PrincessLuver

Dont want to do formal nigh??? Then go to the buffet....simple as that...I'm not big on the suit and tie thing either...but the significant other likes seeing us dolled up for these occasions.Its part of the cruising experience to me...Suit,tie,black slacks.....

I have only worn nice dress shirt, slacks, tie and dress shoes on all the cruises I have been on on formal nights. It has never been a problem and if it does not bother the MD then so be it. I always feel totally comfortable too and could care less what people in rented clothes think. What some people try to pass off as formal attire is pretty out of style and barely fits them.

I have never seen a dead horse beat so much as what to wear on formal night. It is really not that big a night in all actuality. It's not like there is a gala ball or anything. Mainly for the photographers IMHO. :D:D

We just got off the Coral on Jan. 19. I had planned to reserve the Sanctuary for the the Canal Day and as noted here on CC I went there right after we got on board to make the reservation. I was told that no reservations were taken except the morning of starting at about 6 AM. We decided to forgo the extra cost and observe from other areas on the boat.

We booked the Sanctuary on the Coral for a cruise we were on in November. We got there right when we boarded. At first we were excited then we noted that we felt obligated to lay there all day because we were paying for it.

They bought plenty of food which I felt compelled to eat all day long. We decided that it was not our style to lay there and veg all day and cancelled our booking for the rest of the cruise.

It was a very freeing decision and we found the Coral not to be crowded and there were plenty of great places to lounge and experience solitude.

Also, the Coral does not have that big a Sanctuary and you are certainly available for viewing by people in the health club. :):D;)

I was on the Coral Princess Dec. 7-18 cruise which was awesome. I had decided to stay on Coral and experience going through the same locks twice and do not regret the decision. It was a great experience both ways. The return trip we were going all over the ship to get pictures without crowds around. Our departure was delayed 3 hours because the small ship going through the canal was so late. We happen to be near the passenger services desk when a group of 10 people came to the desk in search of the person ahead of excursions to lodge their complaints. All their complaints seemed very understandable. They were extremely disturbed by their experiences. We left to go up to the Horizon Court we bumped into some friends from our M & G group who were on the same small ship. We joined them while they ate dinner and explained about the trip. All I could think was how glad I was that I wasn't on that ship . My friends were worried about others maybe going on the same boat and not having some of those issues corrected by Princess of the excursion company. They could have just complained about the trip but they took the time to share with Princess all their concerns including the safety of passengers. You all have to decide for yourself what you want to do. But just remember these people are not vindictive but didn't want others to experience what they went through and took the time to communicate with Princess on what they could do to correct and improve the experience.

Sali

We were on the same cruise and excursion. The excursions came back later then many on the tour expected. However, it states in the Princess tour excursions that they cannot guarantee the exact timing of this excursion because they do not know exactly when they are going to be allowed to enter the locks. The ferry boat has to go into the lock with another ship.

There are many posts on this particular excursion on CC so there should be no surprises for people about what conditions they might experience which are out side the scope of Princess.

Yes there were some unhappy people but there were also plenty of us who loved the excursion, knew ahead of time that there were no definitive times for this excursion and basically just went with the flow.

It has been my experience on cruise ships that there are some people who love complaining about everything and if they are not having a good time want to make sure that everyone knows about it. I call them "Ain't It Awful Folks!" :cool:

We have been to both too and would agree that Glacier Bay would be the best choice for the first time.

 

David

Thanks for everyone's help.....we are going with Glacier Bay....your comments really helped us decide.....:)

Just wondering, are the time restrictions on treadmills also applied to elliptical machines?

 

Thanks,

On the ships we have been on it does not apply to the ellipticals or stationary bikes.

Coral Review – Dec 28th to January 8th – Great Ship, So-So Cruise Staff – Princess are you slipping?

 

Let me start with the fact that we (professional couple in our mid-fifties) are huge fans of Princess and although we have tried the various other lines, we usually stick with Princess. In some ways, due to familiarity and past experience we enjoy Princess to a fault, sometimes dismissing little annoyances that may otherwise be an issue.

 

So with that caveat – on with our review.

 

Embarkation

 

With two Princess ships in port, the Coral was assigned Pier 21. A quick ride to the pier and armed with Preferred boarding passes we were through security in a flash (10:50 am). We had four bottles of wine and they directed us to a counter where they stamped the two extra bottles and we signed for the $30 corkage ($15 per bottle over the one free bottle each). Obtained our cruise cards and went straight to the Elite/Suite lounge – this is where Pier 2 is better as the Pier 21 lounge is just a small windowless room. Within minutes we were called to board (on the ship by 11:20 am). Princess certainly has this down to a science.

 

Cabin/Room Steward

 

We went straight to our cabin to drop our carry-ons – forward mini-suite on the Caribe deck. We were quickly met by our room steward who seemed friendly, yet we found later that while he did the basics, he did nothing extra, nor did he do a particularly good job at the basics – how hard is it to vacuum? While he brought us the extra towels we requested and changed out the feather pillows, several drawers were full of garbage and there was popcorn on the carpet in front of the couch. Since we were on early, we gave him the benefit of the doubt and cleaned up the popcorn and removed the garbage from the drawers. As the days progressed we continued to be amazed that two kernels of popcorn continued to remain on the floor, and he kept removing our champagne bucket and beer buckets, even after we requested that he leave them. On the formal evening we ordered chocolate strawberries and had one left. When we returned after dinner we found that he had removed it from the plate and had placed it on a small piece of paper…….obviously with his hand since there were no utensils available.

 

The room itself was in good shape, and as usual with mini-suites there is tons of storage and closet space, two flat screen televisions and in this room the mini-fridge stayed very cold. The balcony had the blue rubber matting and we had four reclining chairs, two foot stools and a high table. The bathroom now has the shampoo and body soap dispensers.

 

Dining Room

 

The Maître d’hôtel was Daniele Saredi and he is very good at his job. His staff enjoy themselves and their enthusiasm comes across. Our Head Waiter in Anytime Dining (Bernard) would perform tricks, and never took himself too seriously, while the waiters and junior waiters couldn’t do enough for you.

 

On most cruises I find it difficult on many evenings to find something that I truly want to eat, where my wife always sees or tries something she finds interesting. For whatever reason, this cruise was the opposite and proves once again that food is subjective to individual tastes. Each evening I found two or three entrees that were great and my wife rarely found something that interested her. Food was always good, and with the odd exception we found the beef tender and full of flavour. One big difference was that the lobster, which traditionally came with the giant tiger prawns, has now been replaced on the Coral with three different types of lobster tails. Not that this is bad, just different.

 

We purchased the Gold Wine package - $290 plus gratuity = $333.59 which gets you ten bottles – up to $45.00 per bottle. Any bottle over the $45, you pay the difference – thus a $65.00 bottle costs you the original $29 plus the additional $20. Basically with the Gold package you save $16 per bottle (Silver I believe you save $8 per bottle). The wine list is completely new and it took almost the entire cruise to find wines that we truly enjoyed. None of them were bad, just new.

 

Horizon Court

 

The Horizon Court setup on the Coral is by far one of the best Princess offers. It is wide open with lots of space to move around and also to find a table. The food is institutional – but we never understood why people think that it would be anything else – they are serving 2000 people at a time. The variety could have been better, but the salad bar and fruit were outstanding – always fresh and lots of choices. You also have the Trident Grill and Pizzeria as optional choices.

 

Cruise Director

 

Susan Rawlings was the CD and once again she confirmed to us that her best before date has passed. Although a nice enough lady, she is rarely seen, and some of her decisions are less than stellar. A prime example was the first night the comedian performed, he was slated to do so at 8:15 and 9:15. There was no way that anyone who ate later could attend either show. I could see it if there were other acts performing, but no, there was no competition for the venue. Another example was the last two days we had big swells and wind – on most cruises there are contingency plans to move or replace activities from the pool area to an inside venue. On this cruise they just cancelled the pool ones.

 

Entertainment

 

We have heard from lots of reviewers about “On the Bayou” and WOW – you were all right. We usually are not big Production fans but they hit it out of the park with this one. The other Productions shows were good as well, but the Bayou was over the top.

 

The comedian was Phil Paulisoul and he was quite good (we were able to see him on the second night he performed).

 

The bands and even the piano player in Crooners were less than stellar and it was difficult to spend time with any of them.

 

MUTS was pretty much a bust and while Princess uses this as a selling tool, they are not making the best use of it anymore. Initially when installed on the ships they had good first run movies but now it seems it is low key and a lot of concerts or older movies – BIG, Back to the Future – really……………

 

Fitness Area

 

Pretty much what you would expect on a cruise ship – a fair amount of cardio (treadmills, ellipticals, bikes) and weight machines. We went later in the day and never had to wait.

 

Captain Circle Host

 

The Captain Circle Host for this cruise was Jose Acuna (one year on the job) – and he was the worst we have ever had. When we stopped by to say hello and ask a few questions he was less than accommodating, and would never even offer a smile or a good morning. He became a topic of conversation at the Most Travelled Passenger luncheon – many of those we spoke with all had the same opinion.

 

Pools

 

The Coral has lots of deck space and we never had a problem finding a chair. Were there chair hogs – certainly, but they didn’t bother us.

 

Bar Staff

 

Some good, some not so good. As with any cruise you find those you like and those who are just doing their contract. One in particular – Mickey in Crooners pours your martini with the glass balanced on his forehead and as he gets close to the top, he brings it over you with his other hand while pouring the last bit into the glass. A bit frightening the first time, but quite the trick, especially when the ship is rolling.

 

Purser’s Desk

 

The automated folio printouts have made the lineups almost disappear. That said, the couple of times we used the front desk they were prompt and knowledgeable.

 

Internet Service

 

There were lots of kids, young adults and different cultures on this cruise and the normal patterns of Internet usage were different. While usually late evening (midnight) is a good time for Internet use, on this itinerary it was the worst time, while mid-morning when you usually have trouble was great.

 

Ship Condition

 

The ship itself is in great condition and we love the public spaces – open and a little more opulent than some of the ships – in fact the Coral/Island and the Sapphire are our favorites. Unfortunately some of the staff were less than stellar. We will give them the benefit of the doubt since this was a “holiday” cruise (New Year’s Eve) and the passengers were a different group than you would normally find on an 11 day cruise. We are on the Star in 6 weeks and hopefully we will find that it meets our expectations. If not it may be time to explore other possibilities.

 

Please remember that this is our review based on OUR experiences. Should you have experienced something different, please feel free to make your opinion known, but don’t shoot us for providing our review or urge us to change our opinions based on your thoughts or experience. As we noted we are huge fans of Princess (over 20 years of loyalty) – but that may change.

Loved susan Rawlings, the Coral, Anytime Dining and had a great time on the cruise. Like anything in life it is what you make it and people's attitude are what give them altitude in life IMHO.....:)

We are planning on taking an 11 day Inside Passage cruise out of San Francisco. One option has the Tracy Arm Fjord and the other option has Glacier Bay National Park.

Is there a big difference in these two places. Both cruises go to Victoria, Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway.

Thanks for any help....:)

I posted similar question and no one responded. Even if not the Royal, does any one know how early the gym opens? Is it 24 hours?

On the Coral and Emerald the gym opened at 6:00 AM...however there were very few people ever there....:)

Also whilst PAC Islands geographically includes Haiti, I would not think of this as part of them. Maybe it's my "Australianess" but it is too Americanised in my head. Not what I think PAC Islands to be about. :) Reminds me of sailing / cruising the Caribbean.

The Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the Pacific Islands lying south of the Tropic of Cancer are collectively referred to as Oceania,[1] although Oceania is sometimes defined as also including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago. These islands are traditionally grouped into the three divisions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia:

Melanesia means black islands. These islands, south of the equator, include New Guinea (the largest Pacific island and second largest island in the world after Greenland, which is divided into the sovereign nation of Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian provinces of Maluku, Papua and West Papua), New Caledonia, Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait Islands), Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands.

Micronesia means small islands. These include the Northern Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, and the Federated States of Micronesia, although sometimes Nauru and Kiribati's Banaba island are listed separately from Micronesia. Most of these lie north of the equator.

Polynesia means many islands. These islands, mostly south of the equator, include New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, the Midway Islands, the Samoan Islands (divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa), Tonga, Tuvalu, the Cook Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Tokelau, Niue, French Polynesia, and Easter Island. It is the largest of the three zones.

Haiti is no where to be found????? :cool:

Just got off the Caribbean Princess, which has a lot of passengers from Texas.

 

There were a lot of nice jeans worn on non formal nights. I mean the nicely fitted type of jeans with a nice shirt, not the baggy ill fitting type or work jeans, but dress jeans.

We were recently on a FLL to Panama cruise and many people wore jeans on non-formal nights. I was surprised because I usually wear casual slacks but it seemed to be no problem at all for the MD's. Next time I am bringing my jeans. :)

This is not a choice of theirs. Anytime dining is not available on this ship and Table of 2 is also not a choice.

I really appreciate everyone's suggestions. The great thing about CC is that there are so many knowledgeable people. :)

We have only done Anytime Dinning and have never done Assigned Dinning. We are going to be on the Ocean Princess later this year and the only option is Assigned Dinning. We like meeting people but are not sure which number of seat mates too choose in this dinning situation.

It has been our experience that when there are more then six people at a table it is easier to have conversations then when there are more.

We have also read that not everyone always shows up for Assigned Dinning and you can end up being the only one at the table. I would appreciate what your experience has been if you are traveling as a couple with no others. Also, we usually like to sit at round tables.

Dear fellow cruisers,

 

Does anyone know if the menu between the "anytime dining" and "traditional dining" are the same? or does the "traditional dining" offer better menu items?

 

Thank you !

The big plus we have found with anytime dinning is that you get to meet so many other wonderful people instead of being seated with the same people at every seating. We tend to take 20+ day cruises so I would not want to subject someone to me for that long everyday.

I also think that a big problem that Princess has with anytime dinning is that it allows reservations which defeats the purpose of people who want to dine anytime because often the dinning room tables are reserved by people who have made reservations. Sometimes you will have to wait in line because most of their tables have been reserved. Seems to me they should be referred to traditional dinning. :)

Been trying to book online through Princess for a few days and always comes up that there's a problem. Tried through big online travel company and same problem. Wonder if anyone else is having a problem?

I have had the same problem for several weeks. Get to the last part of the booking and always get an error message. I have called Princess and they say it probably is because I am using Mac software. They do not seem to have a tech department to talk to that can look at my account. Things certainly have changed with my account but they seem to have no clue. I have no problem booking at any other travel websites. :confused:

Due to the need for tendering in Kona and the high seas during the winter, Kona was frequently missed.

I would say that Princess does not like to tender if they do not have too. Most cruise lines come to Kona and not Hilo. We live in Kona and it is a rare day that the Norwegian Pride of America does not make it into Kona and tender. Kona has had 4 ships already this week. I am not sure what you mean by high seas since we live on the ocean and they pretty much are the same everyday except a high surf advisory every once in awhile. :)

We'll be aboard the Emerald for our very first Princess cruise next February/March. After 5 HAL cruises at "late traditional dining for 2" we've decided to completely switch it up and I've booked us at Anytime Dining. :eek:

 

I figured we're changing cruiselines, so why not change a whole bunch of things! ;) Plus with all of the entertainment options available on Princess, it seemed like a good idea!

 

Please tell me we've made the right choice!:o

We love Anytime Dinning and have done it on the Emerald too. We usually tell them we are willing to share a table and ask for a round table holding 6 each time. It has been our experience that if you sit at a table holding 8 it is hard to hear everything being said by everyone. If you can get there before or around 6:00 PM we have never had to wait.

We meet so many interesting people and it is a great way to makes new friends too. We also do this for breakfast in the mornings and for lunch on the days when they serve it in the main dinning room. :):)

Hi there- I am 44 and hubby is 50. We have cruised twice on carnival and twice on NCL. I am looking at princess line to try something new. I got the impression that princess caters to an older demographic. Would we be okay on a 7-10 cruise? This is not meant as an insult to the older generation. We socialize with all ages while on cruises. Actually an older demographic may mean less children. Which we wouldn't mind either . Happy cruising :)

Kim

 

 

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You are correct in that Princess does cater to an older demographic and their activities are geared in that way too. We sail Princess and tend to do longer cruises and even though we are in our late 50's the average age seems to be in their late 60's and plus. It is not really a happening demographic if that is what you are looking for even though in their minds they thing they are. NCL, RC and Carnival cater to a more youthful passenger. :)

I do not think just a shirt and tie is acceptable on formal nights. I have seen the maître d exclude men because of this. Also for those people who advocate wearing a dark suit rather than a tuxedo because they have to worry about the weight. Can someone please explain to me how a tux weighs more that a conventional suit?

Just got off a 27 day cruise and I my hubby wore slacks, shirt and tie every formal night. He was not alone and there was never a problem entering the dinning room. I am sure his clothes cost much more then the guys wearing rented tuxes.