Coral Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The service on the cruise was great.  Our waiter Eugene and his assistance Nino took care of us at the Provence dining room table 183 each night with exceptional service.

Also our cabin Steward Danny made our cabins C531 and 527 better than being at home.

The cruise ship was clean, friendly and the shows very entertaining.  

The execursions were well organinzed specially the Costa Rica rain forest excursion.

However the Jamaica Dunn's fall excursion was the least favorable because it was not well organized and entire environment and people running the place seem to be too over bearing to make money from the tourinsts.

My husband and I had not cruised on Princess for about 10 years. We were saddened by the "dumbing down" of many of our experiences. First of all the constant hawking of spa treatments, photos, wine, beer and jewelry became very annoying. The food was good but not great. I know that the kitchen is capable of wonderful things but it seems as if  spices and herbs as well as plain old salt and pepper were eliminated or tponed down. Surely the palates of the passengers are not that bland and inexperienced. We attended the cheffs table and it was MARVELOUS. The flavors were rich and adventurous. I would do it again in a heartbeat if I were given the opportunity.

I noticed many places on the ship that are rusted and in need of touching up. Likewise the windows on the Wheelhouse Cafe are filthy.It seemed as if many details of maintainance that had been looked after previously had been unattended. Perhaps a Staff cut ?

The library is filled with wonderful books; however they are always locked up except for the strange and erratic hours that someone shows up to sit in the librarian's chair and unlock the book cases. The books are equipped with an alarm system that will go off inthe event of accidentally removing one fron the ship, Why not have an honor syste?. I was very glad that I had preloaded my Kindle before I left home

Our goal was to experience the Panama Canal which we were able to do. Costa Rica and the hacienda we visited was an unexpected bonus. It was a good trip. It was not a great trip.

Small ship (to be able to go thru the locks) but very comfortable and well maintained.

There was a lecturer (Dr Dean) onboard who gave insights on all of our port calls. Expecially good explanation and history of locks as we were passing thru.

Best food I've had on any cruise line. The desserts (and I don't eat desserts) were outstanding.

Nice productions and a lot of choices of what you would like to see/hear.

My only complaint is that the casino was very small and very tight. Brought most of my play money back home.

i really enjoyed being on the cruise the ship was nice, the entertainment was good, room service and accommodation was satisfactory but the food was not up to par , there was not enough choices .i was unable to get all the photoes i wanted due  to the cost, i was looking foward to see costo rico.

The only minor complint I have is about how the gratuity system is done.  It is too impersonal.  My wife and decided to give additinal monies to our waiters an cabin stewart because the service was very good.

This Princess cruise was delightful.  The crew, from officers to deck hands, were friendly, made eye contact, and made sure we were enjoying the trip.  We enjoyed all the ports we visited, and really loved the activities on sea days.  Our anytime dining allowed us to meet a variety of fellow passengers while we enjoyed the food.  Production shows thrillled, as did other specialty performers.  There was a wide variety of musical entertainment opportunities, including a volunteer passenger pops choir that performed the last night aboard.  

The experience was mixed. The food was not uniformly good as some meals were excellent and some very poor.  Fopr example, the veal was disgusting and the Beef Wellington was one of the best meals I ever had.

Entertainment by the crew was superb but the ports were just another way of taking money from tourists who were anxious to overpay for unnecessary items.

We did not like the crowds and found the land tours advertising to be confusing.

Most people to whom we talked liked the cruise experience but we are just not cruise peole.

The service in the dinning room and buffet is good!

In the buffet room, the servicemen/servicewomen took a

good care of the guests. They serve drinks for guests at their tables

as soon as they sit down or when their cups are almost empty. I like it!

For Show Time, if there are more singers and dancers it will be perfect to me.

Food in the cafeteria was marginal at best. Dr. Thomas Ryan needs to be replaced with someone more knowledgeable and less sarcastic. I know men and women in  the Peace Corp who gave up 2 years of their life would not like being referred to as :kiddies over and over again.

Great room, the mini suite with balcony..... Despite rain every day, the shipboard experience was great. We ate in the Bayou Grill one night, and it was well worth the cover charge.

The cruise itself and the staff everywhere were absolutely wonderful. But the goofballs who outlined our itinerary on the Princess website (Cruise Personalizer) clearly told us to to go the Egan Center to leave our luggage and pick up our bus. When we got to the Egan Center, a piece of paper on the door said "Princess now boarding at Dena'ina Convention Center." After a five block walk in the rain, we found out that Princess had been using the Dena'Ina Convention Center for their drop off and bus service for eight weeks! What cruise line can't fix an internet itinerary in eight weeks? Unbelievable. I repeat, great cruise, wonderful staff, but featured a really bad beginning to the cruise brought about by total incompetence.

This was our sixth cruise, first to Alaska and second on the Coral Princess. We choose this Alaska cruise because of the itinerary and because we had sailed on Coral several years ago through the Panama Canal. The ship has been upgraded since our last cruise. The casino is smaller but they added a dessert/coffee cafe in its place. In my opinion a great idea. I loved the casino and its size was appropriate and never felt crowded. The cafe had free desserts or sandwiches and premium coffees etc that you paid for. It was a nice place to hang out between shows or for a late night or afternoon snack. Alaska is gorgeous and you get to appriciate the landscape that has had little influence from people. It is very remote, rugged and isolated. We saw whales and other wildlife. The big difference in Alaska and the Carribibean is that on an Alaska cruise you always have something to see outside the ship. We skipped the main dining room a couple of nights so we could watch the scenery and whales. Best cruise experiance we have had. Great food, entertainment and service.

This cruise was something my father wanted to do for many years (he is 92). It turned out to be one that we all enjoyed. The staff was amazing and we all felt we had the best room steward. The food was excellent and the ship was always clean. I was happy to find it wasn't a big ship since my father has limited mobility and it made getting around the ship much easier. I will say that the staff was always very helpful and accommodating which made my father feel less of a burden (that was his fear). We were able to find shore excursions that my father could take but for the most part, we were a little disappointed in the areas closest to the ports. Aruba was the only port we all agreed was attractive and fun (even though we came to port on a holiday when the majority of businesses were closed). The entertainment on the ship lacked, with the exception of their staff talent show which was the best show of the entire trip. One thing was evident, Princess did an excellent job hiring, their staff was great, always happy, ready to meet your needs and interesting when engaged in conversation!

We have gone on two cruises with Princess in the past year. They were both in the Caribbean. However, the Panama Cruise was much more "educational" than the typical Caribbean cruise we had taken earlier. The ship (Coral Princess) was smaller and more intimate since it needed to fit in the Panama Canal. We really enjoyed this size and ability to get to know some of the crew better. The excursions at the Panama Canal weren't as "fun" as at other ports but must be looked at as an educational experience. Going through the locks is something that is worth doing once. . . but not something I'd probably pay to repeat (as far as excursions are concerned). I'd recommend booking a cruise where you can just stay on the boat as you go to the Pacific. Since we were heading back to Fort Lauderdale from here, this wasn't an option. The itinerary included Cartegena, Colombia. This was a pleasant surprise. Limon, Costa Rica is a boring port but taking one of the excursions was FUN! We enjoyed zipliniing! While we did this in St Lucia on our last cruise, the foliage in Costa Rica is much better. St. Lucia did have 3 more lines, though. Aruba was nothing special. Since we had been there before and were only in port for a few hours, we just headed to the beach after a few minutes of shopping. The Cayman Islands were a blast! We had heard that the waves were too rough to stop on the cruise before us. We were thankful to enjoy a little shopping and a fantastic time playing with sting rays before snorkeling. The demographics on this itinerary are a little older than on others we have been on. The activity staff always joked around with us because we won almost every activity we went to (since most of the rest of the boat was in bed)! Ballroom dance classes were well attended but the actual dance floors were empty except for one or two couples in the evening. We liked the short shows at night so that we could go to a couple of different options. The only problem was that too many different activities were booked at the same time so we ended up not being able to do everything we had hoped for. I guess some people eat supper early. . . . because they go to bed early. . . . The wait staff was phenomenal! They knew us from the first day and provided an exceptional experience. While I may have sounded a bit harsh about the cruise, my wife and I both enjoyed it a lot. We are looking to book another cruise as soon as we can. Princess does an excellent job.

We have been on several Princess cruises and have never had cause for a complaint. However, our Panama Canal excursion was very disappointing. We were told by a Princess excursion staff member that we could expect to return to port with 2 hours to spare for shopping, etc. Instead, we were gone for approximately 9 hours and didn't return to the ship until almost 8:00 pm... exhausted and hungry. At the outset, our bus was one of the last to arrive at the 'ferry" boat (expected something better!) and we had a hard time finding seats for our group of 6. We had to sit in uncomfortable seats on the lower deck where it was very hot and crowded. The narrator of the tour was on the upper deck, we had a difficult time hearing him, and he referred to a map we had no way of seeing. The lunch served was mediocre at best, and we were continually bothered by a crew member trying to sell food items, hats, photos, etc. While we enjoyed traveling through the locks, we never expected the boat ride to last 5 hours. And then we had to sit for another 2 hours on our return bus trip - this was not well represented in the excursion description. When we finally returned to the ship, we had missed the show we planned to attend and had to rush to get ready for dinner. We believe Princess should offer us some compensation for this unpleasant experience. On a more positive note, we really enjoyed the 2 other excursions we took - ziplining in Costa Rica and expecially the sting ray/snorkel experience in Grand Cayman. Also, our dining room staff was excellent! Our head waiter, Marius, waiter, Thuwat (Sp?), his assistant, Iryina, all went above and beyond to ensure that we had a wonderful dining experience at every meal. We cannot praise them highly enough!

This cruise was diappointing mostly because of the excursion at the Panama Canal. It was promoted as a 6 hour cruise and the most desired by customers. The 6 hours turned into 9 hours, 5 on an uncomfortable boat sitting in plastic chairs and not even allowing our party of 6 to sit together. (Cram as many people as possible onto the boat is their motto) 4 hours on a bus, returning us at dark at 8:00PM and unable to go to the evenings entertainment we were most looking forward to. Also food was horrible (advertised as a light lunch --white bread with a square of ham, american cheese (made by the captain's family as I saw them bringing it onboard. Worse when we discussed with the shore excursion people they were unsympathetic and the Shore Exc. mgr was rude and undignified for Princess.

The ship was excellent. This was our second voyage on the Coral Princess. Food was excellent, movies were good - most were Academy Award nominees. Shows left something to be desired- I fell asleep during one comedians show!! Shore excursions also left something to be desired. My wife cannot walk long distances and we could not find anything that did not involve walking for her. Worst part was the "man overboard" on the last Sunday. The deceased passenger was in the cabin adjacent to the three occupied by our party. We had to walk past the cabin door with the security seals every time we went to the stairs or elevator.

first of all..dining room we were pampered! my wife was on a special diet and it seemed like she was the only one on board.they really took care of her.plus the food was great.we gave you 4 stars, only because the excursions were not up to par.

This was our first cruise with Princess and we loved it. I cannot say enough good things about the staff. Every one of them was friendly and had a smile. They actually seemed to enjoy their jobs. Each morning, when at sea, there was Zumba with Mario. it was a ton of fun and he is an excellent instructor. I am Gluten Free and from the very first day I was given the royal treatment. I was offered the menu, by an extremely helpful, Marius, for the next day and could choose what I wanted and they would prepare it for me GF. At the buffet for breakfast I was greeted by our friendly head waiter, Carlos, who had numerous GF options and was at the ready to get them for me. The food was really good and our waiter, Reinier, was quick to offer great suggestions. On the last scheduled stop, Grand Caymen, we could not disembark as it was a tender port and the seas were too rough for a safe transfer. Within a matter of an hour the Cruise Director, Stu, had the day filled with fun things to keep us entertained. Including trivia twice a day. The shows were very good, the comedians, illusionist, the Coral Princess Dancers and the many venues offering bands, pianists, classical musicians were all first class and if anyone was bored it was their own fault!! There is so much positive to say I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that I would highly recommend this cruise and indeed my husband and I are already planning another voyage aboard a Princess ship.

The Coral Princess is a great ship. It was very clean, had great stewards and dining room service staff. Ther were plenty of on-board activites to keep you busy, with a good staff in the cruise directors office. Some of the entertainment was not my cup of tea, but others were very good, all are your choice to see or not. the only other cruise i have been on was on Celebrity, and i felt the two were very much identical an all things but shows. and Celebrity had nicer shows. Food was great with many choices, and plentiful. the Ports of Call were very nice and tours well organized. Drinks provided free were Water, Coffee, or Tea. i don't drink Alcohol, but if the drink prices for Soda were any indication, they are all overpriced. a great gym was available and they have a good walking track around the ship. Princess Cruises will likely see me again for another cruise.