Hazegreyunderway

This is my first cruise on the Ruby Princess and i'm trying to figure out if it is worth me getting the premium drink package or not? We are going on the Mexican Rivera trip for 7 days w/3 days on land.

 

 

 

I guess the bigger question would be what the drink prices are and how much gratuity costs? Since I heard that if I don't get the drink package that I would have to pay gratuity per drink.

If you want to nickel and dime yourselves on a cruise then we recommend you pay for each individual drink.

If you can afford it and don’t give a crap, then pay for the unlimited beverage package (UBP). You can drink your brains out, get unlimited bottled water, tons of specialty coffees and it’s all good.

It’s a cruise. Go for it.

I’m sure I’ll get slammed for this.

Bon Voyage.

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I grew up in Southern California and we used to joke about "Arrowhead Pure Spring Water". My mother knew someone who worked at the factory. His job was basically to turn the tap on & off.

That’s so funny! We used to drive past that factory all the time. It was located in this dusty dry dirt patch. My son used to call it fancy hose water.

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We’re booked on the Grand this December and have a suite but are currently selected the 5:30 traditional dining for 2 people.

Can anyone give info on the expanded menu for club class?

I’m thinking we should switch over to anytime dining for CC.

Thanks.

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Rumor has it she will be onboard Golden on Aug 28, 2018 in Juneau. Crew is frantically cleaning an already spotless ship!

Who is Jan Swartz and what’s the big deal?

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Hi all

We will be taking a princess cruise this Dec and want to try some snorkeling/ boat type tours. We’ve been to the ports on previous cruises but not in December.

If anyone out there in cruise critic land can look over these ship sponsored tours and have opinions, good or bad, it would be appreciated.

Puerto Vallarta

1. Yelapa mahajuitas beach tour 7 hours

Catamaran and open bar on the ride back

2. Marietas islands snorkel

6 hours $80

Mazatlan

Mini speed boat and all inclusiveness beach escape. The guide says we can captain our own vessel on a guided tour? Not sure how that works.

5 hours. $100

Cabo

1.

Sea of Cortez zodiac raft and snorkel

3 hours

$70

2.

Snuba

2.5 hours

$80

Thanks in advance!

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Princess is by far the easiest to book on.

Granted, we tried booking (online) when Princess opened the “sip-n-sail “ sales but ended up calling the princess travel agent and it was no problem.

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I created this thread because we wondered if the Royal was replacing or “swapping” out the Grand in SFO. The Royal is now going to be in San Pedro.

My bigger question is why does the Golden go to P & O when it’s built in 2001 and the Grand stay in the fleet when it floated in 1998?

Are there any plans for the Grand? We really enjoy that ship and crew, especially since we’re booked on a Hawaii cruise in Dec 2019.

Hi all,

We just received our princess catalog in the mail and noticed that the Royal Princess will be making its west coast debut in April 2019.

Are they planning to retire or swap out any of the older ships like the Grand or Golden?

Thanks.

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Hi all,

We’re booked on the Grand for our 3rd Mexico cruise and we want to mix it up a bit.

The last time in Mazatlan there is a Pacifico beer brewery near the pier.

Does anyone know if they give tours or any basic info about the place?

I’ve googled the factory but I don’t get any useful info. Thanks in advance!

Speaking of beer.... has the Grand or Princess cancelled their seawitch brand and replaced it with something else?

Bud/Coors/Heineken/Dos Equis & Stella is what I remember, anything new?

Double thanks!

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Oh man, decisions, decisions. It's our first cruise and I really am having a hard time deciding not knowing how they really look. Pictures only do so much. lol I love the idea of being protected from the elements (both sun and rain) but I do worry about noise too.”

 

Our advice is to keep it simple and enjoy. Unless you want a covered balcony and that is what is important and are willing to pay the price, go with a mini suite on Dolphin 9 uncovered. We’ve done several cruises on the Grand - mini suites on Dolphin deck and it was fine.

Yes sometimes the sun was hot but we just closed the door and went elsewhere. If it rained we closed the door and watched it from the cabin.

Don’t worry about the voyeurs above you either.

Ok great thanks! I was just curious as we booked a Nov cruise in 2019. We’ve always enjoyed cruising on the Grand.

We booked our first one for our most recent cruise. OMG ... now we are spoiled. Unfortunately, we will probably will never have one again as it doesn't fit into our budget.

 

We didn't use nearly the number of amenities that others did .... never ate in our cabin, never used the laundry, had the beverage package so didn't use the mini-bar, never checked out the DVD's ... but what we did was take advantage of the morning breakfast in the Crown Grill, every day and just loved the Club Class dining. It was worth every bit of booking the suite.

 

I have several more sailings booked, a couple in oceanview and a couple in regular balconies. It's going to be tough now that we know how sweet the suite life is. :D

We know that you mean. We lucked out and had the opportunity to book a Grand suite to Mexico. Talk about spoiled!

We barely left the room. It was such a wonderful experience.

Suite life!

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Hi all,

I heard that the Grand is scheduled for a dry dock in March 2019. True?

Just curious if it’s a true dry dock or just a refurbishment, ie new carpet and paint type thing.

Thanks!

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Hi all,

My wife and I really enjoy cruising with Princess and we are repeat cruisers.

The Princess web site is ( in our opinion )really easy to access, navigate and book a cruise with as well. We have booked ( on Princess) 3 cruises, each over 15 days ( including shore excursions and transportation & airfare) using just our iPhone. No hassles, no problems.

With that said, why is it so difficult to basically do the above with other cruise sites? Some cruise sites suck. Super hard to navigate and it basically tells me to go away......which I do. If it’s difficult for me to book a cruise on a smartphone and they aren’t smart enough to figure it out then I go elsewhere.

We are interested in other higher end cruise line web sites but it’s a pain in the A.

For all the reasons, to us it boils down to a lack of......?

The other lines just want you to call them so they can pitch it to you?

They don’t care?

My take on all of this, in this day and age of high tech wizardry, smartphones and AI or lack there of why are aren’t the cruise sites more tech savvy?

FYI I’m not a millennial, just an old salt that remembers life before the net.

Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. Maybe I just answered my own question. Lol

Thanks.

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Ok look,

All I’m trying to say is that :

1. I think the video presentation of “ muster station “ and where to go to your station is wrong.

2. I think everyone should participate and show up to their designated “muster station”.

3. When it happens for real, everyone is going to wish they had attended.

Whatever, it doesn’t matter. No one gives a **** anyways.

But when there is an "abandon ship" issue, typically hours occur between the incident and the ship sinking. Those hours are the time when lives are saved. A wise captain will give the order for people to report to their muster stations "too early" rather than "too late."

You assume it’s all good until it’s not all good. How do you typically know that it takes hours before a ship goes to the bottom and not an inconvenience?

Admit it, cruise lines do the “muster station “ as quick as possible so they can make money on other things

Honestly, if they thought they could slide on the muster station they would. It’s just required by law. How they administer it is left up to them.

Nice try on that reply.

When the cruise lines give those “muster station” drills it’s really about abandoning ship.

Don’t sugar coat it please.

Obviously you’re a rep or a cruise critic and trying to put a spin on it.

When airlines give the “muster station” safety brief it’s the same thing as cruise lines giving the brief:

It’s about safely leaving the “ ship” (aircraft or ship)

Abandon ship drill just seems more drastic than a safety brief- even when the ship is bow down/stern up.

We’ve done 3 cruises on the Golden. Correct, there is no sushi bar.

Here is how it worked for us:

My wife and I would have a glass of wine each and they would bring us a very small portion of nigiri type sushi.

It wasn’t a sushi bar but rather a - “have some wine and get a small piece of sushi” type thing.

I’m still surprised that with all the Hawaii cruise stuff there isn’t an on board sushi bar/resturant or Asian type teppan style.

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Drink the entire bottle.

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Honestly, does anyone expect all 3-4000 people will actually listen/comprehend or even care about the abandon ship drill?

I know it’s “required “ by law, but how the cruise line delivers the message is up for debate. Basically it’s the same as the airline safety brief except it’s for 4000 passengers who are loaded on foo-foo drinks and who could care less.

I know where my lifeboat is.

“Near my God to thee”

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Just curious if anyone who is doing the 15 day Hawaii cruise has an update on the Kilauea volcano and how it affects your ports of call.

Thanks

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FYI

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2018/04/articles/passenger-rights/norwegian-sun-ncls-panama-canal-fiasco-cruise/

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You now get to opt out of those pesky port pics with Popeye and Pirates. Just kidding- oh I wish!

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Hi all,

My wife and I are ready to try the more upscale ships. We started out with a boom-boom spring break to the Bahamas ( Carnival big mistake). We are late 50's and the cruise age was 20.

I post this on the Princess forum because a lot of Princess cruisers have done upper scale cruise lines and in my opinion have the best overall experience.

Our 2,3,4 cruises were on Princess out of San Francisco on the Golden and we enjoyed it very much. The ship was kinda old but the staff was wonderful.

We are now ready to upscale to Oceania, Chrystal, Regent and other high end cruisers. We are more than willing to pay for excellent service and food. Hence an upscale cruise line. We want it all. Sorry we don't want to seem snotty.

Our problem:

We booked the grand suite on the Princess $1000 p/day (Golden) but it was really lame service. Suite L302

The breakfast menu was the same as everyone else and no perks at all for booking the grand suite. You booked the grand suite- but don't expect anything more.

We really want a beautiful suite and all the perks with fine dining , which in your opinion cruise line does it the best?

We've heard that some cruise lines require suit jackets after 6pm??

We realize that food is subjective. We don't want to be nickel & dimed but are willing to pay top dollar for top service.

No kids- no boom boom party cruises, basically old timers like us that want to relax in style with perfect Gin & Tonics.

Does it exist? Sorry for being long winded.

Thanks to all for replying.

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