Coral Princess- Alaska 5-12th June 2019 - with children

[Cruisencatlady]

Lou,

 

Thank you so much for posting the 2019 Patters!  How would you best describe the cruise director and staff?

I'm on Coral SB the end of August.  Can't wait to get back on my favorite Princess ship.

 

Safe and frequent travels,

 

Susan

 

[~*Lou*~]

On 6/29/2019 at 10:28 AM, Cruisencatlady said:

Lou,

 

Thank you so much for posting the 2019 Patters!  How would you best describe the cruise director and staff?

I'm on Coral SB the end of August.  Can't wait to get back on my favorite Princess ship.

 

Safe and frequent travels,

 

Susan

 

 

The few times I saw/heard the cruise director he seemed a lot of fun, I loved the English accent. He led our muster and that was the most I saw of him but we didn't go to any form of evening entertainment (we were on deck watching wildlife and scenery, or supervising swimming children). All the staff we had contact with, so mostly kids club, our room steward, in MDR and in buffet, were lovely. Couldn't fault anyone.

[~*Lou*~]

OK, I will try to load some photos. First, children's menu in MDR - apologies its upside down - I didn't take photos of any other menus. And our cabin B321 - internal quad share.

 

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

I don't know how many you want to see so I will pick highlights from the cruise. Let me know if there is anything in particular you want.

 

first view of Coral from the train to Whittier

 

Glacier Quest boat trip

 

Sea lions

 

 

Waterfalls

 

Glaciers

 

That exciting moment just as Coral left Whittier

 

Sailing through Prince William Sound

 

[~*Lou*~]

Hubbard Glacier

 

View from front of ship on deck 11 (that is Seven Seas Mariner on her way out)

 

 

View from horizon court buffet

 

 

 

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

Glacier Bay National Park

 

The park rangers' plan for the day

 

 

Love walking around deck 7 Promenade at any time of day

 

 

Margerie Glacier from deck 11 (front of the ship)

 

 

 

Photo taken from deck 15

 

 

Sea lion colony exactly as predicted on the map above

 

[~*Lou*~]

Skagway

 

View points from bus on way up to Carcross

 

 

 

Dog cart ride at Carcross trading post

 

 

2 week old puppies

 

 

views from train between Fraser and Skagway

 

 

 

 

 

The only brick building in Skagway (was a girls college, now city hall)

 

 

More usual Skagway buildings, beautifully preserved from the gold rush

 

 

The Mollie Walsh playground for children

 

 

Harbour seal swimming along side the dock

 

[~*Lou*~]

Juneau

 

Nugget falls

 

 

Mendenhall glacier

 

 

Eagle beach

 

 

Shrine of St Therese

 

 

Marmot

 

 

 

Walking laps of promenade in the evening 

 

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

Ketchikan

 

Getting ready for kayaking

 

 

Exploring sea life on rock wall (in light rain and no wind)

 

 

Harbour seals

 

 

Back on Coral,, view of Ketchikan

 

 

Watching final tender being winched into place

 

[~*Lou*~]

Final sea day 

 

From deck 15

 

 

Front of deck 11 - note how few other people are there!

 

 

Deck 16 sports deck (great view behind me too)

 

 

Promenade deck - note how wide it is, sun lounges, and not usually at all busy

 

 

Deck 15

 

 

 

 

 

Deck 11

 

 

View from buffet at dinner

 

 

Deck 11 - mid-evening

 

 

 

Promenade deck - mid-evening

 

 

And me

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

 

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

In Port at Vancouver - look how far we travelled

 

 

 

[~*Lou*~]

Note about Juneau

 

With more cruise ships in port on any given day, not all ships have the most central docked location. We were at berth B, which is a bit south of the "main" part of Juneau - still walking distance but a few steps further than the more central C, D, E. Radiance of the Seas was at berth A the day we were there, really is out of town.

 

 

Avis car rental was just 900m from berth B (a benefit of not being at the more central docking location). In this photo, taken at dinner from the buffet, if you can make out a red building next to a green building, well Avis was right behind that. 

 

 

[rkacruiser]

On 6/26/2019 at 1:37 AM, ~*Lou*~ said:

OK, here are the rest of the Patters. Photos will be a bit longer, I'm still sorting through them.

 

Hubbard Glacier.pdf 603.71 kB · 34 downloads Glacier Bay.pdf 861.61 kB · 29 downloads Skagway.pdf 513.76 kB · 27 downloads Juneau.pdf 512.12 kB · 34 downloads Ketchikan.pdf 508.92 kB · 24 downloads At Sea 110619.pdf 533.09 kB · 24 downloads Disembarkation.pdf 397.61 kB · 28 downloads Cruise Log.pdf 264.17 kB · 24 downloads

 

I am very grateful for your effort to post these!  Thank you so very, very much!

[JSSpence]

I read both this report and from your previous trip, thank you so much! We are starting to plan a 2021 trip with our son who will be nearly 10 at the time of the trip. What was your perspective on Princess vs Royal Caribbean (specifically Radiance of the Seas) for the trips you took? Those are the lines we're targeting, so I'm curious as to why you switched to Princess for this trip, etc. Thanks!

[~*Lou*~]

1 hour ago, JSSpence said:

I read both this report and from your previous trip, thank you so much! We are starting to plan a 2021 trip with our son who will be nearly 10 at the time of the trip. What was your perspective on Princess vs Royal Caribbean (specifically Radiance of the Seas) for the trips you took? Those are the lines we're targeting, so I'm curious as to why you switched to Princess for this trip, etc. Thanks!

 

My children enjoyed both Radiance and Coral - their priorities are pool, kids club and buffet, preferably including ice cream (both had soft serve), also sports facilities like basketball court and mini golf.

 

We chose Princess the 2nd time round because of the itinerary - I really wanted Glacier Bay NP which Royal Caribbean didn't offer. We have now cruised 3 times, 3 different lines, 2 different locations, at the end of the day the itinerary is most important thing for us.

 

Hope that helps

Lou

[Lovesacruise]

On 6/13/2019 at 5:12 AM, ~*Lou*~ said:

We disembarked Coral this morning, I have typed this up quite roughly because we’re not home yet. We had 5 nights in Alaska (Anchorage, Girdwood, Seward, Anchorage) before the cruise and won’t be home until end of next week. We are a family of 4 with children aged 9 & 11 years, from Australia.

Happy to answer questions.

 

 

Wednesday 5th June

Snow city breakfast- we had made an online reservation so we were seated quickly, but our waitress advised they were finishing a big catering job so we had a long wait for food. we took an Uber back to hotel to save some time, walked from hotel to the train station , bag drop at princess tent next to main station building, arrived right on 1hr before train. We had a short  line up for our tickets to be printed (pre purchased online) & check of photo id, to be told a boarding call is 30mins from departure (so we didn’t need to rush & be there exactly 1hr before. 45 mins would have been ok to allow for queuing to collect tickets)

 

The Train from Anchorage to Whittier is very scenic. We had Better weather (therefore visibility) than I hoped. All along the turnagain arm and then through the portage valley, blue skies and great views of snow capped mountains. The train departed anchorage at 9.45am and arrived at Whittier at 12.05pm. The  Children were bored with the scenery but My daughter looked up from the iPad long enough to spot a moose.

 

We emerged from the Anton Anderson memorial tunnel on the Whittier side to spectacular weather - sun and barely a cloud to limit visibility- and our first view of Coral Princess. Off the train, direct to the ship is just crossing the road and following the white tent to the check in building. We had more time so we had a short walk from the train to the small boat harbour, then back to the cruise ship terminal to board glacier quest at 12.45 for 1pmdeparture. 

 

Lunch was served straight after departure- we had the vegetarian option of vegetable chilli & a small warm brown roll & butter & coleslaw & bag oyster crackers , the children’s meal were a hot dog and bag whole grain chips. We all had a slice of cheese, bag of fruit snacks, & a small polar bear smooch. Free water. Other drinks & sweet & savoury snacks available to purchase. There was a national park ranger on board and he did a great commentary and had great resources for the children - by the end of the cruise they had their Chugach national forest junior rangers badges. We saw Glaciers, sea lions, sea otters, sea birds and one shipwreck along with fabulous scenery.

 

At 4.45 we were back to Whittier, walked off  Glacier quest, through the white Princess tent to check in & through security. By 5.15 we were on board and in our cabin B321 (internal quad share).

 

Our bags were already in our cabin so we unpacked, went to deck 12 to check in to the children’s club (had registered online, just needed to go up and check the details were right), then onto a buffet dinner on deck 14, followed by the children finding the ice cream on deck 14 at the lotus pool. At 7.45 we had a muster, followed by sail away at 8.20pm (ten minutes early). The Children had a swim in the indoor lotus pool after departure, we took in turns to watch scenery and the children.

Departing from Whittier through prince William sound was far more scenic than I had expected and we wanted to be on deck to see it.

 

Thursday 6th June

More amazing weather - cloudy in the morning at sea but it was sunny, not cold, and barely any clouds as we got to Yakutat bay and the Hubbard glacier - it is 400-600feet high, 6-9 miles wide, and 76 miles long. We got as close as 9 miles to it and saw some calving & some seals. We were on deck 11 outside at the front of the ship and then deck 14 in the horizon buffet to view the glacier. 

 

The children had spent the morning in the kids club. We had lunch & the children had a swim before we arrived in front of the glacier. The children went back to the Kids club again after dinner.

 

Friday 7th June 

 

Glacier bay national park 

 

More amazing weather, sun, few clouds, great visibility, and did not feel as cold as I expected. We Collected the rangers on time at 9.15. They commended their Commentary 11am and kept going until 3.30. We traveled 140 miles within the national park. I wasn’t feeling well (head cold) so set myself up on sun lounger right against window on level 14 (lotus pool) to watch scenery go by, occasionally walking up to level 15 to step outside to take a photo. The glaciers were amazing, we saw some calving, and all the scenery was spectacular and we also saw seals, sea otters, whales, sea birds and bald eagles.

 

Saturday 8th June 

 

Skagway 

 

We had booked a full day tour with chilkoot charters. The first 2.5 hrs was in the bus, I lost count of the number of photo stops including toilet stops, and we spotted a black bear off the road after Fraser, as well as Dall  sheep high on a mountain above the road.

 

We had lunch at Carcross trading post at 11.45am. This was bbq chicken, coleslaw, potato and unlimited bread rolls, butter and Cinnamon donuts. We then had a short cart ride with sled dogs, they were all so excited to be hauling us along. And puppies! Four 2 week old puppies we could look at. There were other animals to look at too, horses and donkeys and alpacas, before we got back on the bus.

 

Next stop was Carcross where we had a 30 minutes stop - the children enjoyed ice cream and we had a short walk.

 

We then had a 1 hour drive back to Fraser (bit of a nap!) then 1:45 hrs White Cross and Yukon train from Fraser to Skagway.

 

The railway is very scenic and we spotted 2 brown bears from the train, they were running along the tracks ahead of the train before scrambling up the embankment. We arrived in Skagway at 5.15pm. We walked through Skagway, where all buildings except one are built from wood, built during the 1896 gold rush, and past the Mollie Walsh Angel of the Klondike playground, back to the ship. As we walked along the dock to our ship, we saw a harbour seal in water next to the ship. Dinner on board.

 

Sunday 9th June

 

Juneau

 

We had milder drier weather than we expected.

 

At 8.45am we left the cabin, walked off the ship, as there were a number of ships in Juneau today we were down at berth B and not the central spot on town, but this gave us just a 900m walk to Avis, where we collected our rental car. We drove to Mendenhall Glacier, and had parked by 9.30 - we felt like we had the place almost to ourselves 

 

By 10.45am we were back in the car after walking the Nugget falls and steep creek trails - there were lots of buses of people arriving as we left. We had a good look at Mendenhall glacier next to nugget falls before the crowds arrived. 

 

We drove to Eagle beach for a short walk and then to the shrine of st Therese, where we saw a marmot on the rocky beach. We then returned the car at 1.30pm, we would have had time to drive to end of the road. We walked from Avis, past Coral, into the main part of Juneau. We found the Alaskan Fudge Co with a queue out the door for ice cream- they served very generous scoops. We walked back past ovation of the seas & grand princess to Coral for a late lunch & sail away.

 

4 ships in port including Ovation of the seas (huge), we were dock B - further from town but closer to Avis. Poor Radiance of the seas in dock A.

 

At dinner there was a chocolate fountain (with fruit & marshmallows to dip) in the horizon buffet - the children declared it the best night ever. Children to kids club and we walked 3 Laps (2.8 laps is 1 mile) of the promenade deck, saw whales, porpoises & sea lion and lots of sea birds in very clear flat waters. Was a bit tougher at bedtime, the ship was moving round a bit, so I gave the children sea sickness meds at bedtime just in case (they were fine).

 

Monday 10th June

 

Ketchikan

 

We woke to rain and 12 deg C and 10 knots wind(the “real Alaska”). We had a quiet morning on ship. There were 4 ships in port so we had to tender to shore. Arrival was published as 9.45am but we arrived earlier and tenders commenced at 8.40am.

 

At 11.30am we headed for deck 6 aft, and collected tender tickets for our independent tour (not ship tour), numbers 249-252 and sat down for only a short wait, We were on shore at 11.55.

 

We found the Ketchikan kayaking office right next to dock. Our kayaking Tour was 12.30-4.30. We were driven north out of town to clover pass harbour. There they provided us with waterproof over pants and jackets and wet bags and life jackets. We started in light rain and no wind, watched rain drops landing on the surface of the water, found lots of sea life (star fish and sea cucumbers and sea lettuce) and saw a seal from a distance. We saw Lots of bald eagles. We Rounded an island and saw porpoise ahead But the wind picked up and the rain increased, and we were getting wet through. We Saw several harbour seals on an island both in and out of the water, one swam quite close to us for a look. We paddled back to the harbour, they provided crackers and dip and hot chocolate (with and without Baileys), then we were driven back to town. We had a short wait for the next gender and we were back on the ship at 4.45. Warm dry clothes and food.

 

Tuesday 11th June

 

At sea

 

We chose to have a MDR breakfast today - this is an excellent way to eat less and in very leisurely way - without endless temptations of buffet, the service is not rushed in any way.

 

After breakfast the Children went to the kids club. We watched a 10ampresentation by executive chef and maître D followed by a Walk through the main kitchen.

 

The water was very smooth, but we were completely surrounded by fog, we kept hearing the fog horn. The sun must have beenout above the fog because it was very bright white to look out all windows, we needed sunglasses. Lunch, then some laundry.

 

The fog lifted after lunch, bright sunny day with flat water and snowy mountains visible both sides of the ship. Children swim in indoor pool then kids club. Lots of people lying round on outdoor decks in sun, some covered with Princess blankets. We saw Seals and whales (breaching) and porpoises and bald eagles. Very scenic in afternoon & evening through narrower parts of inside passage.

 

Outside viewing: 

 

Decks 9, 10 & 11 - access to front - not clearly marked on deck plans but can walk through past all cabins and door marked emergency exit to front of ship. Usually very quiet. Standing only.

 

Decks 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11 -access to aft of ship - walk past all cabins and out door with window. Sun lounges. Quiet except for noise of wake.

 

Deck 16 front - through blue glass

 

Deck 16 aft - sports court - good views aft and to side

 

Deck 15 - front half through blue glass, aft half of ship waist height rails

 

Deck 14 - front - horizon court buffet- good for viewing outside in poor weather

 

Deck 14 - aft third of ship is outside and excellent outdoor viewing, middle section of ship is outdoor and then indoor pools. Sun lounger in both close to windows are good for viewing in poor weather (especially from lotus pool, decks 14 & 15).

 

Promenade deck 7 - 2.8 laps= 1 mile. Sun lounges down each side. Not usually busy. I like being close to water level so this was a favourite place on the ship. 

 

Laundry- there is a self serve laundromat on most decks. Use cruise card to purchase tokens for washer and drier and laundry powder. We found clothes that we didn’t want to put through the drier dried within hours if hung on coat hangers in our cabin, thanks to drying effect of air conditioning in the cabin. 

 

Wednesday 12th June 

 

We had Docked in Vancouver before 7am. We had to be out of the cabin by 8am. We weren’t in a rush so had elected for a later disembarkation time - we were allocated 9.30. So we had buffet breakfast then watched the Vancouver port activity from the library on level 8. There were two other cruise ships at Canada place at same time as us. They called our group right on 9.30. Off the ship, collected our bags, through customs and into a taxi by 9.45am.

 

happy to answer questions & photos to come in a couple of weeks when I get home, I have all the patters but again would be a couple of weeks before I get home & can scan and upload them. 

 

Lou 🙂

I love this! I am looking at Coral for June next year. Got some great tips. What did you think of the ship in general. I think she had a refurb in January this year.

[~*Lou*~]

45 minutes ago, Lovesacruise said:

I love this! I am looking at Coral for June next year. Got some great tips. What did you think of the ship in general. I think she had a refurb in January this year.

 

You might want to Google "Coral dry dock 2019" or something similar for details, I believe the dry dock was mostly addressing behind the scenes stuff like getting Coral ready for Medallion. We hadn't been on her before so don't have a direct comparison of before and after the dry dock. We also haven't sailed on any of the new mega ships (any cruiseline) to have a comparison to anything new and glossy either. We enjoyed Coral but we were really there for the itinerary, and not super-fussy about the ship. For us, being in an inside cabin, all the outside viewing decks Coral offered were a big draw card.

[JSSpence]

1 hour ago, ~*Lou*~ said:

 

My children enjoyed both Radiance and Coral - their priorities are pool, kids club and buffet, preferably including ice cream (both had soft serve), also sports facilities like basketball court and mini golf.

 

We chose Princess the 2nd time round because of the itinerary - I really wanted Glacier Bay NP which Royal Caribbean didn't offer. We have now cruised 3 times, 3 different lines, 2 different locations, at the end of the day the itinerary is most important thing for us.

 

Hope that helps

Lou

Thanks Lou - as a complete novice, the main difference in your Alaska trips that I saw was Glacier NP vs the Hubbard attempt (forgive me if there's a third that I didn't see). At this early stage for us we're generally looking for a southbound cruise with inland tour after that works for us with our 8 yo. I'm very curious about your thoughts on RCI's southbound itinerary vs Princess's, since you've been on both those routes (even if you went a different direction). 

[~*Lou*~]

48 minutes ago, JSSpence said:

Thanks Lou - as a complete novice, the main difference in your Alaska trips that I saw was Glacier NP vs the Hubbard attempt (forgive me if there's a third that I didn't see). At this early stage for us we're generally looking for a southbound cruise with inland tour after that works for us with our 8 yo. I'm very curious about your thoughts on RCI's southbound itinerary vs Princess's, since you've been on both those routes (even if you went a different direction). 

 

Hi

The 3rd cruise was to the Med, not Alaska, with MSC.

I think having done both NB and SB, we preferred SB. We had a few days in Alaska first, then the cruise (then a week in the Canadian Rockies). When we chose to go back to Alaska the second time I had 2 criteria for the cruise itinerary - must be a nice long day in Skagway so we could do the day trip we wanted, and must have Glacier Bay NP. That narrowed down which cruise line to go with very quickly for us. Compared to the RCI's itinerary, sailing with Princess meant missing Icy Straight Point, which we enjoyed enough the first time but we weren't rushing back to (unlike Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway, which had things we either wanted to do a second time, or had other things we wanted to try having done something different the first time).

Hope that helps

Lou

[Anyislandwilldo]

Great review, thanks for sharing.

[Autumnz]

I have heard great things about Coral Princess to visit Alaska and Princess and Glacier Bay.  BUT- we decided on another cruise line for our trip because the rooms couldn't accommodate 3 unless using upper berths (no pull out sofa).  Obviously it worked for you, but did that set up bother you at all?  I'm going to assume we'll want to be back to Alaska and would love to try Princess (and see Glacier Bay!), but not loving the room set up!

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Autumnz said:

I have heard great things about Coral Princess to visit Alaska and Princess and Glacier Bay.  BUT- we decided on another cruise line for our trip because the rooms couldn't accommodate 3 unless using upper berths (no pull out sofa).  Obviously it worked for you, but did that set up bother you at all?  I'm going to assume we'll want to be back to Alaska and would love to try Princess (and see Glacier Bay!), but not loving the room set up!

Princess allows for 3 with a pull out sofa on their mini suites.

[Autumnz]

Ah..yes!  We couldn't swing that!  I do remember that though!  Thanks for the reminder!

[~*Lou*~]

The 2 Pullman (upper) berths were fine for us. The children were 9 and 11 and very happy to sleep up there.

 

As an extra note, we cruised on 2 other cruise lines when children were 5 and 7, and 7 and 9, internal quad share cabins all the way, never been a problem. When my youngest was only 5 we thought he was too young for a bunk bed so I took the upper berth, along side my 7 yo, while my husband and the 5yo took the lower berths, it worked just the fine, I didn't love getting down in the morning on the metal ladder (I have joint pain when I first wake up) but that was a small price to pay for being on the cruise in the first place!!

 

Hope that helps.