We had not sailed on Princess for 5 years, after a very disappointing cruise on Emerald Princess in 2012 (affected by Hurricane Sandy). So I wasn't expecting too much except a good itinerary, especially in the food area, where I found on my last couple of Princess Cruises that the quality and especially taste of food had really declined compared to some other cruise lines.

We were keenly aware that Coral Princess was an older ship, having been put in service in December 2002. We know that because we cruised on her when she was brand new, on our honeymoon. So it was a bit special to be back on board, and I was surprised to see that on the surface, they had done a good job on the major refit she had in 2016. All the public areas were in great shape, possibly with the exception of the carpet outside on the Sun Deck, which was in poor condition. In our stateroom, the carpet had obviously not been replaced recently ( a number of stains) and the furniture was a little banged up, but everything worked fine. But on the last day of the cruise, there was a sudden complete power failure, including propulsion. Very little information was given, but I would guess that if we had been in one of the narrow passages at the time, we could have been in danger of ending up on the rocks. Power was gradually restored after a delay of a few minutes, and we continued on our way, although it seemed we were going slower, so the restoration may not have been complete.

This was the last Alaska cruise of the season for this ship. So it was Vancouver return, with stops in Glacier Bay, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, in that order. The first and last days of the cruise were sea days. The ship was under the command of Captain Nico Binetti, who has been on this ship for many years, and the Cruise Director was Miranda, a Canadian, who did a great job. There were of course a good number of Canadians on board, as well as a large contingent from Australia, some Kiwis and Brits as well, numerous Asians and quite a few Americans, which was surprising to me since near identical cruises leave from Seattle, and other west coast US ports. Read more