Though a single gas turbine engine propels the Coral Princess, these faux turbine encasings are purely cosmetic. Auxiliary diesel engines provide Coral’s electricity, so the exhaust flues shown here are fully functional. Also shown here is the Lotus pool’s retractable roof. The Lotus pool area is for adults only and offers two hot tubs.

On this voyage Becky and I enjoyed the best stateroom we’re likely to ever have. This is what Princess calls a mini-suite. When we booked this cruise, mini-suites were on sale for the same price as rooms with balconies, so we felt privileged to open our stateroom door and find this room awaiting us for ten days at sea. The room wasn’t much, if any, wider than a regular stateroom, but was much longer.

One of the neatest things about the mini-suite is its separation of the lavatory from the rest of the cabin. If you look at the bottom of the photo at the floor, you’ll see where you’d turn right to go to the lavatory. The lavatory doesn’t open right there, though. There’s a very short hallway for access to the closet on the left and the lavatory door on the right.

We don’t know if this is the case with all Princess cruises, but they put everyone’s name on the mail holders on the outsides of their staterooms, as shown here.

Our mini-suite was replete with not only one but two televisions, one for watching while you’re crashed on the sofa and one for watching from bed. There was a refrigerator in the bottom cabinet on the right. Surprisingly, there was no mini-bar. Our refrigerator kept the sodas cold that we bought in port. Notice the wood trim over the bed. That’s for the lighting. It’s like a faux tray ceiling under there.

Our lavatory was just like the other lavatories we’ve had except for the tub, shown below. I believe the lavatory of our inside stateroom aboard Carnival’s Paradise might have been a little larger. Each day our cabin stewardess stocked our lavatory with eucalyptus lotion and shampoo as well as soap from the Princess’s own Lotus Spa.

Here’s the first bathtub Becky and I have ever had while sailing. It’s definitely not a full-size tub. The only way the tub could accommodate more than one person is if one of the persons were a toddler.

As Lewis Grizzard would say, this tub’s unusual controls would scald your butt from Bakersfield to Baltimore. Notice the three controls. The bottom control is to activate the showerhead. Another control is for water pressure and the other control is for temperature.