Not my favorite

Coral Princess Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Coral Princess

10 Night Panama Canal Partial Transit (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 05, 2016

Ship: Coral Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: D606

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Very disappointed based on past 5 cruises.  My first Princess cruise, however. Felt the cruise line was far more interested in getting more money out of me than pleasing me with a cruise.  Lines for dinner for "Anytime dining" were ridiculous!  Food in Horizon was very poor but OK in the Dining area.  Dining was VERY slow, plan for 2 hours. Spa was not well managed as I would make an appointment with the Doctor and they would not write it down and she would not know.  When I arrived  they would tell me to sit in the room and never tell the Doctor I was there. I waited 30 to 45 minutes until she would happen to walk by.  She told me she did not know I was there.  I believe her.  The daily activities were lame!  The hall ceilings on the 9th floor were leaking and thus the hall was musty.  The Madre d'  at dinner was so rude I asked him if we were doing something wrong.  We missed our port in Costa Rica, but not their fault. Dr.Miya (sp) was exceptional!!!  I used about 1/2 cup of water out of a large bottle of water in my room, and they replaced the bottle and gave me a bill the first day.I chased my Stewart down and told him that was unacceptable.  I ordered some cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack before I went on vacation, and they came at dinner time. I had heard good things about the Princess line so I questioned my many dinner companions since they differed each meal.  All agreed that this was the poorest Princess Cruise they had ever experienced and not consistent with their past experiences.  They also felt the Horizon meals were terrible but we had to go sometimes as I figured one day I was in meals for 6 hours due to the slow service when I had 3 meals in the dining area that day.  It took me two days to figure out why I was unable to get a reservation between 5:30 and 7:30.  Anytime does not mean anytime, they block out he times between 5:30 AND 7:30 so it is not much different that a set seating meal time.  Very disappointed in my trip for sure!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

1 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
I thought my cabin was very good. I did ask about the lukewarm water showers and they were able to somehow give me some hot after that. I like very much the movies on TV as I watched them a great deal due to lack of activities while at sea.

Ship tip

One could die of dehydration unless they wanted to keep buying water from the ship. I could not believe there were No WATER stations on that ship except on 14 in the Horizon Dining area. I unfortunately was clear at the other end of the ship. I liked the work out area.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5
Way too short for considering it a stop. Took tour on horseback from outside tour, Amazing!

Cartagena, Colombia

5 out of 5

Panama Canal (Cruise Into Canal)

1 out of 5
What is to be exciting about?

Colon, Panama

5 out of 5
That was the most amazing guide I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. Show on TV said enactment, but yet were real in one case. Say that!

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

1 out of 5
Never say it!

George Town, Grand Cayman

5 out of 5
Went on Jet Ski trip on outside tour. Amazing!
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3 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

dogdoc2002    8 years ago

Was this the cruise following the dry dock? I read lots of posts on Cruise Critic with issues following the dry dock On a different note, anytime dining works line dining on land-you can go anytime you want, doesn't mean there won't be a line; just like a land based restaurant, there's peak times. We tend to dine after 7:30ish and can't remember ever waiting more than 5 minutes (3 Princess Cruises under our belt )

Bushwaker2013    8 years ago

Sorry to hear everything went wrong! We had a great Alaskan cruise on the Corral last summer. Couldn't ask for better out of the staff, thought the dining room dinners were good , didn't care a lot for lunch though. We didn't like any of the evening shows though, they seemed very hookie to us , like they where performed by just regular old crew. Embarking was amazing , while on a train.

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