Ruby Live Quebec 22nd Oct to Ft L

Hi All

Note to all onboard Ruby please join in and post away this is not a private blog,

OK note quite live yet but tradition means that I start this blog, before leaving home. Now this cruise has been booked for a long time, We had taken a year off for our new puppy, she and Shogun left yesterday for their vacation, so house felt very strange last night without them, but with prices falling to record lows the chance to go on Ruby Princess a few weeks ago was just to good to miss. So this cruise is in fact our second cruise this year, we did have another cruise booked but I cancelled and will return to this later.

We are flying a new airline a new route and a new class for us, We are taking Iceland air via Iceland to Toronto, going comfort class three seats with middle seat turned into a table, was almost no difference in cost so said yes to this. We are staying a couple of days with friends we first met while doing this cruise five years ago, might even meet up with some former Princess employees as well. Before flying into Quebec for one night, staying at the Fronteac, now thought it would be nice to invite others for an informal meet and a drink, so far over 60 are coming, then one night onboard Ruby before we set sail.

Now its fair to say l like the Princess product, not perfect but so long as it offers value for money l am a happy cruiser, but I am not as happy a cruiser as l used to be so this cruise needs to deliver or we will be taking a break from Princess.

This downward slide in happiness started with the Royal Princess, and as such cancelled two cruises we had booked on her, however due to again a cheap last minute cruise on the Crown I did not abandon Princess straight away as our Crown cruise was one of the best, down to the amazing service from the crew, we were going to leave Ruby in Ft L and join the Royal but cancelled and swapped to doing B2B on the Ruby instead but cancelled this as well, reason being the service on our first Ruby cruise, in favour of spending more time ashore. Now still have a booking on the Emerald and depending on how this cruise goes will either confirm or cancel.

So what has made me look at taking holidays on shore rather than at sea, firstly The Royal is a great floating hotel not perfect but if it was a land based hotel would return to it. But for me I want to be onboard a ship, I want to taste the salt spray, watch the wake of the ship hear the noise of sea as she cuts through the waves, so the Royal does not do it for me.

My Ruby cruise of a few weeks ago was a very good cruise let down by poor service, a room steward that we almost put a complaint in about, we did complain about the service in the Crown Grill worst ever experience, and even my favourite IC did not deliver its normal amazing cuisine, add in issues with Trident Grill and Sabatinis being just OK and while happy to be going back on Ruby did not want to go B2B on her. Now with a good number of cruises behind us, it would be nice if every cruise was amazing, however from time to time things have gone wrong and Princess has always put things right and this is one reason we have stayed with them.

But never have we had so many service issues on a single cruise before as we did have on the Ruby. This cruise we have a different HGM one we know well, so will see if things are back to Princess normal standards. Not that the other HGM was not good at his job, as he dealt with the issues I brought to his attention, but a change can help with standards.

As to the CC bunch onboard we have a great active roll call of close two hundred and lots of things planned.

Last night we opened our fortune cookies to see what the future holds, Mrs Shogun’s said she would be coming into money, so looks like she is going to win at the bingo, while mine said is a good story teller, so this blog should be a good one.

Weather in Scotland turned nasty we have 50 mile an hour winds and heavy rain at airport with the tail end of the hurricane that hit Bermuda on its way, so flight to Canada might be bumpy.

We normally fly out of Edinburgh but this time we are going via Glasgow, which means the drive to airport is a little more stressful as we have a bridge to cross which is always blocking up with traffic, accidents etc, so setting of a lot earlier than normal.

So car should be arriving in the next few minutes and our adventure starts.

If folks have questions then please ask away,

Yours Shogun

Thanks Shogun we are on a east/west Caribbean b2b on the Ruby as of the 6th Dec 2014 and look forward to your further reporting. Our last cruise in Aug. was 99% good, in fact MDR had a vast improvement from several previous cruises, so here's hoping.

Safe travels Steve. See you in a few days.

Chris

Hi All

Princess to start screening crew or passengers who have been in West Africa

Notice just issued. for Ebola

Yours Shogun

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Looking forward to your usual interesting review Shogun.

I think all the cruiselines are dropping standards a little, especially where food is concerned and in the service cabin stewards have the time to give when the numbers of cabins assigned to them has increased. Think this is also one of the problems in the dining rooms as waiters seem to have a lot of tables to service. Also I am not convinced that auto tips and advance tipping for anytime dining schemes have not adversely affected the service level.

Just come off our first Celebrity cruise, after years of being advised just how luxurious it all was, and we were decidedly underwhelmed, unfortunately 😔

In fact our cheapie, cheapie Fred Olsen cruise in January in our view was streets ahead, especially foodwise, of Celebrity. Okay they are old, small ships with few facilities but cleanliness and service was really good. Perhaps I am leaning more towards the British experience nowadays as we are next booked on P&O but I do really miss my Princess elite perks 😔

Hope this cruise will reinforce your longstanding love of the Princess product and I wish you good weather and calm seas 😄

Iceland Air flight sounds just like the upgraded BA seats on our flights to and from Istanbul for our Celebrity cruise. Two seats, which looked the same as the ordinary seats (which we were in) in terms of width and legroom but with a seat inbetween with a table top. Hopefully you can remove that and put the arm rests up to give more room. I would be interested to hear your views on your seats 😄

Don't know how much use Ebola screening will be as it can take a couple of weeks before symptoms show after someone has been exposed to the virus but I suppose everything has to be done to contain this dreadful infection!

Bon Voyage 😄

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Hi Dorset cruiser

Nice to hear from you, heard good things about service on Fred Olson,

Well folks made it to airport drive was interesting driver was getting concerned so much water on motorway could not see road,

Very quick through security loads of gates open.

New shops have to walk past all to get to gates.

Just waiting for boarding call

Yours Shogun

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Hi shogun,We sailed on your 2009 cruise from quebec to ft.lauderdale.That cruise had a great deal on mini suites.

We are sailing on the regal for a b2b nov 6-16.

long cruiser

Have a safe journey to Canada, Steve. See you in a couple of days..

Hope all today's flights are on time. Enjoy your pre cruise time. See you Wednesday:)

Gail

Hi All

Sitting in Iceland after a great first flight, love Iceland air, we were flying comfort class so expected normal seats but with middle one used as a table but we got seated the row in front which was business class so two large arm chairs with masses of leg room. Please please let us have the same seats for our next flight, had a curtain in front of us but no problem plane was a new 757 great large TV screens could not see all of my movie as flight was only two hours, food was a 12/inch ham and cheese berget but was hot and not to bad .

Plane had with WiFi but you have to pay.

Less than an hour between flights so not long to wait.

Yours Shogun

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Looking forward to reading your Ruby experience. We are on for 2 weeks in Dec. and also in March.

Crew changes all the time(as well as CD's , Captains etc). So each cruise can be a new experience. Hope yours lives up to your expectations. I never seek perfection so always enjoy our experiences. Been on the Ruby in the past and have incredible memories from that cruise. We are so excited that our West coast will have her here in 2015.

Steve,When are you flying home from Florida?

Hi John

Leaving on the 5th

Yours Shogun

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I'll be on the Ruby in Dec. for a B2B so I'm looking forward to your review. Our cruise will be our first ever aft balcony so we are excited.

Hi John

Leaving on the 5th

 

Yours Shogun

 

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Where are you staying?We arrive on the 4th on Royal and then leave again on the 6th on Caribbean Princess.John

Hi John

We are staying South Beach Miami, may be we can meet just boarding will chat when in Canada

Yours Shogun

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Don't know how much use Ebola screening will be as it can take a couple of weeks before symptoms show after someone has been exposed to the virus but I suppose everything has to be done to contain this dreadful infection!

 

I think it will just be added questions to the short health form that always had to be filled out.

Per a Princess notice:

We are screening for any guests or crew who have visited or traveled through countries with a US CDC Level 3 Travel Warning (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea) or had physical contact with or helped care for a person suspected of having Ebola within 21 days of a cruise departure date. These individuals will be denied boarding

Welcome , Bienvenue !, to my side of the pond and my province. Thank you for taking us along through this blog. I am sure it will be very interesting to read.

Have a great cruise ! P.s. Will there be a photo of the kilt on formal night ?

We just got back from the California Coastal and took a peek at your roll call last week as we are thinking seriously of taking this cruise next year.

Therefore your review will be appreciated and of utmost interest to us.

However, I already have a couple of questions for anyone on the roll call.

Since we will be booking so far in advance I was wondering if there were any price drops or incentives offered on this cruise over the past year?

We will be flying out of LAX and was wondering if anyone used Princess Air program since these would be one-way flights. I usually take care of my own flight arrangements but since these are ow I was thinking Princess may do better. (any thoughts from those from Ca.?)

Any comments from roll call members will be appreciated and thanks in advance.

Wishing all of you safe travels and have a wonderful cruise.

I think it will just be added questions to the short health form that always had to be filled out.

 

Per a Princess notice:

We are screening for any guests or crew who have visited or traveled through countries with a US CDC Level 3 Travel Warning (Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea) or had physical contact with or helped care for a person suspected of having Ebola within 21 days of a cruise departure date. These individuals will be denied boarding

Yes, I've read more about it since and anyone who has come from or passed through the three main affected countries will be denied boarding, along with those who have been in contact or helped care for patients. Just been on our evening news that Nigeria is now free of Ebola and the Spanish nurse has seemingly been cured, so that is good news.

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Hi Steve (and Donna).

Been watching your flights from GLA-KEF-YYZ. Seems like they've been only a 'little' bit late, but mostly good?? Know you liked that flight from GLA to KEF, hope you got the same consideration coming to Toronto??

As I wright this, you're about 1+30 out of YYZ and am wondering what your experiences are/were in Toronto? Worst airport (in my estimation) in Canada.

Have fun meeting up with friends in TO, know you will be tired, but...

When you fly out of YYZ you will be passing directly overhead of me going to YUL/YQB. I'll wave!!

You seem to have lots of cruise experience so I am wondering if I could ask you if I made a mistake by reserving a cabin above part of Essence lounge/club. I was trying to get my husband close to the walk around the Promenade deck.

Judy from Tulsa

Where are you staying?We arrive on the 4th on Royal and then leave again on the 6th on Caribbean Princess.John

We just got back from the California Coastal and took a peek at your roll call last week as we are thinking seriously of taking this cruise next year.

 

Therefore your review will be appreciated and of utmost interest to us.

However, I already have a couple of questions for anyone on the roll call.

 

Since we will be booking so far in advance I was wondering if there were any price drops or incentives offered on this cruise over the past year?

 

We will be flying out of LAX and was wondering if anyone used Princess Air program since these would be one-way flights. I usually take care of my own flight arrangements but since these are ow I was thinking Princess may do better. (any thoughts from those from Ca.?)

 

Wishing all of you safe travels and have a wonderful cruise.

We often reserve a cruise early. If there are price changes Princess will apply them to your account. You have to keep watching the rates, as they will not do it automatically, you have to either have your travel agent, or you have to call Princess to make it happen. As for airline reservations, we have gotten much better rates on our own, by checking frequently with the airlines for one ways. We also got a great rate once from Princess for a European cruise.

I would not immediately jump into having them make your airline reservations and check the airlines for a while and then decide which is best for you.

You seem to have lots of cruise experience so I am wondering if I could ask you if I made a mistake by reserving a cabin above part of Essence lounge/club. I was trying to get my husband close to the walk around the Promenade deck.

 

Essence is a boutique (shop). Even the cash registers will not make a noise that could disturb you.

Looking forward to your review and report about the Ruby. We were on it in March for a B2B to the Caribbean and everything was great at that time. Service very good (room steward was one of the best), food all good and Crown Grill was exceptional. Here's hoping your trip this time around is just as good as our trip was.