On board coral Princess now

[arxcards]

Going by port Brissie port schedule, you should see Pacific Encounter cruise past reasonably close before you depart tonight, probably a bit after 6pm.

[arxcards]

Might be a bit sooner - like bang-on 6pm. Approx 5km and heading your way.

[yes!yes!yes!]

7 hours ago, arxcards said:

Going by port Brissie port schedule, you should see Pacific Encounter cruise past reasonably close before you depart tonight, probably a bit after 6pm.

Yes. It came very close

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Yes. It came very close

Not sure if I picked it up on the bridge cam. Is this Encounter?

 

 

[MicCanberra]

It may be where tge crew sleep?

[yes!yes!yes!]

I have loaded foxtel onto my phone as the formula 1 race isn't shown anywhere on board.

It's on at 11pm so I will watch it in my room

[yes!yes!yes!]

In Sydney  again.

Looks like it's going to be a nice day. Saw on the bayou show as a matinee show yesterday. It was a lot better than I was expecting. They also had an 8.30pm show us a 10.30pm show just for staff.

Last night's 80s disco trivia was great fun and the band afterwards were very good. Band is changing  today. 

Verstappen  won the Belgian F1 on my phone, so I was happy

[Viveash]

We have an upcoming cruise booked on Coral Princess, so finding your reports very informative and helpful.

Do you think you may be able to take a pic of the dining room wine and beer list and post here? That would be most appreciated.

Also, have you tried the Bayou Steakhouse specialty restaurant and if so how much is the cover charge?

[Cbtours]

18 minutes ago, Viveash said:

We have an upcoming cruise booked on Coral Princess, so finding your reports very informative and helpful.

Do you think you may be able to take a pic of the dining room wine and beer list and post here? That would be most appreciated.

Also, have you tried the Bayou Steakhouse specialty restaurant and if so how much is the cover charge?

We loved the Bayou, in fact went their three times. However it was complimentary embarkation dinner cos we were in vista suite. I think cover charge was $35? Oh and if you cant figure out which dessert to have, the waiter said he'd bring all three lol. And yes, we ate them cos we couldnt disappoint them lol

 

My fav was the grilled prawns on a delicious fried onion rice

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

$40 for the Bayou restaurant, $35 for Sabatinis.

[NSWP]

Considering how many CC peeps on Coral, we are not getting  many reports now.

 

Come on guys and gals, get posting if thee have the wi fi package. You cannot take it home with you, lol.

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by NSWP

[Jean C]

2 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Considering how many CC peeps on Coral, we are not getting  many reports now.

 

Spoiler alert, I've just been watching a swag of very recent YouTube Coral videos, kids so excited and asking question after question re next year's cruise, mostly about food, so I was able to forward video links to them of boarding the ship, a balcony cabin and the Horizon Court Buffet. Happy to share links here as a taster if anyone wants but I don't want to spoil it for those who'd rather enjoy the surprise of discovering everything for themselves.

[NSWP]

4 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Spoiler alert, I've just been watching a swag of very recent YouTube Coral videos, kids so excited and asking question after question re next year's cruise, mostly about food, so I was able to forward video links to them of boarding the ship, a balcony cabin and the Horizon Court Buffet. Happy to share links here as a taster if anyone wants but I don't want to spoil it for those who'd rather enjoy the surprise of discovering everything for themselves.

Thanks young Jean, having been on Coral from Americas doing Alaska and Panama Canal with mostly American pax, it will be interesting to see if standards are there.

[Aussieflyer]

1 hour ago, Cbtours said:

We loved the Bayou, in fact went their three times. However it was complimentary embarkation dinner cos we were in vista suite. I think cover charge was $35? Oh and if you cant figure out which dessert to have, the waiter said he'd bring all three lol. And yes, we ate them cos we couldnt disappoint them lol

 

My fav was the grilled prawns on a delicious fried onion rice

 

We went to both Bayou and Sabatini's on our recent 7 day QLD cruise - and TBH thought Bayou was better (noting of course it was more expensive),

[Cbtours]

40 minutes ago, Aussieflyer said:

We went to both Bayou and Sabatini's on our recent 7 day QLD cruise - and TBH thought Bayou was better (noting of course it was more expensive),

I agree, though we also enjoyed sabatini, we preferred bayou 

[Cbtours]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

$40 for the Bayou restaurant, $35 for Sabatinis.

It’s obviously increased as it was $29 and $35 when we were in.

[NSWP]

I dont see the value in doing these cover charge restaurants, tried a few over the years. Just another revenue producer for the cruise lines. You pay a lot of money to do a cruise, why pay extra for tucker? They wont get me this time, mdr or buffet will suffice.

[Aussieflyer]

52 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I dont see the value in doing these cover charge restaurants, tried a few over the years. Just another revenue producer for the cruise lines. You pay a lot of money to do a cruise, why pay extra for tucker? They wont get me this time, mdr or buffet will suffice.

Felt the buffet was quite lacking when we were on - quality and choice just seemed below expected. We didn't eat there much, MDR was fine, just not wow.  Like to do specialist restaurants as the food is often well above other onboard venues and in the scheme of things not a huge additional charge.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 hours ago, Cbtours said:

It’s obviously increased as it was $29 and $35 when we were in.

It actually went up about the time we joined the ship. Our meal at Bayou was $40 as we didn't book it until we were onboard. We used our complimentary suite dinner at Sabatinis.

[arxcards]

We were more than happy with the dining room, so didn't do Bayou at all. The deck grill burgers/pizza was great for port days, and we managed to avoid Horror Zone court until debark morning when it was the only option - we got in early and the food was OK. Our only disappointment was International Cafe, as there is very little there beyond desserts. In the past there have been heaps of light meal options that matched the time of day.

 

We have two inclusive specialty meals coming up on the next cruise, so are looking forward to a couple of decent steaks (me) and lobster/grilled prawns (Barb). The dining room is more than enough, but we have a big anniversary to celebrate and don't mind spending a few extra bucks as a treat.

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, NSWP said:

Considering how many CC peeps on Coral, we are not getting  many reports now.

 

Come on guys and gals, get posting if thee have the wi fi package. You cannot take it home with you, lol.

 

Between this thread and the earlier live thread, most things have been covered. If anything was particularly poor, you would be reading about it every day. Even having the wi-fi, sometimes it is nice to avoid using it and to just enjoy life aboard.

[Cbtours]

8 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It actually went up about the time we joined the ship. Our meal at Bayou was $40 as we didn't book it until we were onboard. We used our complimentary suite dinner at Sabatinis.

Thanks. I only saw prices pre cruise and didn’t look again. 

[Russell21]

11 hours ago, NSWP said:

I dont see the value in doing these cover charge restaurants, tried a few over the years. Just another revenue producer for the cruise lines. You pay a lot of money to do a cruise, why pay extra for tucker? They wont get me this time, mdr or buffet will suffice.

Totally agree, we have had many free dinners at the upgrade restaurants and quite frankly some of them have been a big disappointment. There is no way I would pay the fee for them.

[OzKiwiJJ]

10 hours ago, arxcards said:

We were more than happy with the dining room, so didn't do Bayou at all. The deck grill burgers/pizza was great for port days, and we managed to avoid Horror Zone court until debark morning when it was the only option - we got in early and the food was OK. Our only disappointment was International Cafe, as there is very little there beyond desserts. In the past there have been heaps of light meal options that matched the time of day.

 

 

It may depend on how busy it's been. There were plenty of salads, sandwiches etc when we had lunch there on a port day but it was very busy most of the time.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, Russell21 said:

Totally agree, we have had many free dinners at the upgrade restaurants and quite frankly some of them have been a big disappointment. There is no way I would pay the fee for them.

It is sad really how the food in the MDR is no longer seen as the highlight of cruising, as it used to be.  Now one is meant to pay extra for special occasions at  cover charge restaurants.  I think passengers have lost the plot when they pay these extra charges, which are no longer token charges!