CORAL PRINCESS Reviews

Coral Princess – A Memorable 22-Day Cruise

September 23 – October 15, 2026

Vancouver, Canada to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

22-Day Panama Canal Cruise

This was our second cruise aboard the Coral Princess, and our 22-day voyage from Vancouver to Fort Lauderdale reminded us why we enjoy this ship.

We appreciate its comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. Finding a seat in the buffet or around the covered pool is rarely a problem. We don’t need waterslides or endless attractions to enjoy cruising.

The crew is what truly makes Princess stand out. Their friendliness, professionalism and willingness to go the extra mile make a tremendous difference.

We thoroughly enjoyed Chris Roberts’ destination presentations. His knowledge and wonderful sense of humour made them both informative and entertaining.

The highlight was undoubtedly our Panama Canal transit. Watching the ship navigate the original locks was unforgettable. The engineering, precision and scenery were remarkable, and Chris Roberts’ excellent commentary made the experience even more special. It was something I had wanted to experience for years, and it exceeded my expectations.

We’ll also remember the Panama City earthquake and avoiding a hurricane along the Pacific coast. The captain, officers and crew handled both situations with impressive skill, caution and professionalism.

Room for Improvement and Suggestions

Food and Dining: Food preferences are naturally subjective, and what appeals to one person may not appeal to another. We found the buffet satisfactory, but the main dining room menus early in the cruise were, in our opinion, uninspiring and lacking imagination. Some of the offerings suggested compromises in food quality and variety compared with previous Princess cruises.

Interestingly, the menus improved noticeably as we approached the end of our voyage. We couldn’t help wondering whether that timing was more than a coincidence.

We also noticed that menus displayed in the Princess app and posted outside the dining room didn’t always match what was actually being served.

On a positive note, we enjoyed a lovely turkey dinner on Canadian Thanksgiving, complete with all the traditional fixings and a special cake. Princess recognizing this Canadian holiday was a thoughtful gesture and very much appreciated.

Sports Coverage: We enjoy the Good Spirits Bar, and it already has televisions that could be better utilized. Unfortunately, they seem to show the same commercials repeatedly, which becomes quite annoying. We’d love to see dedicated sports bars on Princess ships. We appreciated the NFL games shown on the big screen late Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening, but more consistent coverage, particularly Monday Night Football, would be welcome. There’s nothing quite like watching a big game with fellow passengers.

Canadian TV: A Canadian news channel, such as CBC News Network or CTV News Channel, would be a welcome addition.

Public Washrooms: Several women’s public washrooms were out of service during our cruise and deserve attention.

Cabin Maintenance: Our air conditioning failed twice, particularly inconvenient in 33°C heat. Maintenance responded quickly and resolved both issues, demonstrating excellent service.

Final Thoughts

The Coral Princess may lack some attractions of newer ships, but its relaxed atmosphere and, above all, its exceptional crew make it a wonderful ship to cruise on.

If the right itinerary came along, we would not hesitate to sail on her again.

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.

Issues since July 8th on Coral Princess:

1st day:

They didn't have our medallions on the train like they should have.

People met us when we get off the train gave us medallions and Medallions didn't work.

air conditioning and ventilation system in the cabin desnt work at all. I called Guest Services numerous times nobody came to the cabin finally 12:30 in the morning I went downstairs to get Services very irate somebody finally came and fixed it by 2:00 a.m. the next day. So we did not get to go to bed till 2:00 a.m. the next day after traveling all day.

July 8-13th

Sewage smell throughout the ship in our cabins and the theater it was reported to guest services and still 7 Days Later the ship still smells and so does the hallways.

July 12 and 13th

Could not get showered and ready for dinner because either :

there's no hot water and just cold water

or

the next day there's burning hot water and no cold water.

Have to wash up in the sink to get ready for dinner.

Sabatinni's Restsurant:

Appetizer ice cold

Pasta ice cold pasty

2 hours and no main entree yet.

We walked out.

I asked to speak to the hotel manager =there is none.

I asked to speak to the general manager = he's not available.

I asked to meet with the captain =we don't do that

Pick another Cruise Line!!

In case you didn't know :

Princess is owned by Carnival Cruise lines. And have you read the news lately what's going on with Carnival?