This cruise was part of a land tour/cruise package from Princess. We had planned on a cheaper cruise in September, but fortunately booked this cruise while on another Princess Cruise. The Future Cruise Host on that ship quickly convinced us we were far better off taking this earlier cruise. The land portion of our tour was eight days, two each in four different Princess lodges. I will not review it here, as this is a cruise review, but I will say it was absolutely outstanding, and we hope to do it again.

We boarded the Coral in Whittier, AK, with almost no wait. It was about 11:30, so we headed straight to Horizons for a buffet lunch. Princess has spent a great deal of thought and money in improving their buffet on the Royal and Regal, but I could not tell for sure if they had done the same on the Coral. The food was above average for buffet food.

By 12:30 we were able to get into our stateroom, D726 on Dolphin Deck, deck 9. We wanted a balcony on the port side for views during our cruise south, and this was the last available when we booked. I guess I should say this was our 9th cruise with Princess, on many different ships. The Coral was the smallest we had been aboard, and one of the oldest. But the ship, like every Princess ship we have been aboard, was immaculately maintained and gave no clue of her age. Read more