OzKiwiJJ

Did you buy a Future Cruise Deposit while on your cruise? They are charged directly not through your onboard account.

Yes, I think I said that earlier. Where there is space they even arrange the seating so people are spaced out more by having each table's seats on two adjacent sides rather than opposite each other and with the other table seated the opposite way around.

I'm sure you'll enjoy your cruise, Don. Once onboard everything is easy.

No, the space used by the double two-seaters is more than a four--seater table so my guess is it was six-seater spaces. The tables are a decent size, square not narrow oblongs.

You only need one cruise with Princess to buy the FCDs - just remember to buy them while you're onboard. They are valid for two years and refunded if you don't use them.

He was one of the lucky ones then. Just under 14,000 people have died from Covid in Australia in the past 12 months. That puts Ruby debacle onto a different light especially given how little was known about Covid at the time.

I believe that was also the case on Ruby but, of course, some passengers either didn't read it or dismissed it as not applying to them. Some of those are probably part of the class action hoping to get a huge payout from Princess. 🤔🙄

Why?

The first couple of days of this cruise have been strange compared with the others we've done.75% of passengers from Sydney are doing the Round Australia cruise so were settling into the ship. Some may not have been on Coral before so are learning where everything is. The rest were doing either the two day or five day Sydney to Brisbane options so were trying to pack as much as they could into their cruise before disembarking this morning. Of course after the last few cruises we already have our shipboard routine sussed so we settled back in very quickly. It was weird last night though. For the first time that we saw the Good Spirits Bar was empty at 10pm. I hope that isn't going be the pattern for the whole cruise. There was a fair bit going on in the theatre (Encore), Universe Lounge and the other bars so that might be the reason.

The ship is bow in so aft cabins on the starboard actually get a reasonable view over mangroves.

Or across the river to the very exciting grain terminal! 🤣

20% deposit is standard on most cruise lines these days. The secret to cheap deposits on Princess is to buy Future Cruise Deposits while onboard. $100 per person for each and generous OBC is given when you use them.

There are a few solo two-seater tables so if you identify one or two that you like you can ask the MDR hostess to try to reserve one of those for you each night.

We've done 40 days on Coral so far and have only had a couple of "misses" with the MDR meals. We are "foodies" and enjoy a variety of cuisines. I don't expect three hat restaurant cuisine on a cruise ship, it is essentially mass catering cuisine but the variety is excellent and we've rarely had issues with dishes coming out cooler than expected. However there is a higher risk of that if you are at a large shared table as the waiters collect all the dishes for a particular course at once and may have to wait to fill some orders. Choosing a table for two may be why our meals always come out hot. To put it another way if the food wasn't good on Coral Princess we wouldn't still be on the ship! 😊

Yes, very much so.

The balconies on the mid-ships bump are tiny, especially the curved ones at each end of the bump.

Coral seems to have a higher percentage of two seater tables than other Princess ships I've been on. I think they may have swapped out some six seater tables and replaced them with two two-seaters close together. We actually like those tables - they are served as separate tables as the two tables fill at different times but there is the opportunity to chat with the people on the other table. In other words you get the advantages of a shared table but without the slower service disadvantage. We met a lovely couple last night and ended up chatting for a couple of hours.

You can check it out here: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/Princess/odell/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html Coral is a bit different to the other ships as balcony size etc can vary on each deck. It's not one rule fits all.

The Dolphin deck balconies are big too but most of them are not covered, only a dozen or so each side aft.

Don't worry, Don. Because of the short time we had between cruises (three days) we had real problems updating things both in the app and personalizer. I gave up in the end. The lovely check-in staff just went through everything on their device in just a few minutes. The only thing they couldn't do was link Rolf's onboard account to mine - somehow it had unlinked itself. That was easily fixed on onboard with a quick trip to Guest Services.

I just had a perfect creme brulee on Coral. Silky and creamy with a really good brulee top with that perfect hint of bitterness. Delish!

The OBC has already been put on our account. Very efficient!

Don't panic if you don't get a response before your cruise. Just take your confirmation of shares to Guest Services once onboard and they will sort it out for you. We did that this morning because we hadn't had time to send in an email as we only booked this cruise a week ago. The OBC should be on our account tomorrow.

No, just the regular MDR.

Forget about towel animals. I got a lovely tissue rose from our waiter last night. It was fascinating watching him make it.