just back from ruby, comments

[Colo Cruiser]

mango?

 

 

In that order. :eek:

[nursebubba]

Don't worry. I don't think they offer help in buffet based on the age. On my very first cruise 5 years ago I was 31.. :D

 

I don't believe service is slipping, what I think is we are becoming more critical with an age.

 

IMHO, cruiselines are trying a lot of things to improve especially now when they are facing steep competition and have to win customers to fill hundreds of ships.

I think you are so right. We missed seeing children except when the parents let them go to buffett alone under 10 yrs. old. We really did love the ship, just not knowing about the plugs needing an adaptor. Have you ever seen a closet as big as the one we had. We hung everyrthing up and still had empty hangers. The steward also has extra hangers. We need to give the bartenders in

crooners about 25 gold stars for putting up with the verbal abuse and sexual harrassment they rec'd from one particular single lady. We witnessed it first hand and I could not believe it. So if they ever seemed not friendly it was because of that. We loved our cruise. Ask for Daniel and Jasper in michelangelo. They are great. Liza in the spa is also a physical therapist. She was outstanding.

[momphoto]

When you talk about the plugs needing an adapter.....what kind?? Are they not the standard double plugs?

[bhopal21]

When you talk about the plugs needing an adapter.....what kind?? Are they not the standard double plugs?

 

No adaptor needed for 110-120v , the receptacle (escept for the shaver outlet) is three prong grounded.

 

Mike:)

[cruzzers]

Hello to Nurse Bubba! Sorry we missed you onboard. It sounds like you had a great time just like we did. I really liked the Ruby and thought everyone behaved pretty well. Would like to know who the lady was at Crooners....Was it our friend from a previous thread? I saw her a couple of times but didn't let her know I recognized her.

 

I thought the staff did an outstanding job of dealing with the people and we had great service in spite of the few that seem to be on every cruise to travel to different ports so they will have a new place to complain about. Go figure....

 

Nursebubba...I will email you later, hope you are feeling better...I get the land sickness too.

[kellor]

We just returned home from the Dec 6 sailing and I have to say that we had a wonderful time; the crew members were so very polite and very helpful.

 

On the other hand I have to say that this was not true of many passengers; they pushed and shoved, complained, and were just plain mean. There was incident on aft elevators where a lady in her mid 30's actually pushed an elderly gentleman off the elevator so her friends could get on myself and one other lady got off the elevator at that point. Many people were horrible in the buffet, we witnessed several incidents of passengers snapping their fingers at the crew and ordering them around as if they were owed this service. They would complain about anything and everything. I really hope some of you that fall into this category are reading this because I want you to know that you are on vacation, please just relax and have a good time there is no need to push and shove or to be rude to anyone.

 

In response to the OP we were never asked to return the cards we were given.

 

My husband and I loved the smaller portions; my gosh you are eating all darn day long and you can have as much as you want. You might have all had great waiters but I know ours was the BEST! Marian was from Romina and took great care of us. He told us everynight about what was the best selection on the menu, plus items that were not on the menu like the French Onion Soup and he always asked my husband if he wanted a second entree. He had an addional task to deal with since I have a nut allergy so every night when we came in he already knew what I could have or not have; several nights they created a dessert of ice cream and fresh fruits just for me.

 

As far as the entertainment goes I give Princess big kudos on adding extra performances so that we can get to see the main show plus the comedians. The Ruby had 3 brand new main shows at a production cost of $1.5 million each - they have not cut them back they are still the same length they just appear that way since there are more of them.

 

Lori

[caribill]

As far as the entertainment goes I give Princess big kudos on adding extra performances so that we can get to see the main show plus the comedians. The Ruby had 3 brand new main shows at a production cost of $1.5 million each - they have not cut them back they are still the same length they just appear that way since there are more of them.

 

 

I think the OP was thinking that since each show was presented four times that they had cut the number of shows, not the duration, in half.

[Tatka]

I think the OP was thinking that since each show was presented four times that they had cut the number of shows, not the duration, in half.

 

And this is not necessarily true, because they just moved some show to Explorers lounge.

 

What I noticed there were less music around the ship comparing to 2 years ago Caribbean P. Less music in Wheelhouse bar and Explorers lounge too. But there was more unusial action :) on Piazza.

[steveweese]

One day while leaving on a fairly full elevator I hear a woman scream "Hold the elevator for us".

 

We did and 3 women in their late sixty's crammed in. They were traveling with a gentleman that was on a scooter and one of them turned to him and said "The elevator is full you will have to wait for the next one".

 

I would never get into an elevator and leave my companions back to wait for the next one.

 

I just got off the elevator and held the doors so the man could get in with his group, then took the stairs hoping I would never see this woman again!

[nursebubba]

Hello to Nurse Bubba! Sorry we missed you onboard. It sounds like you had a great time just like we did. I really liked the Ruby and thought everyone behaved pretty well. Would like to know who the lady was at Crooners....Was it our friend from a previous thread? I saw her a couple of times but didn't let her know I recognized her.

 

I thought the staff did an outstanding job of dealing with the people and we had great service in spite of the few that seem to be on every cruise to travel to different ports so they will have a new place to complain about. Go figure....

 

Nursebubba...I will email you later, hope you are feeling better...I get the land sickness too.

Oh yes that was her as we all knew what she looks like. What I don't understand is how she could publicly bash Dan for his comment about the stockings and cards with their cabin numbers on them and then behave as badly as she did in Crooners. We went in one evening to the bar and my sister sat beside her and the very 1st words out of her mouth were "Wouldn't you like to sh..g him. The poor shy bartender who was bent over with his backside to us. All my sister could say was that is very innappropriate. I know sometimes people get a little champagne in them and can then act very nasty and I hope that she did not act that way when sober. Sadly enogh though the reputation followed her. It really was quite sad.

[velvetred]

IMHO, the repeat of some of the shows the next night was a great idea. There was so much desirable entertainment on board that there were times we had to choose among our options. Having the main theater show repeat the next evening on some nights meant everyone got seats in the Princess theater and we could attend everything we wanted to see. Plus, it was nice to know that if you were tired after a day in port or wanted to see the movies on MUTS that the main production show would repeat the next night.

 

We had a nice time on the Ruby Princess and we would not hesitate to cruise her again. She was not perfect (and we sailed her second week voyage) but it was a great vacation. Princess has tried to resolve the earlier complaints from passengers in this class of ship about standing room only in the Princess theater with some missing out on the shows because of crowding and I give them Kudos for it.

[ocngypz]

I'm just back, too. We had a wonderful time. We did anytime dining and it worked perfectly. Never a wait. We ate around the 7-730 time slot. Had dinner in both the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. Also did the casual buffet . As far as food was concerned, we were quite happy.

 

I took a friend of mine with me who'd never been on Princess before. She typically sails HAL's R and S class ships which are much smaller.

 

I've now converted her to Princess...lol.

 

I've never met a shipboard hairdryer I've liked. I've always brought my own.

 

Not a single complaint to be made here. It was a lovely cruise with a lovely staff......and I never ran into any chronic complainers!!! Yeah!!!

 

The holiday decorations were very nice.. and not overly done.

 

Good job, Princess.

[rcacace]

Bathroom outlet clearly states "Shavers Only" on it.

 

 

I agree 100% about Carlos, he handled every request perfectly. ;)

 

The bathroom outlet works fine for any low wattage items with 2 prong plugs. I charged my GPS and Ipod there without any incidents. Just don't try plugging in a hair dryer or other high wattage things or the breaker will pop.

 

i know how lucky i am to be able to afford a cruise..i'm simply stating facts

 

1. there is no blowdryer any longer in the spa; someone, somewhere put the blowdryer in a sink and got electrocuted; they took them out of all the spas; so after sauna/steam and shower, you have to go to your room with wet hair, in or out of a towel; if they blow dry your hair in the salon, it will be $50 and up.

 

Strange since the outlets are GFI.

 

2. just an fyi; the thermal suite...there are several steam rooms; no sauna and the steams are not as hot as the ones that are the public area and don't cost anything

 

3. they request that you return the playing cards you borrowed

 

They also started to ask you return them on the Emerald last week. I'm not a card player but other than checking the complete deck before you begin you wouldn't know if all the cards were there. Sort of a cheap cost saving program. :(

 

4. dining room; much smaller portions; escargots and french onion soup are on the menu but it must be a secret because you can request it but it's not printed on the menu; lobster tails, you can get more than one, but not at one time, one after another; a woman asked for 3 danish at bkfst and the waiter made a snide remark to her about her wanting too many; you can get freshly squeezed orange juice upon request in the dining room for bkfst; if you order it up on the horizon court it will cost you $6.00 for a large and they ran out of baked alaska as it was requested the night before by a few people and that was a secret too

 

Same on the Emerald. The portions are smaller but that's OK with me. What did annoy me was the fact that they didn't have certain items on the menu, such as Escargot, but could be ordered if you waiter was nice enough to let you know they were available. (which ours wasn't). Perhaps it's the fact that they've recently changed to the new style menu's & haven't had time to make corrections? But then again the same thing happened on two different ships so it must be a cost saving measure. We saw other people having Escargot & asked them & their waiter had informed them of all the extra available items.

 

5. you can now use the internet until the moment you disembark provided you do not need to buy minutes...you can buy them up until 11 p.m. the night before you leave

 

Interesting. They've never mentioned that before.

 

6. the shows were excellent but now they show 4 of the same 2 nights in a row (early and late) so no one misses anything which means they have cut the shows by half

 

I've notice the same thing on our 10 day Emerald cruise. They now only offer the same amount of different shows comparable to a 7 night cruise on the 10 day cruise with repeats on the other 3 nights. Another sneaky cutback that they though people wouldn't catch. I didn't realize that they've cut back on the 7 day cruises as well. :eek:

 

Another really chintzy thing I saw on the Emerald was on the morning show broadcast at 6 AM. They had a question of the day & if answered correctly would be awarded with a small prize to the winners. Not quite! If you did get the correct answer (to the silly questions) they would only select between 1-3 of the correct answers to get the prize. A water bottle Woooo! :rolleyes: Could they spare it. Maybe next year they can give away used playing cards. Oh yes, the "winners" also received 5 whole minutes of Internet usage. :p

 

I don't know about the Ruby yet, but has anyone taken notice of the width of the seats in the Princess theater? Possibly the Ruby has better seating but the Emerald has shrunk the seat width to bare minimum. They must have done this to accommodate a few extra seats in the whole row but made very uncomfortable for seating. I felt like a adult trying to squeeze into in a 3 grader's school desk. Don't even try & fold out the drink table. Next they'll be reducing the size of the showers.

have a great time..

 

sonja

[nursebubba]

When you talk about the plugs needing an adapter.....what kind?? Are they not the standard double plugs?

My concern is that if you need/want a small fan to blow in the bathroom after the hot showers so you can get ready and not sweat the closest outlet is under the tv. I think they make a converter for the shaver outlet in the bathroom but don't know where to find it. Maybe the specialty unusual items store at the mall. Or bring a very long extension cord. After reading my 1st post here I realized I said the waiter we had was Daniel, it was not, it was David and Jasper in Mich.

[Northender]

I'm just back, too. We had a wonderful time. We did anytime dining and it worked perfectly. Never a wait. We ate around the 7-730 time slot. Had dinner in both the Crown Grill and Sabatini's. Also did the casual buffet . As far as food was concerned, we were quite happy.

 

I took a friend of mine with me who'd never been on Princess before. She typically sails HAL's R and S class ships which are much smaller.

 

I've now converted her to Princess...lol.

 

I've never met a shipboard hairdryer I've liked. I've always brought my own.

 

Not a single complaint to be made here. It was a lovely cruise with a lovely staff......and I never ran into any chronic complainers!!! Yeah!!!

 

The holiday decorations were very nice.. and not overly done.

 

Good job, Princess.

 

Thanks for your "mini" review. I like the word "happy" as that is what one wants. :):cool::)

 

Perfect is too strong a word for me to talk about mostly everything. Not everything will be perfect. I think we all use the work too loosely. Not critizing anyone, I can be guilty of this too:)

[Colo Cruiser]

Great info. :)

[Julia’s Journey’s]

IMHO, the repeat of some of the shows the next night was a great idea. There was so much desirable entertainment on board that there were times we had to choose among our options. Having the main theater show repeat the next evening on some nights meant everyone got seats in the Princess theater and we could attend everything we wanted to see. Plus, it was nice to know that if you were tired after a day in port or wanted to see the movies on MUTS that the main production show would repeat the next night.

 

We had a nice time on the Ruby Princess and we would not hesitate to cruise her again. She was not perfect (and we sailed her second week voyage) but it was a great vacation. Princess has tried to resolve the earlier complaints from passengers in this class of ship about standing room only in the Princess theater with some missing out on the shows because of crowding and I give them Kudos for it.

 

I totally agree with you - we were also on that cruise and the week prior and we saw plenty of improvements the second week from comments made the prior one - Princess is always trying to improve there service and offerings you just cannot please all of the people all of the time.:)

[wherenext]

We were on the Dec 6 sailing and had a great time. The sail a way party was well attended which I haven't seen on my last several cruises. It is a beautiful ship and we enjoyed walking around and seeing all of the common areas when we first boarded. Check in was easy and smooth and it always amazes me how quickly they turn these ships around and get them ready for the next sailing. MUTS was great we enjoyed several movies throughout the cruise. I missed the music around the pool area it seemed like they have cut back or I may have just not been around while it was playing. I found the casino to be the most unattractive room on the ship, I didn't like the feel of it even though we did fairly well while gaming. I must admit a highlight of the cruise was the pastry shop by the Piazza, the free donuts and pastries and sandwiches were great and the Gelato was great and well worth the money. I think we kept them in business with the chocolate covered strawberries as well. Found the Adagio bar the last evening, too bad as their drinks were great. Had dinner at Sabatini's and the food was great along with the service. Found the staff to be friendly for the most part and food choices were plentiful and good. Hot dogs from the grill were to die for, but I love hotdogs. I didn't care for their pizza on this cruise. I wasn't fond of their cruise entertainment staff especially during Kareoke. I have always liked going and being entertained but since they started the Princess Star or whatever they call it and limiting the participation to 10 every night and having judges has really changed the true nature of it and we walked out. I didn't come to see the staff sing and talk and be rude to the participants, this is our vacation, to have fun, let our hair down and enjoy ourselves; it is not American Idol. Overall we had a great time and I would cruise on the Ruby again.

[rcacace]

How was the smoke situation on the lounges that allowed it? Was there decent ventilation or just as bad as the other ships?

[wherenext]

I must say I didn't even notice any smoke. Our friends traveled with us and had a balcony cabin, they said the guy next to them smoked all the time and it filtered into their room. They bring a room air freshner and that seemed to cut the smell in the room and they just had to time it right to enjoy the balcony and hope he wasn't out there. Don't even remember the casino as being overly smokey but again I wasn't impressed with their casino layout, decor or the gaming personal who weren't overly friendly.