My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Forgive me, but all I can do is compare joining the Coral Princess to my most recent experience joining the Enchanted. From one of the biggest newest ships to now, the smallest older ship. The Coral Princess, and its sister ship, the Island Princess, were built narrower than the big ships so that they could go through the old locks of the Panama Canal. During the Pause (pandemic), Princess sold its smallest ships, the Pacific, the Sea and the Sun. I’ve been requesting to go on the smaller ships because they can get into smaller, more rarely visited ports, and now my request has finally been granted (although the Coral isn’t small enough to get into those ports). The Coral is also famous (in my world anyway) because when the world shut down and Princess paused its operations, the Coral was down in South America and none of the countries would allow the guests to disembark. My friend Matt Baker (who I worked with on the Golden Princess) was the Cruise Director and they had to improvise another two weeks of entertainment, and eventually the guests were able to disembark in Miami. I realize that they would have entertained the guests anyway if the world hadn’t shut down, but it’s a different situation to keep people happy when no one can get off the ship and no one knows how long they will be there. So now I get to spend my next contract on this little treasure.
As you may recall, when I joined the Enchanted, I flew the red eye overnight to Miami, joined the ship in Fort Lauderdale, and then spent the next 7 days locked in my mini suite, where I had no schedule. I slept, practiced my Zumba routine and watched as much on video on demand content that I could. This time I left the house at 3:45am, my aunt and uncle graciously drove me to San Francisco, and I flew all day to Miami to join the ship. When I got there the port agent said we would wait for 3 other crew members on other flights who needed to be picked up. There was someone on a flight from Rome who was circling around and couldn’t land because of the weather. That flight was diverted to Fort Lauderdale- which I thought was ironic. Too bad they couldn’t let him off there! But it turned out the crew member hadn’t even gotten on the plane! Finally the flight from London landed (it had also flown around waiting to land because of the weather) and a guy came out of the international gate to meet the port agent. He was loud and friendly. My first reaction was that he must be Cruise Staff, but I didn’t want to assume. We deducted that the last person wasn’t coming either and pulled all of our bags to the awaiting SUV. Once in the car he revealed that he was another ACD (that’s my job- Assistant Cruise Director)! I’d met someone from my actual team! His name is Joseph and he’s from New Castle, England.
I messaged Madi (who was our Fleet Supervisor on Enchanted and helped us get ready for service) who is my Entertainment Director on this ship! She said the two Junior Assistant Cruise Directors had arrived that morning- two guys. I’m the only girl on the team! That’s a first.
The Cruise Director is Kevin. I haven’t worked with him before, but my mom cruised with him on the Majestic Princess in January (He was also their Cruise Director on the Sun in March of 2020). She liked him a lot. Then my friend Jase joined the Royal Princess and he was raving about this great Cruise Director he had—it was Kevin! A couple weeks ago Jase called me with the news that Kevin will be trans-shipping to the Coral right before we go into service. His daughter is in Brisbane, so he’ll get to see her more. So I’ve heard great things about my boss from a couple of people, but I won’t get to work with him for the first month.
I said goodbye to land, knowing I wouldn’t step foot on it again for the foreseeable future, and lugged my suitcases up the gangway. On the Enchanted there were about a hundred of us all getting sorted, turning in paperwork in the terminal. Joseph and I were the last to arrive so it was just the two of us. As we got our noses swabbed and paperwork sorted, the Security team scanned our bags. My kettle was ALMOST confiscated, but the Security Officer looked into it and I was able to keep it. Hallelujah! That kettle makes such a difference in my daily happiness (really it allows me to get to a functioning level in my cabin before Zumba without having to go all over the ship for hot water). Already this is looking like it’s going to be a great contract!
This time I’m doing a WORKING quarantine for 5 days. That means I stay in a guest cabin with a balcony (though no bathtub or couch this time, but I’m not complaining!),
I take my meals in my cabin, but I am allowed to leave so that I can work (wearing a mask everywhere outside the cabin, of course). So far, work has involved touring the ship, doing some inventory and helping my teammates get their Australian visas.
There’s just something about a grass roof that makes you feel like you’re on vacation!
This ship’s layout is SO different from the other Princess ships I’ve been on. The theater is in the front but pretty much everything else is in a different place. I’d heard that the big ships were HUGE, but when I joined the Enchanted it didn’t feel THAT much bigger than the Caribbean or the Golden. It may have been because I hadn’t been on a ship for a year and a half and had gotten used to normal ceiling heights. Still, it took about 5 minutes to get from the front of the ship to the back of the ship no matter which ship I was on. This ship, however, feels like a doll house compared to the Enchanted. The Piazza’s floor is tiny but it goes all the way from Deck 5 to Deck 8!
When I first joined the Caribbean, it was like I had tunnel vision. I practically had to find my way from venue to venue by leaving myself a string to follow back. I couldn’t wait until I could see the whole ship’s layout in my mind. Once I could see that, though, you can’t ever unsee it and it’s hard to relate to people who get lost and overwhelmed. Well now I’m back! Everything is backwards so I can’t even remember which way is forward and which way is aft! I joke in my Welcome Aboard Trivia that the best way to figure out which way is forward is to look out the window and see which way the water is moving. Now I really have to do that! Well sooner or later I’ll know my ship from stem to stern, and hopefully I’ll get just as lost on my next ship!
Tonight we sail away from Fort Lauderdale, go through the Panama Canal, over the Equator and past the International Date Line (we’re skipping June 1st) on to Brisbane Australia where we will pick up the Coral’s first guests in two years! I’m especially excited to do all of this without guests (no offense, guests!)!
I’ll keep you updated!