19-Day Cruise Around Alaska and Japan on the CORAL PRINCESS

While embarkation was little slow (had to sit in holding area for 45 minutes), the rest of process was fine. Mini-suite was perfect size cabin for the cruise.

Rahul (room steward from India) was very attentive, fulfilled requests promptly, made extra efforts when something was mentioned to him.

Dining options were good such as buffets, MDR, specialty restaurants. Service was great especially from:

Karem (server from Peru) observed our dining habits and by the second time with her, she made the extra effort in meeting our preferences.

Manuel and Flor (both dining managers) ensured that our seating requests were met.

Crew members who impressed:

Hafit (from Indonesia) who helped us with accessibility issues without any prompting. Mila (Customer Service), Sori, and Clinton who helped make the cruise enjoyable.

Entertainment was good with many different shows and activities.

Disembarkation was easy and quick.

Would sail on Coral again for good itinerary

After our Princess land tour. We (group of 10) arrived for our 2nd week in Alaska to board on Coral Princess. If you do everything ahead of time (get your medallions), have your passports out, it goes pretty smooth to get on the ship. All of us had a balcony room. The room on initial inspection seems dated. The bed is on the softer side. The shower is small, bathroom sink was slow to drain, balcony lower railing glass was filthy and could not be looked through, door frames were visually corroded. At night when the ship is cruising there was a lot of creaking from the doors and rooms. Although the staff member Levi kept them clean and stocked. The ship had many out of service toilets and at times some clogged ones too. We found ourselves going back to our room to use the bathroom. We sat down at a window seat when possible. We found that in many cases the glass was fogged up and window frames were rusty. The ship overall was old and visually needed a lot of work. on a scale of 1 to 5. The breakfast buffet was a 3. The OJ was watered down and only 2 meat choices. The lunch buffet and grill a 3. Burgers and hot dogs were good, pizza was fair. Dinner was a disappointing 2. The alfredo had no taste to the sauce and was thicker than expected. The Sabatini's (pay extra restaurant) served the same chicken parmesan the main dinning room served. The Sabatini's (pay extra) restaurant over cooked the veal saltimbocca. Be prepared to have your meal interrupted by someone trying to sell you a wine pairing meal in the (pay extra restaurant). We had the surf and turf in the main dining room. Some of the lobster tails were tiny (3 bites). Our waiters in the main dining room directed us away from bad dishes. So this limited our selections, but the plates were better. The additional tip goes a long way with the staff.

Most of the land excursions were good. The all you can eat meal before the panning for gold event is rushed. Be prepared to eat fast.

We cruised Celebrity Infinity 12 months previously and couldn't even complain. Much better all around.

Great ship! As others have noted, this is a "right sized" ship. Big enough to meet your expectations but not so big to have those needless walks. I believe the balcony cabins, though nice, are over priced. Oceanview cabin would have been fine. Drink packages are also over priced. Just of interest, it takes a few days to figure out how to navigate fore to aft on this ship without going through cabin hallways. Entertainment was much better than other cruises we have been on in the past few years. Multiple events going on all the time and all great venues. Better dining. The crew members were great but I can't recall any ship that didn't have an exceptional crew.

This was our second Alaska cruise. Both were seven days but this cruise was one way from Vancouver and went further north to Anchorage. This was a much better itinerary. We arrived one day in Vancouver before the cruise. Two days prior if we ever go again. Not much in Anchorage unless you have an excursion planned.