h20skibum

Thanks for sharing your tour info.

 

Yikes! The ferry experience didn't sound positive - people usually rate that pretty high. What a shame...

I guess one person's bad time is another's adventure. We were on the April 17th sailing and took the canal transit by ferry. And yes, we were on the bus that got hit by a car on the way back. To the tour operator's credit, they have an empty bus following the tour busses in case one breaks down (but the busses were all in great shape). We really enjoyed the vantage point of the smaller ferry in the locks, especially when there is a large ship in the adjacent canal. Why go part way when you can go all the way through. I would recommend this tour.

A couple others in our group went to Old Panama City and felt rushed on that tour. We did all ship tours at each port, and some were good, and others we took were so-so. It depends what interests you. If there were lots of kids on board, we rarely saw more than a half dozen.

We had a balcony on the midship hump on the Baha deck. I must say, we used it so little, it was probably not worth having it this cruise. We are usually on the balcony a lot, but not this cruise.

We found the food in the Horizon Court a little dry, and some of the food not up to past cruise standards. Did all of our dinners in the MDR.

There are a wide range of ages on this itinerary, and most are 50+. I understand HAL passengers are a little north of this figure, and their activities are geared to that demographic.

I hope to get a review with photos started, but things have been too busy since the cruise. Would be happy to answer any questions about the Coral.

Enjoy

Thoughts on last night's games? The Tampa-Canadians overtime almost gave me a heart attack.

 

(I love how this thread totally derailed into a general hockey discussion :D)

I agree, but Tampa / Montreal may turn out to be the best of the first round series. Now time for a Pens fan to weigh in. Can't believe CBJ led for so long in the first game, but maybe Marc Andre has the butterflies again.

Probably not a chance to see any first round matchups onboard. At least we will be home when the Pens play for the Stanley Cup.

Hi

 

Goodness,thanks for very quick replies.Going by your replies,does that mean that it will be up to ourselves(on the roll call page) to chat and just organise a 'meeting'.?

 

I am enjoying the info available through this cruise critic.

Many thanks.

The best thing is for someone on the roll call to just start a list of those interested. Once it is started and kept up to date, interest grows. All of a sudden, we were up to 40 people plus. Contacted Princess, and they put us in a larger venue and they are providing a cash bar, dry snacks, and ships officers is their schedule permits.

We were on deck 6 in a midship balcony on the hump. Would choose it again in a heartbeat. It is close to boardwalk and Central Park which we enjoyed. We never take the elevators when we are on board and use the stairs as part of our exercise routine.

We did the luggage walk off, and it was simple from this deck. No waiting on elevators that were always packed with people.

Enjoy

Thanks for the reports Pia. We are leaving to do this route on the 17th, but we will be doing all the touristy things since this is our first time on the Coral and the Panama Canal. Not real excited about G.C., since we have been there a lot, although sometimes we just waived as we went by when the seas were too rough to tender in.

How early is the gym open? Is it open 24 hours? I plan to be there early, but may have to do time on the track before.

Don't waste time on Gravity.

Enjoy

I should say, it was worth it to do open booking until the recent change.

Hate to see the OBC for open booking reduced to almost worthless. We always did the open booking and then selected dates after we got home and had time to research our next destination. Would always introduce friends to cruising and have them book the same cruise.

Started building up our loyalty points with other lines, so those we encourage to cruise with us may be a loss to Royal as we shop around. We only hope they reconsider after seeing what effect it may have.

You do not have to book a specific cruise while on board. We always book the open end, then when we decide when and where we are going, we let our TA know and it gets applied to the cruise. You get the reduced deposit and the OBC, so it is worth it.

Go for the outside ocean balcony. They are a little more, but well worth it. That is what we found on the Allure

That is correct. You can only make the reservations for those in your cabin. If you do not have a TA, call Princess, and they will make a notation on your tour bookings to link them. Then just visit excursions once on board to confirm you are in the same groups.

Enjoy

The February Patters for the Panama Canal lists 7:45 for the late seating except when in Colon. That night it is open seating from 5:00 to 9:00.

Enjoy. We are headed out the one after you.

Our first Princess cruise was March 1985 on the original Pacific Princess, called a Mexican Riviera cruise out of San Diego . Our daughter was a big Love Boat fan, so we took her along.

I think the Love Boat show in the late 70's early 80's really gave a boost to cruising. I don't think I have encountered any cruise staff that worked as little as that crew did though.:)

Wow this could turn into a reunion. The post caught my eye so I opened it and spotted the Crown and the Big Red Boat and knew it was in Nassau with out reading it. Then I read it.

 

We have a folder of all our Princess cruises which by now is taking up both sides of a very big file drawer so I dug it out.

 

Date May 30 1991. Cabin B296 aft outside w/window. Cost $1814.00 for both of us. We have all the Patters. We have all the lovely Lunch and Dinner Menu's which are well worth framing. What wonderful memories.

 

We did 3 cruises on the Crown and one on the Regal. We just returned last Saturday from doing the RT Panama on the Coral which IMO is one of the very best ships Princess has left. But as all "the old timers" know there is no compaireason between to days ships and the Crown or Regal.

 

Thanks for the post.

We are leaving in just under 4 weeks on the Coral for the Panama Canal and looking forward to it. Wondering why we got such a good deal in price for that cruise, then I remembered the original cruise we booked a week earlier was oversold. They were looking for passengers with dates that were flexible to move to another date. They gave us a nice upgrade and several perks for switching to a week later.

With all the changes lately, that probably would not happen anymore.

When was your first Princess Cruise?

Our first was on the Original Crown Princess in October, 1991. Although we started cruising in 1980, the Crown was our first Princess trip. We had cabin C159 which was an outside with a large window. Our one week cruise with stops at Nassau, Montego Bay, Grand Cayman and Cozumel cost a total of 1,046. We still have our shore excursion book that lists all the prices for excursions offered by princess. There really has not been a large increase in the prices for them over the last 23 years.

In the photo, the Crown is docked by the Big Red Boat in Nassau (I had almost forgot about that ship). There certainly is a striking difference in ship size and amenities since then.

All the bars have something different to offer, depending on the atmosphere you are looking for. We enjoyed the Trellis. It was our choice to start our pub crawl.

Nice improvement.

:(

We will probably have a wifi account, but may have to account for extra minutes for that. I know sometimes it is extremely slow.

Unfortunately, Southwest does not have the mobile boarding pass for Ft. Lauderdale, so we will have to endure the wait.

Does the Coral have free kiosks to check-in with your airline and print your boarding passes, or do you have to plan on using a wifi package for this. Our cruise on the Allure last year had these which was a nice feature.

Didn't know if the cruise lines were moving toward offering this for their customers, or if it is just the newer ships.

Thanks, we have to wait till 4-17 for ours. Watched the ship going through the locks on your cruise and got several screen grabs from the canal web cam. I may have someone do that during our cruise.

Do they serve lunch in one of the MDR on embarkation day on the Coral?

Which MDR? Thanks.

One of the recent Patters lists the Provence Dining Room on deck 6 as the only one open for lunch on embarkation, and only from 12:00 till 1:00. The only other places open for lunch on embarkation are the Horizon Court, the Grill, and the Pizzeria.

What I meant to type was that it was a good carb, vs. bad carb diet. I am not saying this is the complete diet intended for long term use, but it does give a jump start to seeing the needle move in the right direction. It will be balanced with portion control and exercise, and yes, it will contain some lean meats. That part of the equation was intended for later posts. The diet is also supplemented with a good multi-vitamin.

The vegetables have fewer calories and their complex carbs do not convert as easily as sugar so you feel full for a longer time. They are also a better source of fiber than the bad stuff we usually eat.

Okay, my goal is to loose 30 pounds by April. I started a week ago on December 8th. The first week has been great, and I have lost 9.5 pounds, or 5% of my weight. This is my own diet, and I am not saying it would work for everyone, but it is working for me at this point.

I started a fruit and vegetable diet that has essentially consisted of a protein shake for breakfast each morning. Eating apples, oranges, carrots, celery, strawberries, blueberries, or other fruit or vegetables every couple hours during the day, and a salad for lunch and supper. The salad usually has hot or mild peppers for flavor, but no dressing.

Essentially, it is a low carb, or no carb diet with low calories and some time to workout on the treadmill and bike at the gym.

Day 1 - lost 1.5 pounds

Day 2 - lost 3.5 pounds

Day 3 - lost 1.5 pounds

Day 4 - lost 1.5 pounds

Day 5 - lost 0.5 pounds

Day 6 - lost 1.0 pounds

Total of 9.5 pounds so far. If only the rest comes off this easy.

It's a minor point, but there is an additional bus ride that Postech did not mention. When you are in Gatun Lake, you will take a boat over to shore. There you will board a bus that will drive to another location where the ferry is located. (I don't remember exactly how long this ride was--perhaps around 30 minutes?) You board the ferry and cruise through the remaining locks. Then re-board your bus for the 1.5 - 2 hour drive back to the cruise ship.

 

We did it in the month of April and it was really hot and humid, but a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that I'm glad I did. BTW, when we did the trip a couple years ago, they had free water, sodas and beer during the entire ferry trip.

We are doing this in April 2014 and looking forward to it. At the end of the ferry portion, do you get any time at all in Panama City? I know the ladies would like to pick up something from that end.

When I checked both DH's and mine, I had to wonder if HE went on a few cruises without me! Then I had cruise credits that he didn't. Between the two of us, there were 8 missing cruises, so I contacted my TA [have used the same on for years]. Our TA had all of the information, booking numbers, dates, room cat, etc. He offered to handle the matter and within a day, everything was corrected. We even got credit for 3 cruises on the Norway.

 

Darcy

It was a disappointment since we even had our boarding passes from the cruise. The news article we kept of the hurricane during the cruise also brought back some memories. I remember the ship was really rocking and they say the waves reached 40 feet.

Thought some might find this interesting.

Enjoy

Perhaps since this post was a year old things might have changed? However, you are only missing 7 Latitudes points and that really gives no advantage. Most/many of the ships are no longer inviting Bronze Latitudes members to the cocktail party. Good luck with your choice of cruise lines.

Agree it doesn't give much of an advantage, but it is 7 less than we would have to get if we consider building up loyalty points with this line.

We tried calling first and were told to send the info to latitudes clerical. We enjoyed our prior experience with NCL, but it is small things like this that could sway a sale. It made the difference in choosing between NCL and Princess for our spring cruise.