How well does Princess handle the cruise just prior to dry dock.

[RDC1]

We were planning to take the Coral through the Panama Canal from LA next Jan 6. In researching follow-on cruises in the Caribbean, I noticed that the Coral is scheduled for dry dock Jan 21-31 (right after the Jan 6 cruise ends).

 

What have been your experiences on Princess ships just before dry dock? I have had experiences on another cruise line where the cruise was impacted due to preparation for dry dock before the cruise ended. For example facilities taken out of service or restricted, especially during the last couple of days.

[beg3yrs]

It's pretty much the same as on other lines.

[neverbeenhere]

The price paid on the pre-dry dock cruises are usually very favorable. Save -a-lot - Miss-a-little

[paul929207]

We were on the last sailing of the Tahitian Princess before the dry dock that converted her to the Ocean Princess. Staff was happy since most were going home, but did a great job.

[eclue]

We were on the Crown in March just before its dry dock and there was absolutely no difference at all......It was a great cruise and the staff was wonderful, as usual.

eclue:cool:

[beg3yrs]

We were on the Golden Princess in 2016 just before a dry dock. Preparations were being made in advance and while we weren't terribly impacted, they were definitely noticeable. If, as a previous poster noted, the cruise was heavily discounted, that would be certainly OK.

 

It certainly wasn't anything like the recent NCL cruise: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nightmare-norwegian-cruise-floating-construction-151321581.html

[pathi]

We were on the Crown in March just before its dry dock and there was absolutely no difference at all......It was a great cruise and the staff was wonderful, as usual.

eclue:cool:

 

 

We were on this cruise also. I toured the ship a couple of days looking for anything closed etc. I did not see anything out of order or closed. Very nice cruise. No discount however..

[RDC1]

Thank you for the feedback from actual experiences. We will probably stay with the reservation and take the cruise. We first did the Panama Canal on the Coral a few years back so nice to do it again on the same ship.

[TM]

We were on the last Panama Canal cruise on the Island prior to the drydock that totally changed the ship in 2014. We did not notice any difference at all when compared to 20+ cruises that did not have a following drydock scheduled.

[zoyabean]

We were on the Sapphire just before her refit in 2011 and there was some extra activity but nothing like what happened on that NCL ship. We were also on a regular sailing of the Regal where they were stripping and varnishing all the balcony railings. I found the "maintenance" on the Regal more of an inconvenience than the dry dock prep on the Sapphire.

 

Neither was a big enough deal for us to complain at all.

[susiesan]

It's pretty much the same as on other lines.

Unless you happened to have been on the Norwegian Sun.

[rkacruiser]

Not a Princess ship obviously, but I sailed on Carnival Miracle the cruise before a dry dock. During the later part of the cruise, I booked their Behind the Fun Tour. Below public decks, preparations were being made for the dry dock, i.e. heavy paper lining the floors and walls, store rooms that were close to being empty, etc. As a guest, the only thing I noticed was that they ran out of a wine that I enjoy and was part of my wine package. To replace it, I was given a much better quality wine as a substitute! No complaints from me!

[DrivesLikeMario]

From first hand experience on the Crown two weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised at how unobtrusive the whole process was. The only noticeable thing was the grinding, sanding, and hammering during the daytime. I could hear it on Deck 10 and it turns out it was the Deck 3 crew quarters that was being worked on during daytime hours. Other than that, it was a great cruise and the crew was in good spirits.

 

Edited to add: the sound wasn't too loud or obnoxious - just there in the background for a few hours during the day.