Coral Princess NB May 27, 2017

[WDWDVC]

We started planning for this cruise back in August of 2016. Since my husband and I were going to be on the Coral in late November, I didn't start "obsessing" about our Alaska cruise until January. We were traveling with another couple who hadn't cruised with Princess before and only once before several years ago on Carnival. We all decided to splurge and book Club Class minis. When we booked the AIBP was in effect which was a nice bonus.

 

By the beginning of May I started to worry that I'd built up my expectations so high that reality wouldn't live up to them. Wasted worrying as it was a wonderful adventure!

 

We originally planned on a three day land portion after the cruise, but fortunately our TA convinced us to do four so we could do the Tundra Wilderness tour rather than the Natural History one - so glad he did! But I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

We live in Georgia and made reservations to fly into Seattle the day before, get a rental car and drive to Vancouver Saturday morning. The cost of the rental car was steep given the one way and crossing the border into Canada. However, looking at the price of the shuttle times 4 we decided the convenience was worth it.

 

Our flight was leaving Savannah at 6:30 in the morning, which meant setting to alarm for 3:30! We got to the airport around 5:30 which should have been plenty of time - if it wasn't for TSA! The guy manning the x-ray didn't like something in my carry-on bag and pulled it to run it through again. Still didn't like it and set it aside for a manual check. At that time of the morning mud moves faster than they did! That adventure took a long time - so much so that I thought we were going to run up to the time they give away your seats. Meanwhile our friends were sitting on the plane wondering what they should do if we didn't show. Not nice to give someone heart palpitations at that time of the morning!

 

Thankfully our flights were uneventful and we arrived in Seattle shortly after noon. Easy pick up for our luggage and then it was on to the car rental place. We had debated on what kind of car to get for four people and luggage and decided on a mid-size SUV. After completing the paperwork we headed to the car and had a bit of a crisis. They gave us some sort of Jeep that maybe could have held two suitcases, but definitely not four! Fortunately they switched us out to a Ford Flex that ample room.

 

We stayed at a Hampton Inn about 3 blocks from the Space Needle, so after dropping off the suitcases that's where we headed. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time checking out the views from the top.

 

Once we were done there we headed to the Chihuly exhibit and stopped at their cafe for something to eat. Very interesting collections of all sorts of "stuff" decorated the ceiling, walls and display cases in the tables.

 

After touring the glass exhibits we realized that our early morning (and three hour time difference) was catching up with us, so we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[easyboy]

Very nice photos!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Colo Cruiser]

Nice!

[Tyskie]

Excellent photo of the Space Needle.

 

Following along:D

[AryMay]

Looking forward to your review...love the beautiful photos. You left Vancouver two days before our NCL Sun cruise ended there so it will be interesting to compare your weather at each port to what we experienced.

 

This was our 2nd Alaskan cruise. The first was same as what you did…NB on the Coral in 2014.

[WDWDVC]

Our travel day from Seattle went off without a hitch. Given that it was Saturday we waited at the border crossing for 30-40 minutes - seemed like forever! As I mentioned, we rented the car from Avis and they had a drop off in town a few blocks from the pier and they ran a shuttle so we didn't need to get a taxi. Once we at the pier we were directed here there and everywhere, or so it seemed. The only other ship leaving that day was a Holland America one. Glad we weren't on that one, as we passed their passengers sitting on folding chairs waiting for their turn to board.

 

Once on board the first order of business was dropping off our carry-on luggage in the stateroom. Our cabin steward was promptly by to introduce himself and make sure we didn't need anything. His name was Roland, never caught his last name - he was the nicest steward we've ever had. He always had a smile and welcome for us whenever he saw us. If I remember correctly, it was shortly after we boarded that they made an announcement that due to some mechanical work they were doing we were not going to be leaving at 4:30 and that it could take up to 4 hours more before we would be able to leave. We were at dinner when we sailed away so I don't know exactly what time we did depart. I did miss being up on deck for sail away though.

 

We spent the time between boarding and the muster drill to give our friends a tour of the ship. We were in B504 which is the backward facing mini-suite on the mid-ship bump out and they were in the forward facing one, B416. We really liked this location when we did the Panama Canal and we glad that we chose the same for this cruise.

 

There are so many things to like about the Coral - the size and ease of getting around being high on the list. We also like the fact that the buffet is at the front of the ship even though we didn't use it at all this trip. Our captain, Michele Tuvo, was a real gem! He spent a lot of time walking around the ship talking to passengers and made more announcements telling us what was going on than any other one we've had. At the end of each announcement he'd say "nevertheless bye-bye" which was picked up by the crew and passengers and you'd hear it said with him.

 

The Club Class dining was very enjoyable - we had great wait staff and the head waiter for our section was very personable. I don't know what the actual impact that section has on anytime dining as we usually do traditional dining. It was very pleasant to be able to get right in and seated. We usually ate somewhere between 6 and 7 and the section was always busy. It was also nice for breakfast so we went there every day as well.

 

Now on to the cruise...

[WDWDVC]

Sunday - May 28th - sea day

 

Really not a lot to say about this day outside of the fact that it was a very enjoyable one. It might be heresy to say this, but I'm not a sea day person. Given that, this day was nice because there were things to see on each side of the ship rather than open ocean.

 

We spent quite a lot of time either on the promenade deck or our cabin on the balcony taking in the scenery.

 

 

We did spend some time taking advantage of the casino as well - or should I say they took advantage of me!

 

This was the first formal night and thanks to a head's up from reading the CC boards we had purchased the photo package for $99. Now that was a deal! We stopped at one of the stations they had set up to have our pictures taken. By the end of the cruise we had 25 photos so we made out like bandits in that one!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

Ketchikan - Monday May 29th

 

The first of many wonderful, beautiful days!

 

I had been closely following the projected weather and was pleased to se the expected rain/ cloudy days being pushed out beyond our visit.

 

We didn't have any "must dos" in Ketchikan so our friends chose to do the Deadliest Catch excursion and we tagged along. Finding out what to do once we got ashore is my only real compliant about the cruise - and since it all worked out it really isn't much of one. There was no Princess person on shore to direct us where to go for the excursion. We picked a direction that looked the most promising and started walking. We finally found a person that worked at the port who confirmed we were walking the right direction. The boat we were going out on was moored next to the Norwegian Jewel, and when we got to the end of the walkway it looked like we needed to go down a ramp that lead to that ship. Found another person that confirmed we were going the right way - whew!

 

We went out on the Alusian Ballad

 

 

For me the highlight of the trip was seeing the bald eagles. They stopped at an area that is a roosting area for them and it was amazing! They threw out some fish that got them to fly out of the trees. There must have been around 40 of them. I took a video but I can't figure out how to post it - if I do I'll post it separately.

 

They fly so fast that even using sport mode they aren't totally in c

Focus.

 

We then cruised to an area where they have their pots set out.

 

 

Some of their stop were staged to guarantee they'd have something in their pots to show us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

More photos...

 

 

 

Once we got back to town we did a bit of walking around, but we ran out of time and needed to get back for all aboard at 1:30.

 

 

View of the Coral as we were heading back.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

Does anyone know how to access your videos to post using an I-pad?

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Beachiekeen]

Following! We leave next Saturday!

[jb008]

Does anyone know how to access your videos to post using an I-pad?

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

If the videos aren't too big, you can email them off the ipad and then access them on a computer. I think videos will need to be hosted somewhere and are too big to directly upload to cruisecritic. One option is to post them to youtube, then you have the option of doing a hidden link (link not searchable, so you have to provide people the direct link) or a public link (read:searchable). You could also host the files to a third party site, I've started using filedropper.com since it hosts big files and doesn't require registration to upload/download the files.

 

If the videos are big I usually do a direct upload to a cloud storage site like dropbox(dot)com or box(dot)com or if you have a mac it's fairly easy to directly download pic and video files using the MacOS built in 'image capture' program [unfortunately I don't know what the equivalent Win software, if any, would be]. I don't use iTunes so I can't offer any input on that.

 

If you set up a youtube account (or have one already) I also think the newer iOS software supports direct uploads from your device to youtube if you wanted to go that route.

 

I hope the above helps and thanks for sharing the writeup and the pictures. I was on the same sailing but different excursions so it's interesting to see what else was offered. You also got some beautiful pictures!

 

I wonder if there's a way to crowd source pictures of the trip for people to print. I exchanged emails with the cabin next door as they were shooting high speed high res photos with a DSLR and I'm drooling to see some of the shots they got.

[WDWDVC]

"I hope the above helps and thanks for sharing the writeup and the pictures. I was on the same sailing but different excursions so it's interesting to see what else was offered. You also got some beautiful pictures!"

 

Thanks! Most of what you said went right over my head regarding the videos ;p I was hoping there was an easy way to post a video going directly from the I-pad. I like how easy it is to access the photos and post and was hoping for an equally easy access for videos.

 

 

Glad to hear that you liked my pictures!

[Hdnwaters]

[quote=WDWDVC;53297445

 

Thanks! Most of what you said went right over my head regarding the videos ;p I was hoping there was an easy way to post a video going directly from the I-pad. I like how easy it is to access the photos and post and was hoping for an equally easy access for videos.

 

 

Glad to hear that you liked my pictures!

 

Thanks for posting! We were on the Coral the 20-27! We are ready to do it again. I would love to see the Chihuly Gass in Seattle! BTW...love your user name! I get it!

[MKMC]

How easy or difficult are the bathtubs in minisuites to get in and out of for taking a shower?

[WDWDVC]

How easy or difficult are the bathtubs in minisuites to get in and out of for taking a shower?

 

 

 

They are higher than a normal tub however there is a very sturdy towel bar to hold on to. I wasn't concerned about getting in, but the first time getting out did give me pause until I tried steadying myself to step out with the bar. Hope that helps! I imagine the shorter you are the harder it would be. My husband is a little over 6' so he didn't think anything of it.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

Thanks for posting! We were on the Coral the 20-27! We are ready to do it again. I would love to see the Chihuly Gass in Seattle! BTW...love your user name! I get it!

 

 

 

I would too in a heartbeat - so much else to see and do! Were you the cruise with a lot of rain?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

Juneau - Tuesday, May 30th

 

We chose to do the smaller group photo safari and whale watch excursion through Princess. The first part was a nature walk on the "Trail of Time"

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

Oops, wasn't suppose to send yet!

 

Our guide started out reviewing the settings on our cameras and had us try different ways to take photos of vegetation.

 

 

 

This is devils's claw - nasty stuff to land in!

 

We then came to a waterfall

 

The final stop on the walking portion was at Mendenhall Glacier

 

Lupines

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[WDWDVC]

We then loaded back in the van to head to the water. This is the boat we went out on

 

Shortly after getting on the boat I realized that I made a major err - I had forgotten to bring my telephoto lens. Consequently the following whale pictures are significantly cropped.

 

 

The original whale was joined by his buddy. They were in fairly shallow water lunge feeding.

 

 

We were joined by another boat from the same company.

 

In this last picture you can see the mist from a blow

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Hdnwaters]

I would too in a heartbeat - so much else to see and do! Were you the cruise with a lot of rain?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

 

We were in the storm that hit the Gulf of Alaska. Sail away from Whittier was beautiful but we ran into it during the early morning hours of the 21st. Heavy rain, high seas, & gale force wind! It was an experience for sure. We had beautiful weather from Skagway down to Vancouver.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums