This cruise visited the Outer Great Barrier Reef, which isn't an easy area to reach. Being a very small ship, the cost was pretty high compared to the larger ships we usually cruise on. Southern lockdowns meant that the ship was less than half full (just 33 passengers). A major factor which was outside Coral's control was that we had rough weather which meant we couldn't visit Cooktown (we flew there a few months later) or Osprey Reef (which was the place on the cruise I was most looking forward to) and the snorkelling wasn't as good as we had hoped. One memorable happening due to the weather was when I was the only person standing on a remote cay and lightning hit about 400m away!

On to things that were within Coral's control. The Covid requirements were reasonable although there was a lot of duplication in the pre-cruise forms. The cabin was fine and reasonably quiet despite being on the lowest deck. The food was generally good although Coral seemed to think that seafood meant just fish - minimal prawns or calamari etc. I was unhappy with the service at breakfast. I found it difficult to make contact with the staff and found that they never got used to the cranberry juice and coffee that were my standard drinks. Even on ships with over 1000 passengers, I've had more personalised service.

One of the guides was thoroughly unpleasant to me when he thought I was doing something wrong on a land excursion even though I clearly wasn't (as confirmed by several other passengers). Read more