Coral departs from Brisbane

PRINCESS Cruises’ Coral Princess has begun her historic inaugural season from the new Brisbane International Cruise Terminal yesterday afternoon (CW 08 Jun) with two rather significant guests.

Coral is the first ship to be homeported at the new Brisbane Terminal, where fittingly, two Queenslanders have embarked on two years of back-to-back cruising.

Jessica and Marty Ansen have previously sailed on 31 cruises with Princess, amassing 1,173 days at sea.

They have been anxiously awaiting cruising’s restart to indulge their love for holidaying on the high seas, and have a landmark 53 separate sailings (795 sea days) booked between now and Aug 2024.

The couple is not ruling out adding more voyages to keep their life at sea sailing along into the future.

“Cruising offers the ultimate holiday experience,” they said.

“You go onboard, you only unpack once, and you have all this amazing entertainment, exceptional food, great company and you can see the world... and, the crew deliver incredible service - that’s why we cruise.”

The Ansens booked their two years of back-to-back cruises - including two round world cruises in 2023 and 2024 - with Brisbane-based travel agency Clean Cruising.

Senior Consultant Martine Hero said the Ansens had always been passionate about cruising, and like many other devotees, were keen to be back on the water again.

“For the last two years Marty frequently mentioned all he and Jessica wanted to do was to go cruising again,” Hero said.

“Since the announcement of the resumption of cruising we have had an influx of interest and bookings including those of the Ansens.

“This extended trip has been in the works for a long time, as have those of many other cruisers.

Hero said Clean Cruising thanks cruise fans for their patience as the travel agency gets them back doing what they love most.

Pictured are Coral crew members celebrating the ship’s departure from Brisbane.