LIVE from the Coral Princess LA-FLL Panama Canal February 5 -20

[chamima]

We're sailing on the Coral Princess Panama Canal cruise from February 5 to the 20th.I know this is a little early but I thought I would start the thread so that if anyone has any questions I could take them with and try to answer ASAP.

So ask away.

[billet]

We're sailing on the Coral Princess Panama Canal cruise from February 5 to the 20th.I know this is a little early but I thought I would start the thread so that if anyone has any questions I could take them with and try to answer ASAP.

So ask away.

 

Hi Chamima, I hope you have a lovely cruise next week, we are not onboard until late April. Thanks for the earlybird Live from thread!

Could you try to find out if the CD and DCD will be the same in April (and who they are of course)?

Since you are doing the reverse of our trip I will be watching with curiosity to see how you enjoy the ports and what you get up to. Any recommendations along the way would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

Paul

[irish2009]

Hello Linda, We will be sailing on the Coral right after you get off! Can't wait! Three weeks today! Have a great cruise and keep us up to date esp.regarding port and food and the spa. Thanks very much:cool::):D

[melsal]

Looking forward to you live from posts. Please post your tour experiences along with information on the entertainment. I'll be boarding in LA once the Coral after your return trip.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hello Linda, We will be sailing on the Coral right after you get off! Can't wait! Three weeks today! Have a great cruise and keep us up to date esp.regarding port and food and the spa. Thanks very much:cool::):D

 

Us too. LOL Look after the ship for us Chamima!

[rjack22]

I am on the same ship with Chamima! I too will be posting a "Live From" here as Internet minutes allow. 5 days and counting!! Whoo Hoo!

[East Texas Cruiser]

Hi to all,

we are taking this same cruise in April, and would love any feedback on the excursions available! Trying to figure out what we can do, and the best tour guides! thanks so much,

Peggy

[Colo Cruiser]

I hope you remembered everthing we told you!! :D

[chamima]

I am on the same ship with Chamima! I too will be posting a "Live From" here as Internet minutes allow. 5 days and counting!! Whoo Hoo!

 

Hi Robin

It will be great to have two of us (at the least) posting ! We will be happy to talk about excursions but since we have a lot of excursions booked with Robin and her husband (including flights and pre-cruise hotel :D (Crowne Plaza) I hope someone else will share some other experiences.

We won't be doing any Princess excursions. Have found them overpriced, crowded and slow in the past. As a preview we have booked Swiss Divers for snorkeling in Acapulco, Mario Cobos for a water based tour of some of Huatulco's nine bays and some beach time and snorkeling there, zip lining and rainforest tour with Charley Soto in Punterenas, an Embera Indian Village tour with Anne Gordon in Fuerte Amador and a land based tour with Lee Miles in Cartegena.

I'll ask about the CD for April when we get on board.

Irish2009 - What do you want to know about the spa?

[AndyTheK]

To all you going on the Coral soon,

 

We did the FLL to LA over the Christmas holiday and loved it - who would NOT love the Coral?

 

One word of advice: if you have Traditional dining - beg, borrow, steal, or sell your firstborn to get George as your waiter. He is the greatest. If luck or wile makes it so, please send him regards from Joanne and Andy.

 

Have a great cruise.

Shalom from Tel Aviv. Andy.

[chamima]

To all you going on the Coral soon,

 

We did the FLL to LA over the Christmas holiday and loved it - who would NOT love the Coral?

 

One word of advice: if you have Traditional dining - beg, borrow, steal, or sell your firstborn to get George as your waiter. He is the greatest. If luck or wile makes it so, please send him regards from Joanne and Andy.

 

Have a great cruise.

Shalom from Tel Aviv. Andy.

 

Hi Andy

We DO have traditional dining so I will request George. Even if we don't end up with him as our waiter I will seek him out and tell him hello from you.

Any other hints? Excursions?

Shavua Tov from Michigan!

[bconley351]

Could you check to see if they still have 12x12 scrapbooks (hopefully printed 'Coral Princess')? They one I bought on the Pacific Princess recently was on the 50% off table, so I fear they may be eliminated soon. I'll be on the Coral in April.

[chamima]

Well, here we are at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro anxiously awaiting boarding time. It's 8 am California time but since we're from the midwest we have been up for hours! The Crowne Plaza is a great hotel to stay in the night before the cruise! They are really accommodating and have a shuttle to the ship.

We had an uneventful (thank goodness) flight yesterday with Robin and her husband and easily made (as did all of our luggage) our 38 minute connection in Salt Lake city. We chose to take a flight with this connection in order to fly into Long Beach airport instead of LAX and I think it was worth it. Long Beach is a tiny little airport and much more pleasant to land in than LAX.

We arrived at 4 in the afternoon and thought we'd have the evening in San Pedro but we were exhausted and went to sleep early so Robin will have to tell you about dinner in San Pedro.

We are going to attempt taking a walk to see the Coral since we are only about a mile away but it is raining here so ?????? Anyways, we will be going to board early (11ish) and will try to meet all of our CC friends in the dining room for lunch.

Will post more later.

[chamima]

I hope you remembered everthing we told you!! :D

 

:confused:What did you tell us?:confused:

[Colo Cruiser]

:confused:What did you tell us?:confused:

 

 

You have not learned anything here on CC?? ;)

[Colo Cruiser]

It looks pretty wet there.

Wave at the camera when you get there.

 

[monakayk]

Well, here we are at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro anxiously awaiting boarding time. It's 8 am California time but since we're from the midwest we have been up for hours! The Crowne Plaza is a great hotel to stay in the night before the cruise! They are really accommodating and have a shuttle to the ship.

We had an uneventful (thank goodness) flight yesterday with Robin and her husband and easily made (as did all of our luggage) our 38 minute connection in Salt Lake city. We chose to take a flight with this connection in order to fly into Long Beach airport instead of LAX and I think it was worth it. Long Beach is a tiny little airport and much more pleasant to land in than LAX.

We arrived at 4 in the afternoon and thought we'd have the evening in San Pedro but we were exhausted and went to sleep early so Robin will have to tell you about dinner in San Pedro.

We are going to attempt taking a walk to see the Coral since we are only about a mile away but it is raining here so ?????? Anyways, we will be going to board early (11ish) and will try to meet all of our CC friends in the dining room for lunch.

Will post more later.

 

 

Looking forward to your post now that your cruise-vacation has begun.

We stayed last fall at the Crowne Plaza and really enjoyed it there. If you have time. Walk about a block from the hotel (street along the ocean--sorry can't remember the name) and there is an old restored firestation museum:LA Harbor Fire Museum you can look around at. Old restored fire engines, etc. there...free to tour. A bit further down the street is the LA Naval Monument Park-for lost seamen. Very nice indeed & all within a block or two from the hotel. To see photos of these two places just click the Sapphire Princess link below my signature to view them.

I hope your cruise will be a great one. The DH and I are thinking of taking this one hopefully in the fall. So all info you can share will be greatly appreciated.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi Robin

We won't be doing any Princess excursions. Have found them overpriced, crowded and slow in the past. As a preview we have booked Swiss Divers for snorkeling in Acapulco, Mario Cobos for a water based tour of some of Huatulco's nine bays and some beach time and snorkeling there, zip lining and rainforest tour with Charley Soto in Punterenas, an Embera Indian Village tour with Anne Gordon in Fuerte Amador and a land based tour with Lee Miles in Cartegena.

 

I agree with you. Booking tours privately is the way to go. Saves heaps of money.

 

We have booked these three same tours on the cruise after you. Charlie is going to take us personally and bringing along his daughter who will be celebrating her 15th birthday with us. Tell him Eileen is looking forward to going on the tour with him on the 28th Feb.

[Pia1913]

Hi Karen..........

 

You should almost be settled in by now, so I'll be waiting to start reading your LIVE and reliving our 15 Coral days.

[Sea Fan]

Hi Karen you are off again and on one of my favorite trips! We booked the zip lining tour with Charlie Soto and it was the best! He did have to make a last minute change but we got his associate and had a great day. Just the 2 of us and the guide sailing through the tree tops very early in the morning. Monkey's, Birds, Alligators and lots of food...I'm so jealous!

 

Do you have an AFT Cabin?

 

Dianne

 

 

Hey Pia:D

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hope you have a great cruise, Karen. Sorry it was raining (actually still is tonight) here, but it is much needed.

[chamima]

Day 1 Real quick -will post more later.

Andy - I hopethe waiter you meant was Jorgi from Portugal. We are currently ransoming our first born to get moved to his table!

[chamima]

Hi Karen you are off again and on one of my favorite trips! We booked the zip lining tour with Charlie Soto and it was the best! He did have to make a last minute change but we got his associate and had a great day. Just the 2 of us and the guide sailing through the tree tops very early in the morning. Monkey's, Birds, Alligators and lots of food...I'm so jealous!

 

Do you have an AFT Cabin?

 

Dianne

 

 

Hey Pia:D

 

Hi Diane

Yes of course we are as aft as we can be on the Coral. C728, the last cabin on the Port side (If I calculated correctly there will be less direct sun shining into our cabin in panama on this side-we'll see )Coral has no aft facing cabins so this was as close as we could get.

I'll backtrack to yesterday. It was raining in San Pedro so we went for a quick walk along their "boardwalk". It's something that is REALLY nice to do in good weather but this wasn't so pleasant due to Mother Nature.

We were back to the hotel about 10:00 and decided we might as well go over to the Port and try to board since there wasn't much else to do. By the time we got our luggage downstairs and into the shuttle it was just before 11 and we were at the port by 11:15. They were actually ready to take our boarding passes and give us our room keys when we got there! The terminal was almost empty! It was the quickest easiest check-in we've ever had. There was a Princess Corporate luncheon in the normal Elite/Platinum lounge so we were put in another, much smaller area. We initially thought there wouldn't be enough room but again there only ended up being about 20 people waiting with us. By 11:30 they called preferred boarding and we were in our cabin by about 11:40!

We ran up to the Sanctuary to book it for the cruise (we just did this on the Ruby and found having the same lounger ready and waiting for us every day made the cruise just that much more wonderful). Well, it was POURING rain by then and I don't think we need have rushed. We did get just the location we wanted (Starboard under a "cabana") so that was good. I'll let everyone know how the location works out. We figured starboard because our cabin is port and cabana because the sun will be so hot in Panama (I hope!!!!)

Anyways, after that we kind of walked around the ship and then went for lunch in the dining room. They did say it was just for transiting passengers but we said "ok" and then just went in. Lunch was really pleasant and we met some CC friends and 2 other really nice couples. (One of whom really was transiting - they have been sailing since November!!) Also there was my favorite for dessert - SOUFFLE!!! So I was a happy (if overly full) camper.

The rain kept up ALL of yesterday and last night so it was an indoor day.

Dinner was the normal sailaway dinner. We didn't get Jorgi (as Andy had recommended) as our waiter but we did go over to say hello to him from Andy and could see right away why Andy loved him so we are trying to move to one of his unoccupied (but supposedly booked) tables.

Last night I went to see the welcome aboard show. The Princess singers and dancers gave a very short but good introduction and the comedian Al Katz came on. He was funny but he did make fun of the audience and I know that offends a lot of people.

This morning we woke up to clearing skies! We have our Meet and Greet at 11:00. I'll write more when there is more to tell.

 

Oh, BTW, there are NO 12 x12 frames on board. The photographer said they only have frames for the size pictures they take and the store only has small 4x6 and 5x7 frames. Sorry! Woops - just looked back at my notes and you wanted an album, not a frame.:o:o I'll ask later!

Coffee is getting cold so goodbye for now.

[Winedogs]

Hi Karen-

Can you give more information about the Sanctuary? We sailed on the Coral (pre-Sanctuary) ,but will be sailing on her again in September to Alaska. How much does it cost? Perks? Do you get the same spot every day? Special eats or drinks?

 

Any advise would be great..

thank you

debbie

[chamima]

Forgot to add some random details.

When we asked for an eggcrate (the form we faxed in was ignored once again - and it is the same form that some swear always works) we got the old, THICK,HEAVY kind of eggcrate!:D

So the bed was really comfortable. The room does vibrate, though. Hopefully that's just because of a rough ocean from the storms we passed through.

 

Also, I may be losing my tastebuds, but the coffee on this ship doesn't seem to have that yucky side taste that most ship's coffee has had. Maybe they clean their machines or maybe it's me. :o

 

The sign for the Elite/Suite/platinum lounge just said Suites and Elites but the info in our cabin said for all three. :confused: There were only 3 other couples in there last night but the service and servers were SO MUCH friendlier and more personal than last week on the Ruby. We are much more likely to go back because of Raymond .(Strange Japanese name - we wonder what his REAL name is but he insists Raymond.)