baggal

I've been on 3 RCI (2X Voyager, 1X Brilliance) and 2 Princess (CB and Ruby). The cruises were all in different regions (Canada, Med., Caribbean and British Isles). We've been in balcony and oceanview so I can't speak to bigger cabins.

IMHO, just looking at the ships, the number one difference is that the quality of the food on Princess is far superior to RCI although I loved the buffet set-up on the Brilliance and the outdoor eating area. We use anytime dining and it was a little easier to make reservations with the same waiters on RCI. I order low-sodium meals and I was equally accommodated on both lines with a slight edge to the Ruby and Brilliance.

Another plus is the closet dressing area on Princess. On our last 12 day cruise, we didn't even use all the drawer space, and trust me, I don't travel light.

Service was excellent on both with a slight edge to the friendly, polite crew on the Ruby. Both lines keep their ships spotless. I felt the evening entertainment was more or less the same.

Itinerary and price are always a factor for us. I would gladly sail either one again if it hit all our points.

Was this recent? I ask because we were on the CB over Memorial Day and many men were wearing shorts in the dining room. My husband was not one of them. I asked and was told that they had relaxed the dress code for the Caribbean cruises. It would have been nice to know that ahead of time because everything posted on the website indicates the same business casual restrictions. The OP should probably contact Princess to find out if there is anything official on the relaxation of the usual dress code.

No. Over a year ago.

I have seen men wearing shorts turned away from the MDR at dinner on the Caribbean Princess (on non-formal nights).

If your husband buys one pair of khaki and one pair of black, he should be good to go. And who knows, maybe he'll start wearing them at home.

Recently, we disembarked the Ruby in Southampton and took the ship's transfer to Heathrow. Disembarkation went very quickly, customs was non-existent and the ride to Heathrow took about 1.5 hours. But, from the moment we entered the terminal (2 - the new one for all Star Alliance airlines including United) until we finally reached our gate it took 2 hours to get through check-in, SECURITY, and finally making the the VERY LONG TREK to get to our gate. Yes, there was a very brief stop at the ladies room while DH ran into a shop to get a bottle of water, but that was it.

You be the judge. You'll need at least minimum 4 hours to make your flight and that is if all goes well.

OP: while you may be well-meaning in your desire to introduce vegan cooking to the ship's chefs, I don't think bringing your own ingredients will go over well. For one thing, there are probably corporate (Princess is owned by Carnival Cruises which is a huge corporation) regulations against bringing non-Princess food into the galley (insurance liability).

That being said, recently on the Ruby I had excellent low/no sodium dinners (I added a lot of fresh ground pepper to some of the dishes). Every evening I reviewed the next night's menu with the MD and in most cases, the galley was able to modify the dish. But there's a big difference between MODIFYING a dish vs. CREATING a new dish with unfamiliar ingredients.

I'm guessing you spend a lot of time making your own meals with alternative ingredients at home and won't be satisfied with the basic veggies, carbs, etc. that the ship can provide. In that case, you should probably rethink your expectations for your upcoming cruise.

Good luck.

We used the train on our recent British Isles cruise on the Ruby Princess. What a pleasure to avoid the buses with everyone coughing and sneezing and get on clean, fast trains.

 

When we got to Dalmeny station, the train was pulling up so didn't get a ticket from the machine. Instead we planned on buying it from the Conductor onboard the train. However, the Conductor never made it to our car and we arrived in Edinburgh never having purchased a ticket.

 

You need a ticket to exit the station. For those of you who are not familiar with this situation, there is a ticket office on the platform side prior to exiting. Just follow the "ticket" signs (and usually a few other people) where you will come to a manned ticket office. Purchase your return tickets (you will receive separate tickets for each way of the journey) and you will then have the ticket necessary to exit the station. Remember to use the ticket marked "out" when leaving the station. There are train schedules in the ticket office that you can grab. make sure you take the correct one.

 

Easy peasy and no worries about having a chip and pin credit card to use the ticket machine at Dalmeny.

 

We loved the train. However, if it was pouring raining that day I would probably seriously consider the shuttle bus as you will probably get soaked and muddy during the walk.

Nobody ever coughs and sneezes on a train?

We used Odyssey Coach and spent a full day with our driver ...Giants Causeway, Rope Bridge, Antrim Coast and Belfast city tour including the area of The Troubles...highly recommend this company as we had no problems with them in August 2013.

We had the exact opposite experience with Odyssey Coach this season. A member of our roll call arranged for a 16 person van to take a group to Giants Causeway, city tour of Belfast and Titantic Museum. Everything that she thought she arranged for was completely ignored by the organizer.

But worse than all of that, the van itself was too small for the number of seats resulting in no leg/knee room for the passengers. Also, the a/c didn't work well and after 2.5 straight hours in the van (very poor logistical planning) everyone was achy, hot, and irritable. To add insult to injury, when we arrived at our last stop, Titantic Museum, the pre-purchased admission tickets that we had arranged for were not yet purchased. So we wasted valuable time waiting for the tickets to be bought.

If there is another tour company available, I would say go with them over Odyssey Coach.

On our last cruise which was very port intensive, it was a huge benefit to be able to book excursions and then change and/or cancel them without prepaying.

For me, its quite a disadvantage to have to pay in advance and then wait for the refund.

Even though I just disembarked the Ruby two weeks ago and thought the crew and staff were fabulous, and loved everything about the cruise (British Isles), I would still choose Glacier Bay over the other itinerary.

Don't let a few CDC statistics keep you worried on your vacation. I'm guessing most people booking cruises aren't even aware of the CDC reports.

Have a great cruise.

Some people that have such problems should be looking at a different type of vacation....perhaps at an all inclusive resort. :p

Exactly. No one is forced to cruise. If its not to your liking then don't do it anymore.

I'm just back from a British Isles cruise on Princess. We had a stop in Belfast. A small group of us had a minivan with driver to take us around. Most of our day was spent at the Antrim coast. It was so, so beautiful. We stopped at a park, at the Causeway, at the Rope Bridge, and Dunlace castle. Even my teenage son, who doesn't impress easily, was wowed by the scenery. I would say the rope bridge and the cliffs around it were my favorite.

 

We also drove around Belfast, saw all parts of the city, from the peace wall to the more upscale areas. It was interesting to see. But I thought it was a very sad place. To see how the conflict has torn the city apart. Our driver kept commenting how this block was Catholic, the next block Protestant - over and over again. He couldn't look at the city any other way.

 

By the time we drove by the Titanic museum it was closed. It's a very cool looking building, and we saw the shipyard she was built in.

 

So I'll second the recommendation. If I had only seen Belfast, I would have been disappointed. But seeing the Antrim coast was something that will bring me joy for a long time.

Actually, for me seeing the city streets of Belfast that I had previously seen only on TV news, was particularly moving. Yes, it is a sad place but that's because it was a war zone not too long ago and allegiances are still strong. IMO, you can see beautiful scenery anywhere, but to "step into" history is one of the reasons why I travel.

A valuable lesson learned. We disembarked the Ruby on July 10. If you were on that sailing, I could have lent your wife some OTC stomach medicine. I always bring:

Dayquil and Nyquil

Anti-diarrhea pills

Antacid pills

OTC cortisone cream

OTC antibiotic cream

Doesn't take up that much room in suitcase and its there when you need it.

BTW, we had a great time and loved the Ruby. Amazing staff and crew.

I find the food on Princess to be "pretty good" and the dining room staff to be fabulous in their service. But, I have friends who enjoy eating in 5 star restaurants world-wide, where the average bill is well over $100 per person for food alone. I know that they would be unhappy with Princess food so I have never encouraged them to cruise with us.

Maybe this example will help the OP.

Thanks to baggal and maseric for this information. I have no idea how I missed baggal's post which appeared before my second post. My apologies.

Apology accepted. Enjoy your cruise!

Everyone would probably be more annoyed if they were not around. They do a great job, and appreciate seeing their smiling faces. Enjoy your cruise. Wish I were there to see the carts in the hallway. :D

I wish I had a "like" button.

There were two - the first on the St. Peter's Port (Guernsey) day (all aboard by 1:30 p.m.) and the second on the first sea day. There was no formal night on the second sea day.

If you're a fan of "Downtown Abbey," then Inveraray. Parts of the 2013 season were filmed there.

It may come soon that Americans will be restricted to traveling to Russia. In the meantime, if I were booked on a Baltic cruise this summer, I wouldn't get off the ship in St. Petersburg. The Russian government, by all media accounts, is supporting a band of barbarian thugs. Their actions are unspeakable and unforgivable. My heart goes out to the families of the victims.

Cugina, on our recent cruises it has been called Melanzane alla Parmigiana.

 

Grazie! In late 2012 on the Crown they did not offer it saying that it was too labor-intensive to make. Our table requested it and they made it for us on another day. They must have received many complaints from others also & brought it back under another name. Maybe they thought by changing the name to Melanzane alla Parmigiana we wouldn't think it was eggplant parmigiana and less likely to order it? ;)

 

Even the penne al'arrabiata is no longer prepared in the dining room by a headwaiter & is prepared in the galley...I miss the aroma in the dining room when it was prepared there.

Just two weeks ago on the Ruby, they were preparing the penne al'arrabiata in the dining room. You could smell the garlic all the way up to deck 8!

We just returned from our cruise and pre-cruise stay at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. While we loved the hotel itself because of the room, breakfast, friendliness and helpfulness of the staff, etc. - along with its convenience to the Hop-On Hop-Off bus and the tube station - I found the location was extremely lacking in local restaurants and other stores.

If returning to London anytime soon, I would stay in another area that had other amenities.

I just returned from the cruise that stopped in Kirkwall along with two other cruise ships. The amount of passengers completely overwhelmed the public transportation system. By the time we got to the ticket office for the T11 bus, all tickets for the day were sold out. As were all the ship's tours. We walked around the bleak and dreary town (all the buildings are a brownish gray color) and then took the tender back to the ship.

Not a very interesting port for us.

Just an FYI to allow PLENTY OF TIME if you are coming off a cruise that disembarks in England and then returning to the U.S. through Heathrow:

We disembarked the Ruby Princess earlier this morning (much earlier!) and took the ship's transfer to Heathrow. While checking in at United we were specifically asked if we had just come from a cruise. A small blue and white sticker was put on the outside of our passports. I think they also marked something on our checked baggage. (They are aware of the potential that someone could tamper with your luggage once it is picked up outside your cabin at night until you get it the next morning). The security line was long (the brand new terminal 2) and the walk to the gates even longer. It took a total of 1 hr. 35 minutes to get to the gate from the time we entered the terminal.

Once at the gate they will inspect all your electronic devices before you're allowed on the plane. And finally you are allowed to board.

So no dawdling or looking at the shops unless you have several hours to spend. I stopped to pick up a bottle of water (and needed to scan my boarding pass in order to complete the purchase - what's that about?) and a quick trip to the ladies' room added another 10 minutes or so to the journey. We were one of the last people to board the plane.

None of the above (except for having to scan my boarding pass to buy a bottle of water) is meant as a criticism of the ongoing security. Just posting to help other travelers. Have a good trip.

I don't understand the whole cruise ship lobster thing.

 

Lobsters are from cold waters ... When in Maine, eat lobster!

Some people live in areas where fresh seafood just isn't available.

Let's see...this is supposed to be an international festive celebratory dinner. You've doing a quote count of flags. And you think a celebratory dinner is the appropriate event to mark a wartime battle where 12,000 Allied service members died?

 

A moment of silence at 11AM would have been more appropriate. Forget the party favors.

Great suggestion. Wondering what they do for 9/11?

We were on the Ruby British Isles cruise disembarking on 6/4. They had the laundry special for $20/bag allowing 1 bag per person in a cabin. It was all you could fit in the bag.

Thanks for the information. I hope you had a great cruise!