Today we join the Coral Princess - a pretty significant change of pace from the Oasis of the Seas. Oasis has a maximum passenger capacity of 6,296 while the Coral Princess carries less than 2,000. Other differences are fairly significant too - for example Oasis is over 225,000 tons while Coral Princess is just under 92,000.
Had an interesting time getting to the ship - we again went with the shuttle company the hotel uses. They hadn't shown up by 12:15, and the young lady at the hotel called to check why - based on the response she got, it was pretty clear that they were somewhat overwhelmed. Anyway, not long after that the man showed up and loaded up our luggage - interrupted by a short sharp rainstorm.
We started off towards the cruise port but then he got a call about 21 people needing a shuttle ride - and these shuttles only hold 10 - 15 people. I gather that the shuttle company has recently taken on the job of taking people from a particular long-term cruise car-park to the ships, and to me it seems they don't have quite enough shuttles on the road to get the job done. So, we went off to the car park, only to have a much more impressive storm hit - it was just pouring with rain and there's almost no cover in this car-park; only a tiny shaded area barely big enough for the passengers who were waiting, and even then, they and their luggage were getting wet.
Our driver had hoped to pick up passengers for only one of the ships currently in port, but the storm put paid to that. Eventually we got the shuttle full but then when we arrived at the port it took forever to get to a point where we could unload. He went to the Coral Princess first, and it took us at least 20 minutes to get to a point where the four Coral passengers onboard could exit the van. I assumed that this was because it's peak season but the driver assured me this is not the case, three ships in a day is only starting to get towards their peak season numbers. Apparently May through around a few weeks ago is their slow season - only the two monster Royal Caribbean ships (Allure and Oasis) and the Carnival Freedom are based here then. But, during October other ships start gradually coming back for the peak season until there can be 6 or more ships here on a single day, meaning that more than 30,000 people might need to be moved into or out of the port in that one day.
The port authority and cruise companies are clearly trying to improve the infrastructure - Princess for example will soon be moving to a new pier with undercover parking for shuttles etc, as will Carnival over the other side of the docks. However, it doesn't seem to me that they're doing anything to make it quicker or easier to get shuttles / buses / taxis in or out of the place, you'll just be less likely to get wet / die of heatstroke while you're waiting :-)
I'm really glad we came before peak season (although I had no idea that we had done so!!)
This is our first cruise with Princess as "Platinum Captain's Circle" members - which means we have previously done either 5 cruises or 50 cruising nights with Princess (or P&O). One of the only useful benefits this gives us is Preferred Check-in - we got to go to a separate check-in desk where there was no-one waiting, then instead of having to wait for a boarding group, we go to go straight on - including getting to skip to the front of the line of a boarding group that was patiently waiting in a queue. Problem is, those people have no idea what's happening - as far as they're concerned, we're just jumping the queue. However, it was much quicker than waiting in line, so I'm not going to complain.
Bottom line is though, it took the best part of 2 hours to get from our hotel room to our cabin, whereas the previous week with the Oasis it took only around half of that time. Part of that was due to delays with the shuttle, but the rest was because the building where you board the Oasis and Allure, and the surrounding shuttle / bus / taxi areas have all been purpose built with the knowledge that any time the dock is in use, it's because they need to get 6,000 people off the ship, and another 6,000 on. That's definitely not the case with the dock where the Coral Princess was waiting.
However, once onboard all of that ceased to be an issue. Although we have never been on the Coral Princess before, all the Princess ships are set out in a somewhat similar way, and to be honest, it almost felt like coming home.
The emergency drill was more complex than the one on the Oasis - for example Princess insists that you have your life jacket with you at the drill, and that you are capable of putting it on. And, something we had never seen before - they also practiced the process of leaving our Muster Station the way it would happen if we were going to go to the lifeboats.
Sailaway was delayed because of delays with loading luggage. We and the Carnival Freedom were both due out at 4pm and the Allure at 5. The Freedom finally left at around 5pm but we were delayed further - we finally left at about 5:20, with the Allure still waiting for us to get out of her way :-)
We then had to go straight to dinner. When I booked this cruise, there was no option for "anytime" dining - they only had traditional dining, that is, where you go to either the 5:30pm or 8:00pm session each night, and sit at the same table with the same same passengers, and with the same waiters looking after you. We'd much rather use Anytime Dining, but as I said, it wasn't an option. Imagine my annoyance when I discovered that in the meantime they have made Anytime Dining available, but hadn't given us the option to change. However, it isn't too bad so far. Our table only has four seats and although we were presumably meant to have two other people with us, they didn't show up last night so we got to have a nice quiet meal by ourselves.
And, although I was expecting high seas and had taken a sea-sickness tablet in preparation, it wasn't too bad at all.
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