Bug2travel

I have had individual, unopened water bottles confiscated at Cruise security in Fort Lauderdale and was told we were not allowed to bring water through.

Love your review. Thanks so much for sharing. I love the Coral and board in a couple of weeks for 5 weeks. This is helping me get my fix until then!

Your photos are fantastic.

Yes and Yes it’s open for lunch, might be only sea days, I can’t remember exactly.

 

 

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Yes, it is only on sea days and not usually all sea days. It is a reduced menu compared to stand alone Alfredo’s, only pizza available, no salads.

Hi everyone, next Wednesday we'll be on the Coral Princess for our second Alaskan cruise. We've been on Princess ships before (Regal, Royal and Ocean), but not the Coral.

 

A month ago I broke my leg (our dog bowled me over while running at the park). I'm recovering well, and have a follow up appointment with the fracture clinic doctor tomorrow. I will still be wearing an Aircast boot, and may also need to use a cane or a wheelchair sometimes.

 

I suspect I may be happier just eating dinner some nights in the buffet. I think I probably won't feel like getting changed for dinner each night, or even slightly dressed up on formal night, etc. And, I know we can enjoy wonderful views of Alaska from the buffet. But, I have seen some recent Coral Princess dinner menus and I would like to try many of the items listed.

 

So, would any of the MDR dinner items also be available in the buffet? Also, do they have a grill station in the buffet on the Coral where you can request grilled steaks, salmon, etc?

 

Thanks in advance for any input!

We usually ate dinner in the MDR but were in buffet one night. I didn’t see any kind of grill station but for breakfast they had made to order eggs and omelets and they were just ordered at a corner of the buffet. They had a few of the MDR menu items but not the more intricate things. Food was good and there were lots of choices but it doesn’t compare to MDR.

Actually you can even call it a triple redundancy as there is now also Amuleto Cafe inside the Horizon Court.

 

But I imagine if the Patisserie was repurposed there would be never ending complaints from Coral passengers about having to go to Deck 6 rather than Deck 5 for one's overpriced west coast coffee concoction.

The Patisserie is really a glorified coffee bar. It does have a small tray of tiny pastry or sandwiches so International Cafe a much better option.

Thanks a lot!!!

 

We heard people with same cabin category reported upsell. but we never got any. I have been wondering they selected people from name or title?

On our notice, it said it was extended to passengers in balcony cabins but may have used other criteria as well. We are elite but received offers when we were platinum as well and our son received a free upgrade from inside to obstructed oceanview on his first cruise, so who knows. Others have posted that some travel agents don’t pass along the offers.

We just received our first upsell offer on Princess. Yoooohoooo!

Yes, it did cost us more but it was something I was willing to pay for a balcony in Alaska!

For a 10 night sailing out of SF, I was offered a move from an obstructed OV (cat OY) to a balcony on the Caribe deck (cat B2) for $269 pp. So, with the added insurance, it came to nearly $600 but so worth it for us. As a matter of fact, our limit is $600 more over an OV cabin, which is why we hadn't booked a balcony originally.

Of course, complimentary would have been better but not sure if that is even in the cards anymore.

BTW, this was a direct booking with Princess. I only mention that because the travel agency I had been using informed me that they don't pass these offers along to their clients. Well ... that explains a lot! I wonder how many of these I've lost out on in the past?

Congratulations! Happy you got what you were long for.

Up sells are usually targeted to a category of cabins they want to make available. We are really excited about this one and have not cruised in a mini suite before.

We just took an upsell from BD to mini suite on our 28 day Asia for $369. We jumped at it for that length of cruise.

We stayed at Crowne Plaza the first time and thought it was OK until time for the shuttle we booked through them. It was basically a free for all with no clear line so people were pushing in and it was very stressful as we were with others. We thought food was OK but not overly impressed, so tried BW last year. Preferred it by far. The front desk staff was fantastic and they went out of their way to get us on one of the free shuttles at the time we wanted. The lounge/restaurant had great food & drink happy hour specials so would definitely stay there next time.

We have never had sip n sail as we rarely drink and several times have had drinks posted to our account that we didn’t have? We have had them reversed but are made to feel we are cheating or lying & there is no way to prove anything with th paperless system. I wish they would go back to the signed receipts.

Thank you so much for all of your input. It will definitely help with my packing choices!

I would like to bring one of these on our 32 day cruise in October but don't want to be told I can't use it on the Coral.

 

Are there other ways to use it in your room without wrecking the tracking on the top of the bathroom door?

Our over the door hanger wouldn’t fit on the door on coral as the door was too wide. There have been some great work around here but we just hung over half of the long mirror and actually preferred it in the cabin area.

I wouldn’t do without because it makes it so easy to access things like sunglasses, camera, sunscreen, key cards, etc.

I’ve only used Elite Laundy once and that was for casual clothes. We’ll be on the ship for 35 days for our next cruise so would like to take advantage of the service for our dressier clothes. Most of these are rayon or have spandex so can’t take high heat drying. Has anyone sent these out or do you just hand wash or you self laundry?

Thank you.

We took lots of postcards with local scenes and gave them out to our guides in Japan. We also gave them to children who spoke to us. They were much appreciated.

Easy to pack and worth the few pence they cost.

 

Please take a notebook with blank pages on your tours. Every temple, pagoda etc will have a stamp and ink pad by the entrance. Some of them are beautifully intricate and make a lovely souvenir of your trip. You will also get pretty admission tickets which you can glue in beside the ink stamp.

 

Have been to Japan twice and loved it. Very jealous of everyone going there!

 

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Thank you for the notebook tip. I have added it with my documents. :)

We were on the Island last July and really enjoyed her. Since then we have sailed the Coral and definitely found her less crowded in the theatre, lounge and promenade deck and I enjoy the IC, so prefer the Coral. That said, I’d have no problem sailing on the Island again.

Things do appear to be changing. Even the tour companies such as viatour and Expedia, now list gratuities, but as optional, in their exclusions for Japan. For China, they say recommended. It is correct that they should be presented with both hands. I plan to make personalized envelopes with ‘Thank you’ in their language and Canadian maple leaf, along with small gifts from home.

I love Princess and Princess Cays but I agree that Half Moon Cay is the best cruise line beach. Snorkelling is better too.

The French onion Soup is AMAZING.

 

The Key Lime Pie is Beyond AMAZING. Sorry I'm screaming a bit

I have to agree with the key lime pie! I also love the Curtis Stone seafood stew. Had it 3 times on the last cruise. I think Princess also has the best soufflés.

Thank you for your review of your cruises on the Crown. We found it to be as you stated.

 

I agree about the food and the cold rolls and the doling out of the butter @ dinner.

Seems foolish to set the rolls down and then 15 minutes or so later walk around the table and see who need butter.

 

When we are retired we would like to do what you just did but not on the Crown.

We were also on this cruise and as to the butter, our server came around almost as soon as we sat down to ask how many we wanted. If it's important to you, it can always be requested. This is not meant to 'dis' but rather a reminder that our waitstaff will do their best to keep you happy.

This is our second time on the Crown and I do agree that crowding and finding seats can be an issue.

We used US $ and will be doing so again on this trip. It was accepted in the market.

Back to funny stories. On another line I was in the large ladies room after dinner. There was a line, a woman in front of me turned around and very loudly said, They should have more toilets on this ship. I looked at her and said, I have one in my cabin, in fact I believe every one else does also.

She just didn't get it. Everyone else was laughing.

Thank you for this story!!!!! It made my day. We fly out tomorrow for a 28 day Hawaii, Tahiti so just getting my morning cruise story fix.

Thanks so much for the information.

Hi. Does anyone know if there is still a free Walmart shuttle in Honolulu?

Thanks.:)