OzKiwiJJ

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.

We did the Top End in August in 2016. It was great. A bit cool at the start and end but great weather and seas for the rest of the cruise.

It is thanks.

He's also the best barista on the ship.

Plus influenza-A was doing the rounds. I got the impression that some passengers who were sick just thought it was flu or a cold and didn't go to the medical centre. They just carried on their regular cruise routines all over the ship. But very little was understood about Covid at that stage and, if my memory is correct, there were very few local cases.

Skinny waitress? Junella? Most of the waiters in Good Spirits are great fun. That's why it's our favourite bar.

It is. 🤣

It might be better value but it wastes shore time and there is no guarantee we could get walk-in cuts.

Creme brulee is essentially a baked egg custard topped with caramelised sugar but with more cream than milk in the custard. Admittedly Princess is a bit light-handed on the cream but it's still reasonably true to the base recipe.

Yes, that is a problem but it's still better than the balcony cabin showers - tiny and also with the curtain issue. I found if I kept the curtain taut around the cubicle it billowed less. I will try that in our minisuite tonight.

12:00 to 1:30pm. If your transfer is quick you might just make it.

We're in our favourite bar having a pre-lunch bubbly.

Thank you. 😊

We're onboard. We got to the OPT just after 11am and went straight through the Elite Lane.