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Princess Cruise Line

MS Coral Princess

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Rob Thomas
# previous cruises: 5
Date of Trip: November 28, 2003
Itinerary: Transcanal

This was by far the best of my five cruises. The ship itself made the difference. Even though the ship was completely booked, we found there was always a lot of room. Even by the pool, if you didn't get front row seats there was always room up top. never felt crowded like I have on others.

The public areas were perfect! The lounges were spacious and nicely hidden away so you weren't passing through them to get to other places on the ship. Very classy also. We particularly enjoyed the Crooner Lounge with Barty Barrington for the singers inside us! The Universe Lounge was something to behold. I only wish they had more of the 'broadway' type shows there... Although the Princess Theater was also spectacular. I liked the way they put the casino out of the way also. I have been on ships where they try to make the casino the biggest feature, having to pass it to get to almost anywhere. Not on the Coral. The pools were always accessible, and there's a lot of them! We particularly enjoyed the basketball and shuffleboard courts and never had a problem getting on. The 9 hole mini-golf was a little hard to find but worth the search for sure! The promenade was always busy with walkers but again, we never felt crowded once.

Although Princess offers Personal Choice Dining, we still prefer a scheduled first sitting. This time (due to a mixup with our Travel agent) we were booked in the second seating by mistake. This caused no problem as the staff had us switched before the second evening. Very accommodating. The food itself was the best of all 5 ships I've been on! I've always said for entertainment, take Princess... for food, take Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. Well, The Coral took top prize for both this time! And the Buffet's at the Horizon Court (pretty much 24 hour) were the best virtually every day! I think one day we came out and said "that was a little plain!" But on a 10 day cruise, that has to happen once! The extra fare restaurants... Sabithinis (wrong spelling) was a little to overboard (excuse the pun)! For $20.00 extra per person you could literally eat 'all night long' if you wish! A little to much for us! The New Orleans style Bayou was brilliant! For $7.00 each you really got treated to some of the finest cajun food around! Worth the fare. But, then again, every meal we had in the main dining room was everything you could ask for. So, 5 stars to the food crew on The Coral Princess for sure.

We splurged! I can only comment on the Mini-suite. We wanted a bath-tub so we had to get a MS, but it was worth every penny!! Not only was the tub bigger than the one in our house, the entire room was very spacious. We even entertained two nights to show it off! The private balcony was plenty big for us to enjoy all our breakfasts and many evening drinks on! It was also perfect for those times you wanted to get away from the deck and just sunbath in the comfort of your own room. Lots of closet and drawer space too. All in all, I would highly recommend the Mini-suite.

We attended every single show on board. That's our favorites thing. We were expecting to have to get to the shows early and we were right!! You really had to be in a seat from 30 - 45 minutes before show time. But hey, there's a server right there to get your after dinner drink and a little pull out table at every seat so, expect it and enjoy it! Once the entertainment started you were riveted to your seat for the full hour! We enjoyed the singers, comedians, ventriloquist, magic show, (you get my drift) but most of all, The Princess own production shows were amazing! All four of them were equally as good. Princess Must really pride themselves on the hiring of their performers because they were all very accomplished singers, actors and dancers. We loved every show.

We're not really up on the ports. We like to get off at each stop and do our own thing. We enjoyed Cozumel and Jamaica, we didn't see Grand Cayman at all because of windy conditions which was a shame. Limon was fine but the real thrill of this trip for us was the round-trip passage through the Gauton Lake locks of the Panama Canal! I highly recommend to everybody to see this at least once in their travelling career! It is truly a marvel of science and engineering... and also good old elbow grease!! We spend a lot of time on the ship when we are in port. That's a great time to take advantage of all the facilities as they all stay open.

This is not a young crowd I must say! We are in late forties and early fifties and we found plenty of great people but you have to make your own party if you plan to be out much after midnight! Don't get me wrong, the cruise staff will stay up with you until you're ready to quit but it is, for the most part, a quiet ship after the second show ends. Not that there's anything wrong with that! In general, again I say this is the nicest ship I have been on and would highly recommend it to everybody. (Feel free to E-mail for more views or information.)