Live Reports - Cruising on Coral Princess September 2022.

[arxcards]

10 minutes ago, NSWP said:

She has arrived.

 

 

 

 

 

She can see you!!

[MMDown Under]

20 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think it's going to be touch and go as to whether we get to Adelaide. There are some nasty seas predicted for the time we should be sailing from Melbourne to Adelaide. The screenshots below are the predictions for 4am Friday morning after leaving Melbourne and 4am Saturday morning when we should be approaching Adelaide.

 

 

 

The Captain postponed the Sydney departure for this current cruise due to similar conditions off the northern NSW coast.

How are the seas looking today?  Imagined your hand waving on ship's arrival at OPT.  Bon Voyage!

[OzKiwiJJ]

Since the ship did the Willis Island technical stop allowing duty free sales onboard all transit passengers have had to get their daily exercise by trundling off the ship to hand in their customs declaration. But instead of being allowed straight back on we have to sit in the terminal until zero count is reached. Tedious! We can leave the terminal if we wish but we can't be bothered. 

[MMDown Under]

9 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Since the ship did the Willis Island technical stop allowing duty free sales onboard all transit passengers have had to get their daily exercise by trundling off the ship to hand in their customs declaration. But instead of being allowed straight back on we have to sit in the terminal until zero count is reached. Tedious! We can leave the terminal if we wish but we can't be bothered. 

Why not go for a short walk up the hill and enjoy a decent coffee and french pastry or macaroon at la renaissance patisserie and cafe, 47 argyle street, the rocks.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

We're back onboard now. It was a very slow process going through security. Only one machine being used. I don't think they expected the higher than usual number of transit passengers.

 

I though of going for coffee in the rocks but since we weren't told there would be a long wait I only had a light cardigan on and it's a bit too cool to wander around without a warmer layer on.

[OzKiwiJJ]

It was very easy unpacking our stuff. Since we'd had a suite on the June cruise we knew where best to put everything. And, of course, all our hung items were transferred on their hangers which was great, especially for my formal outfits 

 

The embarkation lunch was as good as ever. In fact I think the beef was even better than usual. 

 

We swapped one of our minibars for more bottled water. This is a great perk for us as we rarely drink minibar items, and already have coffees covered with the Plus package. I drink a lot of water at night but don't like the tap water as I can detect the chlorine taste. It's lovely to have a stash of bottled water in the cabin rather than having to get it from one of the bars every day or so.

 

The Captain has done the customary hearing test aka demonstrating the emergency signal. My theory is if it doesn't hurt your ears you need your hearing tested. 🤣

 

[yes!yes!yes!]

10 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Since the ship did the Willis Island technical stop allowing duty free sales onboard all transit passengers have had to get their daily exercise by trundling off the ship to hand in their customs declaration. But instead of being allowed straight back on we have to sit in the terminal until zero count is reached. Tedious! We can leave the terminal if we wish but we can't be bothered. 

Strange! We didn't have to do that when we stopped at Willis Island.

[OzKiwiJJ]

13 hours ago, yes!yes!yes! said:

Strange! We didn't have to do that when we stopped at Willis Island.

I was a bit surprised too but customs make their own rules. Anyway since we were changing cabins it didn't matter much.

[Jean C]

Hi, does anyone know the answer to this? If we trade our Elite mini bar for coffees, how many coffees would we get? Thanks all 🤔

[By The Bay]

4 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Hi, does anyone know the answer to this? If we trade our Elite mini bar for coffees, how many coffees would we get? Thanks all 🤔

15 from memory.🤔

[Jean C]

1 minute ago, By The Bay said:

15 from memory.🤔

Thanks 😊, just the right amount for a 7 day cruise. We'll be newly Elite so this is all a learning curve for us 👍

[Cbtours]

35 minutes ago, Jean C said:

Thanks 😊, just the right amount for a 7 day cruise. We'll be newly Elite so this is all a learning curve for us 👍

We’re new elite this cruise too

[Cbtours]

1 hour ago, Jean C said:

Thanks 😊, just the right amount for a 7 day cruise. We'll be newly Elite so this is all a learning curve for us 👍

On our recent 4 x B2B we asked to swap our mini bar (four times cos we were in a suite) and asked id we could by any chance have the soda package. "No, we just do coffee package"...... oh ok we will do (was speaking to the head one at the time it seems). We ended up with a coffee and soda package EACH for the whole 17 days. I have a feeling it was a one off, maybe because they had just started cruising again.

[silverladypurple]

We are on Coral in November. Can't wait.

Hope you have a lovely cruise.

We live in Adelaide so hope you get to make it here. The change of weather is here so has turned a but cooler. 

We are hoping to have a look at your ship when docked here. I think your the first cruise ship back here since the pandemic started.

🙂⚓

[Jean C]

41 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

On our recent 4 x B2B we asked to swap our mini bar (four times cos we were in a suite) and asked id we could by any chance have the soda package. "No, we just do coffee package"...... oh ok we will do (was speaking to the head one at the time it seems). We ended up with a coffee and soda package EACH for the whole 17 days. I have a feeling it was a one off, maybe because they had just started cruising again.

Thanks for head's up. We're not really into soda so coffee is our best option. Even mocktails, which this wouldn't cover, don't appeal.  Fussy type, hehehe 🥴

[Cbtours]

1 hour ago, Jean C said:

Thanks for head's up. We're not really into soda so coffee is our best option. Even mocktails, which this wouldn't cover, don't appeal.  Fussy type, hehehe 🥴

We're not normally either, and apart from Frank regularly drinking ginger ales, I enjoyed trying the mocktails at dinner, plus frappes and smoothies. None on this 28 trip though, will just accept what they swap mini bar for.

[MMDown Under]

6 hours ago, silverladypurple said:

We are on Coral in November. Can't wait.

Hope you have a lovely cruise.

We live in Adelaide so hope you get to make it here. The change of weather is here so has turned a but cooler. 

We are hoping to have a look at your ship when docked here. I think your the first cruise ship back here since the pandemic started.

🙂⚓

Yes the senior ladies from Tourist Information were quite excited about a cruise ship arriving.  "Turned a bit cooler" for someone from Adelaide translates to five layers freezing weather from South Pole to someone from the tropics.  

[MMDown Under]

Chanel 9 News is currently showing Coral Princess in Melbourne (Thursday, 15/9/22). 

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

Chanel 9 News is currently showing Coral Princess in Melbourne (Thursday, 15/9/22). 

Dancers are on the wharf.  First cruise ship in Melbourne for almost three years. 

10-17 showers, partly cloudy.

Hope all passengers have a great day in Melbourne. 

Might  be a good day to tour the Museums or Art Galleries.  Otherwise if you have rain wear, touring Melbourne's unique arcades and laneway,

[Porky55]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

10-17 showers, partly cloudy.

Hope all passengers have a great day in Melbourne. 

🥶🥶 that’s way cold for us 😀

[possum52]

Welcome to Melbourne, Coral Princess CCers! Hope you have a great day, weather not too welcoming but hope you can make the most of it.

[MelbTone]

[Docker123]

41 minutes ago, Porky55 said:

🥶🥶 that’s way cold for us 😀

Certainly warmed up here. The 2 the other morning was a little low

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

It's been a busy couple of days. We had a lovely sailaway from Sydney. It was delayed by about an hour and we were surprised the ship was allowed to depart around 5pm as this is peak ferry traffic time. It was a gorgeous evening to sail out of Sydney Harbour.

 

We went to Sabatinis for dinner and had a lovely evening. I was celebrating a milestone birthday and was delighted when the Club Class Head Waiter came up to Sabatinis to to wish me happy birthday. After our main course our waiter placed dessert spoons and forks on the table. I didn't quite click until he also put empty plates in front of us and I saw all the waiters converging on our table. It was really lovely and the yummy chocolate mousse cake they presented me with was a delicious ending to our meal. It was much nicer that the mud cakes they used to have.

 

We were lucky to find seating in Crooners so enjoyed the talents of Paul C McD for the rest of the night. He is amazing, a very talented pianist, interesting crooner with the ability to mimic the original artists of some of the songs he is singing, and a great sense of humour. I looked at the time when I finally made it to bed - it was 00:00. 

 

Consequently I was a bit tired yesterday morning and trivia was more of a challenge than usual. 

 

We had a good turn-out at the informal Meet & Greet and, once again, it was lovely to put faces to the forum names. We all had a good chat before lunch.

 

We had a helicopter medical evacuation operating from noon to about 2:30pm. It must have been a tricky operation as it took a while for the air ambulance people to get dropped off, then the helicopter had to go back and refuel before taking the patient to hospital. I hope that person recovers OK.

 

A short while ago we were told our itinerary was changing due to a low creating strong winds and seas in the Adelaide region. We will now overnight in Melbourne and depart 5pm Friday. As yet they have not announced the revised itinarary past Friday but presumably one port will need to be dropped.

 

It was formal night last night, and Encore was on in the theatre - one of my favourite shows!

 

We got up this morning in time to see the ship pulling into the dock. There was a helicopter buzzing around - probably one of the TV channels. 

 

We're going into the city today to do some shopping and catch up with our granddaughter.

[MMDown Under]

41 minutes ago, Docker123 said:

Certainly warmed up here. The 2 the other morning was a little low

 

 

Yes 2 would have been a little low.  When I went through Security last week, the guy commented "from Tasmania?" because of my top.  I said no, but every time I visit Tasmania I have to buy extra warm winter clothes (in mid summer).  Melbourne was like that also on my annual visit for the tennis in January, with four seasons in one day!.