Live-ish -- Dec 20 Thru Jan 5 South America/Antarctica on Coral Princess

[martinitime1]

16 minutes ago, hllwdcruiser said:

Following along. I'm really looking forward to reading your semi live. We were booked on a now cancelled Enchanted Transatlantic for '21 and am searching for a replacement since none of the other TAs work for us. We were on the Coral in Alaska and so far it is my favorite ship. We were in a standard balcony on the Emerald deck as well - the last one all the way aft, port side. 

We were booked on the same cruise and the Discovery option was just too late, even if she sails on time in 11/2021. We ended up (as well as two other couples were coordinating with) booking the Celebrity APEX for 10/29 Barcelona>Spain>Portugal>Canary Isl>FL. Would have rather stayed with Princess however, the APEX will be very different vibe, booked Aqua Class. Never been on a Celebrity cruise before.

[erber]

Speaking of transatlantic cruises, we currently are booked on one from Southampton to New York, going to Greenland, Iceland, and several Canandian ports in July 2020. It is on the Island. I know the Island has been remodeled and many public viewing areas are gone, as is wrap around promenade deck. And there is no International Cafe. But, we are hoping to go due to the interesting ports. We shall see. Trying to do all those bucket list trips! 

[gottagocit]

It sounds like your first formal night is tonight which would have been the day you visited Montevideo had the seas not been so rough. Is that correct? If so was this evening going to be a formal night regardless or was it moved up a day?  It’s typically on a sea day. 
 

We are also on the Jan 21 sailing out of BA and this will be our first trip on the Coral. With the international cafe adjoining the casino have you found it smoky?
 

Was the first lecture about Antarctica? Was it informative and interesting? 
 

What movies a being shown a thread MUTS?

 

Thanks for starting and updating this thread,

Chris

 

[erber]

Tonight  was always scheduled to be the first formal night. Captain Welcome dinner menu posted below.  

 

No smoke noticed the times we have gone to the international cafe, but we have gone when casino was relatively empty. My husband said he noticed in papers we received in our room upon  boarding that there are restrictions on which areas in casino you can smoke. We don't smoke and don't use the casino so I can't tell you more about that. I posted the coffee menu below. 

 

As for MUTS,  I do know there was a Shania Twain concert mid-day the first day and Spiderman Homecoming yesterday during the day after they updated the patter due to unexpected sea day. Today there is NFL football at 3:30 and 6:30 pm on MUTS (and on channel 41 stateroom TV).  I'll try to pay attention and post the movies on MUTS as they are posted in the patter. The selection on TV for movies has not been notable so far. There will be movies on Universe Lounge during the day some days as well. I'll try to post those if I remember.

 

Shows in theater or Universe Lounge (depending on the show) include Motor City, Encore, On the Bayou, and I think Do you Want to Dance. 

 

We have not watched the Antarctica lectures yet. We opted to skip them live and watch on our tv tomorrow. There were 3 different ones (all on Antarctica) today with 3 different naturalists. 

 

We went to afternoon tea today. Well attended. Delicious. Live keyboard music. 

 

I'm the piazza there are some holiday displays. I posted the main display. 

 

Also posted a view from our room looking out towards balcony window. 

 

That's all for now. 

[hllwdcruiser]

2 hours ago, martinitime1 said:

We were booked on the same cruise and the Discovery option was just too late, even if she sails on time in 11/2021. We ended up (as well as two other couples were coordinating with) booking the Celebrity APEX for 10/29 Barcelona>Spain>Portugal>Canary Isl>FL. Would have rather stayed with Princess however, the APEX will be very different vibe, booked Aqua Class. Never been on a Celebrity cruise before.

 

We are looking at Celebrity too - at the Reflection TA.  We've never sailed on Celebrity either but now I am taking my time and looking at all different options on Princess. We got such a great deal on the transatlantic with the BSE - so far nothing is coming close. 

[hllwdcruiser]

2 hours ago, erber said:

Speaking of transatlantic cruises, we currently are booked on one from Southampton to New York, going to Greenland, Iceland, and several Canandian ports in July 2020. It is on the Island. I know the Island has been remodeled and many public viewing areas are gone, as is wrap around promenade deck. And there is no International Cafe. But, we are hoping to go due to the interesting ports. We shall see. Trying to do all those bucket list trips! 

 

Looking at photos of the Island, it looks as though the Emerald Deck still has that public aft balcony (I may be wrong, in which case I am sure I will be corrected!) And it still will have a much better promenade deck as compared to the Royal Class. I'm sure it's going to be an amazing cruise!

[Gracie115]

I'm so glad you are posting live on this cruise!  We are booked at the end of 2020 on the same cruise so look forward to anything and everything you have to share about the trip, the ship and the ports!!!

 

 

[erber]

They already delivered the patter for tomorrow. I will post it now. There are three more lectures tomorrow on Antarctica. We need to catch up and watch the three from today! Yikes. 

 

You can see movies etc. listed in the patter. Judy is the movie featured on MUTS tomorrow night. 

 

[gottagocit]

Great info.
Thanks for answering my questions and posting the patters while enjoying your vacation. 

[gottagocit]

Was the Princess shuttle able to bring you directly to the boarding area of the cruise terminal in BA? I believe I’ve read it’s more of a commercial shipping port and a shuttle may be required from taxi & bus drop off/pickup area to the ship loading area and wasn’t sure if that was accurate. 

I believe you wrote you were in the dining room by 12:30 for lunch and that the shuttle left the airport at around 10:30 am. Sounds like you had little to no wait for boarding. is that the case?
 

Our scheduled departure isn’t until 7:00 pm I believe. What time was yours?
I’ve been a little curious if embarkation would be a little later than usual given our departure time but that may not be the case. 
 

thank again,

Chris 

[erber]

Since my husband is watching football, I am able to respond....now....( Dinner and then the late show will be in an hour). 

 

We left the airport shortly after 10:30 a.m. on a Princess transfer bus to the port. Our large piece of luggage was transfered directly from airport by porters to the ship so we didn't see it after we checked in with princess until it got to our room around 3:00 p.m. 

 

The port is very industrial. We were dropped off at a port terminal and had to walk a ways into the terminal area. We waited for a while until we were called to check in. Then we did so and  got our cruise cards. We were required to turn passports in to Princess employees.  We then were told to walk to get the  port shuttle to the ship. It was a short drive  to the ship. It was a fairly smooth process, although I have not been to a port where a shuttle was required after check in. 

 

Our scheduled departure was 5:00 pm. Muster drill was at 4:15. 

[foodsvcmgr]

Thanks for your detailed reports and photos.

Very helpful and informative for us sailing the South America itinerary in two months.

[foodsvcmgr]

Thanks for your detailed reports and photos.

Very helpful and informative for us sailing the South America itinerary in two months.

[foodsvcmgr]

Thanks for your detailed reports and photos.

Very helpful and informative for us sailing the South America itinerary in two months.

[foodsvcmgr]

Thanks for your detailed reports and photos.

Very helpful and informative for us sailing the South America itinerary in two months. Hope you get to Bluff Cove, we are also booked there.

[gottagocit]

24 minutes ago, erber said:

Since my husband is watching football, I am able to respond....now....( Dinner and then the late show will be in an hour). 

 

We left the airport shortly after 10:30 a.m. on a Princess transfer bus to the port. Our large piece of luggage was transfered directly from airport by porters to the ship so we didn't see it after we checked in with princess until it got to our room around 3:00 p.m. 

 

The port is very industrial. We were dropped off at a port terminal and had to walk a ways into the terminal area. We waited for a while until we were called to check in. Then we did so and  got our cruise cards. We were required to turn passports in to Princess employees.  We then were told to walk to get the  port shuttle to the ship. It was a short drive  to the ship. It was a fairly smooth process, although I have not been to a port where a shuttle was required after check in. 

 

Our scheduled departure was 5:00 pm. Muster drill was at 4:15. 

Awesome!  Thanks.

Enjoy your evening. 

[foodsvcmgr]

Thanks for your detailed reports and photos.

Very helpful and informative for us sailing the South America itinerary in two months. Hope you get to Bluff Cove, we are also booked there.

[lorri111]

Thank you so much for all this info and especially for the patters. We will be following in your footsteps Jan 21. Was surprised to hear about Montevideo, didn't even consider not being able to get there but fingers crossed for Falklands. Enjoy your trip and please keep up the posts when you can!

[erber]

This photo speaks for itself.  

 

We had dinner in buffet and now my husband is eating a piece of pizza and we are of course watching football before we walk down to theater. Show starts in 40 minutes.

Edited December 22, 2019 by erber

[ridgerunner51]

Thank you for doing this!  Will you be on this ship over New Year's?

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by ridgerunner51
Update reply.

[jrblach]

thanks so much. we look forward to all of your posts. we join the ship Jan 5 and then stay on it Jan 21 for two  B2B cruises. we figure this gives us extra chances at seeing everything since weather can be a problem down there.

[erber]

Sat in second row for Motor City. A few photos attached. Theater was not full, but was relatively full in the entire middle section. We got there 15 minutes early. We could have gotten there right before it started. 

 

Yes, we will be on the ship on New Year's. This cruise ends January 5th. 

 

For those of you who care about football, so far NFL games are on stateroom TV either channel 41 or 42 depending on the game. 

  

[cecimar]

On 12/21/2019 at 6:34 PM, foodsvcmgr said:

Sorry you are missing Montevideo.

I know Falklands and the other tender ports can be questionable with winds or seas but had not heard of missing docked ports on this itinerary.

Is this common?

 

I live in BA so I can answer this question. It is not that common, but every now and then  there is a storm and south-east wind, which we call Sudestada. As a result, the Rio de la Plata - River Plate- can be really rough. This is what happened on Friday/Saturday.

 

The weather has also been unusually cold in Buenos Aires  for December in the last two or three days. For those of you worried about what clothes to take, it can be much much hotter in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. You'll need to take all sorts of clothes.

 

If there were cruisers who stayed in Montevideo and were planning to board the ship again when it  returned to Uruguay yesterday, they are going to have a very hard time trying to catch the cruise in Port Stanley, as there is only one flight on Saturdays flying from Punta Arenas. I feel sorry for them. 

[lorri111]

Can I ask what nights your formal nights are on? - should be listed on front of first days Patter I think.

[erber]

I did not save the first day's patter or take pictures of it.  I will post as I find out the other days. I do know there are a total of 3 formal nights on this cruise., The first being tonight.