Our review of Coral Princess Roundtrip Panama Canal Cruise (Nov 9-20)

[StarShine55]

Thank You for the wonderful review! Many years ago we sailed with Princess and enjoyed the cruise very much. However in reading the recent reviews I had begun to be concerned about our January sailing on the Coral to Panama. You have put many of my concerns at ease - I plan to reread your review and ask some specific questions. Thanks again.

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for a wonderful review. You really brought the ports to life! It sounds like a wonderful itinerary.

[Grammyluvs]

One of the most comprehensive reviews I have ever read. Thank you so much for the time it took to write this. It was so complete I have no questions! Now I can’t wait for our cruise on Feb. 5th.

[scienceteacher]

Let us know if you have any specific questions about this cruise or the Coral Princess.

 

Thank you for the fabulous review. We are planning our cruise for Oct 2015.

[Kerry&LuAnn]

We are planning our cruise for Oct 2015.

 

You won't be disappointed! We had always assumed that the "full transit" cruise between Ft. Lauderdale and Los Angeles was the only way to truly experience the Panama Canal. But we discovered that the "partial transit" with the excursion through the remaining portion of the Canal by ferry boat was an outstanding experience.

[Gogoddess5]

You won't be disappointed! We had always assumed that the "full transit" cruise between Ft. Lauderdale and Los Angeles was the only way to truly experience the Panama Canal. But we discovered that the "partial transit" with the excursion through the remaining portion of the Canal by ferry boat was an outstanding experience.

 

 

Thanks for the detailed review! I have highlighted some of your tips and will surely have them with me this March - when my friends and I embark on the same journey.

[binbali]

We are doing the Panama Cruise with Coral Pricess LA/Miami in September and would like to do the Ship Tour.

Did you do this and do you know the cost and if it is worth it.

Also is there a bar at the back of the boat?

 

Thank you for a informative report.

[mort1305]

Thank you so much Kerry & LuAnn for the review, it brought back some amazing memories as both my wife and I undertook the cruise on the Coral Princess from L.A to Pt Everglades back in September last year. I can totally agree with you about the port lecturer Chris Roberts, he has a wealth of knowledge especially regarding the Panama Canal.

 

This is a must cruise for ALL who would want to see the Panama Canal up close.

[Jetswdo]

In the self service laundry areas, has the Coral switched to swiping your cruise card for tokens to be used in the machines? (Had this system on the Royal)

 

Or does the Coral still use quarters in the machines? A few older reviews mentioned quarters, but this may have changed by now.

 

We will be on the Coral for the now 10 day Partial next Dec/Jan -- (annoyed that there won't be a full day in Aruba) Anita

[WillingToBeDazzled]

Thanks for posting so many details of this cruise in your review! What a great help, even though our particular cruise will begin in LA and end in Ft. Lauderdale on the same ship. We've never been on a Princess cruise -- only Celebrity. There seem to be many similarities. Thanks, again!

[scienceteacher]

Fantastic review! We will be taking this cruise in October, 2015'

[TracieABD]

I have saved this thread, as it is quite possibly one of the most detailed accounts of travel through the Panama Canal. I am quite certain it will come in handy one of these days!

 

Thank you!

[deborahjo]

We will be on the Coral for our first Princess Cruise in September to Alaska. Thank you for letting us know so much about the ship.

[calikid50]

Just booked this cruise for early Nov this year; thanks for the detailed review!

[hpeabody]

WOW! What an excellent review. I will do this cruise late October as a make up for my failed attempt a couple years ago. The day was a total wash out. Saw nothing but raindrops through the glass in the HC. It was horrible. It was the worst storm and flood damage in Colon of the century. The stranded photographers sent photos to the ship and they were put on display. Terrible damage in Colon. We sat on Gatun Lake for about 8 hours and did not move until it was our assigned time to go back through. I was so disappointed :mad: I am giving it another try.

[mort1305]

In the self service laundry areas, has the Coral switched to swiping your cruise card for tokens to be used in the machines? (Had this system on the Royal)

 

Or does the Coral still use quarters in the machines? A few older reviews mentioned quarters, but this may have changed by now.

 

We will be on the Coral for the now 10 day Partial next Dec/Jan -- (annoyed that there won't be a full day in Aruba) Anita

 

We were on the Coral in Sept/Oct last year and we had to swipe our cruise card to obtain the laundry tokens

[OSUZorba]

Thank you for the review. If you don't mind me asking, how much was the ferry through the remainder of the canal?

[MTJSR]

Excellent review! very very well written.

[cruisinderek]

OK, I'm hooked, It is time for the 2016/2017 schedule to come out so I can book.

[kennicott]

Very good review. We just completed somewhat the same on the Coral, beginning on January 03. We really enjoyed the shore excursions, to bad the swell was "so bad" the captain chose not to port in Costa Rico. We had been through the canal in 1991, going east to west and saw only what you can see from a ship, no stopping. This time it was much better, we did a partial transit, went through the three segments of the Gatun Locks into Gatun Lake where they put many of us ashore. Then we took a bus back to the Gatun Locks where we did a tour of the lock operation close up. Afterward, we got on a train, in a dome car, and traveled through the rain forest and along side the canal at times all the way to the Pacific at Panama City. When doing that our ship went back through the locks and docked at Colon. We took a bus back to Colon and sailed back into the Caribbean about 7:00 PM that night. Hope the Main Dining Room (MDR) on Princess improves by next fall when we board the Caribbean Princess in Quebec City. Last September on the Royal Princess the MDR was marginal but not as bad as we just experienced. Here is my assessment of the ship itself:

 

"Coral Princess in the Caribbean----The Good, Bad and the Ugly.

 

Really like the layout of this ship and enjoyed the cruise with one big noticeable exception, so sad since we are close to achieving 600 days of sailing.

 

VERY GOOD:

 

---We found the Coral Princess to be a vessel I really like, particularly the decor throughout most of the public space and lounges, sea and marine pictures everywhere, dark rich oak beams and molding backed up with lighter backgrounds. I'm tired of pastels and nonsensical modern art hung everywhere on ships. Excellent lounges, lots of room with rich furniture where peace and quiet is found, which makes it a simple enjoyment just to sit and relax in one. Also, super is the abundance of getaway nooks and crannies throughout the ship. The passenger to space ration is great but actually is even better than the numbers suggest. Nice to have some elbow room for a change, for instance the three elevator and stair towers were not ever crowded, even during the first boarding day. Contrast this to the new Royal Princess, where the stairway towers were claustrophobic with consistently long elevator waits; for instance a midship public stair case is non existent. Maybe Princess should begin having the French build and design their ships (Coral) rather than Italians (Royal). Like the good old days of yore, the Coral has a complete wrap around teak promenade deck, fairly wide in many stretches where old fashion reclining deck chairs are provided. The two level Lotus Spar area is great at no extra charge, two well heated hot tubs by the pool and lots of quiet areas above and below, to read and relax in.

 

GOOD:

 

---The specialty restaurants, particularly Sabatini's, but also the Bayou Cafe and its special "Crab Shack" luncheon were exquisite. Meals in these venues, which you pay extra for, represent top of the line gourmet dining. Well staffed by knowledgeable and friendly personnel and your dining experience takes place in a wonderful, quiet, well decorated environment. Unfortunately, the main dining room(s), are not so good, stink.

 

---Ample public hot tubs, five in all, the three by the main pool though were usually a little on the cool side and occasionally youngsters using them as swimming pools was not good.

 

---We had a mini-suite, nice decor and fairly large balcony on deck nine. Our cabin attendant was pretty good and very amenable and friendly even though he was probably burden by way too many cabins to service which often does not translate into fine personal service. Complimentary laundry service was excellent.

 

---Staff, for the most part were very friendly all over the ship and tried to help, whatever the need or problem. Unfortunately, some areas like in the main dining room, were grossly understaffed.

 

---Horizon Court, the main buffet area had adequate seating, unlike on the new larger ships, Regal and Royal. Food was mediocre but the friendly and helpful staff partially made up for lack of exceptional quality food. In this case the buffet did not appear to be understaffed, so, in all, it made for a worthwhile dining experience. In fact, out of frustration we abandoned using the Main Dining Room and chose this venue for dinner instead whenever we decided not to eat in the specialty restaurants.

 

---TV--Nice to have MSNBC and BBS and not just FOX News--One of the things we like about Princess they understand not all guests are cut out of the same political persuasion cloth.

 

---Internet and library--Very fast and ample bandwidth and easy to use, staffed by an internet guy who knows his stuff. Wish the rates were lower but then, not all that bad if you are an elite like we are as you get some free time plus a good deal on more time if you buy it the first day or so. Library is very large for the size of ship, perfect layout for an exploration type voyaging ship.

 

---Interdenominational Church Services---Two Sunday services on sea days this voyage. Really enjoyed both, thanks so much for the opportunity to fellowship, Princess.

 

---Enrichment lectures---One of the things I like best about cruising is the theme lecturers the three lines we frequent usually have on board. Princess used to be super great at this, slipping a little though as of late. During this cruise they had---Dr. Dean Papavassiliou, an historical expert on the Caribbean as well as the famous Pacific navigators, his presentations brought on an impressive crowd. But the only other lecturer they had was a half retired airline captain---Captain Ted McCourt---His subject was not anywhere close to the theme of the voyage, so why was he there? Perhaps because everybody, almost, had to fly to get to or from the ship, so maybe it was an okay subject for some, attendance indicated few were interested though. For me, I was born and raised and made my career in the airplane game, so I found his lectures of interest. His creditability could be challenged from time to time due factual errors, but then subjects this complex are very hard to make a delivery on without making mistakes here and there. Other than that, I leaned a bit, would dearly have loved to hear a rebuttal though to some of his points as they were certainly argumentative. In short, his presentations were not ideally suited for the average cruiser booking this voyage. Only a few guests are airplane buffs, industry types and age old pilots like myself. Princes should have put on another cruise specific lecture, instead.

 

BAD:

 

---Theater, okay for daytime lectures, I attended many in the theater, but that is it. For evening shows, count us out. No balcony but good steep stadium seating, unfortunately all isles have only two stairways so that those wanting to sit in the higher levels at mid-theatre had to tip-toe past up to 12 already seated if they were caught having to work into the middle of a row. First comers for the evening shows usually showed up very early, then they took the isle seats and were generally "very" reluctant to even standup in order to allow somebody else to occupy a vacant seat beyond them in the same isle. One nice feature was the little tables on each seat which pulled up, sort of like some first class airline seats do, don't know what they were there for though unless you brought your own drink, no service and hard to get to if there were waiters. All in all, for the big shows, the theater was terrible, we never did take in a top line performance due to this jumble, too bad as some shows were pretty good, we were told.

 

---Over the last 15 months we have been on 5 cruises counting this one, Regent, HAL, Princess, Regent, Princess, 115 sailing days. 5 captains. Coincidentally, on each voyage unique circumstances developed, such as man overboard one time, un-commanded turn on another requiring emergency reverse thrust and dropping the anchor to avoid hitting the beach, etc. The situation was somewhat the same on this voyage as a lady went missing for the better part of a day, the crew scoured the vessel, of course all passengers were aware due all the announcements asking her to call. Turned out she had been hiding. Anyway, except for this captain, the other four captains were exemplary in their efforts to familiarize the guests with all developments thusly reducing the anxiety factor, such as occurred in this instance which originated over concern for a fellow passenger. This captain was anything but a plethora of information. A day after the lady was found the ships grapevine made everybody aware she had not went overboard. On other occasions the captain would come on and attempt to explain what was going on with missed ports, etc. but most often one had to read between the lines in order to figure out what he wanted to say and what had happened. Very nice person if you meet him at a Captain's Circle event but he needs to do a lot of work on articulation and diplomacy. Perhaps, put him under the tutelage of the captain who commanded the Royal Princess in September 2014, for a stint.

 

---Princess has now completely adopted the business model of all the large mainstream cruise lines, we are witnessing what is either going to be the success or the degradation of this trend. From a profit motive standpoint it is likely to last. The concept leans toward building more and more very large vessels. The Royal Princess is 3.5 times the size of the Titanic and can hold 4610 passengers, the Coral, about 2000, to procure a vessel like these huge investment dollars are required. In order to fill up these ships most lines have adopted a policy of getting passengers on board for a very low initial fee. Then charging extra for just about everything except the basic stateroom and food served in the main dining rooms and the buffet areas, also there are pizzerias and hamburger grills with no extra charge. The ships function more or less like large floating resorts, with all sorts of premium type restaurants and other meal venues where additional payments are required, not to mention all the boutiques and other retail outlets trying to sell you something. By cutting down the size of, quality of, and service within the main dining rooms and other no extra charge areas, guests are more or less forcibly channeled into the nickel and dime game.

 

UGLY:

 

----Up until this voyage the Main Dining Room (MDR) on Princess was still tolerable, this time though, either we experienced a fluke or cost cutting has caught up with Princess rendering their product in the MDR undesirable for us. We have never ran into a situation like this before even though the "hand writing was on the wall" that it was bound to come. In my opinion this results from understaffing of both service and kitchen personnel. Each time we tried to use the MDR we were told there was a 40 minute wait time. They gave us a pager, but on the three occasions we decided to carry on and eat in the MDR the wait was only 10-15 minutes, which was not a problem. We don't like traditional seating for a variety of reasons, one of which is we dislike being relegated to eating at either 5:30 PM or 7:45 PM., even if we secure a table for two. Normally nowadays we usually try to get there by 6:30 using anytime dining. Our principal problem(s) trying to eat dinner in the MDR was the lack of service and poor quality meals. For instance, there used to be a sommelier to take your wine order immediately after being seated, this practice gave way to no sommelier--instead, head waiters were given extra training in wine selection, then that gave way to what you have now, wine only if you are lucky enough to get someone's attention and forget about ordering a bottle to be carried over for the following evening, they will lose it for sure. You usually sit there waiting and watching a harried flurry of activity by the understaffed help forging a losing battle trying to keep up. Made dressing up in my tux on formal nights and trying to dine there a joke.

 

So, in order to continue enjoying the cruise we made do, by booking dinner in one of the excellent specialty restaurants on board whenever we felt inclined to really enjoy dinner, if not, simply going up to the Horizon Court buffet.

 

I have a theory that there will be a drift completely away from providing MDR service on the major cruise lines in the future. Instead cruisers will experience more of and larger specialty extra charge venues and expanded no extra charge buffet area service. We only use Princess, HAL and Regent. Regent being an all inclusive voyage, but ironically, the food and service in the specialty restaurants on HAL and Princess are much better than those on Regent which you can hardly ever get into due no extra charge. However, the MDR on Regent is far superior to those on HAL and Princess."

[sugartwin55]

Thanks so much for the wonderful description of your Panama cruise... I am cruising mid February and look forward to an exciting adventure!

[Lady Lexus]

Reminiscing and Anticipating

 

About 2 years ago I did the complete transit on the Coral from LA to Ft. Lauderdale. Transiting the Canal was awesome - knowing it was 100 years old and the history of its construction (David McCollough's "Path Between the Seas" should be required reading before this cruise.) Some of the ports are different on the full transit, but we did stop in Cartajena which absolutely fascinated me. The harbor is incredible. This is where the Spanish assembled the convoys of gold-treasure ships before sending them to Spain. The city and fort were reminiscent of San Juan. The fort is incredible.

 

I loved the ship - it's my current favorite. "On the Bayou" is my favorite show I've seen on a cruise ship. The ship's crew were pleasant and hard working. The lecturer was excellent, and Bertie in Crooners was delightful.

 

Now to anticipating. I'm lucky enough to be sailing on this wonderful ship again. I will be doing an Alaska land/sea tour on her this August.