just back /Ruby princess.

[Ilovepj]

HI,

 

OK this was my first princess cruise, have sailed on Carnival and Royal Caribbean, so here is how I rate princess.

 

The ship was very pretty, I think better then Carnival, Royal Caribbean blows them away.

 

Food, Carnival and Royal Caribbean much better, princess was fair.

Shows, Carnival good, Royal Caribbean Excellent, Princess, Horrible, was no better the a high school show. The comedy was good, but there dancers and singers so bad.

 

Crown Grille, I booked this because I heard such great things, and maybe if we would have had steak this would be better, but it was our anniversary and we both wanted lobster. We got 4 little lobster tails, the size of large ship, and lobster was grey in color and tasted like rubber bands. The onion soup was good, and my lobster cake was good. But would not waste 50 dollars in here at all. The food in the dining room was better, and that was just fair food.

 

The crew was wonderful, friendly at all times.

 

I had 280 obc, and used my debit card if I went over the 280. The night before the last night we closed out our account (April 16) and got back 25.60 as we did not use all the obc. I get home, and there is a 100 pending charge dated the 17th????? I called the cruise line and said why would you put a hold on my debit card when we received a refund the day before and close out the account, had no real good answer, so now I have to wait 4 days to get my money back, Carnival and Royal Caribbean never put holds on my account when I had enough obc to cover our charges, sorry but no reason for this.

 

So long story short, Princess is not for me, I am going back to Royal Caribbean, so much better.

[Ilovepj]

I forget to mention the room:

 

We had a balcony on the lido deck (deck 15) room was in great location and no noise. But again the balcony rooms on Carnival and RC are so much bigger, they have a sofa in the room, and much bigger balcony. This room had a chair instead of couch and the balcony was tiny.

[Ilovepj]

Missed spelled the lobster tails were the size of large shrimp, not ship, (I wish)

[more cruises]

Missed spelled the lobster tails were the size of large shrimp, not ship, (I wish)

 

You know, you could have had the steak AND lobster. Last time our server brought us a whole bowl of lobster tails.

 

I agree, the lack of backgrounds/sets for the production shows on the Ruby do look like high school. Other Princess ships do a better job. I always thought the shows were good though.

 

Sorry you didn't like Princess. We've been on the Ruby 6 times and always enjoyed it.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for coming back and sharing your comments!

 

I agree and so do many others, the entertainment is really going downhill. :(

 

As far as the Crown Grill I agree on that too. When it first opened they had live Maine lobsters available split and grilled, 12 ounce Brazillian or Australian rock lobster tails (for a $9 upcharge). :(

The open kitchen/bar area was built to showcase all the seafood. Its been really stripped down of it original intent. :( Its really too bad as these things are rearing their ugly heads more and more!

 

Well you never know until you try so now you know! :)

[Hlitner]

Sometimes we get the feeling that all the mass market cruise lines are in some kind of race to see who can cut-back the most. We cruise many different lines and just in the past year have experienced obvious major cut-backs (in food, service and entertainment) on Celebrity and HAL and had previously noted major cut-backs in food quality/quantity on RCI. We will soon be on the Ruby for 26 days, and have lowered our expectations after reading several recent posts/reviews. I should mention that we are long-time Elite with Princess but stopped cruising the line nearly 4 years ago because we thought that Celebrity and HAL (and several other small ship lines) were much better options. We thought it would be fun to come back on Princess and see how things have changed...but nothing we see here on CC gives us much reason for optimism. We shall see :)

 

Hank

[JerryinBWB]

These cruise line comparisons are always interesting to me. I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the OP. My comments are about comparisons in general. The fact that different folks have different likes and dislikes aside, it seems to me to be problematic to compare cruise lines UNLESS you compare ships of similar age and similar size sailing similar itineraries at similar times of the year. We don't know, but if the OP sailed a short 4 or 5 day cruise on Ruby Princess and is comparing it with perhaps Oasis of the Seas, then we have an apples and oranges situation.

I happened to sail last year on a longer cruise, and then subsequently on a short cruise --- both on the same ship. The experiences were very different to include food and entertainment on the same ship, and obviously same cruise line.

I resist answering questions about cruise line comparisons because it seems people think the experience will be the same on the same cruise line regardless of size and age of ship, itinerary, time of year, etc. Perhaps there should be more similarity, but there is not.

[Ilovepj]

These cruise line comparisons are always interesting to me. I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the OP. My comments are about comparisons in general. The fact that different folks have different likes and dislikes aside, it seems to me to be problematic to compare cruise lines UNLESS you compare ships of similar age and similar size sailing similar itineraries at similar times of the year. We don't know, but if the OP sailed a short 4 or 5 day cruise on Ruby Princess and is comparing it with perhaps Oasis of the Seas, then we have an apples and oranges situation.

I happened to sail last year on a longer cruise, and then subsequently on a short cruise --- both on the same ship. The experiences were very different to include food and entertainment on the same ship, and obviously same cruise line.

I resist answering questions about cruise line comparisons because it seems people think the experience will be the same on the same cruise line regardless of size and age of ship, itinerary, time of year, etc. Perhaps there should be more similarity, but there is not.

 

I did the 5 day, and have been on carnival ships the same size, and RC alittle big Liberty of the seas, freedom of the seas, so I think I can compare.

[tinatark]

We did the Ruby 5 day in March. I was on the Carnival Dream in November, and Oasis of the Seas in August. Have done many Princess Cruises - 7 nights on the Crown, Golden, Grand, Caribbean, etc. Have the Liberty of the Seas booked for November/December.

 

Pretty awesome that Commodore Romano is on the Ruby!

 

I will say, I think Princess is getting their feet wet with the shorter cruises - staff is not used to the quicker turnaround... maybe once they have a season or two under their belt these cruises will be better.

Edited April 18, 2014 by tinatark

[Pam in CA]

I did the 5 day, and have been on carnival ships the same size, and RC alittle big Liberty of the seas, freedom of the seas, so I think I can compare.

Keep in mind that even a 5-day Princess cruise is different from a 7-day or a more "normal" cruise. So it's not really comparable. :( Up until this year, Princess has had very, very few cruises that were less than seven days long so they are probably still making adjustments. It's not something they've done before. Since January, I've taken a 4-day and a 10-day cruise on the Sapphire just six weeks apart and they were very different experiences. Same ship, same cabin, same steward, same crew for the most part.

 

Some things are subjective, some things are objective. Food is very subjective but I was surprised by your comments. If you didn't like it, why didn't you pre-order what you wanted prepared the way you wanted? You can do that on Princess any time, whether it's lunch or dinner. You can request changes or modifications to most menu items. Want Bearnaise sauce on your steak? A loaded baked potato? Steamed vegetables? Food not hot enough? Just ask. It's done all the time.

 

Princess isn't for everyone and I'm glad you've found a line you like. Having taken several RCCL cruises, my experiences were that the food (subjective) and service was poor and my cabin stewards among the worst I've ever had. I probably won't cruise RCCL again but I wouldn't rule it out if the price were really right.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Pam in CA

[OCruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to give us your thoughts on Ruby Princess.

LuLu

~~~

[HMSDingy]

Besides Princess we sailed twice with RCCL and I found the service both times lacking as compared to Princess. In fact, I found the waiters in the MDR inexperienced to say the least at working in a restaurant. Heck one waiter didn't even know how to use a corkscrew. This is a comparison I feel comfortable with as, IMHO, comparing excursions and such can be subjective to peoples likes & tastes. I also prefer the crew on the Princess ships as, like myself, most are European. But again this is according to my own personal tastes. BTW, we chose our Med cruise with RCCL because of the itinerary.

[karena1]

We were on Ruby in Jan and really enjoyed it. I will say this - Royal Perks for Diamond Plus blow everyone out of the water. No evening cocktail party on Princess. However, hubby enjoyed his "bar" setup in the cabin - we called and got everything replaced with what we wanted. Thought the service was great. I have never liked the buffet setup on Princess, very disjointed, but the food was great. Hubby loved his breakfast in there. I thought the entertainment was good, nothing different than many other ships

 

Overall we really enjoyed it and have another Ruby booked for Dec b/c of the promo they offered when we were on there in Jan. Plus with other promos, we ended up with $400 in OBC so this cruise will be a very inexpensive one for us. I will only cruise on 3 lines - Royal (1st choice) Celebrity and Princess as we are top level on all 3 lines. Service/food are about the same on all of them, but then food is the least important thing to me on a cruise. We both really liked Ruby and are looking forward to going on her again in Dec