LIVE from the Coral Princess, RT Panama, Nov 19-Dec 1, 2014

Tomorrow morning, Nov 19, we will be flying from Vancouver to Ft Lauderdale in preparation for an 11-day, roundtrip, Panama Canal partial transit cruise on the Coral Princess, embarking Nov 20. I will attempt to post at least once a day with a review of that day's activities, and answer any questions that I can.

We booked this cruise in June to celebrate our 25th anniversary (which is actually at the end of Dec but it's far too expensive to cruise at that time :eek:), and got a good deal with oodles of OBC from Princess. At that time we booked a fully covered aft balcony on Emerald deck but about 4 weeks ago we were offered an upsell to a minisuite for $150 each; we figured for $13 a day it was a bargain so we took the offer and got a partially covered aft balcony on Caribe. This will be our first mini.

If you have any questions about the ship, the crew, the itinerary, the ports, or anything else about the cruise ask away, and I'll do my best to find the answers.

Doing this cruise later in 2015. I'll be interested in the tours that you find interesting. Thanks. Alice

On board now. Tomorrow is the last day. Thought you might like to know that there is a TV guide in the room. Easier to figure out programs.

Happy hour in Wheelhouse Bar from 3-4pm and Explorer Lounge 10-11pm. Drinks are buy one get one free. It's been real busy.

Lots and lots of new cruisers. Only 49 elite passengers. Full bathroom set up for elite - gel mask, linen spray, etc.

Staff has been very friendly as usual. They seem to love this ship.

If you get a chance, the comedian is very funny. Forgot first name but last is Wyler. Laugh out loud funny.

Also, Jackie Wilson's son did a tribute show to his father and it was fantastic. Try not to miss these.

Also heard Dance was very good.

Pub lunch was only one day. Excellent

Food has been very good. Bring a wrap - dinning room is cool.

All in all a very relaxing trip. Have fun

Looking forward to your review as we are doing the same cruise in Feb. Have fun!

I am also looking forward to the review because we're sailing on December 12. Does anyone know if they put the meet and mingle date and time in the patter.

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Sounds great , looking forward to your review

Looking forward to meeting you on Friday, Rick! My wife and I are SO excited!

Keep the ship clean - we'll be arriving on the 1st right after you finish. I've been on the Coral 2 other times and really loved her - so, I'm really looking forward to hearing how she looks and anything about the crew/staff. Thanks in advance for posting!

Can't wait to hear more about this cruise ! Thanks

Is oit too late to pay for an upgrade in our room?Are you going with the boat or touring Cantegena on your own. Maybe it's too dangerous.

barby doll

Hi, from a fellow B.C.er,

Will be doing the full transit in April 2015, would be interested in any excursions you will be doing. Thanks in advance.

I am booked for the partial Panama Canal cruise on January 3rd. I would also like to hear about the different excursions that people like/dislike. Thanks for the "blog". I will be looking forward to hearing about your experiences. Enjoy your trip!

Day (-1) – Travel Day

We flew American Airlines from Vancouver to Dallas-Ft Worth, and then a second flight to Ft Lauderdale. We started our day at about 5 am PST, and didn't arrive at our hotel (the Extended Stay America on 17th St) until after 9:30 pm EST. We met up with another couple (Diane and Stephen) from our roll call, who are also from BC, at the Vancouver airport, and had lunch with them at the Dallas airport.

Everything was uneventful until we got to Ft Lauderdale. For reasons that willl remain a mystery, there was no line of taxis waiting to pick up passengers so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes as a taxi would arrive every couple of minutes.

A word to the wise: when telling your taxi driver what hotel to take you to make sure you clarify WHICH ONE! I simply told the driver “Extended Stay America”, and instead of asking us which one he assumed it was the airport location. By the time he figured out we wanted the one by the port we were flying up the interstate. I think it was an honest mistake on his part so I didn't make a big deal about paying about double what we should have.

We dropped our luggage in our room at the hotel and walked to the Walgreens to pick up some last minutes items; unfortunately they didn't have everything we were looking for (in particular, 3-in-1 laundry sheets) but we knew we'd be headed to Publix and Total Wine in the morning anyway.

Day 0 – Embarkation

The Extended Stay America is right across the street from Starbucks and Einstein Bagels, so I got up early and ran out to grab us some breakfast (something that I'm sure will be repeated multiple times on this cruise).

After breakfast we walked to Total Wine and Publix to get our final items … but struck out again trying to find the laundry sheets. We'll end up just buying the stuff that Princess supplies when we do our laundry.

We had booked the 11:00 shuttle from the hotel and, with 5 other passengers, were driven the short distance to the port. Unfortunately, the Caribbean Princess was also in port so they got Terminal 2 while we were out at 19 (a week ago the Port Everglades site had said we'd be at 21). We got to the terminal at 11:15, quickly moved through the security check and were in the Elite/Platinum lounge by 11:40. They started boarding us about 15 minutes later and we were in our cabin shortly after noon.

We arranged to have an informal roll call lunch at 12:45 in the dining room. When I looked at the Patter to find which dining room it was in (Provence, the Traditional dining room on deck 6) I was surprised to see that it was only open until 1:00, not 1:30. We explored the ship a little, I bought my UKP drink sticker, and at 12:40 we went to the dining room. The tricky part was going to be meeting up with a bunch of people when no one knew each other. But we figured it out by the confused looks on people's faces as they approached the dining room and we ended up with 11 for lunch.

After lunch we finished filling in the last couple of names on the invitations for the officers to attend out Meet & Greet and dropped them off at the Pursers desk. Then we got the last few stamps on our “Treasure Hunt” card and headed to the Universe Lounge for our muster drill. Unlike the 1-day cruise we did on the Grand in September everyone had to bring their life jacket to the muster drill regardless of whether you had attended one before or not. Surprisingly, not one person tried to put their jacket on prematurely, although we did hear a whistle or two being blown (ewwwww).

We dropped off our life jackets in our room, met our room steward Boylin, unpacked our luggage, and headed to the sailaway party on Lido a little late. Too late, in fact, to enter the Treasure Hunt lottery :( The weather in Ft Lauderdale was deteriorating, with clouds and wind lowering the temperature and generally making it somewhat unpleasant on the open deck. There weren't many people at the party to start with and they quickly left after the drawing; the poor entertainment crew had their work cut out for them trying to get anyone involved.

The Suite/Elite/Platinum lounge was serving shrimp cocktails, and Cosmos were the drinks, so off we went to the Explorers Lounge around 6. We were a little confused when we arrived because there was no one checking cards, and, in fact, the event was being held in just in a small section of the lounge, and even so there were very few people attending. There must be a lot of blue, gold, and ruby coloured cards on this cruise :)

We explored the ship a little more and then went back to our cabin to unwind a little before dinner. Around 7:30 we headed to the Anytime Dining Room (Bordeaux) and we sat at a table for 6 with a couple from Idaho, and a woman and her granddaughter (who was celebrating college graduation) from North Carolina. Service was a touch slow but, with no plans for the evening, we didn't mind.

There was no movie on MUTS because of an NFL football game, but with the wind and the ship rocking and rolling I don't think a movie would be much fun anyway. None of the entertainment interested us so we headed back to our cabin after dinner and called it a night.

One observation: it's going to take me a day or two to get my bearings on this ship because it is quite a bit different from the Grand-class ships.

Notes on the entertainment for the cruise:

Princess Theatre:

Production Show: Motor City

Production Show: Dance

Prod: What A Swell Party

Comedy Vocalist: Gary Delena

Vocalist: Zach Winningham

Explorers Lounge:

Karaoke

Party Band Solutions

Evening Game Shows

50's Night

Country & Western Night

Universe Lounge:

Production: On The Bayou

Comic: Scott Wyler

Magician: Alexander Great

Vocalist: Jamila

Movies Under The Stars:

Edge of Tomorrow

Draft Day

Godzilla

Maleficent

Million Dollar Arm

Guardians of the Galaxy

The Fault in Our Stars

Non-Stop

I am also looking forward to the review because we're sailing on December 12. Does anyone know if they put the meet and mingle date and time in the patter.

Ours is not in the Patter.

Thanks. Very informative!

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Hi Rick and Diane!!!

Happy almost anniversary.

Can't wait to sail along with you and hear about all of your adventures.

You won't believe what we did tonight. Around 7:30 Allan came to tell me he got an email from Princess for an unbelievable price on the Royal for Dec. 9th.

You guessed it - we're cruising in 2 weeks!!! (It really was an unbelievable price. We had some credits that were due to expire , so between that and the bargain, the airfare to FLL will be the same price as the cruise)

It got REALLY cold here really fast and way too early in the season so some warmth and sun will be welcome. Only problem is that I have no time for my usual pre-cruise diet.

So, in light of my last remark you may be surprised by my next question. Have they rolled out the new chocolate menu on the Coral yet? it's on the Regal and I can't wait to try it so hope it's on all the ships.

Hi to Diane and have a FANTASTIC cruise!

We are looking at booking an aft mini on Caribe deck for the Coral next Oct '15....can you tell me a little about the balcony...how partially covered is it?? Is there enough room to move back towards the cabin door (covered portion) and still be comfortable....pics would be great of the covered/uncovered portion.

Which specific cabin are you in??

 

Pub lunch was only one day. Excellent

 

Pub lunch was actually 2 days. The day we were in Cartagena and also the last sea day. It was very good.

Five of us will be cruising Coral on Feb 5th, 3 from Moose Jaw, Kindersley Saskatchewan, another Canadian couple from Long Island NY. Love to know about formal nights, is it first or second sea day. Please daily activities on the ship. We are renting a taxi in Aruba for 3 hr, Dora tours in Cartagena, Eduardo tour in Porto Limon, haven't decided about Panama and Grand Cayman. My aunts are in their 80s, hard for them to get up and down in small buses

Day 1 – At Sea

Our first full day started much too early for me. We've stayed in aft cabins before but this time there has been more movement, vibration, and noise than we've had before, and so I didn't sleep well the first night. I'm sure as the cruise goes along I'll get “my sea legs” and sleep well but I was awake at 4:30, tossed and turned until 6 and then gave up and got out of bed.

I decided that it was a fine time to get pictures around the ship since there would be no people getting in the way so I grabbed my camera and, after a stop at the International Cafe for a tea and croissant-donut, I took pictures until about 7:30. The crew that are manning the desks at that time are more than a little bored so I was able to chat with a couple of them for a while; they all seem so nice and accommodating.

Before I went back to the cabin I got a latte and croissant-donut for my wife and delivered her a pre-breakfast-in-bed. After showering we went to the Provence dining room for breakfast and sat a a table for 8 with a couple from Israel and a family of 3 from Florida. There are a LOT of folks from Florida on this sailing that took advantage of the low flash rates.

After breakfast we headed to the Wheelhouse Bar for trivia but, as usual, we did not win. The Wake Show trivia question for the day was “what's the length of the Coral Princess?” and we looked it up on the Internet Cafe computers and then walked over to the library to submit our answers. I must say the Coral has a wonderful, large library! It looks like a fine place to hang out and spend some time with a book, or just watching the sea go by.

Our Meet and Greet was scheduled for 11:00 in the Wheelhouse so we headed back there at about 10:45 and were surprised to see there were already more than a dozen people there for it. Our roll call thread was relatively quiet but apparently everyone was lurking because more than 40 showed up for the M&G, including someone who was just walking by and wanted to know more about the website. We had sent invitations to 17 of the staff, and 5 were able to attend:

• the Customer Services Manager
  
• the Food and Beverages Manager
  
• the Port Lecturer
  
• the Shore Excursions Manager
  
• the Cruise Director
  

We were very happy with the staff turnout!

After introductions from everyone attending we had a White Elephant gift exchange with 15 couples involved. Perhaps the funniest part was that there were 4 or 5 couples from Canada and 3 of us brought the same “Canada mittens” as their gift. When mittens would get stolen from a couple then they would steal mittens from another couple that had some. :)

Something that is new (to me, anyway) is there was an “Alfredo's Pizza” in Sabatini's for lunch. So 10 of us from the M&G had lunch there. My pizza was cooked much better than the one I had at Alfredo's on the Sapphire earlier this year.

When lunch was done we dropped off some things in our cabin and then went to pick up our list for the “cruise long scavenger hunt” - some of the items will be quite a challenge. From there we walked all the way forward to the Princess Theatre for the Port Lecture on Aruba and Cartagena; we got a few good nuggets of information out of that.

Nothing else appealed to us for the next hour or so, so we checked out the sushi offered in the Horizon Court (lame) and went back to our cabin to rest for a short while.

We'll be heading to Afternoon Tea now. Tonight is Formal in the dining rooms, and the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party in the Atrium, with the Champagne waterfall. We chose not to bring formal clothes so we'll be eating in the Horizon Court, although, considering they were letting people into the dining room last night wearing shorts I could probably get away with my “resort casual” wear tonight if I were so inclined.

Five of us will be cruising Coral on Feb 5th, 3 from Moose Jaw, Kindersley Saskatchewan, another Canadian couple from Long Island NY. Love to know about formal nights, is it first or second sea day. Please daily activities on the ship. We are renting a taxi in Aruba for 3 hr, Dora tours in Cartagena, Eduardo tour in Porto Limon, haven't decided about Panama and Grand Cayman. My aunts are in their 80s, hard for them to get up and down in small buses

As I posted above, the first sea day is a formal night. We do not have anything planned in Cartagena. In the Canal we're doing the full transit by smaller boat, and in Costa Rica we're doing private excursions (canal cruise and zipline in Costa Rica with Your Lucky Tour, SNUBA in Grand Cayman).

What sort of daily activities are you interested in? I plan to scan and post the Patters when I get home.

We are looking at booking an aft mini on Caribe deck for the Coral next Oct '15....can you tell me a little about the balcony...how partially covered is it?? Is there enough room to move back towards the cabin door (covered portion) and still be comfortable....pics would be great of the covered/uncovered portion.

 

Which specific cabin are you in??

We are in C722, the 3rd to last cabin on the port side. The balcony is very similar to the Caribe balconies on Grand-class ships, in size and covering. Does that help? I will post pictures when we get home to real a real wifi connection. We have 3 chairs (non-reclining), one foot stool, and one table.

Hi Rick and Diane!!!

Happy almost anniversary.

Can't wait to sail along with you and hear about all of your adventures.

You won't believe what we did tonight. Around 7:30 Allan came to tell me he got an email from Princess for an unbelievable price on the Royal for Dec. 9th.

You guessed it - we're cruising in 2 weeks!!! (It really was an unbelievable price. We had some credits that were due to expire , so between that and the bargain, the airfare to FLL will be the same price as the cruise)

It got REALLY cold here really fast and way too early in the season so some warmth and sun will be welcome. Only problem is that I have no time for my usual pre-cruise diet.

So, in light of my last remark you may be surprised by my next question. Have they rolled out the new chocolate menu on the Coral yet? it's on the Regal and I can't wait to try it so hope it's on all the ships.

 

Hi to Diane and have a FANTASTIC cruise!

Karen, thanks ... and congratulations on the deal on the Royal. As far as I can tell we're only getting the usual Princess desserts so the new chocolate menu apparently hasn't made it to the Coral yet.

Diane says “hi” back :)