MV Discovery - Coral Deck

[larissaB]

Further to recent postings (and SwissMyst's very helpful reply), we sailed with Discovery last year and had an outside Pacific cabin. We're about to book our next hol but aren't flush enough for Pacific deck this time so will go for either Bali or Coral.

What's it like down in the dungeons of Coral? Are the cabins any shabbier, smaller or in any way worse than Bali or Pacific? And which are the larger size ones? I know that should be obvious from looking at the deck plan, but according to VOD they're all the same size!

Any help would be really appreciated; we can't see the point in paying extra for, say, Bali, if there really is no difference to Coral cabins.

[SwissMyst]

Further to recent postings (and SwissMyst's very helpful reply), we sailed with Discovery last year and had an outside Pacific cabin. We're about to book our next hol but aren't flush enough for Pacific deck this time so will go for either Bali or Coral.

What's it like down in the dungeons of Coral? Are the cabins any shabbier, smaller or in any way worse than Bali or Pacific? And which are the larger size ones? I know that should be obvious from looking at the deck plan, but according to VOD they're all the same size!

Any help would be really appreciated; we can't see the point in paying extra for, say, Bali, if there really is no difference to Coral cabins.

 

The biggest problem with the Coral deck was having to close the portholes ( and yes they are portholes, not windows) when the seas got rough or your itinerary takes you into the Indian Ocean pirate zones. This made them the equivalent of an inside cabin, often for days on end depending on the need to close them.

 

But no, there was nothing dungeon like about them at all nor any particularly long wait for an elevator to get to the upper activity floors. Closer to dinner when you hear the announcement over the tannoy. It was quiet and fine.

 

Noticed however that the few larger cabins down there are now higher priced. We lucked out and got one of the biggest for the same price. Darn it, that made it a great deal but since it is not that much higher, I would go for the larger rooms down there which are larger than anything one floor up. The extra size did let up put up a clothes drying rack and an extra clothes hanging unit which was really a boon for the longer trips (ours was 42 days).

 

The Coral bathrooms were pretty basic and grim with zero aesthetic amenities, but don't know what they are like upstairs so can't compare. But plenty of hot water and everything worked.

 

If we did it again, we would pick the lowest priced cabin because even the more expensive ones are still far less than one finds on the typical mass market lines and the rest of the cruise experience is shared one and one for all anyway so a few more square feet but no balconies and no better windows or views do not make the extra costs worth it for us.

 

In fact even the inside rooms have a lot of offer when you think about how little time one spends in these small rooms anyway - mainly sleeping in the dark or using the inside bathroom facilities anyway. The only reason for the window was to wake up to the sunshine, and that still means a lot to us .......but ....... how much is it worth it to us if it means going or not going .....?????

[larissaB]

Thanks, SwissMyst, - you are a star! I've shown your reply to hubby, and he agrees with you so I'm going to try and get a deal on the larger Coral cabin tomorrow.

Just out of interest, seeing as you seem to be a well-seasoned cruiser (so to speak), do you have any recommendation for any other ship that might suit us both? He likes small, quiet and cosy, I would like a bit more luxury with better entertainment, space and facilities, but neither of us want to go on the huge ships. Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply to us all!

[Druke I]

We were down in C-119 on Discovery's sister, Pacific Princess way back in Feb 96, and my wife was not happy that the deadlights (covering the portholes) were down at every hint of rough water. The fact that the Tasman Sea was relatively calm made her even madder!

 

She felt that we had paid for an outside cabin, and she thought that the deadlights should be up.

 

For our other trips on Pacific Princess I made sure we were on a higher deck.

[SwissMyst]

Thanks, SwissMyst, - you are a star! I've shown your reply to hubby, and he agrees with you so I'm going to try and get a deal on the larger Coral cabin tomorrow.

Just out of interest, seeing as you seem to be a well-seasoned cruiser (so to speak), do you have any recommendation for any other ship that might suit us both? He likes small, quiet and cosy, I would like a bit more luxury with better entertainment, space and facilities, but neither of us want to go on the huge ships. Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply to us all!

 

We really like the 1200 or so passenger smaller Holland America Line ships - they have many of them, and they still retain many of the old world cruising traditions, have wonderfully comfortable cabins and we think are the best dollar value for the itineraries they offer. They don't even try to be the enrichment lecture ships like Discovery, but they are tops for us in all other aspects for the price. The Louis line ships might be worth looking into but they seem more like Discovery too.

 

Holland America also has the 650 passenger Prinsendam which has its fans too and offers the more unique itineraries too. One aspect of these smaller 650 passenger ships is they can still get into the older, more convenient city docks that are totally off limits for the larger ones who have to go to more remote industrial ports. This can change the cruise experience dramatically.

 

Looking at the World Cup in Capetown now we can see right where the Discovery was docked when we were there, just a few steps away from all the action at the beautiful Victoria and Alfred Wharf complex. No large ship would be able to dock there and in fact the HAL Rotterdam (1400 px?) had to park a long way away and use shuttle busses to get into town. Yet we were right there in the safe area where we could come and go as we wished.

 

Most of the other smaller unique ships I have explored (Regent, Silversea, Seabourn) are quite a bit more expensive and itineraries not as unique. There is the new "Voyages to Antiquity" that got started by the same fellow who originally put the Discovery together, but while it is having a rocky first year start it looks like an attempt to take the Discovery and add a few more luxurious touches to it and make it an all-inclusive touring package. But it is still a very old boat, and that limits what can be done. However, its intineraries are very enticing and I will keep it on the horizon once it gets its first year glitches taken care of.

 

Fred Olsen is also a smaller traditional line with good worldwide itineraries but not sure if its onboard amenities are much better. Think you might be best to explore Holland America - our "other" cruise line and one that has earned a high degree of loyalty from us.

 

BTW: while we have cruised on old ships decades ago, we are just new to this whole world of retirement cruising having done our first one just a few years ago on Crystal which was not worth the price, though the itinerary was great - Singapore to Dubai, but I had not looked at any other ship who was doing the same route for a lot less.

 

So it has all been a lot of trial and error for us and in that exploration we stumbled across the Discovery and took a chance with very little to go on. Which is why I tried to makes as many detailed posts as I could because there was so little information about the ship online.

[larissaB]

Thanks, Myst and Druke.

[Sekhmet]

Also, have you considered an outside guarantee. We are booked for October on such a deal (our 2nd Discovery cruise), with a reasonable saving over a "named" cabin. As SwissMyst says, you really go with this line for the itinerary, lectures, interest etc., not partucularly for the finest of facilities.

[larissaB]

Thanks for the advice, Sekhmet - no, an outside guarantee would never have occurred to me, didn't know such a thing existed. I'll bear that in mind for next time, as we made a firm booking this afternoon for the Baltic. We opted for an outside Coral, which I'm sure will be fine.

Thanks to you all for your help.

[greenland]

SwissMyst, just how grim were the bathrooms? Just returned from our first ever cruise yesterday, went to Greenland and Iceland with p&o and had an amazing time, so already looking for the next trip!! Discovery have very interesting trips to places that would appeal. Anyway if you had any pictures of the cabins and bathrooms I'd be delighted!! Just want to see just exactly how rough and ready it would be compared to p&o etc.

[SwissMyst]

SwissMyst, just how grim were the bathrooms? Just returned from our first ever cruise yesterday, went to Greenland and Iceland with p&o and had an amazing time, so already looking for the next trip!! Discovery have very interesting trips to places that would appeal. Anyway if you had any pictures of the cabins and bathrooms I'd be delighted!! Just want to see just exactly how rough and ready it would be compared to p&o etc.

 

What is interesting is on the Coral Deck, these must have been what the bathrooms were like on cruise ships not that long ago, or maybe these were cabins that later had bathrooms added on to them and they just put in the bare minimum to replace the formerly common bathrooms down the hall for these lower price, lower deck cabins.

 

That being said our Coral deck bathroom was very small, one person at a time use only. Sorry no photos. Don't know why I forgot to take any but probably it was too small to even get a good perspective on it. No exhaust fan so things got steamy if you wanted to use the bathroom after a shower for hair and make-up. I had to use the mirror in the cabin. But the room was bright and clean, painted white on all surfaces.

 

SHOWER: It had a small stall shower with a wrap around curtain that you had to be careful fit so there would not be water spraying out. It did have a great adjustable sliding shower head and hose with endless and instant hot water, so while it was pretty cramped it worked wonderfully. We bought a shower caddy in our first port (Hong Kong -easy to find these things) to add because it only had one small soap dish hanger.

 

SINK: There was a mirror vanity above the sink for storage of a few items, but ours had broken inner shelves so it did not hold much. You could put things on top of it and there was some room around the sink itself to put a few items out. Nothing rolled off during high seas, but that is always a consideration when you put glass items out on a shelf. The vanity had a separate light which was perfectly awful and it was impossible to use for any close up work like make-up or putting in contact lenses.

 

We also bought a little plastic portable shelf case to put under the sink for additional storage of small items, but hanging toiletry bags would serve just as well. There are narrow, exposed and painted pipes in the bathroom where you can hang items. There were two hooks on the wall and I added a few more adhesive hooks which we left so don't know if they are still there or not, but you might want to bring along a few if you like to have more hanging space.

 

So while everything worked (except our broken vanity), there were no aesthetics or functionality beyond basics. There was allegedly a built in outlet for shavers in the vanity but we never used it and I don't think it worked. There were multiple outlets in the room so all use of hair dryers and curlers took place there instead. They include a hair dryer in the room but I brought my own anyway.

 

My one big beef with all cruise ship bathrooms it lack of good towel racks particularly when they reasonably request you hang towels you want to use again instead of having fresh ones every day. Then, please give me some good towel racks so I can adequately hang them so they can dry out between uses and we can keep our his and her towels separate rather than have them folded up and not sorted out. This complaint I have with all hotels, not just our bare bones Discovery. But they did provide very good towel service and everything was kept clean and tidy.

 

So the worst failing of the bathroom was its aesthetics and then its functionality beyond just the basics. A man would find no problems. A woman more likely would throw her hands up in horror and resign its use to just camping out for basics. However, the desk and mirror (again with terrible lighting) in the room was a good alternative and we made do.

 

They have these directed overhead lights at the desk mirror which I find very unflattering and unhelpful, so I would just use the cabin lights when I used this space for hair and makeup. No woman had a hand in designing any of these features, that is for sure.

 

The bathrooms in the upper deck cabins have been refurbished to a higher quality standard and are larger with presumably more inside storage.

 

I think if one picture what a bathroom would look like on a navy ship, one will not face the Coral Deck bathrooms with any degree of disappointment. And their lack of aesthetics would never be a reason to not choose the Discovery for me. The room worked and we could work around it. And I miss those endless full-flow showers now that I am back in the land of low-flow shower heads.

 

And think about shopping at your first port stop for some of those bathroom storage extras that could make this work better. The shower caddy particularly for shampoo and soap to keep if off the floor and easier to reach because there is not much room in the shower to bend over and reach down for it without bumping the curtain away from the wall.

 

Yup, it is that small. But no worse than a lot of Euro hotels in days gone by where many of them included ensuite facilities as an afterthought.

 

Just thought of something -- think of an airline bathroom and you get an idea of what it is like to work in a small, but convenient and functional space. It is certainly larger than that, but its cramped functionality not much better. And airline bathrooms are definitely a shade prettier.