Ruby Live Quebec 22nd Oct to Ft L

[Shogun]

Hi All

We are in Canada,, and we got up graded for a second time so nice big seats for the TA, nice Icelandair, plane was older TV system not so good but OK, food not up to much same as short flight so no real meals. Toronto airport went smoothly they asked about Ebola, plenty of staff on no hold ups.

Chat more once we have had some sleep as body telling me its 3.30 in the morning

 

Yours Shogun

 

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[OCCALIF]

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.

 

Thanks for the response and will take your advice. Enjoy your cruise!

[Shogun]

Hi toberman, and all

Toronto airport seems a bit odd, we walked miles from were plane arrived to passport control, however although it was Sunday evening with a number of planes arriving, it only took 30 mins to get out of airport, lots of staff on duty, friends said this was a good time as it can take a lot longer.

 

Iceland airport looking to double its size, and become an important hub airport, but so simple no passport control, no checkin, same boarding pass used for both planes, as to Iceland Air, nice planes, staff friendly, movie selection not the best, but food needs to improve on long haul, now we were so lucky to be upgraded twice, cattle class did look nasty, no leg room.

 

So off to explore a little bit of Canada today, tomorrow we will be in Quebec, and will meet up with cc folks at the Frontenac,

 

Yours Shogun

 

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[wb2868]

Glad you are there! We leave in a few hours for the airport and will arrive tonight to the Frontenac. Will be meeting you tomorrow!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Bon Voyage...will be following along on your journey...thanks for posting!

[greenie082756]

Hi Shogun! Since DH and I will be on the Ruby next month doing the 7 day Eastern Caribbean I will be reading what you have to say about the ship.

 

Bon Voyage!!

 

Thanks!! :)

[toberman]

Hey Shogun.... Hope your day in TO (that's what we call Toronto) was good. I see that there are flights every hour on the hour to YUL/YQB. What time is your flight... just want to know when to stand out and wave!!

You do stop in YUL?? Right?? From there you get on a Turbo Prop, which I think you've done before? Good travels to you and D.

Doug

[Bimmer09]

<<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. [/size][/font]

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.>>

 

Steve- I was very interested in your "downward slide in happiness" stemming from your opinion of the Royal and particularly how you felt disconnected from the sea-a connection which is something I look for on a cruise. Could you link me to any review you wrote on your experience?

 

Also your poor experience on a previous Ruby cruise must have been pretty disappointing as you usually are a champ at rolling with the punches. I am booked on Ruby in January and will be following you during your cruise to read your impressions of the current crew.

 

I hope they're beyond your expectations!

 

Best wishes,

 

Norris

[rimau]

Made it to the Frontenac. Toronto airport was a real pain but we made it. Hope to make it tomorrow night.

[1oklahoma1]

You made my day!! This is our first cruise on Princess so I wasn't sure of the layout.

 

Judy

 

 

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

[Shogun]

Hi toberman,

We are on the 11.05 but will be in city early you can always meet for breakfast,

 

Yours Shogun

 

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[toberman]

Hi toberman,

We are on the 11.05 but will be in city early you can always meet for breakfast,

 

 

Just saw your offer for breakfast.. little late now I guess. :)

Plus - I don't think you understand how big Canada is... it would take me 3 hours to drive to downtown Toronto !!

BTW - did you fly Porter Airlines?

[Shogun]

Hi All

Just now sitting in top floor of Frontenac looking down at Ruby, amazing room got moved to Fairmont Gold, private lounge, freebies etc all very nice, would stay here any day great service.

 

Now l like adventure and a little bit if excitement, but never had a trip like we had yesterday. We allowed extra hours to get to the airport, so here's the story of the most stressful trip ever, within minutes of joining highway traffic stopped, switched radio on and travel report says do not travel its madness breakdowns, accidents road works, so stop start then the accident drunk driver wrong way head on smash poor folk killed, of highway still stop start, one hour, then two hours go by only a few miles but grid lock. We make it to airport with minutes to spare, at check in lady in front is over baggage limit needs to make payment, tick tock tick tock, then to security dead slow and stop loads of folks complaining we are stopped checked for explosives questioned what's the problem they then open case and there it is a bit of maple fudge it is handled like its explosive l said its fudge look l will eat it, now our names are being called gate closing, l say that's me but no joy supervisor called takes one look and says hurry or you will miss flight so we run trying to get dressed put belt on still calling our names hoping that if bags are on plane we will get a few extra minutes gate folk spot us and hold the door we make it on board.

Not fun.

 

Last night cc folks met up at Frontenac great to see faces of folks from past cruises.

 

Chat more once onboard.

 

Yours Shogun

 

 

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[cruiserjanet]

Hi all. Like Shogun, we are also sitting in our hotel getting ready to board the Ruby. We flew in Monday from Los Angeles. We had a layover in Toronto, fortunately 3 hours, because it took us about 1-1/2 hours just to get from one gate to the next gate. Up an escalator, down another one, etc. Wow! We have been staying at the Hilton and have a city view.

We had a great time wandering around the city yesterday. This Southern California girl has had enough cold though. Brrr! We had started out our adventure using a map but eventually put it away because there were so many places to wander around to and see. Lots of history here.

Had a 10 minute walk to the Frontenac last night for a pre-cruise Meet & Greet with some nice CC members. Looking forward to our larger Meet & Greet on our first sea day.

Edited October 22, 2014 by cruiserjanet

[Shogun]

Hi toberman,

Flew out of city airport with Porter nice enough service printed boarding passes the day before, very odd having to take a ferry to get to airport.

Never got to spend time in city, or even see it as seat was next to engine, so as a great man once said I shall return,

Will most likely take rail tour of Canada,

 

Yours Shogun

 

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Edited October 22, 2014 by Shogun

[Northender]

Whew, you made it. :D:D There is a mild possibility that today could have been worse than yesterday with all that is going on in Ottawa.:(:(

 

Have a wonderful cruise.:)

[karena1]

Are you in Anytime Dining? I so want information on that. We were on Ruby in January and the Anytime Dining was horrid. Going in December for 7 nights on Ruby and I am not dragging formal clothes along if ATD is as bad as January was. We ended up eating in the buffet almost every night b/c the ATD lines were crazy long. Worst I have ever seen on any ship, any line, with flex dining

[cruiserjanet]

Having a great time on the Ruby and the ship hasn't left the dock yet. We haven't been on this new of a ship in a long time so it's nice to see carpet more pristine and not frayed in places. Our room is beautiful and comfortable. The service in the Crown Grill tonight was excellent and the food was as we have come to expect. I found the cheesecake I wanted (it's the fluffy kind, not the flatter kind) so I'm a happy girl. So far so good. We were going to do an excursion in Quebec tomorrow and Ville Saguenay the next day but decided to cancel. We need to warm up and rest a little so we are going to wander around and enjoy the sites on our own.

[J-D]

We were on the Ruby for the previous sailing from Quebec City, 20 days ago. When we went for ATD around 19:30 on the evening of departure, without a reservation, we were told that the wait would be at least 1 hour. We went to the buffet instead. Given the convenience on a port-intensive cruise of 3/4-hour meals rather than 2 or 2.5 hr meals, with no need to select and book a meal-time hours in advance, we more-or-less happily continued going to the buffet on all subsequent evenings other than the 2 formal nights. [On those 2 nights, we indulged in the Crown Grill, which was excellent.]

 

Very surprisingly to me, some people maintain that they have not had a problem with lines for ATD on the Ruby and the other 3 "enlarged" Grand-class ships -- with the added Riviera deck and the extra ~500 pax. Shogun or others now on the Ruby, any reports of crowding or lack of it in ATD during the current cruise from Quebec will be of interest.

 

John

Edited October 23, 2014 by J-D

[jdavid]

We have done the Caribbean a few years ago and the British Isles this past summer on the Ruby. Also did Iceland Air to and from Europe for the cruise. All was good. Also have the Ruby booked for Alaska next June.

 

Found the crew excellent this summer and it was one of our best cruising experiences.

 

We live in Halifax and plan to drop by the Port the day the Ruby is in Halifax. We were down at the Port the day it arrived on its sail over from England a few weeks ago.

 

If you need any info about Halifax feel free to ask on the thread. I plan to follow your journey.

 

Weather here is not good until later Saturday.

 

Jim

[Shogun]

Hi All

Well interesting day today, Frontenac was not cheap but value for money, concierge asked if we need stapler, again advised if we needed a taxi do not wait a hotel but cross the road there is a taxi rank, queue for taxis at hotel was quite long, Princess has a hospitality desk inside hotel and were happy to give advise maps etc. Boarding was amazing just a straight through walk we checked to see what time buses were arriving and went 15 minutes ahead of them, no oberivous increase in port security given today's sad events but we were at the Quebec parliament yesterday as well as today and lot more police and state troopers around think they were state name was in French also military helicopter s about.

As to Ruby some new brown carpets on stairs nice enough carpets but colour does not go with existing ones but may plan to redo overall colour scheme.

Great welcome back from crew hugs and kisses down to recalling our names.

Stopped by Trident grill and very pleased to say French Fries back to normal quality Mrs Shogun says pizza as good as ever but slices were massive,

Now last time l had issues with my room steward this time already much better, she had introduced herself asked if we need anything, advised she will be back with ice, dressing gowns etc which she has done, asked what time we have dinner and advised she will attend room then,

Local folk group doing two shows in theatre tonight.

 

Yours Shogun

[macusr]

Are you in Anytime Dining? I so want information on that. We were on Ruby in January and the Anytime Dining was horrid. Going in December for 7 nights on Ruby and I am not dragging formal clothes along if ATD is as bad as January was. We ended up eating in the buffet almost every night b/c the ATD lines were crazy long. Worst I have ever seen on any ship, any line, with flex dining

 

interesting - so it wasn't just my 10/2 Canada/NE cruise on Ruby that had the Anytime Dining issues? It caught me by surprise - I'd never experienced these kinds of lines on any prior Princess cruise. I assumed it was due to the nature of this cruise (older demographic/more Elites) which meant greater demand for Fixed so they took one of the Anytime MDRs and converted into fixed for half the evening.

[alyssa0922]

Excited to read more about your journey Shogun! We are on the Ruby in just under one month. After reading comments I am really nervous about the ATD! Does anyone have any suggestions as to when we should go? We will have our 15 month old and there is no way she could wait that long. Do you think before 6 there would be a better chance of getting in right away? When we get to the ship what do you think the likelihood of switching to the early dinner in the MDR would be?

 

 

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[ar1950]

............ When we get to the ship what do you think the likelihood of switching to the early dinner in the MDR would be?

 

Probably better to get on the waiting list now if it is already "sold out". On the ship it is not likely that you will get into the early dining time if all spots are already taken.

[alyssa0922]

Thank you!

 

 

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