Coral Princess 4/13/06 short review

[MikeDMess]

My Coral Princess 4/13/06 short review:

 

Ship: Have been on the grand class and Tahitian Princess. Thought the ship was very nice, great condition, other than embarkation day at the horizon court and tendering the ship never seemed crowded. Had cabin A217 and found the cabin location great. No noise from above, however, occasional clanking at night (elevator, or service area across the hall??). Cabin balcony had better size table than the one we had on the Diamond. Always found a place out on deck.

 

My peeves: Shower is too small, TV had bad picture, mattress uncomfortable (requested the foam which made it better).

 

Food: Found the food to be great 90 percent of the time. Did not receive good steaks this cruise-tough and overcooked most of the time. Breakfast buffet had great choices: always French toast, plain pancakes, and a special pancake every day such as blueberry, chocolate chip, etc.

 

My peeves: As a chocolate lover there's never a great plain chocolate cake. Found the desert choices unappealing. Room service forgot main items such as milk for cereal, syrup for pancakes.

 

Service: Excellent all the way ! Almost every crew member greats you with a genuine smile and hello. We had anytime dining and with the exception on one night had excellent service. On previous cruises we often felt rushed with anytime dining. On this cruise the pace was enjoyable. No pushy sales at the spa, or on deck from waiters.

 

My peeves: After being on 15 cruises I am getting tired of the photographers. It's OK to offer pictures, but they hold up lines. Examples: they slow embarkations and gangways with uninteresting backgrounds.

 

Tendering: Princess needs to do something about Cozumel tenders. The large tenders hold 100's of people and it takes too long to get on and off. Grand Cayman was not as bad but Princess should have 2 loading areas.

 

Excursion Don'ts: DO NOT DO THE TRAIN IN PANAMA. I think it is a waste of money to sit in an uncomfortable bus for over 1 hour riding to the visitor center to see a 10 minute video and then get whisked away to a train that takes your back to Colon with no real interesting scenery. I took this tour thinking it was a learning experience. I learned a lot from the Nova movie that ran in the Princess Theatre and the informative show on TV. By the time I got to Panama I knew more than I expected. Wish I did something else.

 

My peeves: After a disappointing excursion our ship was hours late to Colon. We walked around at the pier shopping but when the ship arrived it had only ONE gangway to embark. They did have a separate one to disembark, but they should have concentrated on getting the HUGE line of people on the ship. Too bad they can't dock at a better city. Colon is a dive. Limon is no better either. Too bad, these countries are beautiful.

 

Entertainment: Only one comedian (Sarge) was good. Only one dance show was good. I usually don't like the dance stuff ! All other entertainment shows and comedians were not to my taste.

 

Disembarkation Peeve: We placed our luggage out at about 12:30 am along with our friends next door (about 7 pieces in all) and the tags got ripped off and ended up in a "tagless area" The Princess people said it was kids fooling around. I think the crew was a little teed-off at the late people.

 

 

Some things I'd like to see Princess do:

 

Have non-smoking cabin areas so you can enjoy your balcony without having to breathe the smoke from your neighbor.

 

Have non-smoking deck areas too !

 

Have a comedy club with nightly stand up.

 

Overall had a great, relaxing cruise. Loved that the pools and Jacuzzis remain open late. No rowdy teens (very behaved). 10 days is perfect for me.