would like opinions from anyone who sailed on regal and ruby.

[hannymom]

we sailed on regal in january of this year. we were amazed at how good the buffet was. there were country themed nights, and line after line of food, not to mention a whole dessert room. we just got off of the ruby and thought the horizon was horrible. same thing every day and only one horseshoe station which included all food, salad, and desserts. i was wondering if anyone knew why there was such a huge difference.

[vmom]

I have sailed the Royal and the Ruby within the last year. The ships prior to the Royal/Regal class were built with smaller buffet areas and at this point its hard to go back and try to retrofit a buffet similar to the Royal class.

 

That explains the smaller buffet area and the fewer selections, however my experience is that the Royal buffet was very good where as the Ruby had a lot of the same foods all of the time. That I can't explain. Even with a smaller buffet area, the Ruby food in the buffet could be better.

 

That said, I found that with anytime dining in the Ruby I was always seated quickly and service was good with good food in the MDR. We always share a table with others. On the Royal, the line to get into the MDR was horrible with anytime dining. I wondered if they expected more people to eat in the buffet on the Royal and thus planned on fewer people going to the MDR for meals???

[eclue]

It is hard to compare these two ships - the Royal and Regal are of a different class and have that never ending buffet whereas the other ships are smaller and cater to a smaller crowd.....WE have traveled them all and love the Regal and the Royal but are still happy with not expecting the same from the others......you just need to adjust your expectations after traveling on these larger ships.

[Micahs Grandad]

We started with Princess on the Royal and Horizon blew us away with all the choices.

 

Ruby has nice choices but not in the same league but it is also a much smaller ship.

[neverbeenhere]

On the Ruby try traveling on down to the Caribe Cafe. The Caribe sometimes has a different variety of items from the Horizon Court. It’s a long walk to find out if there is much of a difference that particular day.

[hannymom]

thanks for the responses. we did reserved dining on regal and were not that impressed. that's why we always ended up at the horizon.

we did anytime dining on ruby and loved it!! my husband had the seafood choice every night and loved every one. desserts were amazing too. we loved our waiter so much the first night we asked for his section every night. i didn't do anytime dining on regal so i can't say anything about the lines but we never waited at all on ruby.

time to start planning next cruise!!!!

[LawDog61]

No Skywalker and virtually no wheelhouse on Royal/Regal-but a great atrium and, as mentioned, a great buffet

[skynight]

Newer ships have a larger buffet area. Some older ships have a refurbished improved buffet area, but these ships just don't have the space to lay out a spread like the Regal.

[geoherb]

The Caribbean Princess has a refurbished buffet that borrows some of the concepts from the Royal class ships. I'm betting that the other Grand class ships will eventually get similar refurbishments.

[rockdoctor]

Granted the buffet is better on the Regal, I prefer the Ruby as a ship. Side entrances to the theater, wider side balconies, Skywalker's, Sabatini’s (now Share) on the aft... The list goes on...

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Same with Caribbean Princess. We were blown away by Regal's buffet in April 2016, booked Caribbean for November 2016 and were very disappointed. It wasn't bad, but it was nowhere near as extensive as Regal. However, Caribbean Princess' itinerary fully made up for the disappointment in buffet choices (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao).

[SJCruisers]

Have to agree with rockdoctor... Aside from the buffet, Ruby is much nicer ship. Our main grief with the Regal is the balconies. All things being equal, we prefer sailing on the Ruby.

For us the overriding factor will always be the itinerary. We can adapt to the individual ship.

[DrivesLikeMario]

We loved the Regal's buffet but the Ruby (and almost all the other ships in the fleet) have a buffet that you get used to. Once you do, you know how it works and it's do-able. They all need to be on the Regal's stations-concept.