Coral Princess Review
Rating by category
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While we have been on dozens of cruises, this was only my second cruise with Princess (and my spouse's first). We are primarily Celebrity cruisers (with RCCL second), but have tried a variety of cruise lines, so we thought we would give Princess a try out. I have always had excellent service on Celebrity (and Azamara), but have found RCCL to be sliding downhill in recent years (along with food quality), so we wanted to give Princess a try. I had sailed Princess around the British Isles in 2005 and found the trip above average (although the food was excellent). As Princess is allowed to enter Glacier Bay for their cruises, testing them in Alaska seemed like the ideal choice. We sailed a northbound itinerary from Vancouver to Whittier, but did not use Princess for any land tour package add on.
In one word, the cruise was excellent! Really, really great cruise. The thing that stands out to most was the staff. Helpful, but not intrusive; polite, but not solicitous, every person we dealt with was simply congenial and kind. From the guest services to the waiters (more on the wait staff to follow) to our cabin attendant to even the maintenance people we met working routine inspections around the ship, everyone was so calm, helpful, and efficient that it made the cruise even more relaxing. Just superior service and personnel all around.
I can easily place the waiters and food staff on par with Azamara. We frequently went to the buffet in the café for breakfast or even afternoon snack/lunch. Within seconds of sitting down, the staff were there to take our beverage order, a very nice touch. And they returned often to ask about refills.
Cabin Review
Balcony
The cabin attendant worked alone and kept the cabin clean and ready for us. We were given a handicapped balcony cabin, although we do not require it (we were on a BD guarantee and assigned this cabin). The only negative to this was that the shower was a large area with only a shower curtain and drainage track on the floor to define the space. Unfortunately, with each shower, the floor past the drains would flood and leave a wet mess in the bathroom. Talking with our neighbors who were also in a handicapped cabin we learned that they, too, had the same problem. The cabin attendant was very familiar with this problem and gave us each extra towels to place around the drain areas to "dam up" the water and then soak up the wet areas. What a mess for the cabin attendant, and an little inconvenient for us, but not enough to detract from the benefits of a much larger cabin and at least 50% larger balcony! Still, this drainage problem needs a little work (and redesign) by Princess.You do lose a little aft viewing angle as the balcony to your left extends out past this cabin's, but it is still a nice large balcony. The extra space in the cabin, however, was just superb. There were two dressers with four large drawers each and two separate hanging closest with enough room for both DH and my items.As a handicapped room, however, there were only two very tiny open glass shelves for items in the bathroom, so I kept only our toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathroom, the rest on the full dresser on my side of the bed. Hair dryer worked fine, and I have long hair.It was also only a short walk (maybe 15 feet) to the aft elevator bank, but a much longer walk to the dining rooms and café, which were both forward on the ship. Room was very quiet and private even though there was traffic going to the aft elevators that passed the cabin.