Part 2- Coral Princess 10/31/04 sailing

[Miramar]

Day 6: Another sea day. Took advantage of the sea day to paint the pots I had made on the pottery wheel. Also did the Maitre D’ Wine Tasting for $25.

 

Day 7: Grand Cayman. Much to our delight we did stop at Grand Cayman. The tours were not able to be booked prior to getting on board the ship and there was an abbreviated listing of available tours due to damage to some of the boats etc etc. We booked the Stingray Sanbar Snorkel- snorkel boat. The tour was nice and we had a about 50 min to interact with the rays.

On the drive to pick up the boat and as we were going out to the sandbar, there was destruction evident, but the clean up appears to be well under way and continually occurring. We were just happy to get to go there and they seemed happy to see us come as well.

This was our second formal night and night of the champagne waterfall.

 

Day 8: Cozumel. My father and I had signed up to snorkel at Palancar reef and my mother was to to Chankanab park. However, due to pretty rough seas that day (was very windy), many of the water related tours were canceled. We ended up shopping at the pier (Puerta Maya) in the morning and taking a cab to the downtown pier in the afternoon.

 

Day 9: Belize. I did the Belize Zoo and city tour. All the animals in the zoo are animals that you would find in the country of Belize. None of the animals were captured from the wild—they are all animals that were injured and can not longer fend for themselves in nature or are being rehabilitated to be eventually set free. In Belize the ship must anchor very far out in the ocean and then the tender ride is about 10-15 min. There are some shops at the pier, but it this is an emerging port so is not as developed as many others.

This afternoon, I went to tea in the Bordeaux dining room. I had never been to tea on Princess before. I loved the scones with jam and clotted cream. They also served cookies, pastries and finger sandwiches. They seat you at tables and white gloved servers circulate the tables to serve you. They also have a musician perform during the event.

 

Day 10: At sea. Our final day of the cruise was a sea day. Sitting by the pool was the order of the day. Apparently it was what every one else wanted to do as well. It was a little tricky to get a chair in the afternoon and I noticed that there were chair hogs out in force. Today was also the last culinary demonstration and galley tour, which we did. I thought it was very interesting to see all the different stations in the galley and it was impressive to think about what the galley must look like at dinner with everyone bustling around and doing their jobs.

At the end of the day they was a champagne party for people who had made or painted pottery to go and pick up their pieces in the pottery studio. You could then go and see what everyone else had made during the cruise.

 

Disembarkation: went pretty smoothly and timely. We were off the ship by about 9:30am and were about the 4th group called. Once we found our luggage and got a porter we were able to easily get a cab to the airport. Since we docked at a different terminal for disembarkation, i belive they offered shuttle service to the other terminal to people who had driven and parked at the pier to embark.

 

Additional Information that some people may want to know;

Cruise Director: David Cole

Captain: Giorgio Pomata

Maitre D’: Rui Pereira

 

Overall, I thought this was a great cruise. I had never done a 10 day itinerary before and it was the perfect amount of time. I can only hope that now 7 days won’t seem too short to me! If you have any questions feel free to ask me and if I think of anything else I’ll post that too.

[OrlEngr]

Great review ... I was on the week before you and also enjoyed the trip immensely. Nice specifics included in your review.

 

Glad you got to make it to Grand Cayman and they now have some business coming in.

 

Time to start thinking about your next cruise!

 

PS 10 days was barely long enough

[erin6494]

Thanks for the review. We are on the 11-20 sailing and cannot wait. Would it be possible for you to scan the menus? (I have no idea how to do that, but thought it would not hurt to ask :-) What movies were showing? How did you like the cruise director? Anything that is a definite "do not miss"? Do you know if the sauna and steam rooms are available at no charge or if you have to purchase a spa treatment to use?

 

Thanks so much for your help! I am glad to hear you had a great time!

 

Erin

[DesrtDrmr]

Thanks Miramar, this brought back memories of our Canal cruise, and gave a little information about our upcoming Island cruise. It sounds like you had a great time, and how nice that you all did your "own thing", and thus, could share excursion information. Your dinner talk must have been fun!

[SuzanneE]

Great post! Thanks! We go on Jan 27 on the Coral. I have several ?'s Did you ever use room service for breakfast or a late night snack? If so, how was it? Were the drinks expensive...both alcoholic and non? Could you eat in the dining room on the embarkation day? last one.....where is the best place to be for the sail away on your first day? Thanks:confused:

[WeBeGone]

Nice review - We did this trip last Dec (Jamacia instead of Belize) and loved it so much we're doing it again in Feb. Did you try the Lemoncello on Italian night? that was a highlight for me.

[Deloresgardella]

Thanks for the great review. :) We will be on the Coral going through the canal April 27th. From Ft Laudedale to San Francisco. Will be my grown daughter two teen age grandsons and me. We are all really excited about it. This will be the longest cruise I have ever been on, 15 days. The only concern that I have is the boys getting bored. :eek: The last time teenagers went with me it was in the summer with a lot of kids on the NCL to the Caribbean. But I am sure they will be able to find a lot of things to keep themselves busy.:rolleyes: :)

 

Delores

[Miramar]

Answers to questions--

Erin: Not sure if I can scan the menus, as I'm not the greatest with that technology. But if you have any specific questions as to what was on a certain menu I can try to answer that. We didn't see any of the movies, but I belive i saw in the patter that Shrek 2 and the Manchrian Candidate were playing and there may have been others. Didn't use the sauna/spa facilities either, so can't comment on that. The cruise director was okay. I don't generally go to things he or his staff hosts anyway, but I did notice that it seemed to me he was less visible than other CDs I've had. He did not seem like the type of CD to try and attend every event the way some do.

 

Suzanne: We did use room serice for breakfast and it was fine. Delivered hot and exactly at the time requested. We find the drinks on Princess to be very reasonable-- we live near Boston so drinks here are expensive. Drinks on Princess are a steal starting at about $3.95 for a small (alcoholic). I don't think the dining room was open on embarkation day. We watched the sailaway from deck 14 or 15 on the port side of the ship.

 

WeBeGone: I wish I had tried the Lemoncello-- it looked delicious, but i was just too full. Next time!

[LARGIN]

Great review.. Impression of the Maitre D' Rue Periera ?? I guess he is taking Gerneroso's place while he is on vacation.. Rue was our head waiter a couple of months ago on our Coral Alaska cruise. He was great. Generoso introduced him to us and Rue was at our table every evening delivering appetizers and pasta that were not on the menu. Glad he is now a Maitre D'.

[erin6494]

Thanks for the response. Was there a special on hurricane glasses like on the Caribbean princess? On the CB you can buy a glass and then get a sticker for reduced prices.

Erin

[crusdiva]

Hi Largin,

 

I was on the 10/31 Coral with Miramar. Thought I'd jump right in here about Rui Periera. Generoso had just left the ship the day we sailed :( so yes, Rui is covering for him while he's on vacation.

Rui is indeed very nice and very visible throughout the ship. Everytime we arrived at the dining room he was there meeting and greeting passengers.

In talking to Godwin, the room captain at the Bordeaux dining room - Rui seems to be allowing the staff to run things as Generoso would. He's trying not to "get in the way of a good thing" as it were.

As far as we could tell the staff is finely tuned and Generoso would be quite proud of them.

 

Sharon

[twocats]

I am also interested in the nightly menus, perhaps if you're are not able to scan could you (if convenient) list the 15 nights by themes or main type of entree? Such as what night was Italian night and so on? I might be able to figure out something from that. As I mentioned before somewhere on a posting, we would like to plan ahead to go to Bayou Cafe and would not want to miss something like the lobster. My other idea was to go to the Bayou for lunch and still catch all the dinners. But then again there is Pizza and the Horizon Buffet. :confused: Oh dear too many choices!!

Also a question regarding ordering breakfast in your cabin; were you able to write in breakfast items not on the room service menu or did you order from the menu itself? I have read conflicting statements here regarding this. Thank you for your assistance.

Carole

[LARGIN]

Hi Largin,

 

I was on the 10/31 Coral with Miramar. Thought I'd jump right in here about Rui Periera. Generoso had just left the ship the day we sailed :( so yes, Rui is covering for him while he's on vacation.

Rui is indeed very nice and very visible throughout the ship. Everytime we arrived at the dining room he was there meeting and greeting passengers.

In talking to Godwin, the room captain at the Bordeaux dining room - Rui seems to be allowing the staff to run things as Generoso would. He's trying not to "get in the way of a good thing" as it were.

As far as we could tell the staff is finely tuned and Generoso would be quite proud of them.

 

Sharon

Sharon... Thanks for the info.. I wonder if Generoso will be returning to the Coral or going to another ship.

[crusdiva]

Largin,

 

You're welcome.

He's what we heard from the dining room staff. Generoso is on his two month vacation and is expected to return to the Coral. Most staff seem to expect him to return.

HOWEVER, it appears he has attracted the attention of the corporate big wigs and they are dangling the Queen Mary II in front of him. There was no real opinion as to what he would be offered if he was to "jump ship". Word is that Generoso would only go if he could take many of his own people with him.

Pretty interesting don't you think?

Sharon

[LARGIN]

crusdiva..

 

Interesting.

If I am not mistaken, Renzo (I cannot remember his last name), our head waiter last April/May on the Coral, and a very good friend of Generoso on and off the ship, is now on the QEII. If Generoso goes to the QEII I will make every effort to book a cruise on her..

[WCAB]

Thanks for the great review. We are going in April and really looking forward to it. Just hope it is not too hot.

 

Did you do any shopping? If so, which port had most to offer in this regard. Are there any particular items that are considered a bargain?

 

Did you enjoy the mix of sea and port days?

 

What was the highlight of the entire trip for you?

 

Carol

[CMHF]

erin6494,

I was also on 10/31 Coral cruise with Miramar. The cruise director's name is Dave, he is new to princess (his 4th cruise), he was a cruise director for RCL for 15 years. I had the pleasure to have lunch with him at the most cruised luncheon. The use of the spa facilities are included with spa service, however if you would just like to Steam & Sauna it is $15 for the day & they have packages for the cruise and for couples. I think it was $99 for 7 days use PP. Hope this helps. The crew & staff were flawless. The food was great. Have a great time!

Harvey

[roohound]

actually, the thermal suite was $70 for a single person and $99 per couple for the length of cruise :)

[Miramar]

More answers to questions:

Twocats: I listed the menus in the order that they occurred in Part 1 of my review under the dining section. The title of the thread is something like Coral Princess review 10/31/04 (Part 1). I may try to scan the menus, but I'm not sure if they will be legible or not, so that may come later--or perhaps this weekend I will try and type in some of the menu highlights. I believe the lobster occured on the Captain's Gala dinner night (second formal)--see Part 1 of the review for what number night that was.

We did order breakfast room service, but did not write anything extra in. We were in a suite, so should have been able to order pretty much anything, but we did not try.

WCAB: we really are not shoppers in the traditional sense of the word-- ie. diamonds, cameras etc. We mostly shop for local handicraft items in the various ports. I do enjoy buying silver jewelery in Mexico, but I stick to the items that are $8-$20 range. In Panama the molas are nice and in Limon and Belize wooden boxes were popular.

Overall I thought the mix of port and sea days was pretty good. If I had my absolute choice I would add more ports, as they are the highlight of cruising for me. The 2 favorite parts of the trip for me were going through the canal and I also enjoyed the port of Limon.

 

I think people may be missing part 1 of the review, as this post has 95 views and part 1 has only 22. Take a look at part 1 for more information!