Adventures in Alaska- Photo Review of a Northbound Cruise on the Coral - May 17

[sjmbruce]

I too am looking forward to this review. I especially like the ones that are photo intensive.

 

We sailed Coral in January and did a photo review. I know the itinerary is different but I will supply the link if the OP says it is OK.

 

I DON'T want to do anything that would in any way diminish the review we are all looking forward to here.

 

Share away! I believe I read your review when you first posted it and really enjoyed it.

[wilfros]

Thoroughly loving the review and the pics of the Coral We are boarding on Aug 9th for a B2B and these pics and review are what we were looking for now!!! Thanks for taking the time to post.

Thanks to the OP here is a link to the review I did back in February (I believe). Please don't comment on that thread as it is now back on page 40 or 50 or something, where outdated reviews belong. Should you post on it then that would bring it back to page 1. I believe page 1 should be for what is current not something 5 or 6 months old.

 

But there are photos so view away and I hope you enjoy it. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1977367

 

Thanks OP and I can't wait to see your photos and bring back some memories.

[sjmbruce]

Still on food, of course. We didn't eat at the Bayou Café, but I took a few pictures anyway. With the décor and the live jazz, it looks like it would be a fun place to eat.

[sjmbruce]

Here's some menus from the MDR and more pictures of food:

From the Italian Dinner:

[sjmbruce]

from one of the formal nights:

[Jasperdo]

Excellent review. Wonderful photos. The Coral is a great ship. Thanks for sharing.

[sjmbruce]

I thought I took a picture of the "Always Available" menu, but I guess I didn't. Dishes include shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, salmon, beef tips and a burger. There is also always a pasta selection that has the famous fettuccine alfredo:

And the last set of menus I have, the Captain's Dinner:

 

And my favorite dessert, the Princess Love Boat Dream:

[Bucky3]

Thanks for sharing your great pictures. Look forward to your adventures ashore.

[wilfros]

Only thing better than Lobster .... King Crab!!!

 

Wonderful photo. We never go Crab on our cruise :mad:

[sjmbruce]

As mentioned in another review, there were a few areas of disrepair. There was rust on the metal railings of the indoor hot tubs. The tops of a bathroom stall didn't quite make the ceiling, so they used some type of ugly adhesive to attach the ends. The carpets had an area or two with stains. They took the wood bannisters off the railings by the outdoor pool, replacing them with yellow caution tape (the wood was being refinished, which smelled awful). Was all of this a little unsightly? Yes. Did it really impact our cruise or ruin it? No. For the most part the ship was beautiful and there was far too much natural scenery to admire to worry about a stain or a paint chip.

The Library:

As for service, I really don't know what was off about this cruise. All I have to compare it to was the Panama Canal on the Island, which was amazing. This cruise seemed to have a younger staff, so maybe it was that the employees didn't have as many cruises under their belt as others. It just seemed off. There was a guy in the IC that didn't smile, not once. There were some shining stars that outshone everyone, and they saved the day. We definitely included their names on our post cruise survey.

There was also a lot of late starts. Muster drill was 30 minutes late, which wasn't fun when they packed about 50 of us into a small part of the art gallery to stand around and wait. Art auctions started 30 or 40 minutes late. This cruise was one of the first (or maybe even the first) of the season into Alaska, so I am going to give them the benefit of assuming that kinks were still being worked out.

Aside from being bummed that the On the Bayou show wasn't happening, the entertainment was great. We saw a comedian, a magician and for the first time, a ventriloquist. There were also singers and a production show that we didn't attend. There was always a movie playing or a game happening and it was tough to decide between scenery and activities, relaxing and performances. Movies Under the Stars played older movies such as Princess Bride and newer ones such as Captain Phillips. On the room's TV, Last Vegas, Hitch, Say Anything, The Vow, World War Z, It Could Happen to You, Frozen, Turbo and a few others were in rotation.

I haven't scanned them and don't want to flood this review with pages of the Patters, but I do have every single Patter from this cruise. I'll post them if someone wants, or can answer questions.

[sjmbruce]

A few more pictures of the ship, then I'll move on to our adventures onshore at all of the ports!

The Princess Theater:

Deck 7:

And I had to include this. My husband and I were celebrating our anniversary. Princess decorated our door and presented us with a cake at dinner, complete with singing waiters.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and great photo's. Your making me hungry.:D

[sjmbruce]

Enjoying your review and great photo's. Your making me hungry.:D

 

thanks =) I also was getting hungry going through all of my pictures!

[sjmbruce]

We started off in Detroit, with a connection in Toronto before landing in Vancouver. After retrieving our bag, we took the elevator up and walked to the Skytrain. For $9 each, we took the train to the Waterfront Station and walked two blocks to Days Inn. Not the most glamorous hotel, but for the price it was clean, convenient and safe.

The hotel also had a shuttle that did drop offs anywhere in downtown Vancouver. We took it to Stanley Park. We only had an afternoon and evening in Vancouver, and we could have spent it all plus another day in the park. We walked along the sea wall and visited the totem poles.

We were treated to a wildlife sighting before our cruise even began:

Gastown was so much fun! We walked down the cobblestone streets, watched the steam clock mark the hour, and had some drinks at The Steamworks Brewing Company.

We were planning on finding a local restaurant to eat at, but with our 4am wake up and the time change we were coming up on being awake for 24 hours. We decided to order pizza from Bella's Pizza and eat in our hotel room.

The next morning we walked down by Canada Place and followed the seawall back to Stanley Park to catch some views of our ship. Two Holland America ships were blocking the majority of the Coral, but we could still see the logo in between.

[sjmbruce]

Only thing better than Lobster .... King Crab!!!

 

Wonderful photo. We never go Crab on our cruise :mad:

 

I was so happy with all of the seafood and shellfish on this cruise!

[sjmbruce]

After seeing our ship, we raced back to our hotel to pack and take the shuttle to Canada Place. Once there, we dropped off our bags, took a number, and sat down to wait for our group to be called. It was a long line through security and customs, but check in with Princess was quick and within two hours of arriving at the dock we were in our room. We got lunch in the buffet and ate it out in the sun by the pool. We headed back to our room to unpack, and waited forever for the muster drill. Finally, it was time for sailaway under the Lion's Gate Bridge, following two Holland America ships and another Princess ship.

 

 

 

[Momma Mojito]

Your pics and review is great!! We left the Coral in L.A. before she headed for Alaska, now I'm hoping our next cruise will be Alaska!!

[Woobstr112G]

Love your pictures and reports. Looking forward o your full review.....:):):)

 

Bob

[sjmbruce]

Thank you both! I hope to complete all of the ports tomorrow afternoon and finish up with our day in Anchorage

[time2explore]

Thank you for reviewing this cruise. I will be on this ship on Saturday and it is great to see up to date information.

 

Great pictures!

[sjmbruce]

After a relaxing day at sea spent in the indoor hot tub and eating, we arrived in Ketchikan. We normally book tours independently, but had enough OBC to cover one excursion and knew we would never spend that much money on pictures, souvenirs or alcohol. We booked the first flight on a floatplane through Princess. We arrived in port at 6:30am and needed to meet our group by 6:50. After disembarking, the first Princess representative we found had no idea where we should go or where our group was. Luckily, about 10 minutes later, we finally spotted someone with the sign for our tour.

We took a short bus ride with 11 others to the float planes. After a brief safety video, we were given time to use the restroom and leave our bags before we were split into two groups and led to our plane! We took off and headed toward Misty Fjords.

 

[sjmbruce]

After an exhilarating landing in the middle of the fjord, we were able to get out of the plane and stand on the floats. Looking down into the black 1000ft deep water was a little intimidating.

 

We got back in the plane and headed back, complete with another water landing.

[sjmbruce]

By 9:30 or so, we were back at the Coral. There were people there selling two hour wildlife tours that started at 10:30. We debated doing it, but decided we'd rather save our money and explore Creek St. Later on we talked to someone who went on the wildlife tour and saw a bear, so we had a little regret. Creek St. was pretty and interesting and we had a good time despite the drizzle. It didn't pour or anything so we figured that was great for Ketchikan. I also had two souvenirs in mind - a locally made totem pole and nesting dolls from Russia. Our time we had allowed me to find both.

We also kept on eye on the water and saw some sea life.

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks for that preview of Misty Fjords. We will be flying into there next week.:)

[aSiAnRiCk]

Thanks for sharing. Keep the pictures coming :)