Voice of Travel

As I’ve been (slowly) writing about over the last few months, last June I took a cruise to Alaska on the Coral Princess.

In this post, I thought I’d talk about the Coral Princess itself, and how I liked it compared to other ships I’ve been on, and what I thought about it for the cruise to Alaska.

Let’s start with what I thought about this ship in Alaska. Personally, I thought this was a great ship for my cruise to Alaska. One of the biggest things about Alaska is that there is a lot to see while on the ship. On our cruise, we spent 2 days at sea that were going through amazing glaciers, and so you want a ship that will make it easy to see everything.

The Coral Princess was great for that. As you can see in the picture, there is a large viewing area (on both sides of the deck) where you can easily look out to the side and see the beautiful nature surrounding you. You can easily turn around and see what land you’re passing on the other side of the ship as well, so you’re sure not to miss anything.

While this area did get a bit crowded at times, people were very generous, and would let you sneak in to take a few pictures. What I also noticed was that because of the weather being cold, many people would come out for just a short while, so there were plenty of times that there was a LOT of open space on both sides of the deck.

If that area wasn’t enough, on two of the decks there were areas in the front of the ship that you could go look out of. It was definitely a different view, but if you wanted a head-on view, this was a great way to get it. I had assumed that this would be very empty since they were supposedly “secret” areas, but it turns out that a whole lot of people knew about it on the cruise I was on, and it seemed more crowded then downstairs where the main viewing area was.

Another thing I loved about the ship was that the Horizon Court Buffet was very open and had a lot of floor to ceiling windows. This made it great so you could see everything that was going on outside while you ate. Since I had all of my breakfasts and lunches (that weren’t spent at shore) at the buffet, this was great.

This was the first cruise that I’ve been on that had a speaker who would do presentations about the destinations that we were going to. I found that very interesting, and went to every presentation that she did. While it was a long time ago, I think there were 4 separate presentations, and they were all enjoyable.

Now, to get to some of the things I liked and didn’t like about the cruise ship itself. This is the 3rd Princess ship I’ve been on, and the first one that didn’t have the International Cafe. That was because this is a smaller ship, and I don’t think there was room to add it when they made other additions when the ship was refurbished.

I definitely missed the International Cafe. On other cruises, every day (at least once) I would go to the cafe to get a nice warm chocolate chip cookie. This trip, when I wanted one, I had to go up to the Horizon Court Buffet, and hope that they had them. Also, the chicken salad at the International Cafe is amazing. While some of the other desserts and salads were great also, those were the two biggest things I missed.

Would I refuse to do a cruise on the Coral Princess again because of this? Of course not…but you better believe if they also have a ship doing the same itinerary that does have the International Cafe, I will do my best to book that one.

Another item missing because the ship is smaller is a third dining room. On the other two ships I was on (the Crown Princess and Caribbean Princess), there were three dining rooms. One was dedicated to people who wanted traditional dining, with the other two dining rooms for people like us, who wanted anytime dining.

Since this ship only had two dining rooms, one was for anytime dining, and the other for traditional dining. So while on other cruises if one dining room was crowded you could just walk over to the other one, on this ship you didn’t have a choice. If it was crowded, you had to wait.

Most nights I went to the dining room fairly early, and it wasn’t that crowded. I always got a table for two without a problem, and didn’t have to wait very long. They did offer us a table quicker if we were willing to share with other people, but we opted to wait.

Except for the above, I really liked the Coral Princess.  Like I’ve already said, this was my third Princess cruise, and I’ve really enjoyed them.  I like the food, the atmosphere, and more.  Even though this ship was smaller than the others, it never really felt crowded, so that was a good thing.

Last, but definitely not least, I’ll talk about my room on the Coral Princess. I can’t tell you how lucky I was. In the past, I’ve had rooms that were either inside cabins or had a balcony. For this trip, I booked an inside cabin, because for the price difference it just wasn’t worth it to me. I figured that Alaska was cold, so I wouldn’t want to spend much time out on the balcony…plus, if there was a lot going on, I’d prefer to be on deck where I could see both sides.

As you can see, I got very lucky. I was upgraded to the best room you can get before being a balcony. It was a big picture window, and because as you can see where my room was located next to those with a balcony, my room was as big as their room PLUS their balcony.

So it was really great. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely book a room with a window next time for Alaska. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent sitting on the couch (I turned it to face the window) looking outside. It was really great, and there was a lot to see.

Note: I’ve heard a lot of people say that being in the front of the ship is bad if you don’t like moving around a lot…but I didn’t really notice it. I will mention that I took Bonine the whole trip (a nice chewable tablet that causes no drowsiness) because I’ve gotten dizzy on past cruises, but I didn’t feel like we were moving more in the room than farther back on the ship.

So overall, minus the missing third dining room and International Cafe, I thought this was a great ship for a cruise to Alaska.

Enjoy,

P.S. If you’re ready to book your cruise to Alaska (or anywhere else for that matter), I strongly suggest using Cruise Compete. You’ll be sure to get the best price as different agencies will give you their best quote, and you can choose the lowest price!