A Panama Canal cruise is not an
ordinary cruise. While the sea days and the other ports of call are
important, the focus is on the day that you spend in this unique and
historic engineering marvel. Everything else is secondary.
Coral Princess specializes in Panama
Canal cruises. It is what she was designed to do. In fact the ship
was named in the Panama Canal by the President of Panama. And since
the Panama Canal has been on her itinerary since she entered service
in 2002, it has visiting the Canal down to a science.
The ship's dimensions are Panamax,
which means that she is the maximum size that can get through the
locks of the original canal. Indeed, the locak walls are just inches
away from the sides of the ship.
The voyage is built around the visit
to the Canal. There are lectures about the Canal, documentaries on
the cabin televsions about the Canal, Panama Canal souvenirs in the
onboard shops and numerous shore excursions for the day in Panama.
While the highlight of this cruise is
the Canal, the itinerary is designed to present a variety of
experiences. In Aruba and Ocho Rios, you have well-developed ports
presenting the familiar Caribbean cruise experience. In Cartagena
and Puerto Limon, you have less established cruise ports and the
experience is one of discovery for most North American passengers
.
Onboard there is much to do.
Entertainment includes production shows, comedians, live music and
enrichment lectures. There are also the usual cruise ship activities
such as trivia contests, karoke and bingo. For just relaxing, the
ship has two full pool areas and two small pools. There is also a
spa and a fitness center although small by comparison to those found
on the mega-ships enterting service today.
Coral Princess entered service in
2002. The ship's décor reflects those times with some public areas
such as the atrium done in a Las Vegas style while the remainder of
the public areas are done in a more conservative contemporary style.
The ship seems well-maintained and clean.
This is not to say that Coral Princess
is a time capsule from the last decade. Princess has refurbished the
ship over the years and has added new features. One example is the
delightful International Cafe, which occupies territory that was once
part of the casino.
In our view, the food on the Princess
ships consistently deserves high marks. On this cruise, Princess'
Master Chef Alfredo Marzi was filling in for the ship's executive
chef. Inasmuch as Chef Marzi is responsible for many of the dining
concepts and menus abroad the Princess ships, his presence held great
promise and Coral Princess did not disappoint. The food in each of
the dining outlets that we tried was very good.
One feature that we particularly liked
was the Alfredo's Pizzeria. This concept premiered on Grand
Princess as a new dining venue when that ship went in for a major
refit a few years ago. It has since been developed further and is
featured on Princess' latest ships, Royal Princess and Regal
Princess. It is not your typical pizzeria. Rather, it offers
individual size gourmet pizzas made fresh when you order it. The
taste is great and they are fresh. On Coral Princess, Sabatini's
specialty restaurant becomes Alfredo's at lunch time so you also have
the beauty of this Tuscan-inspired room. And it is all
complimentary.
We were once again impressed by the
Chef's Table experience - - a fine dining feast. Princess originated
the Chef's Table concept and each one we have attended has been
spectacular. This one was presided over by Chef Marzi and so it was
even more special than usual. It began with a visit to the galley
during dinner time. This was, however, more than a glimpse behind
the scenes. Chef Marzi presented us with a seemingly endless
procession of appetizers while Maitre d' Neville Saldanha poured
glasses of French champagne. We then adjourned to the Bordeaux dining
room where a lavishly decorated table had been prepared for the group
participating in this event. We were presented with more courses,
most of which were prepared tableside by Chef Marzi. A sommelier
poured the wine to accompany each course while presenting some
background information. It made for a memorable evening.
Coral Princess is a spacious ship.
She is an enlarged version of Princess' Sun-class ships but carries
just about the same number of people. Thus, there is more room per
passenger.
Speaking of passengers, most people on
this cruise were middle-aged in their 50s and 60s. This is not
surprising as cruises of more than seven days duration tend to
attract a more mature crowd. Also, school was in session in North
America and so there were few children on the cruise. The great
majority of the passengers were from the United States and Canada.
On past Panama Canal cruises, we have
found that many of the passengers were seasoned travelers who wanted
to see something out of the ordinary. However, on this cruise, we
met quite a few first time cruisers. When asked why they had
selected this cruise to begin their cruising careers, they indicated
that they too were seeking to do something out of the ordinary.
Turning to Coral Princess' nautical
qualities, Coral Princess is long and sleek and capable of traveling
relatively fast (24 knots). However, we did not get to see any
displays of this speed as the itinerary is designed so that the ship
only needed to keep up a leisurely pace.
Immediately prior to this cruise we
had been on Princess' newest ship Regal Princess, which is much
larger than Coral Princess. The weather on the two cruises was about
the same. However, the movement of the sea was more noticeable on
the smaller ship.
This week on Beyondships, we have a
new section devoted to Coral Princess, which begins at
http://beyondships.com/Princess-CP-Profile.html
It includes a photo tour of and commentary about Coral Princess.
http://beyondships.com/Princess-CP-Tour-1.html
There is also an interview with Coral Princess' Hotel General Manager
Timothy Ellis
http://www.beyondships2.com/coral-princess-hotel-manager.html
as well as a collection of menus
http://www.beyondships2.com/coral-princess-menus.html
and a collection of daily programs and other information distributed
onboard the ship.
http://www.beyondships2.com/coral-princess-daily-programs.html
