I've read from several people (somewhere else) that this ship has very little and the size and "age" is showing wear and tear???TRUE or FALSE?

Well cousins, since Coral Princess is seven years old now, I wouldn't be surprised if she was showing a little wear around the edges; I haven't read any recent reviews of her, but I can't imagine Princess allowing one of their ships to fall into disrepair. They are currently in the middle of a program to refurbish the whole fleet and add some of the more popular features to all the ships.

Coral dosen't have the "wow factor" that the newest ships have; but I'm sure she is still a very lovely and very comfortable. I personally like the size and layout of Coral and Island Princess better than the largest ships (Caribbean, Crown, Emerald and Ruby Princess).

I have a friend on Coral Princess right now. I will relay any information I receive from her.

Thank you...that would be most helpful in deciding....

cousins, as promised, here is the reply I just received to my inquiry about the condition of Coral Princess:

Re: Coral Princess

Rick, I totally LOVED the Coral. There wasn't anything out of sorts with it, in my opinion. And I want to check when I meet with my Princess rep next week or so, but I think somone told me they think she's going for her big dry dock in October this year. (So she can get Sanctuary and stuff Island got last May.)

I have never been happier on a ship than I was this past weekend. I truly love the Coral's decor and layout. In my opinion, a perfect match of Grand-class features and Sun-class more beautiful atrium and glass.

So there you are, cousins. And it sounds like if you book your cruise after October, Coral will have all the new "goodies" too.

Rick

Hi, question, why are they installing this sanctuary. We just left the Island ship and they have this and it cost lots of money to use it. Just a big waste of space. It take away from the ship where the normal people can't go. We were able to walk thru this as they did not stop us and found no one using it.

The Sanctuary is $10/pp for a half-day. It's a fantastic place to get away from the crowds. They don't stop you from going there to take pictures either. It's an added feature that a marketing department deemed a money maker. It might have been requested by numerous passengers, too. I think it's a great place and on the Emerald it didn't take away from anything on the ship. Maybe they should have just left it on the larger ships.

I agree, keep it on the larger ships and of course all they look at is making more money from us, which we do not give them. On the Island it was never busy, just one or two people using it, so I just see it as a big waste of money where they could had spend it else where. Everyone was walking thru it and taking pictures, so you are not getting away from everyone.

Cousins, we were on the Coral Princess last year. It was our first Princess cruise. We thought the ship was very nice. What we especially liked was the large closet space, more than we have had on any other ship. I wouldn't hesitate to cruise on her again.

Nadine

Thank you so much Rick for the great news...I feel much better in making our decision....If a ship is taken out of service for "updates" how long are they out of commission?If I called Princess would someone be able to tell me this kind of info???

It really depends on how extensive the work is. The Golden Princess was just in drydock in Victoria, B.C. for three weeks; she was redone top to bottom. Island Princess had her work down in about 12 days while docked in San Pedro. I really don't know of Princess gives out that info., but you can usually figure it out by looking for gaps in the schedule on their website. I'll see what I can find out.

Rick

Okay, that was easy.

Coral Princess has an 18 day Panama Canal cruise from Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale leaving September 21. 2009; its next scheduled cruise is October 23, 2009, from Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles. That would tell me she is going to be in drydock (or maybe just wetdock) from October 10 to October 23. Starting with the October 23 sailing she should have all the new "goodies".

Rick