New to Princess... Help!

[Lvs2Cruise2]

Hello all... I have been a very loyal Royal Carribbean cruiser. (7 cruises total) Now I would love to try Princess and am looking at the Coral Princess for the April 24th cruise through the Panama Canal. I know NOTHING about Princess cruises and thanks to all of you and these helpful boards I'm learning a bunch. My question is.. what is the best deck to stay on to see the canal? (I'm eyeballing Emerald deck 627)

I'm very excited to try Princess and I'm sure Princess will be equally as nice as all of my Royal Carribbean trips have been.. Thanks for all of your help!

[Bill B]

I don't think it really matters what deck you're on. It takes a whole day to go through the canal and I doubt you will spend it all in your stateroom.

[Astro Flyer]

Hello all... I have been a very loyal Royal Carribbean cruiser. (7 cruises total) Now I would love to try Princess and am looking at the Coral Princess for the April 24th cruise through the Panama Canal. I know NOTHING about Princess cruises and thanks to all of you and these helpful boards I'm learning a bunch. My question is.. what is the best deck to stay on to see the canal? (I'm eyeballing Emerald deck 627)

I'm very excited to try Princess and I'm sure Princess will be equally as nice as all of my Royal Carribbean trips have been.. Thanks for all of your help!

We sailed the Coral through the Canal in January '09 & enjoyed it a lot. We had cabin Caribe 331 on the starboard side in the middle of that offset section of cabins. Being a BA cabin it has a larger balcony that's halfway covered.

 

There's a lot of room with about 92,000 tons for only 2000 passengers & it's a Panamax ship being as large as the current Canal can handle...at least until the wider locks are completed in a few years.

 

It was a full transit from LA to FLL so we experienced all of the Canal. We were told that it doesn't matter which side you choose for your cabin because it's not until the ship is ready to transit that they are assigned to either the left or right locks. And that close to the equator the sun is close to being overhead so the coolness of some shade shouldn't be too much different.

 

Our 1st choice is Princess but we have also enjoyed a few RCI cruises...they're all good for us & hopefully for you also...bon voyage!

[rdsqrl]

You've picked an awesome ship on which to begin your Princess cruising! She's my favourite currently in the fleet. If you haven't seen it already, check out this site, which is informative to a fault on cabin location, balcony size & coverage, plus has some really good photos of the ship.

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

E627 looks like a good location to me -- you're not above a lounge or other potentially noisy public area nor are you over an outside door -- the doors to the Promenade Deck can reportedly be loud slamming shut if you have a cabin right above. I had a forward cabin (C204), which was awesome as it was right near the forward viewing deck, and it was "closer" to the places onboard I tended to be: the main outdoor pool, the buffet, the Wheelhouse . . . But I wouldn't turn down 627.

 

One thing I'll say about Canal day: if you stay on your balcony, you'll miss sooooooo much. The best viewing is the open decks forward on Baja and Caribe and aft on Baja, Caribe, Dolphin, and Emerald. You'll want to be out and about throughout the transit to see the approach and the operation of the locks. Plus you never know which lane of the Canal you'll be directed through, so you might or might not have a view from your balcony of the other lane -- which can provide awesome closeups of big container ships or other cruise ships. In other words, plan on an active day without ever leaving the ship!

[Pam in CA]

I agree with the others in that it doesn't really matter which deck you're on. If you are doing a one-way cruise, I'd want to be on the port side going from FLL to LA, on the starboard side going from LA to FLL. If it's a partial-Canal cruise, then it doesn't matter since you'll be entering the Canal with the best viewing on one side and exiting with the best view on the other. You might consider getting a covered balcony as it can be very hot, and often rainy.

[Astro Flyer]

You've picked an awesome ship on which to begin your Princess cruising! She's my favourite currently in the fleet. If you haven't seen it already, check out this site, which is informative to a fault on cabin location, balcony size & coverage, plus has some really good photos of the ship.

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

E627 looks like a good location to me -- you're not above a lounge or other potentially noisy public area nor are you over an outside door -- the doors to the Promenade Deck can reportedly be loud slamming shut if you have a cabin right above. I had a forward cabin (C204), which was awesome as it was right near the forward viewing deck, and it was "closer" to the places onboard I tended to be: the main outdoor pool, the buffet, the Wheelhouse . . . But I wouldn't turn down 627.

 

One thing I'll say about Canal day: if you stay on your balcony, you'll miss sooooooo much. The best viewing is the open decks forward on Baja and Caribe and aft on Baja, Caribe, Dolphin, and Emerald. You'll want to be out and about throughout the transit to see the approach and the operation of the locks. Plus you never know which lane of the Canal you'll be directed through, so you might or might not have a view from your balcony of the other lane -- which can provide awesome closeups of big container ships or other cruise ships. In other words, plan on an active day without ever leaving the ship!

Besides all of these great suggestions, I wish that I'd followed the suggestion to go to one of the lower decks in any of the locks to view the walls of it up close. They say it was a very dramatic effect watching the ship from the perspective of the side of the locks.

[rdsqrl]

Besides all of these great suggestions, I wish that I'd followed the suggestion to go to one of the lower decks in any of the locks to view the walls of it up close. They say it was a very dramatic effect watching the ship from the perspective of the side of the locks.

It was indeed. Very cool. I was down in La Patisserie and the lock walls were right there outside the window (I got a cool close-up shot -- I'd post but I only have a film camera not a digital one). What was also unusual was the light -- or lack thereof -- in the atrium area once that deck was below ground. It was cool and creepy at the same time.

[Lvs2Cruise2]

Thanks for all of the great replies! It is a full transit going from Acapulco to FLL. I guess my second question about rooms is the balconies on the aft of the ship look much bigger than those in the front from the pictures. Is that so? I know with Royal ships when you look at the layout, it's exactly the way it looks (if the balcony is pictured as a triangle.. it's a triangle. ) Thanks everyone for all of your help..

[Pam in CA]

The deck plans are accurate.