Coral Princess April 26 - May 18

[jericho2009]

Hi - Don't know if anyone has reported out on this cruise but I thought I'd give a "brief" debrief. Set sail from LA on April 26th heading towards the Panama Canal with 5 scheduled stops in Mexico - of course these did not happen. Princess did add two new ports - San Juan del Sur and San Diego to try and make up for it.

What did we think of the change in schedule? We loved it. I know there were some disappointed people on board that had never done this cruise before so they were really looking forward to the Mexican ports, but for us, we found this to be one of the most relaxing cruises we have ever taken. For the most part, passengers took the disappointment pretty well - there were, however, some who were extremely upset. It is so unfortunate as they ruined there own vacation. With all the sales going on, I wonder if it would helped if Princess had offered 25% off a future cruise? I did notice that the people that were most vocal about the issue at the Lido Pool were first time cruisers with Princess - Princess won't be getting any repeat business from these folks.

Anyway, the weather was great and the Panama Canal never disappoints. Costa Rica was a treat, Nicaragua was extremely hot but beautiful and the shopping in Guatemala is something everyone should experience once! We spent hours and hours sitting on our balcony watching the ocean - it is so relaxing. We were treated to several dolphin shows, a couple of sharks, one very large sea turtle and lots of flying fish.

This was our first time with the new dining room menu and we loved it. The portions are much smaller so you don't feel so guilty about wasting food. We only sent our food back once and that was because we were being adventurous and tried something different - didn't work out too well!!

The trip from LA back to Vancouver was pretty smooth. I swear the average age of a passenger dropped by about 40 years on this leg. There were lots of families returning from Disneyland!

So that's it. Back to work to pay for the next cruise in September - Island Princess - Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale!

Cheers.

Cindy