Coral Princess Webcam – The Fleet’s First Gas Turbine Ship

The Coral Princess Webcam is the bridge camera of Coral Princess, the ship that opened the two-strong Coral Class for Princess Cruises in 2003 and one of only two Panamax ships in the fleet. A satellite image from the bridge arrives every five minutes, so the page holds a still photograph that renews itself rather than a video feed. At the bottom center of the frame stands the foremast with its crossbar, a fixed marker against which the sea, a coastline or a harbor moves from one image to the next. The top left corner names the ship and gives the time in UTC and in local time, the top right shows the temperature, and a caption along the bottom notes whether she is in port or which port is next.

About Coral Princess

Coral Princess was built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in France as yard number C32, launched on March 2, 2002 and completed in December 2002. The order, placed by P&O Princess Cruises, was the line’s first return to a French shipyard since Sitmar Cruises ordered Star Princess in the 1980s, and Coral Princess was among the first Princess ships to enter service after Carnival Corporation took over. She was christened in January 2003 by Mireya Moscoso, then President of Panama, a fitting godmother for a ship sized for the canal.

Like her sister Island Princess, she has been a regular on Panama Canal voyages of 10 to 15 days outside the summer season, and she has also ranged far south. In January 2020 she was in the Drake Passage after a two-day transit of the Antarctic Peninsula when an engine fire broke out; the onboard detection system contained it and no one was hurt. In 2022 she was diverted from New Zealand to have snails cleaned from her hull, so that no foreign species would reach New Zealand waters. Her 1,545 staterooms divide into 1,105 outside and 440 inside cabins.

Coral Princess Details

What Can You See on the Coral Princess Webcam?

Everything on the Coral Princess Webcam is seen past the foremast. In open water that leaves a broad band of sea below the horizon and a wide sky above it, the color of both shifting as cloud comes and goes. When the ship closes on land the horizon fills with coastline, and in port the frame can show a cruise pier, neighboring ships and a town spread across the hills. Night frames are dark, with the lit mast the only clear shape. Princess notes that image availability depends on visibility, weather and the satellite connection, so a new frame can arrive late or the camera can pause for a while.

The EnviroEngine and the Funnel Cylinders

Coral Princess was the first Princess ship to generate power with a gas turbine. A General Electric LM2500 turbine of 25,000 kilowatts sits in the funnel and works alongside two 16,200 kilowatt diesel-alternators with Wartsila prime movers in the main machinery room. Together they drive three alternators feeding two main switchboards and twin 20,000 kilowatt Alstom variable-speed propulsion motors, a setup known as the EnviroEngine. Placing the turbine high in the funnel freed room on two lower decks for public spaces.

To represent the turbine, the funnel carries two cylinders at the top. They serve no function, and Coral Princess was the first ship to wear them; the same design element was repeated on Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess. Her sister Island Princess lost hers in a 2015 refit.

Related Live Webcams

• Sapphire Princess Webcam
• Star Princess Webcam
• Norwegian Jade Webcam

Source: Princess Cruises