quadman

Katie - Thank you for your great review and your spectacular photos of your cruise! I've been on these boards for over a decade and read many reviews, and I've never seen photos better than yours! Just wonderful!

We took our first cruise on Jewel in 2006 (8-day Eastern Caribbean) with Captain Thore Thorolvsen commanding, and it was a truly fabulous ship, crew, and itinerary. Great to see that the Jewel is looking as good as ever and that her crew treated you and your family well. Now I want to take the same Southern itinerary as you. Thank you so much for sharing your photographic talent with us! :)

Great review :) Can you please tell us how it went in Anchorage. I am thinking of staying a night in Anchroage and flying out the following morning but do not know all the logistics yet.

 

 

Any help would be great!!!

 

Thank you Reader

Reader - Sorry for my slow reply as I've been away on business the past week. We had a great day of touring in the general Anchorage region with gorgeous, sunny, 75 degree weather on August 2. The Coral Princess actually arrived at Whittier around midnight Friday night / Saturday morning (August 1-2). We departed the ship around 8:30 am for the tour named "Turnagain Arm, Wildlife Conservation Center & Tram - WH1-100". This is the 6-hour version of this tour, not the 8-hour version.

Our checked luggage was routed to the Princess Hospitality Center in downtown Anchorage. We boarded a coach around 8:45 am and drove through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, through gorgeous mountain scenery. The first stop was the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, a very nice facility that featured moose, a porcupine, and a couple of impressive Alaskan Brown Bears in a creative, open habitat.

Next was a visit to Alyeska Resort, where we rode the gondola to the top. What a stunning view!

Then we visited the Potter Marsh Bird Sanctuary, a preserved wetland area just on the fringe of Anchorage. Relaxing, if a bit noisy (it's located adjacent to the main highway to Anchorage).

We ended up at the Princess Hospitality Center, which is really a room that Princess rents at the convention center. We picked up our checked bags and piled into a couple of taxis that took us a few blocks to our hotel, the Sheraton Anchorage. This was quite a comfortable accommodation, although its location is a couple of blocks away from the main downtown retail cluster.

We slept in on Sunday morning and departed Anchorage airport at 4:00 pm.

Depending on what types of tours and activities you personally prefer, I think you can have an enjoyable time by staying for a night in Anchorage at the end of your cruise. My family were glad we did so.

I would recommend staying a

Turnagain Arm, Wildlife Conservation Center & Tram

WH1-100 | Anchorage (Whittier), Alaska

The onboard naturalist was excellent. She narrated portions of our days in Glacier Bay and the afternoon at College Fjord, and she presented a program or two in the theater and had desk hours on deck.

A National Park Service ranger boarded and narrated once we actually entered Glacier Bay, and she was very enthusiastic and informative.

We attended two of the dance/musical shows in the Princess Theater ("Dance" and "Motor City") and enjoyed them both. Nothing brand new, but the dancers and one of the female singers in particular were very good.

They have a new band named "Rhapsody" that performed each night in the Wheelhouse Bar. The guys are from Barbados and have about 200+ years' combined experience, many of it on Princess but in prior configurations. Rhapsody was formed in Feb 2014 and can play and sing virtually every musical style. Superb!

There was an impressionist that my brother saw and really enjoyed, and various movies played in both the Universe Lounge and on deck (Movies Under the Stars).

Overall, we thought the entertainment was solid.

Thanks, cdngrl!

Thrak - I bought one from our first cruise at it showed nothing at all of our cruise experience. My wife thinks I'm nuts for wanting the DVD. However, considering we had spectacular weather in Glacier Bay and College Fjord last week and that the Coral Princess video crew were shooting both days, I was hoping the DVD would include some footage of our time there.

Somehow, we forgot to buy the Reflections DVD from our just-completed voyage on Coral Princess (disembarked Saturday, August 2). I called Princess today and learned they do not sell the DVD post-cruise. If anyone on this forum was on our cruise and has a copy they don't want, or an extra copy, would you kindly reply here and let me know? I would love to buy it from you. Thank you!

We cruised July 26 - August 2 on Coral Princess (Vancouver to Whittier) in a mini suite (C717). Here are a few quick thoughts:

• We are 51 and 49 with two daughters (13 and 10 years of age). We traveled with my brother and his family (two teenage sons), with eight total passengers. Overall, we loved the cruise!
  
• This was our first time on Princess after two cruises with RCI (Jewel in '06 and Independence '13, both in the Eastern Caribbean).
  
• Overall, we found Princess more sedate, with a slightly older crowd, but this might also be the difference between Alaska and the Caribbean.
  
• We almost booked RCI's Radiance but opted for Coral due to the itinerary (specifically, Glacier Bay).
  
• The Coral is a well laid-out ship with easy traffic flow and plenty of open deck space for viewing the magnificent Alaska scenery. We loved the public access area on Deck 10 (Caribe) aft, with lounge chairs in both covered and open locations. Virtually private most of the time and great for taking in Alaska's gorgeous scenery!
  
• Like all Princess ships, Coral has propulsion shafts instead of pod propulsion. Very reliable, but shafts tend to produce vibration. Our mini suite on the starboard side aft shook the entire cruise. We got used to it after a couple of nights, but it was noticeable.
  
• Our day in Glacier Bay was stunning. Not a cloud in the sky! Both Margerie and Johns Hopkins Glaciers calved for us. This experience really made our cruise.
  
• Similarly, our afternoon in College Fjord was superb, with broken clouds and no rain. Captain Fabio brought the Coral very close to Harvard Glacier and we witnessed some major calving.
  
• Our post embarkation day in and around Turnagain Arm (Alyeska and Anchorage) was sunny and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Simply perfect, with stunning scenery!
  
• The RCI ships we've sailed have much grander and more modern architecture (common areas, architecture, atria, dining rooms, corridors, and staterooms). Our first impression of Coral as compared to RCI Jewel (a similarly-sized ship) was that we felt closed in and cramped vs. open and light. However, Coral offers some excellent venues such as the Wheelhouse Bar (a large and perfectly comfortable spot) and the Princess Theater (good sightlines with no obstructions). The teak surfaces of the Promenade deck, along with the nicely padded lounge chairs, were nice as well.
  
• Overall, staff were helpful and professional, with a few exceptions. Less outgoing than what we have experienced on RCI, and no towel animals (which our daughters missed on this cruise). Our waiter, Diago from Goa, India, was excellent (highly professional, made solid menu recommendations, friendly, and with a wry sense of humor). Our cabin steward, Renato from the Philippines, was highly efficient and courteous, although again much more subdued than the stewards we've had on RCI.
  
• The Horizon Court was disappointing and always crowded. It's just too small to handle the crowd for breakfast and lunch. We much prefer the Windjammer on RCI with a true food station layout as opposed to a modified buffet queue design on Coral. One plus however was that the HC was very well staffed, with waiters bringing drink orders (much better than RCI's self-service approach when juggling plates of food and utensils).
  
• We opted for traditional dining and had a great table by a window in the Provence dining room. The ceiling is a bit low, but after the first night or two, we began to appreciate the space's cozy supper club-like ambience.
  
• Dinner menus were varied and offered at least 2-3 solid choices to suit each of our party's palates. Compared to RCI Jewel's Tides dining room, we thought the food quality at Provence was just a notch lower. RCI offers a narrow menu, but in our opinion we enjoyed the food better in general on Jewel. That said, the food on Coral was good, and we had no real issues with any dish except the fried chicken (offered one night only), which was just not well executed.
  
• We ate breakfast twice and lunch once in Provence and really enjoyed our meals there.
  
• Thanks to Cruise Critic, we learned about the Ultimate Ship Tour and were fortunate to book it as soon as we boarded the ship. We got to meet Captain Fabio and toured the Bridge, galleys, medical center, provisions department (cold and frozen storage), backstage of Princess Theater), anchor/mooring line area under the bow, print shop, photo shop, and laundry. This was 3.5 hours well spent that we will always remember and cherish fondly! Kudos to Princess for making this tour available.
  

Overall, we were very happy we chose Coral Princess as we wanted a Vancouver embarkation, an Anchorage area disembarkation, and a day in Glacier Bay. Princess did not disappoint. The Coral could use a thorough renovation, but she has good bones and a highly competent crew. We did miss the "wow factor" we were used to on RCI, but we were happy with Princess.

Norris, your review of the Coral, and Alaska & Vancouver, is superb! Your photos are fantastic as well. Great composition!

We're booked on Coral northbound in late July 2014, and reading your review today has got me so excited about the cruise. I love how you touch on what really matters and clearly don't allow relatively small issues detract from your fun and enjoyment. We've done only two cruises so far (both on RCI, which we love) and are excited about trying Princess and Coral in particular.

Thank you so much for sharing a slice of your life with us!

Mr. Fun, love your reports from Jewel! She was the first ship we sailed on (back in April 2006), and she's still the most beautiful ship I've ever seen! Love her "curves" along Deck 11!

Capt. Thore was our captain then, he was indeed authoritative yet still humorous. Pretty impressive that he's been with Royal Caribbean for almost 43 years (since the company first started). I look forward to the opportunity to sail again on Jewel of the Sease, but until then, we all have your fine updates to savor.

While in a perfect world I would prefer the old cash in envelopes policy, the new policy will eliminate the problem of deadbeats not tipping. For those who still want to reward extraordinarly great service, RCI will still provide tip envelopes for providing cash tips at the end of the cruise.