My Balanced Ruby Review with Photos

[Aquahound]

Ahhhhh! A day at sea. Cruising the Florida Straits on Friday was a gorgeous 82 degrees with calm seas.

 

 

[Aquahound]

Mid day, we passed fairly close to the one and only Oasis of the Seas, in all her glory. Oasis or not, passing other ships at sea is something I have always loved.

 

 

[Aquahound]

This pool at the stern was pretty cool and I liked the fact it was adults only. There is a serious lack of pool chairs back here though.

 

 

[bhopal21]

I'm loving this Paul.:D

 

Keep it coming.

 

Glad that you found the Espresso Martinis at Crooners and hope that Olena, Jeff and Franky treated you well.

 

Mike:)

[Aquahound]

Speaking of the stern, this is the perfect segway for a gripe. Whoever designed this ship must have smoked crack when they got to the back. This was the worst design I have ever seen on a cruise ship because it was very difficult to get to anything back there. The pool was one thing, having to go through the buffet to get there, but the Skywalkers Lounge and Sabatinis was something else all together. Unless I missed something on the few times I got lost, there was no other way to get there without having to go forward to mid ship, then down to 14 or to the lido, then all the way back, then up to 18. I'm usually pretty good at remembering things after seeing it once, but I found this design very confusing.

 

If the aft stairway just had an entry/exit to deck 16, it would be so much easier.

[Aquahound]

I'm loving this Paul.:D

 

Keep it coming.

 

Glad that you found the Espresso Martinis at Crooners and hope that Olena, Jeff and Franky treated you well.

 

Mike:)

 

Thanks Mike. I never met Franky, but Olena and Jeff were very good. I like my martini a certain way and I only had to describe it once. They remembered it from then on.

 

Which reminds me of something. It's cool that if they remember you, you don't have to give them your Cruise Card for them to make your bill. They have a good system in place.

[bhopal21]

Speaking of the stern, this is the perfect segway for a gripe. Whoever designed this ship must have smoked crack when they got to the back. This was the worst design I have ever seen on a cruise ship because it was very difficult to get to anything back there. The pool was one thing, having to go through the buffet to get there, but the Skywalkers Lounge and Sabatinis was something else all together. Unless I missed something on the few times I got lost, there was no other way to get there without having to go forward to mid ship, then down to 14 or to the lido, then all the way back, then up to 18. I'm usually pretty good at remembering things after seeing it once, but I found this design very confusing.

 

If the aft stairway just had an entry/exit to deck 16, it would be so much easier.

 

We just took the aft elevators up to 16 where the Adagio lounge and Sabatini's are just steps from the elevators and the same for Skywalker's which is on deck 18. Our cabin was on Dolphin deck 9 and it was a straight shot up and down using the aft elevators.

 

Mike:)

[bhopal21]

It's cool that if they remember you, you don't have to give them your Cruise Card for them to make your bill. They have a good system in place.

 

Trust me, those two are exceptional.

 

Mike:)

[-Lew-]

 

One thing I find odd about Princess though is all these exposed balconies. You folks like these? :confused: I guess they're good for sun bathing, but I have no interest in being so exposed to everyone above. Just my preference, I guess. I would never book these.

The only deck with fully exposed balconies is Dolphin Deck 9...these are mini-suites. The row of balconies on Caribe Deck 10 are half covered/half uncovered and are 9'x9'...the largest regular cabin balconies onboard.

 

Lew

Edited February 25, 2014 by -Lew-

[Aquahound]

The Sanctuary was located all the way forward above the spa. We checked it out, but opted not to partake. It was a nice area though. The pool below had a device that allowed for lap swimming. However, and I'll venture to guess it was due to the 4 night itinerary, all it did was attract a hand full of loud drunks who were betting on who could swim furthest against it. At one point, I even saw the Sanctuary attendant tell them to quiet down. I think there were some complaints from above.

 

 

[Aquahound]

I like to capture images of the ship's name. With this limited itinerary, I did what I could to accomplish this while on board the ship...

 

 

 

Don't even ask how I had to contort myself to get this stern shot...

 

 

This one was much easier.

 

Edited February 25, 2014 by Aquahound

[Aquahound]

I really liked how they designed the pool areas on this ship. Having every pool completely separate made for nice variety. This is the Neptune pool.

 

 

...and this is a larger shot. You can see the MUTS screen in the background.

 

[Aquahound]

I'm realizing now I didn't take any pictures of the MUTS area and pool. Gotta say though, this was a hit with us. My wife was sold when they played her favorite movie...Mama Mia. The other movies played were Gravity, Last Vegas, and Captain Phillips. Mixed in were also some concerts. We never did make it out to a night movie, but I'm certain we would have on a longer cruise. This was great use of the large screen.

[Aquahound]

Belay my last. This was in the morning. They were playing the morning Cruise Director show.

 

[Clutterlady]

Loving it so far....:)

[Aquahound]

Speaking of the Cruise Director - Look, I really don't care, but does the CD actually do anything social on Princess? Other than his morning show, I NEVER saw this guy. We went to every one of the game shows and he didn't participate in a single one. No biggie because his Activities Director, a French girl who goes by "Frenchie," was hilarious. I'm just curious. It was just one of those things where on day 4 while watching the morning show, my wife asked me, "have we ever seen this guy around?"

 

Speaking of game shows, Princess does most of the typical shows you find on other lines....Majority Rules, Quest, Liars Club, etc. The only unique show I saw was Yes or No, where the contestant could not answer with yes or no answers. However, there was no Love & Marriage type show.

 

Quest - Worst version of Quest I ever saw.....not even close to how RCI does it. It was done at 2:30 on a sea day and the Quests really weren't that funny. The best was when they had to try and get a red vest from a bartender. I guess it was more PG rated, which was what made it a little boring.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Aquahound

[Time2Shipout]

Great review. Keep it coming. Will be taking our first Princess cruise in April. We are also mainly RCI cruisers, so like hearing your take on comparing. Have followed many of your threads (way back to the turtle camera) and trust your opinion.

 

Thanks for doing this.

 

What time did you get to the port?

 

I'm with Donna on this,thank you so much for posting this review AND photos, much appreciated :). Kathy

[Aquahound]

Let's talk about dining. This is where I have what I think is a real complaint...not just a preference issue.

 

We had Anytime dining. Day 1 - We showed up to the Michelangelo at 7:30 and requested a table for 2. We were handed a pager and told it would be 10-15 minutes. By the way, this is the second time I've been handed a pager, and I always do Anytime dining on all cruise lines I've sailed in the past few years. The first and only other time was NCL.

 

Ok, the pager isn't a big deal. We figured we would grab a seat in the Piazza and people watch for the 10-15 minutes. Long story short, it was a 40 minute wait for a table. Not a good first impression.

 

On day 2, first thing in the morning, I made a reservation for 7:30 that night in the DaVinci on deck 6. Fast forward to 7:30. We show up and low and behold, they have no record of our reservation. The host had a bit of an attitude, almost acting like we were trying to skip the line. He goes over to his computer and tells us our reservation must have been down on deck 5 in Michelangelo. Even though I knew it wasn't true, we walked down there. Guess what? No record. So, we had to wait.

 

Then, after being thoroughly frustrated, they sat us at a table so close to others, it might as well have been one long table. And the table behind us, full of Boca residents and all their 500 kids (actually about 5...but it sounded like 500) were so loud and annoying, we decided not to return.

 

After that night, we never went back. The food wasn't all that great anyways.

 

Day 3, we ate in the Horizon (buffet) and enjoyed it. It was so much more relaxed, quiet, and the food was actually really good.

[Aquahound]

Keeping on the dining subject, on day 4 we booked Crown Grill. It was $25 pp. The room was really nice. Like most of the other public areas, Princess did a great job with the decor. Also, inside Crown Grill was a bar for a pre or after dinner drink.

 

 

Now, about Crown Grill. I was both disappointed and happy with it. I'll start with the happy.

 

The food was excellent. We tried the Shrimp Bisque, Scallops, Main Lobster Tails, Filet Minon, and Lamb Chops. Loved it all and it was well worth the surcharge. I wouldn't say CG is any better or worse than the steakhouses on other lines. I'd say it's an even comparison in taste to Chops on RCI or Murano on Celebrity. I love them all.

 

Now the disappointment. The service was awful. We sat 15 minutes before even being greeted by anyone, and with empty water glasses. The waiter passed by, looking at us a couple times, but never said anything....even though our menus were closed and glasses were empty. When he finally did stop, there were no pleasantries or dialogue...just are you ready to order? Whatever. So we ordered. After the first course, our dirty plates just sat there, not being cleared until the next course came...15-20 minutes in between.

 

The Assistant Waiter would just walk by, but would not pick up the dirty dishes, and we had to ask to have our waters refilled.

 

After dessert, once again, the dishes just sat there. Even when they brought the check, they still didn't take the plates.

 

This just isn't the service I expect in the specialty restaurants.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Aquahound

[Aquahound]

Alright, let's move on to happy stuff. Day 3 was Grand Cayman. As you can see here, in port was the Ruby, RCI Brilliance of the Seas, and a Carnival ship.

 

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[Aquahound]

Riding the tender is a great opportunity to get some ship pics. Sorry Princess lovers, but I really think Princess has some of the goofiest looking ships in the business....almost like a buck-toothed Geordi La Forge. :D

 

 

[Aquahound]

We didn't do anyting in GC because we have been there so many times. We just did some shopping and went to Paradise bar. At Paradise, we tried the local brew. This place is a little pricey though. 3 beers and a cup of turtle soup came to $38.

 

[Aquahound]

After a few days of cruise food, my wife told me this place is named after me. I'm not sure what she meant by that. ;)

 

 

Grand Cayman has such pretty water.

 

[Aquahound]

Tendering back to the ship, I was able to capture Ruby flying her colors.

 

[Aquahound]

44 cruises and this is the first time I've been on a ship with a self-serve laundry facility. This is brilliant, and until you cruise on a ship that actually has this, you don't realize how nice it is to be available. I always thought...blah...who needs that? Well, I'm an idiot. All ships should have this. Even if to go get a few wrinkles out of the linen pants, this sure beats giving them over to the laundry people and waiting 1-2 days to get them back. I used these irons twice and never once saw another person in here.