Ruby March 14-21 Review

[RN1986]

I wanted to review this ship but wanted some time to pass before I put it in writing.

Pros:

-beatutiful ship-pretty, well laid out

-service--pretty good overall, although I called for room service multiple times and was on hold for over 30 min each time. When I contacted the pursers desk to adk if somebody was working, they replied "they are very busy, just wait". I was very disappointed in this comment. Never received room service as nobody answered. Cabins were average and very clean. Room steward did a good job.

-Food--a very big disappointment. Very average and sometimes the waiter himself had difficulty recommending anything. He commented that the menu had changed and that the tenderloins of beef were actually "pressed beef". I guess thats why it was like leather and tastless. Buffets were just OK. Paying for ice cream is just crazy!

--Entertainment--they say it is "a big ship with a small ship feel" What this really means is that they have very small theaters and if you want a seat you must arrive 30-45 min before the show. It seats 800 people. Carnival Glory seats 1400 people. It is not my idea of a vacation when I have to arrive that early for a show. People were actullly turned away from the shows as it was "full" They sell it by having the show on multiple nights, which means the same show runs for at least 2 nights and therefore no other show runs. The entertainment was by far the worst part of the ship.

MUTS--great concept, but again, repeats, for at least 2 nights. This is so the people who stood in line trying to get into the show had somewhere else to go when they didi't get into the show.

 

 

The boat appeared dead every night, with nothing fun to do in the evenings other than the disco which started very late to get fun. If you are looking for a great kareoke bar or a fun Piano man you will not find it on this ship.

 

 

All in all, I was so disappointed. This was my second Princess Cruise and I have cruised Carnival twice as well. I have to say again, that Carnival food is more interesting and tasty. The entertainment was much better on Carnival with enough seating for eveyone. The service is better on Princess, other than the room service.

Not sure if I will travel Princess again.

[skyking]

It's amaaaazing to me how two people on the same sailing can have two totaly different experiences, Ruby was our best cruise yet.

[VegasGreen]

did you find you got MORE shows on Carnival? I like that Princess repeats the shows... the second night, seating is usually almost wide open, and you still get the standard two big floor shows per cruise, two comedians, magicial, vocalist, etc... haven't saild CCL for a few years, but it used to be the same number of shows?

[cynbar]

Well, this is just an example of the fact that different people like different things. Re the ice cream, it is free in the MDR and for an hour each afternoon in the Horizon Court--- for our family, that is plenty, how much ice cream do you need. We also enjoyed the meals for our January Ruby cruise. Anyway, everyone is entitled to their opinion, sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise more. Carnival is a good fit for a lot of people......

[momphoto]

We were on the Ruby that same week and had the complete opposite experience.

 

Food in dining room was outstanding.....beef tenderloins looked and tasted real to me, my kids loved them. Our waiter recommended many dishes to us and was wonderful, so I guess it depends on who you get?? I will agree that the buffet was not very good, so we tended to eat in the dining rooms only. One day we had lunch at the International Cafe and it was outstanding!!!

 

Entertainment was some of the best we have ever seen. Yes the theatre is small, cramped and if you wanted to go to the early show you had to get there early to get a good seat, but the 10:30 shows where not as busy.

Muts played different movies EVERY night......they did not repeat those, but would play them the next day in the Explorers lounge. We found so much to do each evening some nights we could not decide. They had Karaoke...we read it and heard James mention it a few times. Explorers lounge each evening always had something going on....we saw comedians there a few nights and laughed so much!

 

We have sailed many times on all different lines and this cruise was by far one of the best we have been on for both food and entertainment.

[rcacace]

did you find you got MORE shows on Carnival? I like that Princess repeats the shows... the second night, seating is usually almost wide open, and you still get the standard two big floor shows per cruise, two comedians, magicial, vocalist, etc... haven't saild CCL for a few years, but it used to be the same number of shows?

 

Sure, you can get into the second showing without any problem but don't people realize that they've reduced the entertainment in total by doing so.

Maybe this is a plan to drive more people into the casino. ;)

[red919]

Sorry it wasn't more enjoyable for you and thanks for the review. It's good to hear the bad as well as the good.

 

Thanks for sharing and hope your next cruise is more enjoyable. :)

[sherman931]

Thanks to all for their comments...personally I enjoyed my cruise on the Ruby.

[munraven]

We were also on the same cruise and still quite new to cruising so only have two others to compare to. Our first cruise was on RC Freedom of the Seas in Dec '07, the second was on CCL Freedom in Mar '08 and this was our third, Ruby Princess '09. All new ships from each line so I would think should be fair in comparing.

 

The embarkment process on Princess was the best by far, we arrived at about 11:30, had a nice cool room to sit in instead of a long line to wind through with the other two (half outside in sun), and were on the ship shortly after 12:00! Well done!

 

We had the feeling of being crowded on this ship, not enough seats in the theater or lounges during entertainment, not enough room for loungers around the pools so not enough loungers, hot tubs full, not enough seats in the buffet, ect. We did the anytime dining for the first time and did not like it, we always felt as though we were being rushed through our meal, move 'em in move 'em out, we did not find the waiters very friendly or attentive compared to our previous cruises, just going through the motions. We had to wait every night but one (one night my husband and I went without our children, a table for 2 must be easier to get than a table for four) for a seat in the dining room, take a beeper, always longer than a half hour, the first night it was an hour and a half! We were also disappointed with the food in the dining room and felt it was much better on both Carnival and especially Royal. We thought the buffet was good in the mornings and for lunch but just fair for dinner. We never went hungry but just felt the food on the other ships was far superior.

 

The entertainment was great, the performers are a talented group and put on a wonderful show but we liked having something different to go to every night, so that point goes to the others as well. The MUTTS were fun but again, repeats, not the end of the world but I would l think they could play different movies for the length of the cruise. The blankets, popcorn, cookies and milk rock! We went to the clubs a few times but didn't find much action, for a full ship we found those areas pretty quiet.

 

Our kids got great use from the ultimate cards, I think they took in enough sugar from frozen drinks to last until our next cruise!

 

Room steward kept our rooms clean and our ice buckets full but we "lost" a few valuables, they just disappeared from our rooms (ourselves and our neighbors) an ipod touch and a diamond ring among them, yes they should have been locked in the safe, we learned a hard lesson.

 

Disembarkment was much like the others as far as waiting, Princess sat us in one of the restaurants to wait, we liked being able to stay in our rooms on Carnival, Royal was the most unorganized, more lines!

 

I am picking it apart for comparison sake but overall we had a fabulous time, beautiful ship, staff was friendly for the most part, and we loved being together on vacation!! We would take another Princess cruise but all agree we would prefer Royal Caribbean over them. It just fits us better!

[MichCook]

RN1986, sorry you time on Ruby was disappointing. Everyone has different likes/dislikes and maybe it just wasn't a good fit for you. (Did you enjoy your prior Princess cruise?)

 

I like the fact that shows are repeated on Princess. That allows us to see the show in the Princess Theater as well as check out the other entertainment in the other venues. We don't feel like we're missing out on a show because it is held at the same time as another we also want to attend.

 

Hope your future cruises are more to your liking. :)

[chamima]

 

Room steward kept our rooms clean and our ice buckets full but we "lost" a few valuables, they just disappeared from our rooms (ourselves and our neighbors) an ipod touch and a diamond ring among them, yes they should have been locked in the safe, we learned a hard lesson.

 

!

 

Safe or no safe, this is very disturbing!!!!! Did you report these losses to the head Purser?

[1 HappyCruiser]

Room steward kept our rooms clean and our ice buckets full but we "lost" a few valuables, they just disappeared from our rooms (ourselves and our neighbors) an ipod touch and a diamond ring among them, yes they should have been locked in the safe, we learned a hard lesson.

 

 

The ipod touch is a $500 unit & the ring, who knows. What did they say when it was reported?

[WWCJR]

We to were on this same cruise that same week. We had a wonderful cruise even though the Western Caribbean is not our favorite place to cruise. We had the anytime dining and never had a minutes wait when we went to eat with either 2 or four of us. Most of the time we chose to not share a table either. We normally eat around 6:00 PM but went a little later a couple of times and still no wait. I would have to say that the selections are not as good now that they changed the menus. We have found food on Princess to be much better than any thing we ever had to eat on Carnival (everyone has different tastes and this is a very subjective matter). We aslo find that we like the "small" venues with more options fo shows to see each night. I don't recall ever having this many choices on Carnival. Even though this was spring break week and there were 700-800 kids onboard (according to CD James Lay). We did not see or hear a lot of them around the ship. The ones we did see were very well behaved even when in groups without parents around.

 

I am sorry, Lisa (RN1986) that you did not have a great cruise. It sounds like Carnival is probably a better match for you. I guess that is why there are different cruise lines as we all don't like the same things.

 

Room steward kept our rooms clean and our ice buckets full but we "lost" a few valuables, they just disappeared from our rooms (ourselves and our neighbors) an ipod touch and a diamond ring among them, yes they should have been locked in the safe, we learned a hard lesson.!

 

Brenda, we really enjoyed meeting you and Kris. I am very sorry to hear of loss. I do hope that you reported the items stolen to the Head Purser, or even the PSD. This is the tyoe of matter that thet they would take very seriously, which it is. I am truly surprised as we have never had such and occurrance. But we do keep the jewerly in the safe. Most of the times my computer has to sit out and it has never been a problem. On the Ruby the safe was a little larger and it fit inside with no problem.

[munraven]

Hi Bill, It was great to meet you and your family as well, I hope you all have a great cruise in May!! What a great way to beat the PCD!! The only reply we got when we went to the pursers desk was that they may have been lost by us, there was no proof that they had been taken from the room so they couldn't do anything, just looked through their lost and found box........The ipod was my 13 year old sons and he would know where that was at all times! He says he left it in the room and came back and it was gone. My ring was sitting on the night table with three others, I had taken them off the night before, didn't put them back on that morning, came back to put them on after breakfast and one was gone. We looked everywhere and when we asked about it, "it could have got vacumed up if it fell off the night table", strange that the other three were right where I left them. We didn't want to persue it because it is true that it could have been vacumed up or my son being 13 could have left the ipod where someone else could get it and we didn't want to lay blame with no proof. Now that we are back and have thought about it some more, we are pretty sure neither were accidents. Our nieghbors told us they had "misplaced" some items also, I'm not sure what they were or how they handled it. The ring was my engagement ring, not a huge $ value but enough and of course the sentimental value will never be replaced.

[WWCJR]

Brenda, It is really sad that it was your engagement ring as it has that special meaning that can never be replaced. I have to admit that there is something that happened everytine during the cleaning of our cabin that just rubbed me the wrong way. There was a special place that I wanted to keep my alarm clock so that I could see it while in bed and it was moved everytime we were out of the cabin. That and any papers I had left on the desk were all stacked on one place even if I had them arranged and where I wanted them to be.

 

A pointer to all is that you need to pull all drawers out and check what might have dropped out of them over the back. This does happed and it has saved us from losing a few items. It is amazing what else you might find there that others have lost, usually just papers or such but this time there were some ladies undies and they were not ours!

 

On most of the safes on Princess ships you need to check under the lip under the door for items that work theire way into that space as it is easy to overlook something there. The safe on the Ruby did not have this same problem.