aqua2

Yes.

Bonaire is a fairly small island, nothing is a very long taxi ride! Been there x5 for island-based diving vacations. Captain Don's is a top-notch operation, and the shore diving on Bonaire can't be beat. Although I will say that one of the rare times we did a boat dive out to Klein Bonaire (tiny island off the coast of the main island) we saw a giant manta ray...so cool!!

Great review! We are doing a shorter cruisetour in September 2019, booked on the Coral Princess. Your photos are wonderful.

My full-coverage dive/snorkel "skin" is very lightweight (not neoprene like a regular scuba suit), and no not too warm at all. The front zip allows for taking your arms out for a cooler feel while on a boat between snorkel sites or on shore if you are going back in the water in a while. Mine is not black, I think it is royal blue with yellow accents. In any event, when we were snorkeling in French Polynesia, and also the Caribbean, I was very glad I had it. For scuba, needed neoprene for warmth. This is rash-guard weight.

Definitely cover up! I have worn (and would again) a full body-suit dive skin for snorkeling, something like this one, worn over your regular swim suit:

https://smile.amazon.com/NeoSport-Wetsuits-Full-Sports-Skins/dp/B000ETZ2BO/ref=sr_1_30_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1530817047&sr=8-30-spons&keywords=Nylon+dive+skin&psc=1

The last thing you want is a sunburn that ruins your vacation.

Great trip report and photos...thank you! Did you use a tour company for your Peru land portion of your trip and if so which one?

Not to hijack the thread...we did a 2-week, land-based trip in Peru in 2015 and used "Peru For Less" travel agency. Were very happy with their service. They have standard itineraries but will work with you to customize.

Wonderful review and photos! Thank you so much for taking the time.

Pooh Understands, you and I need to set up a meet & greet for lunch, but not today because, dang! It's snowing again! ha ha

I can't contribute anything one way or another to your decision process on this one. We try to avoid anything connecting thru NYC.

Following! We are scheduled on the Star for 1/3/2019.

Visa required for Vietnam. Visa not required for Thailand.

When we were on the Coral last Fall it was the Bordeaux dining room, deck 5; it was only open for lunch 12:00-1:00 pm on embarkation day.

It's a mystery! For our 1/2019 South America cruise, the water package is still there and I was able to order and pay. For our upcoming Sapphire Princess cruise in May, the water package had disappeared; just now it is back on the list but with a red-line circle appearing when the mouse is hovered over it. Can't order it.

But thanks a bunch to the poster who mentioned the water for CPAP users. I had never known about that before but was able to find the spot on the personalizer and request it for my DH for both cruises.

We were on the Coral for a full transit this past Sept/Oct, in A215, and did not notice any particularly bad motion. There was one night when the seas were quite rough off of Nicaragua, and there was some rockin' and rollin', but not enough to cause sea sickness. Go and enjoy!

Are you saying that when you make a reservation in the morning that you can only reserve an early or late time, that it’s not possible to reserve a table for example at 6.45? I was under the impression from reading other posts on CC that there were no time restrictions when booking for that evening (obviously where slots were still available), providing you rang after 8am. Is this not the case?

That was exactly our experience on the Coral this past Fall. We tried calling the Dine Line promptly at 8:00 a.m., and could make reservations only at 5:15, 5:30, or 7:30 or later. So we didn't bother after the first evening. Just went to the ATD MDR around 6:30 or 6:45 and were seated fairly quickly.

Following; we are booked for this port next January. But...I just looked on Google Maps at where the cruise terminal is, what's around it, and read a whole bunch of the reviews. Most reviewers wrote negative reviews despite giving the facility 4 or 5 stars. Crowded, disorganized, etc. I hope some CC participants chime in with better news!

On the Coral in Sept/Oct, very hard sell pressure to purchase products. I agree with above posters who said it ruins the experience. In addition to extremely high prices for the massage or other service itself, we won't be going back to the spa on our next booked cruises.

The drinks do not show up at all on your folio.

We used EZ Check in October in FLL. Just one note - we loved the service, well worth the $25 per person to not have to handle our luggage. But the boarding passes printed on board the ship by Princess were scanned as invalid by the TSA, so we had to get out of line, troop back upstairs to the Southwest desk, and get new boarding passes. Just a minor inconvenience, not a deal-breaker!

We were on the Coral for the full transit LA to FLL 9/27-10/12/17. I have just a couple of notes to add to previous comments. On our sailing, there was no lecturer providing history at any time during the cruise, so I highly recommend doing a bit of your own reading ahead of time. (The enrichment lectures on our cruise were by a very personable gent whose claim to fame was close encounters with celebrities...meh.)

Secondly, if you are on the Aloha deck by any chance, the photographers just don't go up that high. Most of the pictures in the video and on the displays at the photography shop were of lower decks, Promenade, etc. So be sure to spend some time on lower decks if you want to find a picture of yourself during the Canal transit.

The Coral is a wonderful ship - enjoy!!

Just snorkeled in Aruba last month from a Coral Princess cruise. The water was really a great temp; I wore just a swimsuit and swim tee (rash guard). You really don't need to haul along a wet suit and weights.

Still on the Coral, up on Deck 16. The pieces were out when I was up there.

We were on the Coral in Sept/Oct of this year, in A214. Looking aft, yes the lifeboats a few decks down do protrude out a foot or two. I have a picture but don't know how to post it here. Would be happy to email it to you directly if you want to post your email address.

Our experience in September in San Pedro was that they don't really care what time you arrive at the port; they will have you sit down and wait until they are ready for you. And wait some more. And get put into a Group number for approaching the check-in desk. Our flight arrived fairly early, Princess transfer was efficient, but we weren't happy with how much time we had to spend waiting in the embarkation lounge. In the future I will think about arriving a little bit later in the afternoon to avoid so much sit and wait time.

We used Princess transfer from LAX to the port in September of this year. It worked very well, we didn't have to handle our luggage even to get if off the carousel. No regrets. We met a few fellow cruisers while waiting for the bus, it was just fine.

Was just on Coral for Panama Canal. Swipe your cruise card, washer is $3.00 per load, dryer is also $3.00 per load; the machine dispenses the tokens needed to operate machines. There is also a machine with laundry products which I did not use. On every deck the laundromat is all the way aft. LOL, we had a stateroom all the way forward. Lots of steps that day.