Day 33: 20231026 Thursday October 26, 2023- At Sea Sydney to Brisbane

Day 33: 20231026 Thursday October 26, 2023- At Sea Sydney to Brisbane

Breakfast was in the Horizon Court Buffet which on the Coral Princess is situated at the front of the ship.  The Coral Princess and Grand Princess swapped the fore and after locations for the Spa/Fitness Center and Buffets.  The arrangement of the Horizon court on the Coral Princess seems more efficient than on the Grand Princess. As you enter from either Port or Starboard sides, you are in the center of the buffet, with all the seating wrapped around the periphery.  There seems to be either fewer passengers, or the buffet layout is more efficient because it seemed a whole lot less crowded and easier to find a table to sit at.  The food is also a little different.  The Grand Princess always had Chicken congee and oatmeal available at breakfast in the Buffet.  On the Coral Princess, they have oatmeal and miso soup.  

Pretty heavy seas in the Tasman Sea

We tied for highest score on the morning trivia, but lost the tie breaker which was to guess the length of the Coral Princess.  Our guess was by far the closest to correct (teams guessed 365, 982(our guess), 1100 and 1200’) but the host insisted on closest without going over, and the actual length was 965’.  We missed out on coasters for that trivia.  We came in second by one point on flag trivia (missed UAE, confused it with Kuwait), but redeemed ourselves by winning the Beatles Trivia and getting 2023 Princess World Cruise luggage tags.  

These are nice silicone luggage tags, but we really don’t need them.  But they take up very little space in our luggage.  We had tied 3 other teams for top score, but won the tie breaker which was to guess how long Hey Jude is.  We guessed 7:10.  The actual length is 7:05, but fortunately, this trivia host awarded the closest answer, even if we did go over.  

Fitness Center at 10am

We relaxed on the pool deck around noon to allow our room steward to turn our room over.  He had not gotten to our room in the morning while we were doing trivia, but Janet was napping in the late morning.  The weather has gotten a bit threatening with dark clouds and a moderately stiff wind whipping up 12’ seas and white caps.  But we only felt a few tiny droplets on the pool deck.  We didn’t have to worry about getting sun burned.  Ben did some exploring of the ship and found the fitness center practically deserted.  The Promenade deck does wrap entirely around the ship on one level, although the bow crossing is through a tunnel behind the anchor room so you can’t look out over the bow like on the Grand Princess.  But there are several public aft balconies on decks 11, 10, 9 and 8 which are nice viewing areas for the wake and horizon.  

Elevator maintenance

Afternoon tea was a pleasant surprise after the debacle we encountered on the Grand Princess.  There was no line at the dining room and no wait to get seated or get our tea cakes, sandwiches and scones.  When the sandwich platter came around, Janet asked if there were any tuna fish sandwiches, but there were none. However, the dining room manager overheard her, and voila, within minutes, the waiter delivered a freshly made toasted tuna sandwich with the crusts cut off, tea sandwich style, although it was cut in half rather than quarters.  Janet and I each had a half and it was delicious.  Not only that, but all the baked goods seem to be vastly better on the Coral Princess.  The scones were back to their original glory, and served with creme fresh and jam.  We’ll probably take advantage of the afternoon teas on sea days more than on the last cruise.  

The evening started with flag trivia, which we lost by one point.  Ben had gotten UAE and Kuwait mixed up.  So many African flags!  From there, we used our Specialty Dining voucher to eat at the Italian restaurant Sabatini’s.  

Calamari and shrimp

Spaghetti and Meatball- fresh pasta

Braised Veal Shank

Veal Scallopini

Ice Cream filled chocolate egg

Dessert flight

Sabatini’s had a 5 course meal, which started off with nice fresh baked rolls.  It’s such a relief that the baked goods on the Coral Princess have been consistently excellent.  The soup was complex, savory and delicious.  There was a bonus course of deep fried rice balls with ricotta cheese, which were unusual, but good.  Instead of a funnel of calamari, they serve a plate with a combination of calamari and deep fried shrimp with marinara which is good, but the ramekin for the marinara was so small we had to ask for additional marinara.  The entrees were veal scallopini and braised veal shank.  Both were well prepared and delicious, but we were so full, we could hardly eat half of the main entrees.  Likewise, we just had a nibble of the desserts before we had to call uncle.  We had paired the dinners with a Merlot and Pinot Noir, so we were about ready for naps after dinner.  But we did get to the lounges to do the Beatles trivia after dinner, and then closed the evening with a Queen trivia.  There were several Queen songs we had not heard before, so we were a few points behind the winners on that.  They won the photo frames that we had won on the transpacific cruise.  These look nice but are of limited usefulness.  

Tomorrow we arrive in Brisbane, capital of Queensland.  The majority of the ship’s passengers will disembark.  Some have been on the Coral Princess for over 30 days cruising from Brisbane to New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Moorea, and multiple Hawaiian Islands before returning to Sydney and now will disembark in Brisbane.  One of the couples we did the Beatles trivia with tonight lives just a half hour drive from the cruise ship port, so it’ll be an easy trip home for them.  Tomorrow we have an excursion that meets at 7:45am.  We’ll try having breakfast delivered early to our stateroom.