As Empress Dowager, Maria was much more popular than either Nicholas or Alexandra. During her son's coronation, she, Nicholas, and Alexandra arrived in separate carriages. She was greeted with "almost deafening" applause. A visiting writer Kate Kool noted that she "provoked more cheering from the people than did her son. The people have had thirteen years in which to know this woman and they have learned to love her very much." Richard Harding Davis, an American journalist, was surprised that she "was more loudly greeted than either the Emperor or the Czarina."