After pulling away from the dock in Fort Lauderdale, we sat our on our balcony to watch the world pass by. That’s when we noticed two things — first, since we are at the end of the ship, we can see what the folks on the opposite side of the ship can see as it passes astern - so we can see the view from both sides of the ship from one cabin. The flip side of this is that Coral Princess, unlike some of the other ships we have been on, has stern observation platforms (vice Suite Balconies) on Deck 10 and Deck 11 - and these stern observation platforms are right beside or above our balcony. So not a lot of privacy if you want to be sunbathing on your balcony. But it was nice to toast each other on the balcony with our complimentary sparkling wine as we departed.
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| Deck 10 Aft Observation Deck - Hello Neighbor |
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| Deck 11 Observation Deck - Hello Up there.. |
A couple of other notes about our cabin location… Since we are in the last cabin on the starboard side, no one is tramping past our room - so people noise is negligible - we are getting a constant white noise kind of low rumble from our propellers about 100+ feet below us. For us sleeping-wise, this low rumble rocks us to sleep - if you are really sensitive to any kind of noise, you may want to be closer to amidships (middle of the ship). Amidships will be quieter from a ship noise perspective but you will have more people walking past your room — bottom line — you need to know what’s important so you can select your own perfect cabin. When you are heading south - like we are, sun down will be on our side (starboard or right) of the ship. Then when we are heading east from Costa Rica to Jamaica, we will have sundown behind us - so for folks who like to toast the Sun’s passing each evening - in the constant search for the perfect Green Flash - our starboard aft cabin balcony is pretty much perfection…
Once we were properly at sea, we started our exploration of Coral Princess with layout of our last ship — Emerald Princess — firmly in mind. Whoops, we got turned around in a hurry since several major things are reversed between these ships - Horizon Cafe (buffet) and the Gym. On Coral, Horizon Cafe is forward on the bow on deck 14 (Lido) in a really pretty kind of “sun room” glass ceiling while the gym is aft on the same deck. On the Sun Deck amidships is the Princess Links aboard Coral — an astro turf putting green — that was all the way aft on the Emerald. Finally we made our way down to the Provence (Main) Dining room on deck 6 forward to see where our assigned table was. The staff was busy making ready for the early seating but made time to walk us back to our table — which was “ok” but not ideal. Presto Chango - certainly Sir and Madam - we’ll gladly change your table to one more suitable - that easily and quickly. Just like our cruise on Emerald where we ended up having to change our table twice - our dining room staff were willing and able to help us find our perfect table - hats off to Princess for their willingness to accommodate their guests.
So how was our meal? Five courses and two hours later, we walked out happy as two people could be. Great food - the butterflied shrimp in garlic butter sauce appetizer was a highlight - and the garlic butter sauce worked beautifully as a condiment for the baked potato accompanying our prime rib. Our waiter - Omar from Mexico - and assistant waiter Veronika from Ukraine - were wonderful. Co-incidentally enough, on Emerald Princess, our waiter and assistant waiter (Jorge and Katarina) were also a Mexico-Ukraine tandem who were married to each other. When we mentioned this to Veronika, she said that she and Omar were married too and live in Cancun when they aren’t aboard and working. I guess the legacy of Princess as the “Love Boat” extends to this very day…
The service and sequencing of our courses was perfect - we were just a bit worried about late fixed dining because of an experience 18 months ago on Norwegian Pearl where it seemed that staff and food each night were more concerned about clearing, cleaning, and setting up for tomorrow than taking care of their late diners. In sharp contrast, late dining on Coral was less crowded giving us more personal attention from our wait staff and perfectly sequenced/timed courses from the kitchen. Having sailed Princess twice on two different ships in the last 3.5 months, we can definitely say that the food and service in the main dining room is really good.
With the low rumble of the engines and propellers far below — and no devices or restless fur babies to disturb our sleep, we slept in until 8:30 this morning and are feeling like we are on our kind of vacation. The east coast of Cuba is to our right as we steam south, weather is partly cloudy, warm with winds in the 15-20 knot range — perfect…
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