7/10-7/17 Coral Princess Alaska Northbound Review

[huskerdan25]

I will be posting this on the Princess forums as well.

 

Review of Coral Princess cruise, July 10 – July 17, Alaska Northbound.

 

My wife and I went on this cruise and had a fantastic time! The Coral Princess is a beautiful ship and it is the smallest ship we have cruised on so far (the others were the Sapphire Princess and Caribbean Princess). We plan to cruise in this class of ship again. At no time did the ship ever feel crowded and there were times when it seemed like we were the only people on board. We loved it!

 

The upgrade fairy visited us at check-in and we were very grateful! We had booked P505, an outside cabin with a large window that did not have an obstructed view. We had decided that since we had decided so late to book the cruise (we booked in late March) that we would save some money for the excursions and not book a balcony. On our previous cruises, we booked balconies. At check-in, I got the cruise cards and the ship layout card and it had A441 on it. So, I told the person checking in that there must be a mistake as we had booked P505. He looked at the computer again and told me no, that was the correct cabin. Apparently we had been upgraded and had found out at check-in! WOW! We were so excited! What a great surprise and it greatly enhanced our experience. I will share more in the lessons learned section of my review.

 

We flew non-stop from Denver to Vancouver on July 9th (we always travel to the embarkation port a day in advance) as we didn’t want to do the Seattle and then transfer plan to get to the cruise ship. I am glad we went straight to Vancouver. Getting through customs was a breeze and we took the Canada Line (light rail) to downtown and walked 5 blocks to the Sutton Place Hotel. Beautiful hotel and we really enjoyed our stay there. I wish I wasn’t a diabetic as I would have gladly gone to the Chocoholic buffet they hold on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We didn’t get to the hotel until about 3pm so didn’t have much time to really check out Vancouver. Being a Friday afternoon, the crowded downtown area reminded me of New York City. We walked down to Canada Place in time to see the Celebrity Millenium about to leave. Vancouver is a beautiful city and if we could do it over again, we would arrive earlier the day before or a couple of days before so we could enjoy the city.

 

Embarkation

 

We were so excited to be on a cruise again that we decided to take a taxi from the hotel down to Canada Place at 10am. We ended up being the very first people in line at about 10:15am and we waited about 30 minutes before we could go through security and customs and to check-in. Things went quickly and smoothly and we were on the ship by 11:30am, right after the platinum and elite passengers boarded. I had read of some nightmares around boarding at Canada Place but there were only two ships on July 10, the Coral and a Holland America ship (the Zuiderdam, I believe). Boarding was a breeze. And of course, we got the surprise news of being upgraded to a mid-ship balcony on the Aloha deck. :)

 

Ports of Call

 

Ketchikan: We had booked a tour of the city and Totem Bight with Northern Tours that left at 9am. We were off the ship at 7am so we walked around town including Creek Street and did a little shopping before the tour. We really enjoyed the tour of Totem Bight and our tour guide, Leoti, was outstanding. She told us the stories behind many of the totem poles and the clan house. She also gave us very interesting information about Ketchikan and the area. We paid $35pp for this tour and felt we got great value for the tour. We were back on the ship by Noon for a 2pm departure. We had hoped to catch the Great Lumberjack Show but the show times didn’t work for us.

 

Juneau: We pre-purchased round-trip tickets on the MGT “Blue Bus” to Mendenhall Glacier since we did not want to be rushed as many tours did. We paid $14pp for the Bus and it took us very close to the visitor center while the city buses dropped people off much further away. We really enjoyed walking a number of the trails including the Nugget Falls trail and we got great up-close photos of the glacier and Nugget Falls. We visited the visitor center ($3pp). We spent a total of 3.5 hours at Mendenhall and did a lot of walking but we really enjoyed not being rushed. We then returned to town and ate lunch at Traci’s King Crab Shack. We absolutely loved the crab bisque, crab cakes and the crab legs. We spent a total of $49 for our lunch including drinks. Well worth it and the crab legs were amazing! Can’t recommend Traci’s highly enough and it was located very close to the ships. After lunch, we walked up to see the old Russian Orthodox Church and then did some shopping. Around 2pm, it started to rain and it rained the rest of our stay. We decided not to take the Mt. Robert’s Tramway with it raining and decided to go back aboard the ship and relax. Of the three ports of call, this was our least favorite but we still enjoyed ourselves.

 

Skagway: We booked the Chilkoot Tours Carcross Rail and Bus tour, the most expensive tour we took on this cruise at $239pp. It was worth every single penny! We totally enjoyed the train ride on the the White Pass and Yukon route train that took us all the way to Carcross along Lake Bennett. The train ride was incredible with scenery you can’t appreciate unless you are on the train. We stopped at the Bennett station for a very good lunch of beef stew, cole slaw, fresh bread and apple pie. We also had time to visit the one church in Bennett. Then back on the train for the final 27 mile push to Carcross, all along Lake Bennett. In total, we spent about 4.5 hours on the train. We got on the bus at Carcross (there were just 3 other couples) and went to Emerald Lake and the smallest dessert in the world. We had a couple on the Millineum who had to be back on board by 4:30p so we had to rush back to Skagway but part of the way back, they transferred to another van from Chilkoot and we got to enjoy the rest of the trip in a more leisurely pace. The guide/driver was hilarious and had all of us laughing with his stories on the ride back. He dropped us off in downtown Skagway and we checked out the shops and walked back to the ship. We stopped at the Skagway Fish House for some halibut and chips and then back on the ship in time to get ready for dinner.

 

Glacier Bay: One word…..amazing!! And we were blessed with blue skies and sun. I am so glad we chose this itinerary because I got some incredible photos here and we enjoyed room service for lunch while enjoying Glacier Bay from our balcony.

 

College Fjords: Another beautiful, somewhat sunny day. Here I was able to get photos on an eagle sitting on an iceberg watching sea otters swim by and three seals resting on an iceberg. Glaciers weren’t quite as dramatic as those in Glacier Bay but nonetheless beautiful. We got into College Fjords around 5pm so spent most of the day resting.

 

Whittier: Since we didn’t have a land tour planned, we flew back to Denver from Anchorage non-stop on Frontier. Used the Alaska Transfer Service and the drive to Anchorage was very comfortable and enjoyable. Once we got through the tunnel, the cloudiness and fog from Whittier was replaced with partly cloudy skies and beautiful sunshine. We enjoyed the scenery on the trip to Anchorage.

 

Disembarkation

 

Since we had our own transfer plans, we were allowed to walk off the ship anything between 6:30am and 8:45am. We decided to leave the ship around 8:15am and the process was very smooth. Walked off, got our bags and out to the bus for Anchorage. Since everyone taking the bus was off the ship and ready to go by 9am, we were able to leave an hour earlier and arrive at the airport an hour earlier than planned.

 

The Ship and Crew – Coral Princess

 

What a beautiful ship and the crew were very friendly. We constantly got greetings and smiles. Our steward, Ramon, from the Philippines, was outstanding! We made three requests of him by paging him and he always responded within a couple of minutes. We asked for an egg crate after the first night because the beds were a bit hard for us. We also asked for more pillows as the pillows were pretty flat. The third request was due to our toilet deciding not to flush. He and those who fixed the problem were very responsive and got it taken care of within 30 minutes.

 

Our head waiter and assistant waiter were also from the Philippines (I, myself, and half-Filipino). Jose and Jerome were excellent. We were lucky to have great table mates (thanks, Lee and Jane and David and Judy!). Everyone had a great sense of humor and Jose quickly fit in and had us laughing quite often. His recommendations each night were spot on. We got excellent service and it greatly enhanced our dining experience.

 

The Food

 

We did something we hadn’t done on previous cruises and had lunch in the MDR (Provence) when we boarded the ship. Glad we did instead of fighting the crowd in the buffet. Enjoyed our lunch and it was the start of an enjoyable dining experience. We had late traditional dining in the Provence (we always do traditional dining) and we felt the quality of the dishes to be very good. There was only one dish that I found unsatisfactory the whole cruise and it was the Barramundi. For some reason it had a strong fish smell and taste. I love fish but this one didn’t go over well with me or our table mates. Otherwise, I enjoyed the food very much and every night order two main dishes because it was so hard to pick just one J The day we were in Ketchikan, we decided to eat in the Bayou Café. Excellent. The steaks were great as was the lobster tail that was $5 extra ($15pp fee). For $40, we got a great dinner and really enjoyed the spices. We did not eat in Sabbatini’s since I am a diabetic and stay away from pasta (yes, it is very hard to do!). We are breakfast and lunch in the Horizon court with one lunch being room service on our balcony. Overall, we found the food to be of very high quality and taste.

 

Entertainment

 

We did not make it to any of the shows on this cruise. With late traditional dining and not finishing dinner before 9:30p (shows were at 8:15p and 10:15p) and with us getting up at 5:30am each morning, we just didn’t feel like going to a show so late. So, sorry, can’t comment on the shows at all.

 

Naturalist

Our naturalist was from the University of Georgia and while I enjoyed the content of the lectures, he had a delivery that put most of those in attendance to sleep J I had hoped that Murray (Yukon on the cruise critic forums) would have been on board as I followed his blog during this trips on the Coral in previous weeks. The park ranger in Glacier Bay did a great job with her presentation and overall, I enjoyed the lectures.

 

 

Weather

 

I think we were very fortunate with the weather on this cruise. We chose mid-July because of our belief that we would have the best chance of good weather and it turned out that way for us. While most mornings were always foggy and cloud covered, 6 of the 7 days we saw blue skies and sun. The only day we did not was Juneau and it rained quite a bit that day. Skagway was overcast when we arrived but once we got past the summit on the train, we got beautiful blue skies in British Columbia and the Yukon. Glacier Bay was the nicest day of the cruise and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our balcony!

 

Overall

 

Best cruise we have taken so far, by far! I enjoyed the fact that it was more of an educational cruise than our past cruises. The scenery just can’t be matched on other cruises (except maybe for the Antarctic cruises) and I absolutely loved the Coral Princess. This was truly a completely stress-free vacation from day 1 to our return home. I took about 800 photos on this cruise and I will have memories of a lifetime. We will most definitely return to Alaska and next time, we will do a land tour to Denali and Fairbanks. Princess has given us 3 great cruises and has never let us down. We are booked on the 14 day roundtrip cruise to Hawaii on the Golden Princess for Thanksgiving 2011 and will continue to cruise with Princess.

 

Lessons Learned

 

I hope this section helps those who are planning trips to Alaska via cruise. These are just things that I feel can improve our Alaska experience and what I thought made the experience as great as it was. If anything, this is a list of must-do’s for my next Alaska cruise that may help others.

 

1) Book a balcony!! I’m sure we would have enjoyed the outside cabin with the big window but it was nice to be able to enjoy the scenery from our cabin instead of having to go to the upper decks. We got lucky this time and go upgraded to a balcony but I will most definitely spend the money to make sure we have a balcony for cruises to Alaska.

 

2) Bring a great camera and binoculars.

 

3) Strongly consider the Chilkoot Tours Carcross Rail and Bus Tour! I was shocked that only one other couple on the tour was on the Coral Princess. I don’t if the word just hasn’t gotten out or if people spend so much of their tour money on floatplanes and whale watching tours in Ketchikan and Juneau that most see Skagway as a place to spending fewer dollars. But this is an incredible tour and the train through British Columbia and the Yukon provides breathtaking views! I would do this tour again and again but for our next Alaska cruise, we will spend money in Ketchikan to see Misty Fjords or do the Deadliest Catch Bering Sea tour.

 

4) We packed pretty light for this cruise, bringing two smaller suitcases and a bag for our formal wear and we are glad we did. Made getting around with our luggage much easier. We used the laundry facilities and in 1.5 hours and $8 later, we had clean, fresh clothes to bring home with us.

 

5) Coffee Card…..if you love coffee, brewed coffee, get it! My wife was very happy I got this for her as she really enjoyed the specialty coffees and they kept her warm :) We paid $34 for the card which included a souvenir cup and gratutity.

 

6) This cruise, we decided to do all cash. I went to the pursers desk as soon as we boarded and put down $600 on our account. No holds on any credit/debit cards and each night I got a copy of our account to see what charges were placed on it. The Coral doesn’t have the kiosks that are available on the larger Princess ships so you have to get it from the pursers desk. On the final night, went the pursers office and got paid $254 cash which was still left on my account. Worked very well and we plan to do our account on a cash basis going forward.

 

7) Book a balcony! :)

 

8) Did I mention…..book a balcony! :)

 

I hope you enjoyed this review. I can’t wait to go back to Alaska!

Please feel free to ask questions and I will answer them the best I can. I hope you all have great Alaska cruises!

 

Dan

[portofrome]

Thanks very much for your great review.

[nlktx49]

Thanks for your review! What was the temperature in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway? How warmly did you dress?

[huskerdan25]

I believe the temps were mostly in the mid to upper 50s, low 60s at the highest. I basically wore a tee shirt under a collared pullover shirt and a thin water resistant jacket. At times, especially when hiking around Mendenhall Glacier, I had to take the jacket off. I didn't have to wear anything heavy to stay warm.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for posting this review. I think many on this board appreciate the time that goes into writing a review and those who have not sailed Alaska before will certainly learn a good deal from your writeup.

 

Keith

[huskerdan25]

Thanks for the kind comments about the review. Please feel free to ask questions pertaining to this ship or this cruise and I will try to help as much as I can. CC and this forum was an important part of my planning so I thank those of you who frequent this forum and provide valuable input.

[skierT]

Lessons Learned

 

I hope this section helps those who are planning trips to Alaska via cruise. These are just things that I feel can improve our Alaska experience and what I thought made the experience as great as it was. If anything, this is a list of must-do’s for my next Alaska cruise that may help others.

 

1) Book a balcony!! I’m sure we would have enjoyed the outside cabin with the big window but it was nice to be able to enjoy the scenery from our cabin instead of having to go to the upper decks. We got lucky this time and go upgraded to a balcony but I will most definitely spend the money to make sure we have a balcony for cruises to Alaska.

 

2) Bring a great camera and binoculars.

 

 

yes, after much debate, we decided to go with balcony. I hope that will be worthy it

[chipmaster]

I agree with the reviewer that balcony was nice. IMHO only worthwhile if you do it and use it with NO compromise to your budget for excursion. As much as I liked the views late in the evening, early in the morning and briefly on our sea days and during our Tracy Arm scenic cruising, I'm probably different from most that for that premium its a pricey one. Every view there I can get on deck and we simply spend so little time I question what I got for the 2 balconys I got, YMMV.

 

I popped out on that balcony countless times during my recent Alaska cruise, what was funny being on Aloha deck and having a nice view of all the lower deck baclonies I actually saw very few people enjoying from outside, funny as outside was where you knew you were "outside" were they all asleep, were they all on the public space, were they all at dinner, were they all asleep, who knows :confused: I even have a few pictures during Tracy Arm sailing of the ship, funny not that many people on the balconies at the peak point as I sailed on the excursion....

 

 

 

yes, after much debate, we decided to go with balcony. I hope that will be worthy it

[huskerdan25]

I agree with the reviewer that balcony was nice. IMHO only worthwhile if you do it and use it with NO compromise to your budget for excursion. As much as I liked the views late in the evening, early in the morning and briefly on our sea days and during our Tracy Arm scenic cruising, I'm probably different from most that for that premium its a pricey one. Every view there I can get on deck and we simply spend so little time I question what I got for the 2 balconys I got, YMMV.

 

I popped out on that balcony countless times during my recent Alaska cruise, what was funny being on Aloha deck and having a nice view of all the lower deck baclonies I actually saw very few people enjoying from outside, funny as outside was where you knew you were "outside" were they all asleep, were they all on the public space, were they all at dinner, were they all asleep, who knows :confused: I even have a few pictures during Tracy Arm sailing of the ship, funny not that many people on the balconies at the peak point as I sailed on the excursion....

 

I definitely agree with you. I should have mentioned this point so thanks for doing it for me :) I think having the money to go on some of the great excursions is more important than having a balcony BUT if you can afford both, definitely get a balcony cabin. We used our balcony a lot and I loved keeping the door open and the shades open at night as it didn't get dark until well after 11pm and I loved being woken up by the sun on the days we had sunshine. I got some incredible sunset shots from the balcony and enjoyed watching the scenery go by even in the late evening. We made full use of the balcony for the entire trip so it was definitely worthwhile. We don't hang out in the lounges and bars and with the exception of leaving Vancouver and going up for pizza or burgers, we seldom went on the upper decks.

[sydney777]

Have questions on your review but have no idea how to get in touch with you to ask a questions. I will be on Coral Princess sept 2011 alaska. Thank you for review by the way. I want to know with the remodel of this ship will the new tv's have hook up's which I will be able to plug in my portable dvd player to watch movies as sometimes their tv is boring, haha. Any help from anyone as to where I post would be helpful. Cindy

[Alaskanb]

Great review--we are doing the same excursions with the exception of adding in a visit to the Alaska State Museum and a whale watch trip in Juneau. We will be in a mini suite on the Island Princess NB late May 2012. I have been debating between the 7 1/2 and 9 hr Chilkoot tours but had not read a review of the beef stew lunch before--glad it was good :).

[huskerdan25]

Have questions on your review but have no idea how to get in touch with you to ask a questions. I will be on Coral Princess sept 2011 alaska. Thank you for review by the way. I want to know with the remodel of this ship will the new tv's have hook up's which I will be able to plug in my portable dvd player to watch movies as sometimes their tv is boring, haha. Any help from anyone as to where I post would be helpful. Cindy

 

Feel free to email me at huskerdan25@msn.com

 

This cruise was a little over a year ago but unforgettable. Would be glad to answer questions for you.

 

Dan

[gertz]

Enjoyed your review and completely agree with it. Coral and Island our very favorite ships.

Alaska is totally addictive, next time will be our 5th time there and for a guy that never wanted to go there, not bad.

[JoRoy218]

Thanks for your very detailed review Dan. We're going on Coral as well but Southbound to Vancouver, doing the land tour before the cruise (Sept.). This will be our first Alaska visit and really enthused about the whole trip. BTW, we're both coffee lovers -- where do you get the coffee card? Thanks.