i'm LIVE and you're not... from the CORAL

[sail 2]

Hey Mama T, where are you and DH now? Great cruise! We'll always be connect by those 'little' Sangria drinks in Columbia. We were all pretty lucky - 10 perfect days, amazing seeing the Panama Canal, and just plain fun! Keep in touch.

[RSWBADGER]

Live from the 4/15/2008 Coral Princess, day 2 at sea.

 

Day 1 Ft. Lauderdale - Windy Cool, temps in the upper 60's

Day 2 Somewhere off Cuba - Sunny, Low 70's to 80 today

 

Average Age 70+, we are 51 and 45.

Early Dining Crowd

 

Lot's of chairs available in the sun around the pool. Great poolside music.

 

Also wanted to add no MUTS, and no Chef's Table yet.

[clojacks]

We were also on the Coral for the 4/5-15 Panama Cruise. We had a cabin 3 rooms back from the bridge on the Aloha deck, and I have to say I felt more wind and sea movement up there than I have on any other cruise....don't know if it was because of the forward position, being on the highest cabin deck on the ship, or because of the fierce winds we experienced...whatever the reason, it sometimes made walking an adventure.

 

IMO, the Coral's production shows, all 4 of them, far surpased anything I have seen on Carnival. The dancing was fantastic, and 2 of the main performers were of very, very professional quality. I absolutely looked forward to production show nights, and I would say that normally that isn't my cup of tea.

 

As far as food goes, it was very good, but I didn't think desereved the raving about that I have sometimes read. Again, IMO, I have found the variety on Carnival to be far more extensive than the Coral's. Maybe it is because my most recent Carnival memory is of the Glory, one of their newest 3000 passenger ships, where having variety in the buffet choices is a most. On the Glory, there were separate cook/stattions for Oriental, Mexican, New York Deli, etc offerings...if you knew what you wanted, you just headed to that station. The Coral's selections I found to be very similar in taste most days, and not nearly as diverse. Dinners were excellent, but everybodies are in this competitive market.

 

My one complaint and advice on the tours is, that I am really tired of riding in buses hours to get everywhere for then what was usually a 1 1/2 to 2 hour excursion. I will say that the City Tour/ Fortress tour in Cartagena was my favorite because of the unfamiliarity I had with Colombia prior to this cruise and just the history that you are exposed to....BUT, the vendors were disturbingly aggressive. I saw them trying to climb into the stairs on the buses to try to push their sales. I have never before experienced this level of aggressive peddling, and I have traveled...so just be prepared.

 

As far as disembarkation goes, we were scheduled for a 7:45 disembarkation and as it got to be about 8:15 and we were still in our staging area in the Universe lounge, I was getting a little antsy because we had a rental car reserved for 9:30 at the airport to pick up and head down to South Beach to kill an afternoon before our 5:30 flight. Well, at 8:20 we were called, and by 8:30 we were sitting on the transfer bus to head to the airport. 2 bits of advice regarding post cruise if you have a late flight like we did, and are planning on renting a car....1, take the free rental shuttles to the airport (which we didn't) instead of purchasing the transfers on board from Princess, and ....2, be advised that if you have a late flight and were hoping to check your luggage with your airline so that you didn't have to haul it all over town with you, you can not check it until 3 hours before your flight.

 

Lastly, I have never sailed on a ship that had 2 separate areas devoted to entertain shows like the Coral does. This was really a great idea on their part and really provided a variety of entertainment options. While a production show might be going on in the main theater, there might have been a magician in the secondary lounge. Great idea.

 

While I found the Coral to be a very classy ship, I have to say that at 54 years old, I also enjoy the alive feeling offered on some of the other lines. I concur with what others have said about the Princess appearing to cater to a little older crowd, but I will also add, that it didn't detract from our cruise, it just didn't enhance it either. Would I sail Princess again?? If the itinarary was one that I was extremely interested in, but I wouldn't discount any of the other lines and say that Princess is the only way to go...it was just another very nice cruising experience.

[clojacks]

I wanted to further add that it was nice to be able to find chairs at sea days without having to get up at first daylight in order to "reserve" your little spot in heaven. I have been on other ships where you not only couldn't find a chair where you wanted to be....you couldn't find a chair...PERIOD! There was an ample supply of deck chairs available on the Coral, might not be right where you wanted to sit, but you could ALWAYS find chairs available to use. In fact, even on our sea days, there were times where the deck attendants didn't even have to unpile all the stacked chairs and there were still enough to use. That is a real nice feature of this size ship as opposed to the newer mega-passenger ships.

[ggprincess2004]

My one complaint and advice on the tours is, that I am really tired of riding in buses hours to get everywhere for then what was usually a 1 1/2 to 2 hour excursion. I will say that the City Tour/ Fortress tour in Cartagena was my favorite because of the unfamiliarity I had with Colombia prior to this cruise and just the history that you are exposed to....BUT, the vendors were disturbingly aggressive. I saw them trying to climb into the stairs on the buses to try to push their sales. I have never before experienced this level of aggressive peddling, and I have traveled...so just be prepared.

 

.

 

We will be aboard 4/25 so I read you review with great interest. Both DH and I have a similar feeling when it comes to shore excursions. In fact, we regard a long bus ride as being held hostage, and have felt that sometimes the bus driver wouldn't depart from a shopping stop until everyone had purchased something. DH and I are not big shoppers, we are fussy about souveniers, and usually don't buy at tourist stops.

So, we developed a shore excursion rule and philosohy: The closer we stay to the water the happier we are. No long bus rides for an hour or two of fun, no tours that put an emphasis on shopping. We are much happier with our selections using those guidelines. And like any rule, we occasionally break it, for some really fantastic experience that cannot be had any other way but being held hostage on a long bus ride. Works for us!