CC Rider 69

4 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Next sailing (5-day 80’s cruise) will have 3,144 pax

Wow, packed, thanks.

Go to Guest Services when it's not crowded and see if you can get a passenger count breakdown for the April 9th sailing.

19 hours ago, Mtd2023 said:

Premier package includes two speciality restaurants, and when I made reservations, I was charged for the two reservations.  I called Princess about the billing, and they said I don’t need reservations, to cancel them and when I board just show up at the restaurant and we will get seated.  Does anyone know if that is truly how it works? It seems weird on a full ship, I don’t need a reservation.  

Same thing happened to me. Contacted GS once onboard, she credited me OBC and we used it elsewhere on the ship. She did say, if there was balance at the end of the cruise, it would either be credited back to my CC or check would be issued by Corp.

On 2/3/2023 at 8:50 AM, Beav1279 said:

This is exactly what I've kinda puzzle-pieced together... If anyone has been on the Ruby in the last couple of months, I'd love a confirmation on this. Thank you!

Was on it in January and leave again tomorrow. The drink package starts first day when you hit international waters, usually around 7pm.

23 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Curious. I know the earlier dates had many Norovirus cases. We're on the 19 March 2023 sailing, so wondering how it's going.......🤔

 

 Doug

Following.............................................................we're on it too.

15 hours ago, shackpacker said:

I know that drinks the first night used to be charged and the drink package did not click in until the first morning.  Is that still the case?

Just off the Ruby in mid-January. Our drink package started about 7pm on sail away day. The next day thing is with CCL out of Texas.

We arrive early 11, drop off bags then head over to the strand eat, have a drink, then go park our car at EZ cruise. It's usally around 1:30-2:00 when we catch the shuttle, by that time there is virtually no line.  There is a cut-off time to have your luggage handled by porters. 

21 hours ago, DENBET30 said:

We have back to back cruises from Galveston but on different cruise lines. Specifically after a RCCL cruise we will be going on Princess Ruby. It doesn’t appear we can walk to the Princess check in from RCCL. Any suggestions  such as a cab, ride share ,or parking lot shuttle?

Did you drive or fly in?

15 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I've tried to search for this information, but I can't find anything.  Can someone tell me if they have the hand held shower heads for lack of a better word or are they a "fixed" to the wall shower head?  Thanks.

Just off on 1-22-23, and they were FIXED in our stateroom, B250. In fact, every Princess ship I've sailed have had FIXED shower heads.

3 minutes ago, Damikaan said:

It is the official Port of Galveston covered Parking garage. It is listed on the map above in a Green Rectangle as SMP Garage. Google maps showed it as a .2 mile walk to Cruise terminal 28. I know porters will take luggage to where you meet shuttles, but there is no shuttle for the garage so I wondered if they would take us all the way to the garage. 

My understanding is NO. What I have done when my parents used to cruise has had them and the luggage wait at the terminal. I would walk or shuttle to the lot, pickup my car, then drive over pick them up.

My CVP told me, find your cruise, place a hold on it, and we iron out the details when she calls me. She calls usually within a day, if not the same day. She gets credit, and we're happy.

8 hours ago, SAKay said:

@CC Rider 69 Were they fun?

 

Yes, we had a good time with them. We do a lot of trivia and had a good team (4 wins over the week).

3 hours ago, SAKay said:

Does anyone know who the Cruise Director is on the Ruby Princess out of Galveston?  How were they and their staff?  We went on the Caribbean Princess in December and had Dan France as Cruise Director.  He and his staff were great - so many fun activities, day and night ! 

Just got off Ruby on Sunday. The captain is a Brit with quite the sense of humor. Michael is still CD, and part of his staff, Tommy & Joey told me they are on until middle of March.

48 minutes ago, Knixuk said:

They don’t appear to turn anyone away from the MDR no matter what they are wearing on any night.

 

Just do you and wear what you feel

comfortable in. 

Nope, just off the Ruby, and they were allowing shorts in the MDR on formal night. "and that's about all I have to say about that"

Saltgrass Steak House, it's on the seawall.

9 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

The benefit to NCL for us is we can drive down to NOLA much, much, much  easier than flying to any other cruise port. I hate to fly commercial!

That's why we do Galveston so much, don't have to fly.

6 hours ago, PaperSniper4 said:

We like Costa Maya. We're taken maybe 8 cruises that were scheduled to dock there, but at least half were cancelled due to winds. I'm hoping we can get there on our March 2023 cruise, but we'd not be surprised if we get another "bonus sea day".

 

 Doug

Hey Doug,

PCL switched the 3-19 sailing Costa Maya call to Belize, which I am not a fan of.

Seeing that monkey reminds me of the movie "Outbreak".

18 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

 

Hopefully that's no longer the case, to loose an entire day of the drinks package.

 

But they only charged for 6 days instead of 7, so all was sort of good. We're going on March 19th, when are y'all going?

39 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

It’s cruise day!!!!

I had planned on waking to watch the ship come in, but that never materialized. Hopefully it’s here and waiting for us! I pre-booked an Uber as I wasn’t sure how hard it would be to get one - I know I paid over the odds, but we also watched pricing go up yesterday morning at the same time so it will be worth it. Pick up should be at 9:45am! 
 

We woke, packed , and had our last waffle at breakfast. I also had to stop by the desk and get parking charges removed from my bill. Now we are just hanging out until it’s time to leave…

It is here and waiting, arrived about 6am. Good luck with check-in, and have a wonderful cruise.

27 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Thanks. Couple of hours....must be around 15+ miles.

 

Are you saying that before than time we could still order something (Princess Plus) without paying that Texas tax, but that the variety might be limited since it was liquor purchased by Princess in Texas? We'd typically have a glass of wine for my wife and a gin martini for me....so not too particular about the brands.

 

 Doug

The last time I sailed Princess out of Texas was 2016, and I believe the drink package didn't kick in until 6am on the first sea day. Embarkation day, sail away and that night drinks were charged to your portfolio.

33 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

We're on the Ruby from Galveston March 2023. I am curious how passengers will know when we're outside "Texas waters"? We'd like to have a pre-dinner cocktail which would be around 5PM on departure from Galveston. Any idea?

 

 Doug

Once you sail it a couple of hours and you're in international waters. You can always bring one bottle of wine each and an opener. You can always have a cocktail; however, the choices of liquor might be different than what you are used to. I will say that Texas vodka, bourbon, and wines are really quite good.

9 minutes ago, TNTLAMB said:

I would not pay much attention to the button color est. Princess us still trying to figure it out after a major glitch with the "app" that set up new captain circle numbers for many. I am thinking boarding tomorrow will be quite the event....

 

As Peyton would say, "You have no idea"

13 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Today’s first mission was to walk on the beach. It seemed an easy stroll from the hotel but we didn’t factor in how hard it would be to cross the street! The closest set of lights were not a crosswalk, just lights for traffic, so we walked further down to the actual crosswalk. Unfortunately, while the lights themselves worked, the actual walk sign didn’t so we had to literally guess if/ when we could cross! The beach is sooooo long! It seemed to go on forever. It was pretty windy but very pleasant temperature wise. What we didn’t expect was mosquitoes. My poor teen got eaten alive and has quite a bad reaction, so next stop after braving the road again, was Walgreens to grab bug spray and Cortizone.

Glad y'all had a good day. I bet you walked through a grassy area on the way to the beach and stirred up the skeeters. Yes, we have them year around down here, not as big as Alaska, but meaner. Enjoy your Saturday.

The Ruby is 360 NM SSE of GLS @ 20 KN. She's on track for a pre-dawn arrival tomorrow. You can watch her arrival by going to www.galveston.com, go to webcams, and pick cruise cam, marina cam, or emerald cam. I would do those in reverse order. Judging from the pictures out your room, you might can see her entering the shipping lanes in the morning. You can check marinetraffic.com or vesselfinder.com for her location.