Disappointment on the Ruby.

[3kidsncats]

I was on the same cruise and am in the process of scanning the Patters now. Will be posting them soon.

 

Thank you!

[3kidsncats]

club class is hardly the problem. There are only 10 tables there.

The problem is that more and more people are wanting anytime dining, because early is to early and late is to late. also I did notice that people seem to be staying at their tables and socializing longer with their coffee and dessert............ making the wait for tables longer also.

Like I said on my cruise in November if we arrived between 6-6:30, we didn't have much of a wait........... maybe 5 min

 

I'm on the Ruby in a week, so will see for myself how bad it is??

 

Yep, I guess you will see for yourself. I didn't bother going at that time after the first night, because the line to get a pager wrapped thru the atrium.

[floridalover5623]

club class is hardly the problem. There are only 10 tables there.

The problem is that more and more people are wanting anytime dining, because early is to early and late is to late. also I did notice that people seem to be staying at their tables and socializing longer with their coffee and dessert............ making the wait for tables longer also.

Like I said on my cruise in November if we arrived between 6-6:30, we didn't have much of a wait........... maybe 5 min

 

I'm on the Ruby in a week, so will see for myself how bad it is??

 

The post by rurn0321 said there were people lining up at 4:40 PM for dinner so how could AT dining be to early?

There is no doubt in my mind that the extra tables being held for Club Class that's causing all the delays. Letting them arrive at any time they want to a vacant seat without reservations has got to take it's toll on the general wait.

Even letting people make reservations for a specific time (as bad as that is) isn't as bad as keeping a seat for vacant for the whole evening.

Sure, if they had a separate dining area on the ship with additional personnel to serve them it wouldn't interfere with anyone but we all know that's not the case.

Good luck next week. Maybe it'll all be fixed by then. :rolleyes:

[HawksFan74]

princessme, Just posted the Patters here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2450300

[rosey123]

To be more specific about my earlier post, the majority of the meals we had was either under seasoned or undercooked. Examples from MDR: Fried perch was raw on the inside, surf & turf described as filet mignon & king prawns. What was served was ??? steamed beef & medium dried shrimp, undercooked potatoes & carrots. Pizza was dry with very little cheese & pepperoni. Burgers overcooked. Brisket soaked in sauce and stringy. Just the quality of food was bad. Mexican buffet on last night lacked any condiments (sour cream, salsa, cheese, sauce, etc). Seemed the buffet rotated the same items during the week.

Ordered room service for breakfast., coffee strong but cold. They picked up the pot and added hot water that resembled weak tea. Second order, left off half of the items. Ended up buying coffee the rest of the week.

Someone said this was typical Princess food. We have taken a break from this line the last few cruises, but they have definitely gone downhill!

The fettuccine, smoked salmon, bread and soups, all good.

On a high note, we never had to wait for anytime dining. We arrived after 8 and always ask for a two top by the wall. Service was excellent!

[vmom]

The only explanation I can think of is there must be a new head chef or some other major staff changes in the dining/ food department.

 

Regarding the long wait time for ATD, I don't know if this is a contributing factor or not, but during the morning shows the CD talked about seating times for the shows for early seating and late seating and said something like, there's always anytime dining.

 

She seemed to be saying that if you have traditional dining and it's not working for you just go on over to anytime dining.

 

It seems like for the January 7-17th cruise some of the people were having some difficulties with the dining times relative to the showtimes. I wondered if many traditional seating diners may have been using ATD.

[Steelers36]

I would add my vote as well to bypass F&C at Salty Dog. I mean the old pub lunch for F&C was a decent enough lunch alternative and I would have an English brew with it. Fine enough, but no way worth $12 if the same thing. $5 maybe. But I am not that desperate for only half decent F&C, so I would just go for one of the free alternatives and still buy an English brew if I was so inclined. $12 used to be just about half a CG cover (it's $29 now), but still there is WAY more value to put my $$$$ there than the F&C plate. Just sayin'

[antsp]

club class is hardly the problem. There are only 10 tables there.

The problem is that more and more people are wanting anytime dining, because early is to early and late is to late. also I did notice that people seem to be staying at their tables and socializing longer with their coffee and dessert............ making the wait for tables longer also.

Like I said on my cruise in November if we arrived between 6-6:30, we didn't have much of a wait........... maybe 5 min

 

I'm on the Ruby in a week, so will see for myself how bad it is??

 

I can assure there are more than 10 tables set aside for club class dinning

[Reader0108598]

I would add my vote as well to bypass F&C at Salty Dog. I mean the old pub lunch for F&C was a decent enough lunch alternative and I would have an English brew with it. Fine enough, but no way worth $12 if the same thing. $5 maybe. But I am not that desperate for only half decent F&C, so I would just go for one of the free alternatives and still buy an English brew if I was so inclined. $12 used to be just about half a CG cover (it's $29 now), but still there is WAY more value to put my $$$$ there than the F&C plate. Just sayin'

 

 

No way, would I pay extra for the old pub lunch...:( Although my husband loves it!

Looking at more land vacations these days...sad,as we love to cruise but sick of all the up charges,and diminished services! :(

Edited January 30, 2017 by Reader0108598

[terrysko2000]

I just saw on the princess patters that were posted yesterday that there was a free pub lunch on the Ruby Princess Mexican Riviera Sailing a week ago. Looks like it is back and free....

[dockhl]

We were on the Ruby at the beginning of December and, yes, in fact there WAS a new chef : Executive Chef Graeme Cockburn formerly of Seabourne.

 

We had a Chef's table (I think there were 2 on our 7 day cruise) which was excellent and somewhat different from our previous chef's tables. It sounded like he had just gotten there that week as a sort of emergency replacement for the previous chef. Don't know what the issue was or if he is still the Exec. Chef. Anyone know?

 

We had the same problem with waiting for a table in AT dining, and not being able to call to reserve one. (Sadly, we have friends who came with us who hadn't sailed before and had heard us rave about our trips. They probably will never cruise again....) LONG waits for a table, long lines waiting to be put on the list and told it'd be 45 minutes . Terrible.

 

The food. Not to bad---we tend not to have more than breakfast in the buffet. Dinners were typical Princess food once you got to sit down. Staff were terrific as always (although we did have our first mediocre steward ever.) The ship seemed more crowded than I remember; I attributed it to Christmas month.

 

(Also we did have a pub lunch...)

Edited January 30, 2017 by dockhl

[vmom]

I just saw on the princess patters that were posted yesterday that there was a free pub lunch on the Ruby Princess Mexican Riviera Sailing a week ago. Looks like it is back and free....

 

Glad to hear that the new idea of charging for the pub lunch experience was a big flop.

 

I'm getting tired of all of the new pay to dine options. Its become excessive. Nice to have a choice for an upscale dining experience for extra $, but Princess has been going overboard as I felt it had on my January cruise. It felt like just a grab for more money.

[Hlitner]

Glad to hear that the new idea of charging for the pub lunch experience was a big flop.

 

I'm getting tired of all of the new pay to dine options. Its become excessive. Nice to have a choice for an upscale dining experience for extra $, but Princess has been going overboard as I felt it had on my January cruise. It felt like just a grab for more money.

 

We enjoy the pub lunch and go at least once on every Princess cruise. Have not been on Princess since they started charging for the luncheon...but would quickly skip the pub lunch if there was any fee. We do enjoy the Fish and Chips....but could get that in the Lido on some days. If Princess wants to charge they would need to up the ante with their food offerings.

 

Hank

[Reader0108598]

Glad to hear that the new idea of charging for the pub lunch experience was a big flop.

 

I'm getting tired of all of the new pay to dine options. Its become excessive. Nice to have a choice for an upscale dining experience for extra $, but Princess has been going overboard as I felt it had on my January cruise. It felt like just a grab for more money.

 

 

Yes, this sums up my last trip. Very disappointing :(

[WupperAV]

Fish and chips were not very good on Crown. Sort of soggy and not beer battered. We've sailed Princess since 2010 and we have seen the quality go down. I still laugh at butter pats being doled out and no salt and pepper at the tables in MDR but all the butter you want in Horizons. If you ask for more butter it takes so long every one else is done eating. Food was better in Horizons than MDR.

[crd27]

Didn't catch a lot of the entertainment. They had a comedian onboard until PV, and he was pretty funny - saw him both nights. We went to "Magic to Do" and hated it -- feel guilty to say we left about 20 minutes in, which is rare for us. Normally we stay put even if we aren't enjoying something. Skipped all of the production shows after that. We caught the guy in the lounge doing a Neil Diamond tribute (as well as various other short shows he did in the Wheelhouse Bar during the cruise) and he was pretty good. And we enjoyed DJ Nikki up in Skywalkers.

 

 

I agree the comedian was extremely good, loved him. But we also loved "Magic to Do" as well as all of the other production shows. Different people will have different opinions and I respect that. I also thought the food was quite good, especially in the dining room. We were on Emerald Princess last October (2015) and were quite disappointed with both entertainment and food, but this cruise experience as far as food/entertainment goes received a big thumbs up from us!

 

C&C

[skacton]

Agree with many of the comments made about the Ruby. We just got off the ship on the 28th and felt that the food was really subpar from our previous Princess cruises. Anytime dining on Princess is ridiculous, you had to stand in line for 30 to 45 minutes just to receive a buzzer, then anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes until you had a table. Calling for reservations wasn't much better as you were given a choice of 7:30 or 7:45. We had anytime dining on another line in October and were able to enter the dining room almost immediately, the longest wait we had was 10 minutes. Because of the problems with anytime dining we only ate in the dining room 3 of the seven nights. Which brings up another issue--the food in the Horizon Court was not very good. Lunches were the worst, the same choices almost daily. Dinner was a little better and we learned towards the end of the cruise that snack time in the Caribe was our best choice. Desserts were particularly bad.

 

I enjoy the entertainment in the Princess Theater and thought the productions shows were good, as well as the comedian and the singer, who did a tribute to Whitney Houston. However, after the shows were over there seemed to be little else going on around the ship.

 

We booked a repositioning cruise for 2018 while on this cruise and now I am a little worried about spending 15 days on a Princess ship. For the most part we enjoyed the cruise in spite of the issues with the food, but Princess definitely seems to have gone downhill since our last cruise with her two years ago. Hope it was just the ship and not the entire line.

[pablo222]

but the last time my husband sent his favorite Versace pure wool dark blue sweater and they brutally damaged it by washing and tumble dry! They are offering us $ 45.00 per damaged item instead of $ 400.00 we paid in Nordstrom's last year

 

I would never, ever, ever send anything valuable to be cleaned on Princess.

 

On the other hand, Princess offers the service, one should

be able to use it without fear....

[floridalover5623]

I would never, ever, ever send anything valuable to be cleaned on Princess.

 

On the other hand, Princess offers the service, one should

be able to use it without fear....

 

That's the very reason I keep posting warnings about their laundry/cleaning services. Some people see then as repetitive complaining until it happens to them.

 

btw- never send in articles to be washed and some to be cleaned in the same bag.

[logan25]

Glad to hear that the new idea of charging for the pub lunch experience was a big flop.

 

I'm getting tired of all of the new pay to dine options. Its become excessive. Nice to have a choice for an upscale dining experience for extra $, but Princess has been going overboard as I felt it had on my January cruise. It felt like just a grab for more money.

 

I completed the survey after my January sailing on Ruby. One of my comments was polite disappointment about the demise of Pub Lunch. Unhappy that we were part of the "test" market, but I take heart things may be different when I choose to sail Princess again.

[FritzG]

We love there Ruby, and we've sailed on her at least 7 times. The food at lunchtime in HC on our Alaskan cruise this past May was sub par. As others have noted, the selection was poor, and seeing the same poor choices day after day was disappointing. I couldn't even make a decent salad for lunch because most of the greens bowl was full of frisee lettuce--it looked like a big puffy bowl of green hair. That lettuce is fine mixed with other greens, but it looked like they forgot to order any other type of lettuce. That was the first time that I couldn't find something decent to eat for lunch.

 

Another issue I've had is that they won't cook a burger to order at the Trident Grill. They have burgers cooked and off to the side that they reheat when you order them. In other words, you get a dried out "hockey puck". I've had staff refuse to make a fresh burger, and yet when DH orders one he gets a fresh burger. There's never a supervisor around when this happens.

[jimdee3636]

Here's my two cents' worth:

 

I've sailed with Princess twice in the past two years (once on the Ruby, once on the Crown). I've also sailed ten times on HAL , three times on Silversea, and once on Seabourn. I realized the first night on my first Princess cruise that the MDR was sub-par, not just in comparison to luxury lines like Silversea and Seabourn, but to HAL, which is at a similar price point.

 

The buffets at breakfast and lunch were even worse.

 

I won't tolerate bad food, so my solution was to eat breakfast and lunch at the International Cafe (excellent quality) and dinner at Sabbatini's or Crown Grill. Of course, those specialty restaurants add $29 pp to the daily cost, but for anyone who loves and demands a good dining experience it's well worth it.

 

In the future, I'd only go on Princess if the base fare is low and the itinerary exceptions. Otherwise, there are better options.

[happybuji]

That's the very reason I keep posting warnings about their laundry/cleaning services. Some people see then as repetitive complaining until it happens to them.

 

btw- never send in articles to be washed and some to be cleaned in the same bag.

 

Yes, indeed, we learned a very hard lesson. They either don't real English or just don't care. My husband still is very upset. They should cancel cleaning if it is not available, right? The sweater is sixe X-Small instead of XL, don't they read a labels?

Edited January 31, 2017 by happybuji

[floridalover5623]

Here's my two cents' worth:

 

I've sailed with Princess twice in the past two years (once on the Ruby, once on the Crown). I've also sailed ten times on HAL , three times on Silversea, and once on Seabourn. I realized the first night on my first Princess cruise that the MDR was sub-par, not just in comparison to luxury lines like Silversea and Seabourn, but to HAL, which is at a similar price point.

 

The buffets at breakfast and lunch were even worse.

 

I won't tolerate bad food, so my solution was to eat breakfast and lunch at the International Cafe (excellent quality) and dinner at Sabbatini's or Crown Grill. Of course, those specialty restaurants add $29 pp to the daily cost, but for anyone who loves and demands a good dining experience it's well worth it.

 

In the future, I'd only go on Princess if the base fare is low and the itinerary exceptions. Otherwise, there are better options.

Silversea and Seabourn are ion a different class than Princess which caters to the mid-market people.

Comparing food quality isn't even close and neither is the price.

[caribill]

Yes, indeed, we learned a very hard lesson. They either don't real English or just don't care. My husband still is very upset. They should cancel cleaning if it is not available, right? The sweater is sixe X-Small instead of XL, don't they read a labels?

 

No.

 

If you want the cleaning service instead of the (hot) wash and dry, then be sure to put cleaning items in a seperate bag with a slip that indicates "cleaning."