Ruby to Alaska Semi-live July 29, 2017

[satxdiver]

Very timely review for us as we will be getting on the Ruby yet again in a few weeks for our first ever Alaska trip. I'm a bit concerned by your comment above. What means "...They changed Crooners into conversation pit..."? One of our evening rituals is to hit Crooners before dinner and throw a few martinis down our necks before heading to the MDR or CG. Has something physically been changed, or is this just an allusion to the crowds in Crooners on that particular cruise? We've never experienced any real "crowds" in any of the Crooners on any ship we've been on.

 

Thanks very much for the review.

 

 

Groups of 3 or more would sit in Crooners arranging the chairs in a conversation circle and talk. As the noise level increased they would talk louder to be heard by their group. It got to the point that the piano player was not only ignored but that you had to sit close to even hear the piano over the conversations. There were over 2700 new cruisers with blue cards aboard which may have contributed to the problem. Hence I dubbed it a conversation pit instead of a piano bar.

[satxdiver]

Hi satxdiver:

 

You mentioned on another thread that you had a problem with being charged for a drink even though you had the AIBP. Was that ever resolved?

Jim

 

It was towards the end of the cruise and I let it go since I had OBC to cover it. We had our DS and his family aboard and were busy with them.

 

We too were quite disappointed and shocked to find the IC bereft of cookies late one night on a recent cruise! They were our go to treat after Skywalkers evenings. Thank you for the tip to order them from Room Service.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hail to my fellow cookie monsters! :D

[satxdiver]

My travel companion spent a lot of time on the top decks, taking pictures. You probably at least saw him. I didn't hang out anywhere in particular until the last two days, we spent a lot of time at Crooners. He was teaching me how to do artwork, and we were playing games. I was also on the top deck quite a bit after Glacier Bay. I was up there that entire morning, in fact.

 

Indeed I most likely did. We were in Glacier Bay back in 2006 on a north bound AK cruise. I remember being on the top deck to take pictures and watch the calving and freezing. I had on all the warm clothes, sock cap and gloves and it was frigid. I was not able to stay up there for more than 10 or so minutes at a time. Now fast forward to this trip and I was on the top deck wishing I had brought my shorts. Also the glacier was bigger then with large chunks of ice floating in the water around the ship. What a difference 11 years makes.