% of the passenger/crew number can be unvaccinated). 

 

It is all a jumble with passenger mix, so anything is possible. The itineraries are also jumbled compared to other years. It is winter too, and it is usually only P&O and a single Carnival ship offering shorter winter cruises. As for Brisbane cruisers, they have almost exclusively had Pacific Dawn for Brisbane winters for somewhere near 10 years, so a great time for something different.

[arxcards]

6 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Agree. Don't see why some take it so seriously.  Years ago people used to google  every thing.

And music trivia used to be heaps of fun until Shazam came along.

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

The Princess logo shop had a fair bit of clothing marked down quite considerably. I got a couple of bargains.

The perfume shop is really low on stock and the sales assistant  said they will get a major restock before the next cruise 

Save some for me (not the perfume).