Coral Princess Review - Cruising the Panama Canal

 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

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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

Photo Tour of Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay and Other Cruise News Items

This week Beyondships focuses on Coco Cay, a private resort in the Bahamas developed by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and used as a port of call by that company’s cruise lines, principally Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, during cruises to the Caribbean and/or Bahamas. The ships stop for the day and transport passengers, food, and beverages to the island via tenders. Then, in the late afternoon, the tenders take the passengers and what remains of the supplies back to the ship. No guests sleep at the resort. .

Coco Cay is a man-made a tropical paradise created for the pleasure of the cruise ship’s guests. The island itself is a relatively small outcropping of coral that has been transformed into an appealing venue with sandy beaches shaded by tall palms. In the developed area there are a wide range of facilities including bars and places to have something to eat. One can hire all sorts of watercraft including catamarans, jet skis, and kayaks. One can swim, snorkel, scuba or fly above the water on a parasail. Alternatively, one can lie on a deck chair or in one of the hammocks strung between the palms.

Much of the island has been left relatively undeveloped, however. As one gets further away from the developed area, the beaches become less crowded until there is only the occasional fellow passenger passing by. Alternatively, there is a nature trail that one can follow to the other end of the island. This takes one through the dense indigenous vegetation and over numerous (and often slippery) rocks. The rewards for such an expedition are some very nice views and something that one does not often find these days: silence - - there is no sound of cars, airplanes, or music. It can be quite startling to hear nothing but the water lapping against the shore..

Places like Coco Cay are fantasies. They are created by the cruise line. As a result, they are not cultural experiences.. However, they also do not have the poverty and crime that plague the so-called real world. They are places to come for a day just for the enjoyment - - an escape if you like. Like a tropical Brigadoon, they disappear when the cruise ship sails.

Beyondhips’ photo tour of Coco Cay begins at . http://beyondships.com/RCI-CocoCay.html
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Turning to items in the news . . .

During Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd’s fourth quarter conference call with securities analysts, RCCL Chairman Richard Fain indicated that even though Oasis of the Seas has been a big hit with customers and is commanding premium prices, the company will probably not build another such ship after Allure of the Seas, which is currently under construction in Finland. This should not be too surprising as the size of the Oasis class ships limits where the ships can go and they are very expensive to build. Fain gave no indication of what type of ship would be built for the company’s Royal Caribbean International subsidiary after Allure of the Seas. Three Solstice-class ships are currently on order for RCCL’s Celebrity Cruises subsidiary.

During her recent Panama Canal cruise from California to Florida, Coral Princess diverted to participate in a rescue at sea. A Columbian fishing boat had sunk and the cruise ship, various other vessels and aircraft made a search for survivors. Three people were rescued.

Norwegian Cruise Lines announced that Norwegian Epic, scheduled to enter service later this year, will be sailing in Europe during part of the 2011 season.

Cunard’s Queen Victoria made her maiden call in San Francisco on January 27 as part of her world cruise. Queen Victoria is scheduled to do a series of cruises from California in 2011.