Ruby 1/15 long review incl chef's table and bon voyage exp

[FireFighter115]

Ok, since the bve is front and center on the thread, I will talk about our experience. Quite different from what Kmbuk experienced.

 

First of all my mom is the travel agent and she booked my dad and herself as a Christmas present from us. My sister, her husband and 5 yr old son also joined us. We arrived about 10 minutes after they did and met up in the elite boarding room. We were never identified to Princess staff as to who or where to go to board before the elites. Kmbuk boarded around 11:30 it sounds, and we boarded whith the elites at 12. Both my mom and myself called Princess about a week before the cruise and we were told two different boarding times.

 

 

We were never given an opportunity to take a picture together other that the genreal pre cruise pic, and no one ever asked us about touring the ship or where our lunch was to be or anything. I asked when we got on the ship and two crew members had never heard of the bve.

 

We went to the room immediately so that I could get on the Chef's table list.

 

With that all said, we enjoyed the time together on the ship and had a great time. They want to do it every week, so do I!!!!

[Kmkub]

Very different indeed. :(

 

We were told to be there by 11:00. We identified ourselves to the first staff person we could find, once we had filled out all our "are you sick" cards.

 

That person sent us to the elite lounge and to look for the person wearing the BVE sticker. That's the person that escorted us onto the ship. She escorted us to check in, then she stopped at the pre-board picture and told us this was the free picture and told us to pick it up in the photo area, deck 7, after 2:00, then she got us on board and introduced us to Pippa, who offered to give us the tour.

 

It sounds like what happened is after she got us on, she never went back to the lounge to look to see if any of the other BVE guests had shown up. :( (She said there were 7 others.)

[2Canucks]

Very different indeed. :(

 

We were told to be there by 11:00. We identified ourselves to the first staff person we could find, once we had filled out all our "are you sick" cards.

 

That person sent us to the elite lounge and to look for the person wearing the BVE sticker. That's the person that escorted us onto the ship. She escorted us to check in, then she stopped at the pre-board picture and told us this was the free picture and told us to pick it up in the photo area, deck 7, after 2:00, then she got us on board and introduced us to Pippa, who offered to give us the tour.

 

It sounds like what happened is after she got us on, she never went back to the lounge to look to see if any of the other BVE guests had shown up. :( (She said there were 7 others.)

 

 

 

FireFighter115 was on the Ruby Princess. Did your guests still get the FCC perk for their $39 fee? Sounds like they didn't experience the 4 course Lunch with wine...photo or tour! :eek: I'm hoping your guests were still able to enjoy some Food & Ship Atmosphere elsewhere onboard.

 

KmKub...Were you on the Ruby too or a different ship?

 

We'll be onboard the Emerald Princess in Feb. I wonder if the Emerald staff will be organized for the Bon Voyage Experience?

 

Pat :)

[Kmkub]

KmKub...Were you on the Ruby too or a different ship?

Firefighter and I were on the same voyage.

[FireFighter115]

Yes, we did get the lunch with wine.

 

The picture was taken as we boarded and later in the cruise I was able to convince the photo people to give me a bunch of pictures.

 

We did really have a good time, just a little unorganized.

[capriccio]

 

We'll be onboard the Emerald Princess in Feb. I wonder if the Emerald staff will be organized for the Bon Voyage Experience?

 

Pat :)

 

 

Pat - the crew on the Emerald Princess in October 2010 did a great job with our Bon Voyage Experience. My brother and sister-in-law were the only guests. We were first on board, had our group picture taken, were met by the future cruise consultant who took us on a tour (not a sales trip) of the ship and then handed us off to the Head Waiter in the MDR who pampered us. They loved it and will be joining us on an Alaska cruise this summer!

[FireFighter115]

I realized I wrote the following on my tablet while on board. Rehash a little bit. I will move on with the review later today.....

 

Here on the boards we learned of the Bon Voyage Experience (bve) and gave that to my parents for Christmas. My sister and her husband and one of the children joined us also. The bve is the opportunity for family or friends board the ship with you, explore the ship, and enjoy lunch with wine included in the dining room for $40@ cruisers n/c. I will ding Princess a few points on this one. Check in procedure for this says boarding is at 11am. We arrived at 10.45 and were brought into the elite (?) Boarding area. At 12 the ship was ready to board and we were within the first 100 people on the ship. The future cruise salesperson was to give a ships tour, never saw her, and we were to receive a special picture of our group never happened. The idea of the $40 is that it is applicable to a future cruise booking. No one ever spoke with us about what to do for the be. Each person got an envelope with particulars for the day, but everone on the ship and almost everyone in the boarding process had no idea what the bve is.

[FireFighter115]

One of the reasons for doing the bve was being on board early to get our names on the list for the Chef's Table. I am under the impression that with a few exceptions, ct participants are taken on a first come first served basis. Get your name on the list as early as possible to have the best chance to be chosen. There were 87 requests for the ct on our cruise.

 

I will let the Matre d Generoso have a few exceptions to this rule. At our ct was a couple that had 900+ days at sea on Princess alone. This couple was known to everyone including the commodore, and a simple request from the most frequent cruisers may hold weight in being chosen.

 

We were notified via letter on Monday that we were chosen and it would be held on Wednesday evening on the St. Maarten port day. Meeting time was quarter to 7pm at the International Cafe.

 

There were a number of requirements that are worth noting. They wanted to know when we called the dine line if we had any allergies. My dw has a mild allergy to soy products, but we said no because it is not severe and only is an issue with food that she consumes. She knows what to eat and what to not eat so a non issue. Also important to note that they asked if anyone in our stateroom had been sick this cruise. They asked for closed toe shoes (my dw wore her running shoes with her nice outfit). One person wore open toed shoes but had a backup pair available.

 

The cost of the ct was $95 to include the wine pairings, and $80 w/o. My wife is not a wine drinker so she passed on that. At every wine offering to the group she was presented with a virgin foofee (sp) drink. Finally she just wanted an iced tea and they handled the request......

[FireFighter115]

We have some very good frieinds that were on this cruise, this was their first. The weather and rough seas they talked about, but they also mentioned that while on deck there was a distinct smell of garbage / sewage; did you happen to notice any?

 

DW and I are booked on the Ruby 10/28 which will be our third cruise with Princess

 

Sorry for overlooking your question. Yes it did stink. I noticed it near the spa pool while laying in the sun the final sea day. I think that it was related to the toilet stack and we were cruising slow with minimal wind on deck, so the smell lingered. We actually moved to the Neptune pool and it was a little better.

[Kmkub]

At our ct was a couple that had 900+ days at sea on Princess alone.

On the last night, we saw the captain at Crooners at he was saying goodbye to a couple at the table. It appeared to us that he had come specifically for that, but there's no way to know.

 

I wonder if it was them.

[hoosierquilts]

lso, on deck 15 there are a number of cabins that everyone walks past to get to the pools and buffett if they are taking the forward elevators. Lots of traffic past Lido deck #301 and higher on both port and starboard sides. There is also a smoking section near those staterooms, and on windy days you could smell it all the way to the elevators.

 

Perfect choice is decks 11-14 IMHO.

 

 

we were on Deck 5 in the middle of the ship a few feet away from the intenational Caffee and even during the first rough days it was smooth sailing only bad thing was the noise of the stabilizers.

Jurgen

[eandx]

Excellent review. Thanks for the details, totally agree with your room location reviews. We will be on Ruby in 4 weeks and are looking forward to the chefs table. Do you have any recommendations for port tours?

[FireFighter115]

Sorry for the delay in the review. I was busy turning 40 and the DW pulled off an almost suprise party with 20 friends at my fav restaurant.

 

We were served 4 appetizers in the galley (deck 6) from the executive chef and the maitre d. I will use English not food speak to describe the appetizers.

 

1. Butterflied shrimp on a bed of scallops and lobster in a martini glass.

2. Quiche (sp) with truffle oil and sundried tomatoes

3. Foie gras on rice

4. Caviar on mashed potato tower.

 

Champagne served also.

 

Every bite was awesome. My dw is not a caviar fan, so I ate hers.

 

Two warnings....1) EAT THE FOIE GRAS SLOW. It is a small bite and I wish I had savored the taste longer. 2) DO NOT EAT ANYTHING FOR 8 HOURS BEFORE THE CHEFS TABLE. They feed you a ton of very rich food, make sure you leave room for the good stuff.

 

A few things that were interesting about the galley(s). I believe he said there were 6 galleys on the ship. Each dining room has there own galley. Joel the executive chef also said something about the provisioning for food. I could not understand his English very well, but he mentioned that they calculate the amount of $$$ spent per day for food and that the Ruby's allowance is higher than any other ship in Princess's fleet. I believe that on the UST they show the store rooms and may get into more detail on that. Anyone....?

 

After the galley tour and appetizers, we were again marched out through the dining room, everyone was watching us, and were taken down to deck 5 where we doffed the white lab coats and were seated at our special table.

 

There were name cards around the table where we were to sit, and Generoso performs magic setting the table. We truly enjoyed the company we sat next to.....