Ruby Princess Eastern Getaway Review 1/13/14 -1/18/14

[cruise2relax]

We are elite members who cruise exclusively with Princess (so cannot compare with other lines). We booked this cruise as a getaway before the amazing deal of 100% back but were thrilled to get it as a huge bonus. We travelled to Florida for the weekend prior to the cruise. For those who do and rent a car, although there is some hard to find information on this, Alamo at the FLL airport provides a free bus transfer to the cruise ship that could not be simpler. Not all rental car companies do this. They use the airport shuttle and your receipt is your ticket.

 

We arrived at the terminal around 10:45am, no lines no waiting through security and then through check in. We proceeded to the Elite lounge (that no one directed us to until we asked) and waited for a short time and we proceeded to board at 11:40am. That was the earliest we have ever boarded. Lunch in the dining room was the first stop as always.

 

The ship is in great shape and the staff pleasant and accommodating as to be expected. The passenger make up trended towards middle age and up. Even though this was a 5 day cruise with it being from Monday to Saturday, it required a full week off from work so it certainly did not become a “party cruise” as many on here feared. The activities were scheduled throughout the days with more during the day (e.g. daytime karaoke and game shows) which we liked as we think that not everything needs to be at night. The weather was perfect all week and with Cays and Grand Turk being beach stops for us, it worked well. The water was very chilly in both stops but did not stop us from swimming. The food was very good but would like to point out a few things. I am not sure if it is only on these 4 & 5 day cruises but the menus were altogether different. A few new items with a lot of regular items but the menus themselves were all jumbled. We are used to the historic “theme” night: welcome dinner, Italian dinner, chef’s night, etc. The items are there but it is like they put all individual items in a hat and chose them for the menu that night. It was not good or bad just different with the exception of the second to last night which was just bad selections and bad execution all around, which is unusual, to the point that both our waiter and his assistant knew it and politely indicated the same. Make no mistake, the food was very good, well presented and tasty. We are good eaters!

 

A couple of negative notes. We have noticed two dining trends on Princess we are not fond of and are getting worse. First, they have elected to have one of the anytime dining rooms be an early traditional sitting. In my opinion, this is a disaster and was borne out again on this ship. The dining rooms lines for anytime have become legendary especially the first few nights as a result. This will drive people away from Princess – here it is in a nutshell – no one wants to go on a cruise a wait with a beeper for dinner like you are at Applebees. If Princess is going to continue with this practice, at least enforce it. In the past few years I have never seen any dining staff at the door checking cards of passengers to make sure they are anytime dinners. Trust me, they used to. As a result, traditional dinners miss their time and go to the dining room. The best solution, go back to two dining rooms being anytime and one being traditional or make the dining rooms bigger or add one to your new builds. Second, although I appreciate not wanting to challenge passengers but I do not like the slip in dining room attire enforcement. I am willing to go along with nice jeans (society has changed) but shorts – no, baseball hats – no, etc. It was very noticeable on this cruise.

 

Random thoughts. Until they fix it, do not plan to really use the internet – wow. It was beyond slow to the point of almost being unusable. Never had that problem before even on the Ruby. Bernadette, the Captains Circle Host needs to find a sunnier disposition. She was manning the VIP lounge for disembarkation and was surly and borderline rude to passengers. It was unsettling for someone in that position. The Passengers services staff was exceptional, well-staffed, and efficient. Although I cannot compare with other lines, from the time we began cruising in 2002 to now, Princess has mastered both embarkation and disembarkation. Both were smooth and painless – that makes for a wonderful start and a positive conclusion to any cruise.

 

All said and done, we very much enjoyed ourselves and all the wonderful people we were able to meet and enjoy some time together. See you later in the year for our next cruise Princess.

 

PS – Princess if you are reading this, please step up the pace for the Drink Packages and the Intranet across the fleet, we are really excited about both.

[Luvmyrotti]

Thanks for sharing your review. We're thinking about doing a couple of short sailings back to back and it's great to hear that they are not too much different from the usual Princess sailings.

 

Did you have a formal night and if so, which night of the cruise was it? Was there a champagne waterfall?

[cruise2relax]

We had one formal night on the 5 day - it was the second day (Wednesday) the first sea day but it is my understanding that the formal night may be different on each cruise. There was a champagne waterfall. In speaking with others, there is no formal night on a 4 day cruise.

[fyrfytrp25]

Thanks very much for your review! We are looking forward to 9 days on the Ruby at the end of March.

Do you know if Alamo will shuttle to FLL to pick up a car post cruise as well? We have a 1 day delay before flying out of FLL.

[caribill]

A couple of negative notes. We have noticed two dining trends on Princess we are not fond of and are getting worse. First, they have elected to have one of the anytime dining rooms be an early traditional sitting. In my opinion, this is a disaster and was borne out again on this ship. The dining rooms lines for anytime have become legendary especially the first few nights as a result. This will drive people away from Princess – here it is in a nutshell – no one wants to go on a cruise a wait with a beeper for dinner like you are at Applebees.

 

I am not sure what the solution is.

 

Applebees is "anytime." If more people show up than the seating capacity of the restaurant, there will be a wait.

 

The use of a second dining room for early traditional indicates that everyone in that dining room wants to eat early. If that room stayed being an anytime room, then all the same people would be in line for early eating along with the anytime people who like to eat early now.

 

So if there is a demand for more than the capacity of two anytime rooms at the early hour, some will have to get pagers and wait.

 

Princess limits the number of people in traditional dining and makes the overflow unhappy by asigning them to anytime and they show up at the anytime room at the same hour they would have had traditional if available.

 

RCCL limits the number of people in anytime and makes the overflow unhappy by assigning them to traditional.

[Mapu]

We are elite members who cruise exclusively with Princess (so cannot compare with other lines). We booked this cruise as a getaway before the amazing deal of 100% back but were thrilled to get it as a huge bonus. We travelled to Florida for the weekend prior to the cruise. For those who do and rent a car, although there is some hard to find information on this, Alamo at the FLL airport provides a free bus transfer to the cruise ship that could not be simpler. Not all rental car companies do this. They use the airport shuttle and your receipt is your ticket.

 

We arrived at the terminal around 10:45am, no lines no waiting through security and then through check in. We proceeded to the Elite lounge (that no one directed us to until we asked) and waited for a short time and we proceeded to board at 11:40am. That was the earliest we have ever boarded. Lunch in the dining room was the first stop as always.

 

The ship is in great shape and the staff pleasant and accommodating as to be expected. The passenger make up trended towards middle age and up. Even though this was a 5 day cruise with it being from Monday to Saturday, it required a full week off from work so it certainly did not become a “party cruise” as many on here feared. The activities were scheduled throughout the days with more during the day (e.g. daytime karaoke and game shows) which we liked as we think that not everything needs to be at night. The weather was perfect all week and with Cays and Grand Turk being beach stops for us, it worked well. The water was very chilly in both stops but did not stop us from swimming. The food was very good but would like to point out a few things. I am not sure if it is only on these 4 & 5 day cruises but the menus were altogether different. A few new items with a lot of regular items but the menus themselves were all jumbled. We are used to the historic “theme” night: welcome dinner, Italian dinner, chef’s night, etc. The items are there but it is like they put all individual items in a hat and chose them for the menu that night. It was not good or bad just different with the exception of the second to last night which was just bad selections and bad execution all around, which is unusual, to the point that both our waiter and his assistant knew it and politely indicated the same. Make no mistake, the food was very good, well presented and tasty. We are good eaters!

 

A couple of negative notes. We have noticed two dining trends on Princess we are not fond of and are getting worse. First, they have elected to have one of the anytime dining rooms be an early traditional sitting. In my opinion, this is a disaster and was borne out again on this ship. The dining rooms lines for anytime have become legendary especially the first few nights as a result. This will drive people away from Princess – here it is in a nutshell – no one wants to go on a cruise a wait with a beeper for dinner like you are at Applebees. If Princess is going to continue with this practice, at least enforce it. In the past few years I have never seen any dining staff at the door checking cards of passengers to make sure they are anytime dinners. Trust me, they used to. As a result, traditional dinners miss their time and go to the dining room. The best solution, go back to two dining rooms being anytime and one being traditional or make the dining rooms bigger or add one to your new builds. Second, although I appreciate not wanting to challenge passengers but I do not like the slip in dining room attire enforcement. I am willing to go along with nice jeans (society has changed) but shorts – no, baseball hats – no, etc. It was very noticeable on this cruise.

 

Random thoughts. Until they fix it, do not plan to really use the internet – wow. It was beyond slow to the point of almost being unusable. Never had that problem before even on the Ruby. Bernadette, the Captains Circle Host needs to find a sunnier disposition. She was manning the VIP lounge for disembarkation and was surly and borderline rude to passengers. It was unsettling for someone in that position. The Passengers services staff was exceptional, well-staffed, and efficient. Although I cannot compare with other lines, from the time we began cruising in 2002 to now, Princess has mastered both embarkation and disembarkation. Both were smooth and painless – that makes for a wonderful start and a positive conclusion to any cruise.

 

All said and done, we very much enjoyed ourselves and all the wonderful people we were able to meet and enjoy some time together. See you later in the year for our next cruise Princess.

 

PS – Princess if you are reading this, please step up the pace for the Drink Packages and the Intranet across the fleet, we are really excited about both.

 

Thank you for your review, we will be on the Ruby next month. Based on our experience, Anytime Dining has become a problem since the 5:30 seating was introduced in 2010. The 5:30 seating is in the Anytime Dining rooms. Since no one really wants to eat at 5:30 passengers assigned to that particular seating show up at 6:00 which throughs the whole concept of Anytime off.

I totally agree with the adding the Intranet across the fleet. We experienced it on the Royal and it was fabulous to have it available .

[bassmaster150]

We were on the same sailing as Princess first timers. We had a great time, but I do second the issue with the internet....painfully slow....

[Crzn-Life]

We were on the Ruby 12/14 and the internet was the worst on any ship ever. We went from the Ruby to the Emerald and internet was just fine on the Emerald. On the Ruby they kept saying they were working on it, but apparently it hasn't been fixed if you had issues too.

 

Re the Captain's Circle host Bernadette. She is probably the worst of them. She was giving lectures to us in the lounge while we were waiting for disembarkation and she truly is an unfriendly woman. As mentioned above we went from the Ruby to the Emerald and the CC host on the Emerald was truly wonderful. Amanda is her name and probably one of the friendliest and funniest hosts you'll encounter. The contrast between her and the scowling Bernadette was amazing. Amanda was helpful and accommodating and Bernadette acted as though answering a question was an imposition. You would think that Bernadette would have been in a better mood since she has very little work to do on the short cruises since they don't have the CC parties and MTP luncheons/cocktail parties as they do on the longer cruises.

[caribill]

You would think that Bernadette would have been in a better mood since she has very little work to do on the short cruises since they don't have the CC parties and MTP luncheons/cocktail parties as they do on the longer cruises.

 

Actually, I would think there is more work for her on a short cruise compared to a 7 day or more cruise.

 

She has only a couple of days to prepare for all the status changes for Captain's Circle memebrs, especially the many first time cruisers who will be changing from blue to gold.

 

With the same number of passengers on board as on a longer cruise, she has much less time to process the requests for FCCs as well as to meet with all those who need a personal meeting to plan/book their next Princess cruise.

 

Of course this is no justification for not being pleasant when dealing with passengers.

[Posaune]

I had only one dealing with Captain's Circle Host Bernadette Vaziri last week and she was marvelous. She had a long line of people waiting on her and she handled them in a very professional and friendly manner. She had several come in angry and leave smiling.

 

And by the way, I guess I was lucky, I had no trouble with internet and did use almost all of our 300 minutes in the four days. Nearly all was used on our laptop in the cabin. (I am afraid we have to do some work whir on vacation)

[Woobstr112G]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Crzn-Life]

Actually, I would think there is more work for her on a short cruise compared to a 7 day or more cruise.

 

She has only a couple of days to prepare for all the status changes for Captain's Circle memebrs, especially the many first time cruisers who will be changing from blue to gold.

 

With the same number of passengers on board as on a longer cruise, she has much less time to process the requests for FCCs as well as to meet with all those who need a personal meeting to plan/book their next Princess cruise.

 

Of course this is no justification for not being pleasant when dealing with passengers.

 

Status changes are her responsibility, but I don't believe she handles FCCs or planning future cruises. The Future cruise consultant handles those.

 

Even if she was assisting the cruise consultant and was very busy, you're right in that she should have been pleasant while dealing with passengers.

 

 

 

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[caribill]

Status changes are her responsibility, but I don't believe she handles FCCs or planning future cruises. The Future cruise consultant handles those.

 

 

You are correct. Thanks for pointing out the error of my post.

[Sue's Mom]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. It was interesting and informative, especially as we will be sailing on the Ruby on Feb 1. Also I was pleased to read about the Alamo transfer as we will be travelling to FLL by an Alamo car.

 

they have elected to have one of the anytime dining rooms be an early traditional sitting.

 

Are you able to advise which of the dining rooms this is please?

[cruise2relax]

It is the DaVinci dining room for the 5:30 traditional.

[Sue's Mom]

It is the DaVinci dining room for the 5:30 traditional.

 

Thank you. We have a 6pm seating.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for your comments. :)

[suebob114]

We were on this cruise, as well. And would agree that Bernadette needs an attitude adjustment. We moved from Platinum to Elite on this cruise and never received a status change letter from her. Not a big deal, but something we were looking forward to getting. We were sitting near her in the disembarkation lounge. Appeared she did not enjoy her job at all.