My Princess Ruby Cruise review (10/14/17) and comparison to Celebrity Equinox (5/17)

Which Princess ship did you take? I'm used to Celebrity Solstice class ships, and tried the Princess Ruby a few years ago. I was so disappointed and thought I wouldn't travel with Princess again. However, I decided to try to give Princess Regal a chance, and I'm trying that out next year. I've heard the buffet is amazing and closer to the Celebrity S-class experience.

Caribbean Princess [emoji41]

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Which Princess ship did you take? I'm used to Celebrity Solstice class ships, and tried the Princess Ruby a few years ago. I was so disappointed and thought I wouldn't travel with Princess again. However, I decided to try to give Princess Regal a chance, and I'm trying that out next year. I've heard the buffet is amazing and closer to the Celebrity S-class experience.

Regal Princess buffet is far superior to the buffet on S Class.

We just got off the Equinox and kept comparing the Ocean View to the Horizon Court on Regal. Four years ago after our first S Class cruise, we were wowed OV Cafe after having experienced Princess boring Horizon Court on several ships, but after the lackluster offerings on Equinox, we really, really missed the Regal buffet. The food in the Ocean View has tanked since we were last on X 3 years ago.

We still loved our cruise on X. We just felt that the buffet offerings were paltry compared to the Regal’s. We don’t even dine in the dining room on Regal since we love the buffet offerings so much.

The best buffet hand down I've seen was on the Royal Princess, and I don't think the OV on Equinox or Reflection (ships I've been on recently) compare.

What surprised me was that I thought that even the older Princess buffets (Ruby, Star, Golden, Sapphire, Diamond, Crown, Island, Coral, Grand and probably the ships I haven't been on) seemed to have a better selection of choices than the OV. It might be because each station is a single cuisine, and the Princess buffets are all over the map, so the choices seem more varied.

I'm back on Princess next month, so we'll see if I still think that.

We revisited Celebrity in September cruising on the Equinox after saying we would never try Celebrity again as we found the Solstice (for that particular cruise), the ship of the dead. We loved the Equinox! After 16 cruises, that particular cruise has become our favorite to date.

Our first Celebrity cruise was similar. We did a 12 day NZ-Sydney on the Century and it was like sailing in a senior citizen center. After 10pm that ship was a ghost town and even during the day it was a snore fest. I had a helluva time convincing my wife to try Celebrity again. We've done the Solstice twice and it was pretty good both times (both Hawaii cruises). We like a good night out and Celebrity can be challenging at times especially after midnight but the Century cruise was the only one where there was never anything happening at night.

Agree with your assessment of Princess's staff. They are a cold and unfriendly bunch and nothing like Celebrity.

Agree with your assessment of Princess's staff. They are a cold and unfriendly bunch and nothing like Celebrity.

We find Princess staff to be extra friendly, especially the cabin stewards and bar staff. On the Equinox last month the staff were quite reserved, especially the cabin steward, and the bartenders were downright grumpy. Many on our sailing were commenting about it.

Sometimes it seems we catch them on an off week. We were on the Equinox in June and they were fantastic. We were on the Eclipse last November and much of the bar staff were awful, rude, unfriendly and unhelpful. Much of the crew just seemed upset. Maybe they all just had a bad review or something. Who knows but it sure showed in their attitudes.

I was on the Ruby for the Coastal Cruise right after this. I must say I was a bit disappointed in the MDR service. We had slow service, and poor attitudes. We did not get everything we ordered. For example one morning they did not bring my fruit with the others at my table, but brought it with the others main dish. I ate it quickly and asked for my eggs and ham, which they did not bring until everyone else was finished and the plate had no ham, just cold eggs. This is how most meals in the MDR went, always someone had something missing, but no one wanted to hold the others up to wait for it to be brought. We know food is available all over the ship, and there is always room service. My mom is 87 and she had some pain issues so stayed in the room and ordered a few meals from room service, every time the order was wrong, and being diabetic it was things she can not eat. No big deal we brought food to her, but I have never had this many issues on one cruise.

I love the feeling on a cruise that dining is hassle free, and usually it is a great experience, just not this time.