Warning if your about to cruise on Coral.

[arxcards]

I have always found the review section largely takes the "critic" part to heart, and lots that say most things were great in one line, and follow with 5 paragraphs of detailed items that weren't. "We had a great time, but ....."

 

I haven't read one for ages, as they are not as interactive as live threads or general discussion here.

 

Expectations met vs not met are everything, and I have no idea what they were expecting if they aren't part of the regular discussion. I will have to make a point of reading some.

Edited July 26, 2022 by arxcards

[MicCanberra]

You don't want to get hit with roaming costs while aboard 

[Russell21]

59 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I rarely take too much notice of reviews these days as more people will leave a review to complain than they will to praise, so the results are always skewed.

Totally agree with you.

[arxcards]

7 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Sorry I raised the subject. I will go and apply some band aids to my wounds, lol.

I am glad you raised it. Always nice to see how the other half live. 

[Aus Traveller]

20 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Sorry I raised the subject. I will go and apply some band aids to my wounds, lol.

It is fair enough that you raised the subject. The reviews made interesting reading.

[arxcards]

41 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I doubt she had her phone on flight mode as she is a Brisbane resident.  

P&O instructions when connecting to their internet/onboard content tell you to go into flight mode to connect. I suspect it is the same with the Princess medallion app/internet too. There is the option of disconnecting and turning off flight mode in port if you need to.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I rarely take too much notice of reviews these days as more people will leave a review to complain than they will to praise, so the results are always skewed.

This is the first time I have read the reviews. I often look at review before buying a product or booking somewhere but I agree with your comment that many people only post a review if they want to complain.

 

As far as cruising or any holiday for that matter, very rarely could you expect it to be 100% perfect. And one person's opinion of 100% is likely to be different from someone else's.

[NSWP]

I have done 26 cruises on various cruise lines, but in the main Princess as per my signature. None of them were perfect., but generally good. Admittedly most of them from overseas ports.  I still maintain lines like Princess drop the ball a bit on Australian based cruises.

 

OK, I am heading for the Bomb Shelter again, lol.

[2022cruisey]

First cruise on Coral was the 7 nighter in June.  Absolutely loved it.  It was absolute value for money- you couldn’t get a holiday with all the inclusions for that price anywhere else.
 

If I had a criticism, one thing that annoyed me greatly was the reliance on American products - the lack of fresh cream being infuriating and the taste of the Tennessee bottled water dreadful.

 

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, NSWP said:

I have done 26 cruises on various cruise lines, but in the main Princess as per my signature. None of them were perfect., but generally good. Admittedly most of them from overseas ports.  I still maintain lines like Princess drop the ball a bit on Australian based cruises.

 

OK, I am heading for the Bomb Shelter again, lol.

We have cruised much more than that starting in 1983, on several cruise lines. The majority of our more than 50 Princess cruises have been Australian-based. I didn't notice any difference in the level of service or anything else that Princess did between the Aust cruises and the overseas ones. The major difference we found was in the passengers 🤣 their expectations and how they treated the staff. The most interesting was the Four Continents cruise on the Emerald Princess in 2016 from the UK to Sydney. The passenger numbers were fairly evenly split between Brits, Americans and Aussies. This was at the time of the US election. It made for some very interesting discussions.

[ozygav]

3 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

the decaf coffee served in the dining room is undrinkable in my opinion,

I don't think the free for all coffee has ever got a good review, no matter which ship it is served on.

Thanks for those that have commented on their recent cruise. It sounds like it is business as usual on the Coral.

There are always complaints about bland, cold food with slow service. Still better than cooking yourself, I reckon. I always come home heavier!

Bag tags printed, starting to get excited.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, 2022cruisey said:

 

If I had a criticism, one thing that annoyed me greatly was the reliance on American products - the lack of fresh cream being infuriating and the taste of the Tennessee bottled water dreadful.

 

I certainly agree with you there  i don't know why they can't get fresh milk and cream especially on the shorter Australian-only cruises. Although that would require additional refrigerated storage space 

[arxcards]

4 hours ago, NSWP said:

I have done 26 cruises on various cruise lines, but in the main Princess as per my signature. None of them were perfect., but generally good. Admittedly most of them from overseas ports.  I still maintain lines like Princess drop the ball a bit on Australian based cruises.

 

OK, I am heading for the Bomb Shelter again, lol.

I haven't noticed so much a ball drop, but a slightly lower standard all-round. We have generally felt that the seasonally based Princess ships had a slightly better standard of service when operating here than the full time Australian based ones. As much as I am glad we don't have that AWS (auto wage subsidy) on our ships, the visiting $US ships still had it for a while, and it seemed that the staff worked their butts off for the extra tips and to keep the US passengers happy.

 

We are more laid back anyway, so most of us are just glad to be on a holiday, and our more relaxed mood also transfers to the staff. In most ways, that is great. I am seeing more and more, let me call them "entitled cruiselings" on Australian cruises, with bigger voices and insistence that everything be perfect. All the power to them, but I think their expectations are skewed by the everything is awesome spiel that regurgitates from those social media influencers.

 

Only 2 months ago, I was thinking how awesome is this to be on a ship again, catching up with old friends, eating and drinking too much. At the same time, there is always someone saying their cruise sucked because they had to pay for a hamburger. 

[cruisermsoon]

There  may be some areas where Princess have downgraded the experience a little, however my main gripe with Coral is the dawn to midnight incessant American-sourced "upbeat" music piped thoughout the ship. 

Not classy, tiresome, and very "Carnival" !!!

[NSWP]

4 minutes ago, cruisermsoon said:

There  may be some areas where Princess have downgraded the experience a little, however my main gripe with Coral is the dawn to midnight incessant American-sourced "upbeat" music piped thoughout the ship. 

Not classy, tiresome, and very "Carnival" !!!

They should put on the Aussie Country music, bit of John Williamson stuff.  Whack on a few meat pies in the buffet and MDR for luncheon.

Edited July 27, 2022 by NSWP

[MicCanberra]

Not a fan of country music for more than one song in a row, but I  don't mind if there is one every ten songs or so. 

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, cruisermsoon said:

There  may be some areas where Princess have downgraded the experience a little, however my main gripe with Coral is the dawn to midnight incessant American-sourced "upbeat" music piped thoughout the ship. 

Not classy, tiresome, and very "Carnival" !!!

We didn't notice any music - maybe we tuned it out as just background.

 

Over the years we have noticed Princess has downgraded the experience a little, probably as an alternative to raising prices significantly. From reading the general section of this forum that mainly covers ships cruising out of USA, these changes have happened right throughout the fleet and aren't just on the Australian ship/s. One current example is that the chocolates on the pillow have gone 😢.

[cruisermsoon]

The chocolates are a minor exclusion, What we did notice was the adequate but uninspiring buffet fare [compared with Holland America or Celebrity], including very repetitive lunch offerings.

Princess still does a good dinner menu, with tasty fresh bread rolls and the best Caesar salads at sea.

[Aus Traveller]

30 minutes ago, cruisermsoon said:

The chocolates are a minor exclusion, What we did notice was the adequate but uninspiring buffet fare [compared with Holland America or Celebrity], including very repetitive lunch offerings.

Princess still does a good dinner menu, with tasty fresh bread rolls and the best Caesar salads at sea.

Don't' mention Caesar salads!! Pre-COVID my husband used to order Caesar salads quite often, but he learned to specify that it had to have bacon, hard-boiled egg etc because their usual salad was just lettuce, croutons and grated parmesan with a bit of dressing. On our June cruise when Caesar salad was on the menu I asked if it was just lettuce with grated parmesan and the waiter told me it was. I didn't order it although with the fact that lettuce is now a real delicacy, maybe I should have. 😁

[arxcards]

Oh dear, read some reviews. Pretty much as I expected.

A 5 dot glowing appraisal, but a whole lot of issues listed within the review.

A 3 dot overall, with a 3 dot for dining and 4 or 5 dots for every other category (obviously, food was critical).

A passenger on the recent split south and north cruises with so many staff in isolation.

And only one review from an ID spotted on this board since resumption.

 

I did learn that if you are over 60, there might be a problem with medallion.

I did learn not to order room service on a cruise they are already delivering to isolation cabins. Not a big fan of limited menu room service anyway.

I did learn that service standards might not be up to scratch when 15% of the crew are in isolation, and to reconsider the refund offer should this happen again.

 

Still, an average eggs benny beats the two slices of toast I had this morning. 23 days to go!!

[MicCanberra]

Hmm, no cooking, cleaning, or other chores, sounds okay to me as well.

[arxcards]

Just now, MicCanberra said:

Hmm, no cooking, cleaning, or other chores, sounds okay to me as well.

You betcha!!

[OzKiwiJJ]

56 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We didn't notice any music - maybe we tuned it out as just background.

 

 

I don't recall noticing any music either. I think I'm so used to tuning out music in supermarkets etc. 

[Porky55]

4 hours ago, cruisermsoon said:

There  may be some areas where Princess have downgraded the experience a little, however my main gripe with Coral is the dawn to midnight incessant American-sourced "upbeat" music piped thoughout the ship. 

Not classy, tiresome, and very "Carnival" !!!

We were on coral for 7 days and can’t recall hearing any piped music either 🤔

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Porky55

[OzKiwiJJ]

39 minutes ago, Porky55 said:

We were on coral for 7 days and can’t recall hearing any piped music either 🤔

 

They sometimes put on recorded music when entertainers are taking a break in the various venues in the evenings but it's usually fairly quiet. I don't whether that's from something that is playing ship-wide or just something setup for each particular venue.