Coral Princess Cruise Review

Embarkation was super fast - we were aboard the ship by noon.

Overall the Coral Princess cruise was great so I'm only going to mention the negatives for you to avoid or to be aware of.

Tipping - even though they add $10/pp/day to your bill, the dining room servers and room porters still skulk around like vultures expecting an extra tip at the end of the cruise.

Internet access - It costs .35/min in the internet cafe on deck 8 of the Coral Princess or $10.50/30 min. on WIFI in the lobby area on deck 5. We used both. The system is VERY slow so it gets expensive just to check your email. Computers in the internet cafe area were always available.

Alternative dining – we had late seating in the Coral Princess regular dining room and sat with a couple from Canada who we hit it off with immediately. Two of the nights we ate elsewhere. One night we ate in the Bayou restaurant – it was not worth the $15/pp – food was not very good and neither was the service. Another night we went to the early open seating dining where we sat at a table for 8. The servers seemed very rushed and spent a good deal of time preparing other tables for more incoming diners. We did not get the personal attention that we always got in the regular dining room.

Costa Rica - we took the bus tour into the city of San Jose - the legroom on the bus was very limited and the ride over rough roads for 3 hours each way was grueling. The tour director, Adam, spoke Spanish a good portion of the time to the Spanish speaking people on the bus. Tour was not worth the money or exhaustion.

Panama Canal - nothing negative - it was terrific. We had a balcony on the starboard (right) side of the ship and entered the left canal so we were able to watch the entire proceedings. We did not get off the ship, which we don't regret.

Grand Cayman - the sea was too rough for the tender boats to take passengers ashore so we spent the day cruising. We had been there before anyway and were just planning to take a cab to a nice hotel on 7-mile beach.

Cozumel - this is the shopping place - save all your money for here. It's a short walk from the ship - it's clean – no one trying to sell you things on the sidewalk - very nice place. We were here 4 years ago and this pier and shopping area are all new. We also took the island bus tour that spent a few hours at Playa Mia - it is a private club on the beach - very crowded and honky tonk - would recommend taking a snorkeling tour even if you don't snorkel just to go to a nicer beach.

Belize - might as well be Mexico - dirty - not worth getting off the ship - don't know why it was even a stop. We took the bus tour to the ruins - horrible bus with barely any air conditioning. The roads all have speed bumps, even the road they call the main highway, because there are only 4 streetlights in the country. The ruins were interesting however.

Airport transfer - The worst part of this wonderful cruise was the bus transfer from the ship to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. We were the 5th and 6th people off the ship because we had an early flight back to Arizona. We had to wait on the bus until it FILLED up. We sat on the hot bus for almost an hour! Take a cab! CANCEL your airport transfer tickets!