Coral Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We sailed on the Coral Princess 3-11 Jan 2015.  This was my 3rd Princess cruise and I liked this ship the best.  The ship is smaller (approx 2k passengers and 900 crew); easy to navigate/learn the ship; excellent service; good meals and decent entertainment.  The ports of call were outstanding except we were unable to dock in Limon, Costa Rica and another port of call wasn't available so we had another day at sea.  The weather was warm (80-90) but the seas a little rocky a couple days.

Most of the passengers on this cruise, this time of year, were 60+ and very few children.  We had an interior room and it was adequate in size and had back-to-back mirrors.  We were on the Caribe, 10th deck.

Biggest complaint, lack of towels at the pool area & wish we had more time in Colombia.

Don't bother with an excursion in Colombia, just take a taxi to the Old City for the short time you are there.

We took the Pelican pier bus to beach in Aruba for $5 each (one way)  and included a beach chair.

We took taxi/small bus to  7-mile beach in Grand Cayman.

Yes, take an excursion in the Canal - only way to get off ship.  We did a 4.5 hr excursion to the Fort, rain forest (saw monkey's) and the Gatun Locks observation area - loved it.

The ship was very nice.

The Coral Princess is in excellent shape and is immaculately kept. The staff was among the most friendly and welcoming we have ever had in the dozen or so cruises we have taken. The food is average, entertainment average

older ship. rust apparent throughout ship. some areas of leaking ceilings that saturated floor carpet.

Really liked the itinerary with the number of relaxing sea days. Panama Canal was facinating.

We have cruised with Princess before and we are very pleased with the cruise line. We enjoy the dining options and they do have the best pizza! Accommodations are comfortable and we had a room with a large balcony, something we very much enjoyed.

The ship was good, the service from staff was great, food was good, the amount of activities availabe was good as well.

We had a wonderful cruise with Coral Princess going from LA through the Panama Canal and ending in Fort Lauderdale. All the staff on the ship was very well trained and helpful and courteous.  The food was delicious and we liked the anytime evening dining arrangement; it made our days more flexible so we didn't have to plan on early or late dinners. The excursions were organized well.........the only complaint was that it was very hot and humid a couple of days! It was very interesting to spend the day of transport through the canal out on the deck getting a close look at everything.  This was the 100th anniversary of the completion of the building of the canal and it was impressive to think of all the work that was done so long ago! 

We loved Alaska, and were amazed by all that we saw.  We've been on five cruises so far and plan to take many more.  We especially love our online travel specialists: Cruises Only.  But we probably won't sail on Princess again.  It is too bad a couple of negative experiences affected us so much.  The ship itself was fine, our room steward was fine, the food was OK.  But here is the major negative experience:

We came back from a wonderful day trip (through shoreexcursions.com) wet, dirty and tired and were looking forward to showers, and dinner.  I got first chance at the shower.  I turned on the water facing the faucet and couldn't find any cool water. I messed with the faucet for a while, but was getting scalded. I tried the sink but no cool water there either. Suddenly all water just stopped running.  My husband called the front desk to see if there was a problem and when it would be resolved.  They said they'd get back to us.  About an hour later the head steward came to our room.  He wanted to see if we had cold water and if the shower was OK.  By then it was, but we had given up.  I told him my story and he showed my how to use the shower.  I assured him by the fourth day I certainly new how to use the shower.  He treated me like he didn't believe me, because now it was working fine.  He never said,"sorry, or this was the problem......" just everything is fine now.  Our family members next door said they were in their bathroom at the same time (they heard my screams) to get a cold drink and couldn't find any cold water either.  We went to the dining room and I stopped into the restroom on that floor.  Two women were in there talking about coming to this restroom because the toilets in their staterooms wouldn't flush.  So there was a problem, I was making it up like the steward made me feel.  I would have appreciated any response showing remorse for my experience, but none came.

By the way we asked for an ice bucket in our room for three days, finally our steward showed us it was in the fridge! We didn't want anything out of the fridge because of the charge.  He seemed to think we were stupid.

I traveled with my 87 year old mom and the staff always looked after her. Thank you.

Food was plentiful but many salads were too salty. Our shower was luke warm and never got hot enough to enjoy a relaxing shower. No pro sports on TV or anywhere on board. Boo! My family was raised on football.We traveled to Alaska late in the season and the weather got revenge. Glacier Bay may be beautiful but we didn't get a chance to see much and our trip into College Fjord was cut short by a medical emergency. There was a great naturalist on board but she could only be heard in selected areas of the ship and the main viewing area (front of the bridge) was difficult to view wildlife from because of the glass panels.Some emphasis should be given to the less expensive or FREE activities or viewing opportunities that were available on land. It seemed like more effort was put on tours that were more expensive. We only found out about many of  the tour opportunities in each town by talking to the locals!

The Coral Princess was great. Anytime we had a question, the crew was very helpful. Loved the crew at Crooners Bar, they are the best. Our cabin was very nice, loved the balcony. The shows were very entertaining.

Clean, comfortable, accessible, & friendly, helpful crew. Wonderful cruise experience.

The room steward was one of the nicest we have encountered.

OVERALL-GOOD SHIP!

The ship was beautiful, room was excellent,food awesome, staff very friendly and helpful.

My wife, children, and I have traveled all over the world.  Both on our annual vacations (typically one or two) and my time served in the US Navy.  As far as Cruises go, this is our third different Cruise Line we have tried.  We must say, it was pretty disappointing compared to the other two.  I will try to be as detailed as possible so that this review is actually published.

Embarkation:  A fairly long, single line that moved at a relatively slow pace.  All told, it probably took about an hour to get to our stateroom.  We were allowed to bring one bottle of wine onboard, and I did like that our luggage was transferred to the ship directly from the airport.  The embarkation crew were very polite and courteous.

Stateroom:  Our room was actually very nice and spacious, with a window view on the bottom level of the ship.  The disappointment came with the bathroom, however.  I have never in my life seen a shower that small.  It was physically impossible for me to use it without completely soaking the floor and wasting towels trying to keep the mess manageable.  The room was always warm, despite the thermostat setting, and the tapwater was HEAVILY chlorinated.  The stateroom staff was very polite but they lacked a lot of the little extras you would experience on other cruise lines such as folded towel creatures or other little suprises in your room to brighten your day.  That was disappointing.

Dining:  Breakfast had a wide assortment of fruits, parfaits, eggs, pastries, and the typical breakfast meats.  The parfaits were made ahead of time so the granola was very soggy.  Eggs were always overcooked, especially disappointing on the day they had eggs benedict.  Lunch was hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, nachos, and other similar items.  The hamburgers actually made my wife ill so we stuck with pizza for lunch.  We attended the sit-down "fancy" dinners every evening.  The waiting staff were extremely polite and would always seem interested in how your day was.  They always remembered our names and our favorite drinks.  The food was a hit-or-miss at these dinners.  Some dishes were very good while others I could not even finish.  The ones in between were very bland, with almost no seasoning.  I'd like to mention that as much money as this cruise costs, the only free coffee you have access to is actually instant coffee from a spigot.

Public areas:  Areas were visually very appealing, but could get extremely crowded during any shipboard events.  The hot tubs were very nice and relaxing.....when they were working.  They had a total of six, but typically only half of that were actually hot or had all of the jets working.  Out of the 2 or 3 that were fully functional they were typically filled with ten year old children so my wife and I considered ourselves lucky when we could actually get into one that worked.  The pool areas were smaller than the other cruise lines I have been on and only about 5 feet deep.  Bathrooms were typically well maintained but after the third day at sea one of the bathrooms had some kind of septic backup or failure.  Every time you passed that area of the ship you were inundated with the foul, noxious odor of human sewage.  This was not repaired at all during the cruise.

Children's Areas:  It was only my wife and I so I cannot comment on these areas, however it seemed as if all of the children were constantly in the hot tubs.

Entertainment:  One of the things my wife and I loved most about our previous two cruise experiences was the plentiful and varied amount of entertainment that was available to us as passengers.  We were sorely disappointed with what Princess had to offer.  Don't get me wrong, the quality was very good.  But I can honestly say that there was MUCH less options and a LOT more "empty" or down time as opposed to our other cruises.  Also, after every single event there was something they were trying to sell.  It has happened on other cruise lines as well but the sales pressure on Princess was very, very intense.  And it was with every entertainment venue.

Excursions:  They had a large variety to choose from but they were extremely expensive compared to just hiring somebody on shore independently.  I will say that I heard a few of my fellow cruisers complaining about the professionalism of some of the independent contractors.  We did not have that problem with the Princess excursions, but the politeness must have been included in the price.

Customer Service:  This is the biggest problem I had with Princess.  You can only purchase items on the ship with your Cruise Card.  Princess's finance department kept shutting my wife's and my own card off, which would sometimes even lock us out of our own room.  We had to go to the service desk on 4 separate occasions to sort out the mess, and each time they neglected to annotate the problem in their computers so it kept on happening.  When I complained, I received a call from the "Finance Manager" who first apologized, and then proceeded to tell me that it was all my fault and that even though I wasn't satisifed with Princess, 99% of their customers ARE satisfied.  What kind of an apology is that?  Just imagine how frustrating it would be if you are trying to buy a toothbrush in the ship store, or a bottle of wine at dinner, and you are told that your ship card has been shut off AGAIN.

Disembarkation:  We disembarked at 5:45 am, which seemed very early to us.  However, it went smoothly and even though it was raining, Princess had these portable tube-like structures that kept the rain off of us until we could reach the train.

Summary:  For the price that we paid, we expected a lot more in terms of quality.  The sales pressure and the poor customer service was perhaps the breaking point that will prevent us from ever trying Princess again.

Everything about this cruise was wonderful

nice size and great crew, fantastic ports !

The Coral was a great ship to travel on. The crew was accommodating and made you feel special.

I am an experienced cruiser and have done many Princess Cruises.   This cruise was not the normal Princess experience.   Cabin Steward did not meet expectations.  All the special parts of Princess have been scaled back, ship is old and warn (rust in plain site throught most of the ship).  This cruise does not have many activities to keep you busy and you are on the ship most of the travel time.  If you like dinning in the dinning room then great, buffet left a lot to be desired.  Food was left out and often either slimmy or crusted /hard topped.   I am chalking this trip up to a one time experience but my friends with me on the ship who love Carnival made the statement that the trip was below Carnival for them (I had raved about Princess prior to the trip so I looked foolish).

Alaska sights are beautiful and I am sure weather played into my experience as I am one who usually goes south for the sun.   This trip it was chilly most of the time and you had a sweatshirt or sweater with a rain coat on as needed.