We got up bright and early and Carole dropped us off at the West Coast Express and we took the train down to the waterfront. This is the easiest way to get there. It drops you right downtown, you can see the ship from the station and it is just a quick walk to the cruise terminal. As we approached the terminal there was a CTV crew filming the last ship if the season leave Vancouver. We got onto the ship around 10:30, we didn’t have any bags because we were able to drop off all our suitcases, so we wandered around the ship checking everything out.
Top Deck, Movie Under the Stars Screen, Swimming Pool
The Coral Princess is the smallest ship that Princess has, only 2000 passengers and 800 crew. It is much shorter and not as wide as the others so it and its sisters ship the Island Princess are the only two that can go through the old locks in the Panama Canal.
After exploring we headed to the main dining room so we could have the first of the fantastic meals and the orange souffle that they only serve of embarkation day.
It was all very delicious. They got all our rooms ready a little early and they delivered our bags so we got to unpacking everything and getting our room set up.
My Salmon Lunch, it was delicious, it was better displayed but I had already started eating when I remembered to take a picture
The Deck 14 or Lido deck is where the outdoor pool is located they also have an indoor pool on the same deck, but it feels a little stuffy and you can really smell the chlorine. This is also where the soft serve ice cream is located. Also the specialty desserts that you get with the packages. Also on this deck is the burger restaurant and the Pizza place. These locations are open from lunch through to the evenings for dining.
Princess Cruises has three basic levels which are listed below. These prices are per person per day. Since neither Len and I drink alcohol or specialty coffee, we decided to go with no wifi, it was cheaper to stick with the Standard fare and just pay the gratuities separately. If you drink coffee, alcohol and want wifi you might want to check out a package for your trip.
We attended the sail away party up on the Lido deck and sailed under the Lions Gate Bridge and headed out to sea. The sun came out and we got some great pictures of the Vancouver skyline.
Sail Away Party
Looking back at the Lions Gate Bridge that we sailed away under
We had a great first dinner in the Main Dining Room and then attended our first show in the Princess Theatre it was a singing duo called Ebony and Ivory and they were excellent performers and very entertaining. After this show there was a mentalist in the Universe Lounge. This lounge is two decks high and has a complete stage up front. They do a lot of the comedian shows, game shows and events in this lounge it is an excellent location that they don't have on all ships
Ebony and Ivory
We headed back to the cabin for an early night because it had been a long day.
I woke up on Wednesday morning to a little rough seas so I took a seasickness pill right away and I was good for the rest of the day, no issues.
Every night you get the Princess Platter delivered to your room, which is a schedule of all the events and actvities available on board for that day. It also has information on all the resturants, shopping specials and entertainment. They aslo have an app that you connect to the ships onboard wifi that allows you to bookmark activities for later, has the menu for the MDR so you know what is being served for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Princess Cruises has a unique device called the medallion which you wear and this acts as your room key and you can also use it to locate your shipmates anywhere on the ship. They come with a lanyard to wear around your neck but we found that last time they get in the way so I purchased a silicone holder to attach it to my watch band. I had got one for Len as well but it didn't fit tightly to his copper bracelet so we ended up purchasing him a carabineer that he could attach to his belt loop.
We went to the buffet for breakfast around 6 am and then went any found a small couch to sit on while we enjoyed our tea and coffee until it was time to go to the theatre for our first sea day activity by attending a lecture on where to find wildlife. Because this is a transition cruise to get the Coral Princess from Alaska to Ft Lauderdale for the winter this cruise has a lot of sea days, usually one day between ports or sometimes two. So Princess does a lot of enrichment talks that range from wildlife talks, space and history.
The talks today were by a scientific commentator from Quebec who discussed ways to find wildlife and then a talk about the California cities we were going to be visiting and the various excursions that were available through the ship. Learned a couple of things, though we have basically planned our own activates. The excursions though the cruise ships our rather expensive and we like to spend more time at museums and explore smaller out of the way places.
Enrichment Lecture
We decided to try lunch today, They only serve lunch in the MDR on Sea Days, when we are in port only the buffet and the outdoor restaurants are available. The lunch menu is basically the same everyday with a few of the main dishes added. We shared a table with 7 other people and as we were introducing ourselves we found out that one gentleman had been married to a lady from Creston, another couple had relatives in Creston and another had stayed with people in Creston during a hockey tournament.
Main Dining Room
After lunch we went to a game show in the Universal Lounge that was called True or Moo. They gave you obscure facts and people had to say if they thought the statement was True or False. It was quite fun. The entertainment staff is very funny and really make it easy for people to participate.
Universal Lounge
Dinner tonight was our first formal night so we did dress up a bit and again shared a table with three other couples, two from Canada and one from New York. If you are willing to share a table you get to eat earlier. We are sticking to the dining room that doesn’t take reservations. so in order to get in faster we are willing to share tables, it makes the dinner more enjoyable, however sharing a table with 8 people does make dinner go a little slower and difficult to get to the first showing of the theatre performance. We tried to attend the Encore performance by the singers and dancers from the ship but it was full, so we decided to do the comedy show first done by a fellow called Kivi Rogers, he was hilarious, I will definitely check him out on Youtube. We were able to get into the Encore performance for their second show and it was excellent. It was very dramatic and contained some operatic type songs sung in different languages. The staff can defiantly sing.
Encore Performance
2nd Sea Day October 22
On Thursday we woke up a little later and to very sunny skies. We had breakfast in the buffet again and then went for a walk on the Promenade deck so we could give our room steward Benny time to finish our room. We had been having some issues with our shower, the water was a little cool but we got it fixed and figured out how the controls work. This is an older ship so I think somethings go out a little more often but they are able to fix it pretty quickly.
After our walk headed to the theatre for a talk on sharks by the same girl from Montreal that
talked about wildlife yesterday. One
interesting fact that she had that on average there are only 10 deaths by shark
around the world every year compared to 1 million deaths by humans. Also the reason why sharks bite is usually
because they can’t tell the difference between wild life and humans because we
look very similar looking up from the bottom of the ocean and sharks can’t
taste until they bite so they don’t know we aren’t what they like to eat until
they taste us.
Next stop was a fruit carving demonstration in the Atrium, two of the culinary crew using fruits and vegetables and turned it all in a very creative display.
We then went and saw a quiz show that was set up like
Jeopardy, didn’t participate this time but might try it the next time. Since we
ate breakfast later we skipped lunch today and decided to try tea time and to
have an soft ice cream for a snack in the afternoon. Tea time was enjoyable with little nibbles and sandwiches but really wasn't very fancy, tried it and probably won't put it back on the list of things to do
Quiz Show
Dinner was in the MDR, I unfortunately am really bad at taking pictures of my food, there will be some dessert pictures but I rarely got a picture of my actual dinner. Dinner was excellent as always. We managed to get to the theatre earlier so that we could get a seat, and watched an instrumental show by a gentleman named Sebastian Fucci from Argentina. I wasn’t sure what to expect but he was excellent, he played the piano mainly but also the flute and the accordion. He played some Beatles, Mozart, David Foster, Metallica, Celtic and Queen. He was fantastic.
Then it was early to bed because we have to get up early as we are sailing into San Francisco in the morning and hoping to get some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz as we sail in.
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