Off on another cruise. The sailing date came on fast this time but I was ready and even downstairs waiting for the driver when he came a quarter hour early. We made excellent time down to San Pedro which, frankly, surprised us both. Dropped off luggage and then went through the processing. Princess had bumped me up to Elite status in the Captain’s Circle so I got to use all the priority lines.
Got on the ship about 1pm and after dropping off my carry-on started to wander around to see and learn the ship. Despite having only about double the passengers of the Pacific Princess this ship is quite a bit larger and everything is the reverse of the Pacific; here the buffet is at the front of the ship and the theater/lounge at the rear where the PP had the lounge up front and the buffet at the rear. The Coral Princess also has glass surrounding the top deck except for small areas not quite big enough to stick a camera through. So taking photos from the ship will be more of a chore. I can only hope that things I want to photograph can be seen from the port side of the ship as that’s where I am and the balcony is unobstructed.
We sailed a couple of hours late as it took more time to load the supplies. At 6pm we left and as it was closing in on sunset I did get another shot of the breakwater lighthouse with the sun in the background; just like last cruise except there was not nearly as much color in the sky. I’ll have to change that. After some exploring I did manage to find a small area off the buffet where one can stand at a rail and not have glass in front of you. Hopefully, other passengers won’t find those areas as they are very small (fingers crossed).
Quick meal at the buffet for supper and made the first trivia contest where I met up with the part of the team I was with on the world cruise. We did poorly (11/20). 🙁
Finished unpacking after my checked suitcase arrived and went to bed about midnight.
Slept well. The Coral is not as noisy as the Pacific Princess and, being larger, does not rock as much. The seas were like I remembered from January off the California coast but the ship took them well and the ride has been quite comfortable (so far, fingers further crossed). Got up at 8:30 and was at the buffet at 9am for breakfast which turned out to be a good thing; many of the people had left so I could find a seat. Finding seats for events on the Coral has been difficult; you have to get somewhere a half hour or more early to get a reasonable seat and maybe an hour before to get a good one. This is going to require some planning and thought.
Three trivia sessions today. Two were the standard AM and PM trivia games and the third just past noon is a progressive game. Every sea day they will play the game and each team submits their score sheet and the scores are cumulative over the days. So we won’t have a winner until we get back to LA (or maybe at China if they do one per segment). The game venues are packed and there are a couple of teams that are “professionals” at the game (i.e., they cruise a lot and have written down all the past questions and answers and studied them). Why anyone would do that for the “junk” that is given out for prizes is beyond me. Both of those things make this round a little less fun; but, our team members still joke around so that makes up for it and if we don’t win that’s something I don’t have to pack on return. 🙂
That’s it for now. Until the next time we’re still heading “North to Alaska”!