cub77cub

My hubby used a scooter on the Ruby in August. Princess has a kiosk with reserved scooters. Just pick it up and go on board with it. The scooter does fit through the door of a regular room. However, it's a tight fit, and requires some good "driving" and "reverse" skills. I would check with TA about an accessible room, which might make it easier for your dad to get in and out. The staff are very accommodating with assistance on and off the ship when in port. They will also seat you easily in the dining room. We never had to wait too long for elevators. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The scooter has a long battery life. They allow you to use it in port off the ship. It's nice for those that cannot do a lot of walking.

My husband and I are sailing over Thanksgiving with my 86 Year Old Father. He uses a cane/walker, but we are renting a scooter for him. This is his first cruise and we are really excited to take him! The last "big ship" he was on was an Aircraft Carrier, returning home during the Korean War. He loves music and shows, so I know he will find plenty of things to do.

 

Any tips for how to make this super enjoyable for him? Ease of maneuvering around the ship with a scooter?

We were on the Ruby August 4. Also got two large bottles of water with a note that tumbler was on "back order". When I asked about it, I was told that there would be no more tumblers.

Does Princess still give you the drink tumbler cup when you sign up for the soda card?

We just returned from Ruby Princess Alaska cruise. My husband has diabetic neuropathy, and cannot walk long distances. We rented a scooter, and it was a lifesaver. The scooter was waiting for us at a kiosk just before boarding. It worked out very well. The only challenge is getting it in and out of the stateroom, but he mastered that quickly. You can take the scooter off the ship. It has an 8 hour batter life, so you can do some exploring. I highly recommend it for anyone with mobility issues.

Thank you for your information. I just rented a scooter for my husband. Hoping all goes well.

Cgv

We were on the Ruby August 4 sailing. BOGO for $1 in Wheelhouse at 10pm. It must be the same drink.

Any happy hour updates on recent cruises??

Yes, you can!

Well what if I bought 4 bottles of wine and only paid $8.50 per bottle then when we arrived at check-in for the ship I paid the $15 per bottle corkage. That's only $23.00 per bottle. A lot less than what the ship charges. Then I think I can take that Ito the dining room . . . can I?

We are sailing out of Seattle (flying from Texas). We are going to buy our wine in Seattle. Any recommendations?

We will be on the Ruby August 4. Is Crooners a Piano Bar?

We were on the Ruby two weeks ago and Lyn Lawrence was at the piano. She is excellent! Go hear her show if she's still on board.

Looks great! Did they offer to ship your fish home?

FYI, we have done a few fishing excursions in the past. Our very favorite to date was the Ketchikan, RCI one where they cook the fish for you afterwards on a little island. We caught TONS of fish, there was only 4 passengers on the boat, and the guide was great! And, shore lunch was fantastic :)[ATTACH]424602[/ATTACH][ATTACH]424604[/ATTACH][ATTACH]424605[/ATTACH]

 

 

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When we sailed to Alaska on Celebrity in 2013, they "held" our Ulu knives until we disembarked. It was a little congested when we picked them up. I like the previous poster's idea of shipping them!

Thank you for posting the pics and the great review! We are sailing on the Ruby August 5! We sailed to Alaska on Celebrity Solstice in 2014 (May). We are very excited to try Princess and an August itinerary. We did Tracy Arm on the 2014 cruise. Thanks again for the great review and tips!

Debarkation cont.

 

Precisely at 8:10a.m. our color and number were called to get off the ship. It was to the right and around the corner.

Wow, how easy was that!

 

Finding the luggage went well and the TSA agents glanced at the passport and we were off. Easiest time

I have ever had getting off.

 

Once outside we called my friends family to pick us up.

 

I had been on the Ruby a few other times, so really didn't take pictures of the outside of the ship till we had to

leave it. Here she is in all her glory from outside in the general pick up area.

 

 

This area gets a little chaotic with traffic and all, but we were soon picked up and on our way home.

We had had a wonderful girl's cruise and I thank you Princess for consistently providing a great trip to us!

 

It is customary to do a departing shot of our boo boo lip before we leave.

 

 

BUT... of course once home I always try to have another cruise in the works to look forward to. The next

is on the Celebrity Reflection, October 1, 2018. This is just around the corner, so this debarkation was not

at painful as some others in the past.

 

Thank you again for reading along, and I hope you all have wonderful cruising days of your own to look forward to!

Handwashing is the number one preventative measure for spreading illness. Hand sanitizer is used as an alternative when you can't wash your hands. I know it takes a few minutes, but it's worth it.

On our last RCI cruise, they MAKE you wash them. Seriously, you cannot enter the buffet area unless they see you washing your hands. I tried many times to avoid washing my hands because I always wash them right before we go to the buffet with antibacterial soap in our cabin and touch nothing on the way up there (DH holds cabin door open, pushes elevator buttons). Nope, no go. Re-wash them again. Ugh. But I think it does really cut down on the number of Noro cases.

We did this excursion through Celebrity in 2014. It was wonderful. I saw it on the Princess list. If you don't see it, I would check with Princess Due to length of the excursion, I would opt to book through the cruise line.

We sailed on the Conquest in 2012 We had a great time We did not experience any real partiers or kids out of control. We always enjoy the piano bar on carnival.We don't eat in the buffet, so I can't speak to that.

Has anyone sailed on the Carnival Conquest? There's a nice 8-nighter itinerary to the Southern Caribbean I'm considering for early February 2019.

We just got off the Wonder 12/4. We all used the app. It's handy not having to carry a Navigator around. We also used the app for texting. It worked great.

Is it even worth using? I'm trying to figure out how many devices to load it on.

 

I've gathered that it has the daily schedule and map of the ship. What other features are there?

 

It does not allow you to text each other, correct? Still have to use the Wave phones for that?

Yes, and it's fabulous! Love the Ginger Mojito! All of their drinks are a work of art!

thank you very much.

We sailed on Solstice in Aqua May 23. We loved it! Blu is fabulous! We enjoyed the Persian Garden also.

We are considering several cruises for our 50th anniversary next year, so we want something very special! There is a Celebrity Silhouette cruise we might like, and want your input about Aqua class--is it really worth the extra cost? What do you find you enjoy about it the most? Can you describe some of the food at Blu?

Thanks for your help !

We were on May 23 sailing. We also loved Zeus! He always made a point of finding us and saying "hello"!!!

Just a little background:

My DH and I are from Orlando and we have been on a number of cruises on both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. Living in Florida provides a nice luxury of the ability to drive to the port the day of with little hassle of travel. We are both in our late 30's (well actually my DH turned 40 on this cruise). I have also been diagnosed with a gluten free allergy so I will be commenting on that as well throughout this review.

 

I wrote this on the plane and hope to write as much as I can on this long trip home back to Florida. I wanted to do this because there were not a lot of new reviews when we left for our cruise so hopefully this will answer some of the questions I had before going and I will be glad to answer any others. I hope to post all of the Celebrity daily planners as soon as I can get them scanned and I will post some pictures of things around the ship and some of the menus as well as anything I might think you may be interested in for the cruise.

 

Pre-cruise

 

Packing

 

To get ready for our trip, we bought waterproof jackets and rain boots. We had baseball caps for the rain and snow caps for the cold if we needed them. Then we just brought layers: long sleeve shirts, sweaters, long underwear for under my jeans and thick thermal socks. We also bought binoculars for the trip and were so glad that we did for the whale and eagle spotting.

 

Drink package

 

We received the free classic package as part of the 1,2,3 go promotion. Because we love martinis, we upgraded for $21 a day to the premium package. This investment was totally worth it and nice not to have to worry about costs on the cruise.

 

Trip to Seattle

 

We left the Wednesday before our cruise on Friday, May 30th and got into Seattle late that night. Upon our arrival, we learned that Southwest had lost one of our suitcases and of course, it was the one with our toiletries!! Fortunately, I had divided up our clothing so we still had something to wear the next day. Southwest promised us that we would get our luggage within 24 hrs.

 

We took a town car for the same price of a cab at the airport and headed to the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. I am a Presidents’ Club member of the Fairmont (it is a free membership) and this allowed us early check in, the ability to retrieve our keys from the doorman, the ease of heading directly to room and free wifi. Thank goodness because it was already one o’clock in the morning, which was really three in the morning our time. For some reason, we had no hot water in the shower! What a lovely day!

 

However, the service and the room was extremely nice and we had no other problems during our stay. The hotel is also in a really good location to everything. We would book the Fairmont again for a decent rate.

 

The next morning, not holding our breath on Southwest's promise of luggage, we decided to go ahead and purchase a bunch of necessities from Target, Old Navy and the Gap. Then we figured if we didn’t need it, we can always return the items at home. After our shopping, we walked over to Pike Place Market to have a leisurely stroll. We have been to Seattle numerous times and this is always a favorite for us. We had dinner at Sazeracs down the street in the Hotel Monaco. The restaurant has a gluten free menu online but not in the restaurant for some reason. The server went through the menu as to what items I could eat and the restaurant provided quite a number of items for me to order. I had the roast chicken and DH had a hamburger, both of which were yummy and made with fresh ingredients. The restaurant also has a really good cocktail menu of different drinks that you normally can't get in other places.

 

At 3:30 am the day of the cruise, we received our suitcase. Praise The Lord! We finally could have a peaceful sleep.

 

Day One, Embarkation in Seattle

 

We left the hotel around 11:30 in a taxi to Pier 91. The cab fare was around $20 with tip and we headed into the port to get checked in and receive our sea passes.

 

We had booked Aquaclass cabin 1664. Priority check in as Aquaclass did not seem to matter. Check in was a disorganized mess and slow moving. When we got our keys, we were never told where to go so we just looked around and saw signs to the ship so we headed that way. This experience was very different from the Florida ports check in that seemed quick and efficient. The check ins that we have experienced in Florida always had you moving from one area to the next. In Seattle, this was one big room that was a chaotic mess. Lines were everywhere with cruise passengers not knowing where to go.

 

We finally got on the ship and we were handed our option of a welcome mimosa or champagne. This is always a nice touch by Celebrity. This was our first S class ship. It had a very modern appearance with dark woods and clean lines. The ship did not seem crowded for the duration of the trip. Even though the ship is the oldest of the S class, we did not see any wear and tear on her. The consistent critique that we had was the elevators and the inability to get one.

 

For lunch, we ate at Bistro on Five. It is $7 a person for whatever items you request. I had the steak crepe with a blue cheese sauce (really good) and the steak was thinly sliced, which made it easy to eat. DH liked his French crepe but said it was a tad too sweet for his taste. Service was good and I appreciate that they accommodated my gluten free allergy with gluten free crepes. The server said that it would take 20 minutes for them to create the batter. I stated that I did not mind; I was on vacation!

 

The cabins were available at 1 pm and so after lunch we headed to the room. The cabins are bright and roomy. Our cabin was 1664 and it was located towards the back of the ship. We had plenty of storage space and the bathroom seemed to be the biggest that we have had of any of the ships. Our balcony was angled and a little bigger than the normal ones. The shower head was the special one for the aquaclass guests and it was really fabulous! It was a spa-shower with multiple nozzles.

 

The bed and linens were comfortable and we had no problems sleeping throughout the cruise. The tv was interactive allowing for you to watch free movies on demand (good selection too), order room service (except for breakfast for some reason) and see your onboard account. We also had a wonderful stateroom attendant throughout our stay. We received our daily canapés that started out as a nice cheese plate with some fruit and by the end of the cruise was a cheese plate consisting of sandwich sliced cheese with no fruit, a little disappointing for us.

 

We were then able to unpack our clothes in time for the muster drill. Our drill location was in Silk Harvest and was quick and efficient. A video was shown and the location was comfortable because we were inside and there were tables and chairs.

 

The sail away out of Seattle was beautiful with sunny skies and clear. Everyone was out on deck to see it. The view was amazing as we have only ever been out of Florida ports.

 

We then went to dinner in Blu at 7:45. We had no problems getting a table for two. Ask for Zeus, he is by far one of the best servers in the restaurant. Food was light but really good. We did not ever feel over stuffed. That night, we both had the seafood napoleon which came with: scallops, mussels and shrimp over raw cucumbers in a light citrus sauce. The dish had a nice fresh flavor and the citrus sauce worked well with the seafood and the crunch of the cucumber. I had the corn soup; it was creamy and smooth with hints of bacon, corn, and chorizo. DH had the avocado soup. He did not like because it had cilantro which was not listed in ingredients and he has an allergy to it. We both had ahi tuna with forbidden rice with bok choy. All of it was cooked to perfection. There were two huge pieces of tuna on the plate seared on the outside and rare on the inside (per our request). For dessert, I ordered the dulce de leche creme brûlée which was good but creme brûlée is creme brûlée. DH had the trifle. For him, the trifle was not super sweet and loved the big chunks of morello cherries. The service was accommodating to my gluten allergy and each night, Zeus let me pick my food from the menu for the next day so I could eat whatever I wanted gluten free.

 

We then walked around checking everything out. We always like to explore floor by floor looking for any nooks and crannies as well as any unusual art around the ship. After a coffee drink at Cafe al Bacio, we headed to the 10:30 evening opening show. Cafe al Bacio does carry occasionally gluten free snacks. It really depended upon the time of day and the desserts were kept separately to avoid any cross contamination. The ones that I did have were all extremely good.

 

Opening night show consisted of songs throughout the decades with the by introducing the different ship musicians on the Solstice. Brent Nixon also came out and talked briefly about the Beyond The Podium series.

 

By the end of the show at 11:30, the ship was pretty much quiet so we headed to the room.

 

I have attached the dailies for the first day. Hope to get more uploaded tonight after work!

We were on the Solstice May 23. I loved the Molecular Bar! In fact, the Ginger Mojito was my favorite! Hubby had the classic package, and he went to another nearby bar for his rum and coke. Our bartender had "special drinks" that were not on the menu! One thing I did notice is that they only had one or two bartenders, and they stayed very busy. There is no lack of bars on the ship!

We also just got off the Solstice to Alaska two weeks ago. We have sailed Disney, Carnival and RCCL. My hubby and I agree that Celebrity staff were the friendliest! Everyone we saw greeted us. We loved the cruise!! I can't think of one negative thing to say about this cruise!

We have cruised Disney, Carnival, RCCL and, most recently, Celebrity (Solstice) The Celebrity was not "stuffy"..all age groups, but not many kids. We loved the service. The food was very good. We are going Disney again Nov 2015. You will love Celebrity. They treat you right!

We loved our cruise on the Disney Fantasy in January 2013. We do have an extended balcony booked for next January on the Fantasy as well. However, we are cruising on Celebrity to Bermuda this summer, and we will switch our winter cruise to Celebrity if we like it. The cost is not that much cheaper, but they do have better perks such as the alcoholic drink package included. I really loved the whimsy of Disney, so I'm really hoping that Celebrity isn't too stuffy for us. We are an early 30s couple with no kids. We are very exited to try different lines, so we can judge for ourselves which is our favorite. Happy cruising!

 

 

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We just returned from this cruise on May 30. We had a wonderful time! Binoculars and camera are a must. As others said, bring layered clothing because you never know about the weather. We did bring gloves, which we used a couple days. Have a great time!

We loved the Cafe Bacio! They opened at 6:30am on Tracy Arm Fjord day. I also forgot to mention that room service was great. We had coffee within 15 minutes of ordering! Also, they have fancy coffee drinks on the sky deck that morning. I think they also had hot coffee and tea in the sky lounge

Thank you for your most informative review. We're doing this cruise in 2015 and can't wait (special birthdays)! Could you just let us know if the Oceanview café and/or Café Bacio open early when we sail down Tracey Arm Fjord? Also, what are the dining arrangements when we visit Victoria? Do they change the dining times as we are due to arrive in Victoria at 6pm? Thank you in anticipation.

We literally walked on board, turned to the nearest bar..and they upgraded it immediately. It took less than a minute!!

Hi,

 

I've tried searching for this answer but couldn't find it. We know we want to upgrade to the Premium package (got Classic during 123Go) but I can't seem to figure out how to do that on the Celebrity website.

 

Anyone done this recently and can give me some pointers? Thought it would be nice to do it before we embark so that it's loaded on the cards when we arrive.

We were also on this cruise! This was our sixth cruise, but first Celebrity and first Alaska. Celebrity did not disappoint! We splurged on Aqua Class, balcony room. We loved the Blu restaurant, and used the Persian Garden almost every day. We had a specialty restaurant voucher, which we used in Tuscan Grille. The dinner and service were outstanding. The view is unbelievable. We did the Juneau flight plane to Taku lodge. It was outstanding! We took a bus tour to the Yukon (Emerald Lake) in Skagway. Weather was good, and sites were amazing!

We just returned from our Alaska cruise. We took the Dyea Dave tour, and stopped in Carcross. The bakery was very good. We had their soup (no need for a sandwich, since bread comes with the soup) and a dessert. It was very good. Lots of people were getting ice cream cones down the street. They looked good, but we were too cold for ice cream!!