I recently returned from the 14 Night Circle Caribbean voyage on Ruby Princess. Hats off to Princess for the ship’s layout, décor, condition, crew and itinerary.
This was only my second Princess trip, and first since 2017, so I’m no expert and expecting to be corrected on some of the following observations.
I didn’t see:
· Future MD dinner menus on the app. I spoke to two dining room managers early in the cruise. Both confirmed that this wasn’t right and both promised to address it. Nothing ever happened. Only the current day’s menu appeared, regardless of which date you were pulling up.
· Trash receptacles in public areas. If you had something to throw away, you could go to your cabin, go to a public restroom, or leave it for a crew member to pick up.
· A drop box at guest services. I had three forms to turn in. Each time I had to hand it to someone at the desk. A drop box seems like a no brainer. Shore Excursions, Future Cruise Sales and the Wake Show each have one.
· A repeat performance by mentalist/illusionist Julien Losa. Mr. Losa was introduced as the resident on board magician. He performed a spectacular act on day 5 and never appeared again. The implication was that he is a regular crew member. Recall that this was a 14 day cruise.
· The principal enrichment speaker, after the third sea day. Pat McCormack was lined up to speak on each of the five sea days but vanished after three lectures.
· A filled time slot for Sabatini’s. While the Crown Grill was essentially booked solid on the app prior to sailing, Sabatini’s never showed a single time slot unavailable. This is a mystery to me as they seem to be equally popular and have roughly the same capacity.
· Paper napkins. I exclude cocktail napkins here, and I don’t expect to see any in the MDRs. However, at the buffet and the deck eateries there were cloth napkins with cutlery or nothing. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to be able to wipe my fingers when eating handheld foods and prefer not to do it on the napkin in my lap. Using a second cloth napkin and cutlery set seems very wasteful.
· Information about when to begin setting luggage out for disembarkation. OK, a minor point. People were setting bags out hours before the crew begin removing them. How hard would it be to indicate a start time in the instructions?