Although the
Coral Princess had been home based in Australia for the past few years, thanks
to covid, she only finally made her maiden voyage from Brisbane in June 2022. After a series of short cruises, we hoped that
all the kinks were ironed out before we boarded in Sydney in September.
Although
many people seemed to have issues with uploading their details into the Medallion app,
ours seemed to work without a hitch…
There were times when all our details would disappear, but wait a
day or so and they were back…
Our self-administered
Rapid Antigen Tests worked a treat. We had to take a picture of the negative test
along with a form id and our phones to show the time and date. Then this was
uploaded onto the app and at the terminal we just had to attest that we had
done it… If we were ever challenged, we always had our proof on the phone.
Check-in was
seamless. After dropping our bags off, we
were ushered straight into the terminal where we collected our Medallions first. From there we were directed to a check in agent where with one tap of our medallion was able to verify our details and then we
were good to go.
This process was better than
our Civitavecchia experience, where we weren’t given our medallions till after
we were checked in, and as much as the
agent tried to scan the barcode off our phone, he gave up and searched us manually (tick, tick, tick) he seemed to take forever, and then, we had to sit and wait for a runner to bring our medallions which seem
to slow things considerably.
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| What else do you do when you have left over onboard credit.... The lanyard is what they give you, I have a bracelet for evening and waterproof band for day.... Garry got the holder that clips onto your clothes |
From the
minute we stepped onto the ship we had that warm and fuzzy
Princess feeling. With all the glitz and
glamour of the Regal and Royal Princess, the older Coral Princess brought back that déjÃ
vu, like coming home.
Newer than
the sun class ships, the Coral Princess still had some of their elements which made it familiar and
comfortable… All the lounges and bars seemed so much larger and with all that extra
indoor seating, it will make it perfect for our world cruise next year.
Mask
wearing is being enforced on this ship and the majority of passengers complied…. So hard to get used to after being on
the Regal where it is only suggested, so you know what that means. So
many times, we race out of our stateroom, only to have to do a double take and
go back and fetch them…
As you enter the
horizon court, staff not only remind you to wash your hands, but have spare masks on hand
for those who want to replace or have forgotten them.
Sydney makes a wonderful backdrop to any Ship
The Sail Away show was a little disappointing on this ship. It was obviously choreographed for the newer ships and supposed to be perform in the round, on the stage where the water fountains are. A little bit of tweaking to suit the area and it could have impressed....
Coral Princess Sailaway
Regal Princess Sailaway
You know that you are where you should be when you look up and you see these wonderful faces
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