OzKiwiJJ

I disagree, we used to bounce between inside cabins and balcony cabins pre-Covid. These days though we prefer balcony cabins.

There have been no announcements on Coral regarding any changes to the mask mandate. They are still required when moving around the ship which are mostly adhered to. In sip and cover venues it varies. The main bars - Good Spirits, Crooners, Wheelhouse and Explorers have limited and well spaced seating so most people leave their masks off once seated. The Princess Theatre and Universal Lounge are problem areas with too many people not wearing masks during shows, trivia etc. Given the length of this cruise and the demographic keeping the mask mandate in place is very sensible.

The wines haven't improved yet. I'm not sure what will be offered in Vines as Coral doesn't have that. Yes, you just pay the difference in price if you choose a drink over the Plus limit. We do this quite often. I delight in only paying $4 extra for a Remy Martin XO cognac. 😊 We also sometimes buy a bottle of something that is not offered by the glass and get 25% discount on the price. For one wine we enjoy that makes it around the same price as if we brought our favourite brand onboard and paid the corkage. I'm fairly certain the De Bortoli Willowglen wines are just their cask wines in bottles. The semillon/sauvignon is a classic dry white with no real characteristics from either grape variety but pleasant enough. The chardonnay is over-oaked to my taste and, of course, too young. I can't comment on their reds as they both contain cabernet sauvignon which I can't drink. The two Masterpeace wines are very drinkable. The rose is a very good Provencial-style rose - we're drinking a lot of this wine. The merlot is lovely, with chocolate and raspberry notes so pairs well with the chocolate Love Boat Dream dessert as well as red meats. The Lock and Key pinot noir is also very drinkable. It's lighter in style than the Premier Devil's Corner pinot noir. Of the Premier wine: The chardonnay is still to oaky for my taste - we tend to drink unoaked or lightly-oaked chardonnays these days. The riesling is past its best, it's starting to get a bit flabby. The sauvignon blanc is Cloudy Bay. The three reds I have tried are very good - I haven't tried the cab sauv though. Our real disappointment is in the lack of variety. Princess promises 25 wines by the glass for the Plus package but only delivers 9, which reflect Australian wine trend of 30-40 years ago. No pinot grigio, pinot gris, young reisling, gruner veltliner, unoaked or lightly oaked chardonnay. No sangiovese or other Italian varietals, tempranillo, unblended shiraz. On the other hand there is a superb selection of cocktails under the Plus package including the special cocktails only available in the Good Spirits Bar. We still think the Plus fare is a good deal. We budget a little extra for when we want Premier drinks or a bottle of wine and still come in under the projected cost of us not having the drinks package.

Best wishes from both of us, Les. Hope you get the best possible medical care.

Les, so sorry to hear that. I hope you get the best treatment and are not in too much discomfort. Best wishes from both of us.

I agree. I wish they'd put a Grand class ship into Sydney as a second ship there rather than having two Royal class ships. Sapphire would be great. Even better leave it here all year round doing Queensland, Top End, some itineraries out of Perth, PNG, etc over winter like they used to do.

Coral is a Panamax class ship, designed to go through the old Panama Canal locks. Majestic is a Royal class ship.

The Lotus Spa Pool on the Grand Class ships is adults-only.

$40 for a full day, $20 for a half day. It's open from 8:30am to 5pm. Morning half day is 8am to 12:30pm Afternoon is 1pm to 5pm. You can order lunch there. It's complimentary these days. There is no bar but you can get drinks through the stewards or the app. We spend most of our afternoons there unless we're doing an excursion. We're there at the moment on Coral.

Princess ships have a more traditional, elegant look. Think warm wood tones, creams and beiges. I haven't been on Grand yet but have done cruises on the ships of that class and like the layouts. We're currently on Coral which is a slightly smaller ship but has the best features of both the old Sun class ships and the Grand class. Princess also has a pay-extra adults area - The Sanctuary - peaceful with super-comfy lounges and afternoon tea served to your lounger. On Grand it's just above the Lotus Spa Pool which is adults only. However an NZ cruise might be a bit cool there although they do provide blankets. I haven't been on P&O so can't offer comparisons but Princess suits us perfectly.

Coral Princess has a lot more two seater tables in the MDR than I recall seeing on any other Princess ships pre-pandemic. I'm not sure if that's a recent change, I think it might be as it seems there aren't many oblong six seater tables any more. I think they've been converted into two two seaters with a small gap inbetween. It will be interesting to see if other ships have changed their layouts since Covid. I think the Princess menus have improved since the restart. There seems to be more choice, especially in mains. The quality on Coral has been very good overall although there has been the odd strange dish - no, Princess, blue cheese sauce does not go with turkey scallopini!🤣

I think they do random checks. I recall Mic saying he'd been asked to show his RAT photo during check-in.

It was a lovely day today. The sea was almost completely calm. I haven't seen seas like that in ages. I had my hair cut this morning. I'm always a bit nervous having it cut by someone who I don't know as my hair is very fine and straight but I had the best cut I've had in years. Even better than my regular stylist. I made the mistake of having the mac and cheese for lunch. It was very nice but very rich. I nearly sank in the Sanctuary Pool. 🤣 We saw dolphins this evening, quite a few of them. One or two were leaping high in the air. They looked quite small but were too far away to see more details.

It's very good moving around the ship and in lifts. There are a few too many people not wearing masks or with noses hanging out in the theatre, and it's appalling bad at morning trivia.

We've seen them laying carpet on the midships stairway and the Sanctuary has a couple of huge rolls of "grass carpet" waiting to be laid.

We've set our lock screens on our phones to show date and time and just activate that when taking the photos.

Going up to Cairns the ship will probably be inside the reef but if the ship then goes to Willis Island before returning to Brisbane it will come down outside the reef so long way out to sea. On our current cruise we went to Willis Island before Cairns so well out of sight of land for most of those two days.

We had a short commentary around 5pm last night. On one cruise a few years ago we actually went through the Torres Strait in daylight and had excellent commentaries by the reef pilot at various stages. It was brilliant. We got very, very close to shore in a couple of places.

It depends where you are going. Part of the shipping channel is inside the GBR, mostly the northern bit I think - we just cruised through it yesterday.

We just had their standard fish and chips. Lovely crispy fish.

We're currently cruising up the eastern side of Cape York between the reef and the land. It looks like we'll go through Torres Strait overnight which is a shame. We did it once during the day and it was fascinating. Yesterday in Cairns was a shopping day - Rolf needed some new shoelaces for his good shoes and I needed a few things that I hadn't had time to get in Sydney between cruises. Then we had a bigger than intended lunch at Dundees then went back to the ship to cool off in the Sanctuary pool which had warmed up nicely. The other passengers seem to be settling into their routines and finding their way around the ship OK although we still spot the odd one or two looking lost, or who think the Sanctuary is some sort of walking track. Some of the entertainers have changed - Paul McD has left but his replacement in Crooners seems popular - we haven't been able to get a seat there after dinner yet. The Souvenir Duo are still onboard but most of the other groups have changed. There is one guitarist/vocalist that we don't like - her style of music is strange, I don't even know how to describe it. We've now settled on our favourite place in the Bordeaux MDR so have a regular booking there each night. That makes it very easy.

Thanks, Marion. We tried Dundees and the fish and chips were very nice indeed. The fish was Spanish mackeral which I don't think I'd tried before, and the chips were amazing. Not the usual chips you get everywhere, these had a distinctly different and very nice taste. The service was a bit erratic though but they were very busy since it was a Sunday.

Hervey Bay for Fraser Island. But seriously there aren't that many spots in Australia that have both a safe, reliable place to park most mass market cruise ships (wharf, anchorage, or just holding position using the thrusters) and the ability and/or inclination to handle a ship load of passengers. 😪

That will be wonderful. It's a lovely cruise, the mini-suites are very comfortable, and Club Class is great. The CC balconies on Dolphin deck are big but are not covered at all. The corner CC balconies on Caribe and Baja decks are small but are covered.

The champagne waterfall has been happening but I'm not sure about Ultimate Balcony Dining. Masks are still required onboard when moving around the ship and in certain locations. Also when transiting through cruise terminals. Most people are complying with this.