1st CRUISE - AWESOME !!!

[ANYPORT]

Just returned from Ruby Princess Grand Med Barcelona to Venice 7/15 - 7/27. Exceeded our expectations….

Pre-cruise - stayed in Hotel Mont Blanc in Barcelona. Great central location, minutes from Las Ramblas etc. Found a wonderful restaurant on trip advisor locals use La Rita (www.laritarestaurant.com). Food excellent and inexpensive.
Arrived at pier about 12.30.…busy, busy, thought we’d be in line ages, however we were on board and in cabin by 1pm. These guys are swift!
Cabin - triple BA Caribe - loved the location and the balcony WOW!!
So spacious, with 3 in cabin, we used it constantly. Loved the fact we could have sun or shade, the med was very hot so it was great to sit in the shade to recharge our batteries.
Ship - interior stunning esp Piazza. So many bars, cosy/quiet areas etc that its easy to forget there’s 3000+ passengers. We preferred to use the aft adult pool although after the first sea day, the lounger hoggers had found it! Defy anyone to say they need to reserve loungers, there are so many around the ship - okay you might need to walk 50yds to a pool, but if you’re a hogger you probably need the exercise! We found it quite amusing that even at Champagne Waterfall & other events the hoggers reserved chairs.
Entertainment - Because this was such a port intensive cruise, by end of dinner we were exhausted, managed to get to one show which was very good. MUTS was excellent - almost made it to end of one movie before I crashed! Vines & Crooners were great for a pre dinner drink. Explorers had varied entertainment, comedian, magician, group etc & we usually caught part of an act after dinner. So many venues we didn’t get to…..
Food - obviously food is subjective. We had trad. late seating & found food on the whole to be very good - couple evenings were disappointing. Fav place - International Café for lunches/cakes, icecream & coffee. Breakfast in Café Caribe (preferred that to Horizon Court). Hubbie & daughter tried pizza & burgers from pool area & said they were very good. Free lemonade was available all day at all locations on Lido (pools, buffet etc)
Signed up for Chef’s Table 1st day. SUPERB Worth every penny! A fantastic experience, even our 16yr old loved it.
Ports - Won’t review ports since many have done so better than I could. Fantastic itinerary & enjoyed all ports visited. Disappointed we didn’t get to Rome however given the winds that day it was understandable.
Staff - Our waiters in MDR , Woody & assistant Ray were wonderful. Pleasure to see them each evening. Maitre d’ Generoso was superb, can’t praise him enough. He is a delightful and charming man. Our cabin steward, hmmm… jury’s out on that one. Whilst he was never rude he wasn’t exactly friendly. All other staff we came across, in buffet; bars; even just passing in the corridors etc were very friendly & provided excellent service. Passenger Service Desk could learn a thing or two from other departments. On the one occasion we dealt with them (issue with ruined clothing) they were most unhelpful.

To sum up, this was a wonderful introduction to cruising and we’d cruise again in a heartbeat.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Enjoyed your review---glad you love cruising!!

[Caribbean Sunsets]

Thanks for the review. The Ruby is a beautiful ship!

[CL-JW]

Welcome home and thanks for your review. Glad your first cruise was a big success!!

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review, Generoso is the best.

[nanfromatlanta]

I enjoyed your review. Can't wait until we sail her on December 20th!!

[Clutterlady]

Thank you so much for your review! Now that you're hooked, you can start planning your next cruise

[TracieABD]

Great review! Glad that you enjoyed your first cruise. Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

[LARGIN]

Thanks for the review.. Glad that you enjoyed your cruise.

[Texcruise]

You are hooked on cruising now!!

[Bizzie07]

By any chance was your steward Atilla?

[juggles]

glad you enjoyed the cruise, one does get hooked very quickly. I was on the Ruby in january round the carib and can't get enough of cruising

[wizard-of-roz]

Did you take advantage of Future Cruise Credits and book, while onboard?

If not, why?

[Kruznut]

Enjoyed your reveiw. Ah cruises, you can't have just one !

[ANYPORT]

Originally Posted by Bizzie07

By any chance was your steward Atilla?

Hi
No, his name was Rej. Actually on our first meeting he stated that he only dealt with cabins. If we wanted anything like wine glasses etc told us to contact room service. All this before we'd even introduced ourselves! He did keep the cabin fine though.

Originally Posted by wizard-of-roz

Did you take advantage of Future Cruise Credits and book, while onboard?

If not, why?

Hi
Oh yes! After all the info I learned from these boards I made sure we didn't forget about a FCC. Didn't book on board though.

I learned so much from these boards, DH was impressed

ANYPORT

[Bizzie07]

Our steward was very similar. The first conversation with him was regarding the set up of the cabin (this had been previously agreed with princess by e-mail) was ,it was nothing to do with him, not his fault and to contact accommodation myself. This was our 9th cruise and the 1st time we did not find the steward to be helpful.