Ruby Live Quebec 22nd Oct to Ft L

[March Babe]

We were on the 10/2 Canada/New England cruise and found ATD a disaster. One evening we waited one hour for a table of four. Two other nights were thirty to forty minutes. If you can get the dine line each morning you could make reservations around 7:30 to 8:00.

[pablo222]

We were on the 10/2 Canada/New England cruise and found ATD a disaster. One evening we waited one hour for a table of four. Two other nights were thirty to forty minutes.

 

This would pretty much ruin the cruise for Mrs. Pablo.

 

Not the waiting, she is very easy going about that, but

spending the rest of the cruise listening to me complain

about the waiting. I'd probably have to get her the

liquor package to help her cope.

[Mom33]

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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We always have Anytime dining and never wait when we arrive at 6:00 at the dining room on deck 5. The dining room on deck 6 usual has early traditional dining at that time and you can't get seated there until after 7:30.

If they schedule AT dining at 5:30 on deck 5 then go at that time.

I see you are on the Ruby, the Dining room on deck 5 is the Michelangelo dining room.

 

 

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[Shogun]

Hi All

 

 

 

Sitting in Quebec, ship sails in a few hours, we will have just over 3000 passengers, sadly one has already been taken away in an aambulance,

 

What a difference a few weeks makes, this morning was up early and ran into our room steward who went and got her supervisor, and introduced me as one of her passengers, the supervisor asked if all was well said to call him if we had any issues, her attitude to her work is amazing, Now l know most folk on this cruise come from warmer countries than me but if the ship gets any hotter l will mealt, folks are wrapped up like they are heading out on a polar experidition, l have a t shirt and sweat running down me have met Canadians who agree ship is to warm but most are happy.

 

Crew are very cold, can not wait for the ship to sail south, boarding went on all day, with a few hundred arriving after midnight, night shift crew drinking coffee trying not to freeze, IC was very busy overnight as only place open for those arriving late,poor barman looked shattered as he had been so busy, even before 6 this morning you had to wait to be severed, went to get a breakfast muffin this morning from IC but they were not ready no problem chef said he would make one for me, so happy to see IC back up to old quality of food and service, by mid morning IC full to over flowing.

 

Ran into a number of cc members chatting away,

 

Dinner was normal Princess standard table mates all speak English and have cruised before very interesting to hear their views on standards one has not been on Princess for 5 years and thought standards had not changed the other thought it was better food than RCI, dinning room was quite service was fast food hot steaks were large. Maitre d stopped by as well as head waiter.

 

Put our names down for Chefs table so will wait and see if we make it,

 

Not seen any service dogs onboard, our table mates said their last cruise had lots but did not say what cruise.

 

Very few kids onboard, not even seen a scooter either.

 

Patter says to take life jackets to drill this afternoon but will report back what happens.

 

 

 

Yours Shogun

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[Northender]

Sounds like you are having a good time and have not left the dock yet.:D

And your Cabin Attendant seems top notch.

 

Not sure what your stops are in Maine, but starting Friday the weather should be clearing up somewhat. Mid 50'sF for temps.

[jdavid]

I was just thinking - this would be a great way for snowbirds to get to Florida without flying. You could each take two or three suitcases (without extra baggage fee) enjoy ten days of great food and arrive in Florida very relaxed. Take the cost of a flight and this becomes a very reasonable cruise.

[retiredtimes2]

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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Alyssa, We were on the Ruby for a back-to-back in Jan & Feb with our son, daughter-in-law & our 6 month old grandson. The dining room staff were amazing! :) We spoke to the maitre'd about hoping to dine with a little one around 6pm and he kindly reserved us a table in the Michelangelo dining room for that same time every night. We just went through the 'have reservation' side of the doorway into the dining room and were seated promptly. The head waiter checked on us every night and made sure that the food they prepared especially for baby was suitable. We were able to make the next nights menu selections ahead of time also so our grandson's meal was blended/chopped/mashed and ready when we arrived. Even delivered it to the Crown Grill & Sabatini's! Cannot say enough wonderful things about how well the dining room staff treated our family.

 

There were only a few kiddies on board and the young ones in our dining room seemed to be enjoying the same excellent level of service also.

 

Speak to the maitre'd for sure as soon as you get on board! He will be set-up in the dining room taking special requests.

I also think there is a spot online in your cruise personalizer where you can choose the option of baby food being provided on board if your daughter isn't fond of 'big people' food

as yet!

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Cheers :)

Dawna

Edited October 23, 2014 by retiredtimes2

[Shogun]

Hi All

Muster, life jackets required, speach was different talked about using shouts to get into life crafts also messages from telephone, calls about possible fires etc, still loads of folks not going to muster but got a shock, as they were told we know who you are and we will be having another muster for you to attend,

Watched the supervisor at IC in action today it was very busy but stepped in to clear tables direct passengers to empty seats took brush to clean floor, directed staff to passengers waiting for service, he was in command of his area and ensured the best service was received by passengers their, will drop HGM a note to say how well the supervisor handled such a busy day.

Very strong wind temps low no sail away party crew turned up but no passengers,

Casino, shops,Vines, and more bars open now we have sailed.

New port for us tomorrow Port Saguenay,

Nice to see maitre d out and about the ship.

 

Yours Shogun

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your 'live' reporting, thanks for taking us along on your cruise.

[Kenswing]

Hey, Steve,

 

It was great meeting you and Donna.. Too bad the weather scared everyone away from the sail away party.. See you at the M&G..

[cruiserjanet]

Shogun, Elizabeth is at our table (she said she knows you). I told her about the Meet & Greet and she plans to attend. She's very nice.

 

Everyone else, this is our first time on the Ruby and we are very pleased so far. We are still relatively new cruisers and get excited every time we set foot on a ship. We stayed on board the ship the whole day today relaxing and exercising. It was too cold and windy for us to go outside but will tomorrow to explore Ville Saguenay. We had a nice first dinner with our tablemates. Looking forward to the rest of the dinners with them.

[alyssa0922]

Mom33 and Dawna,

Thank you so much for the helpful tips for ATD and dining with the wee one. 😃

 

 

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[caribill]

Hi All

Muster, life jackets required, speech was different talked about using shouts to get into life crafts

 

Please explain what that means.

[tjwa]

Please explain what that means.

 

chutes?

Edited October 24, 2014 by tjwa
spelling

[Kenswing]

Please explain what that means.

 

He meant "chutes" as in emergency slides. The message stated that in the event you couldn't get to a life boat, rafts would be in the water and an emergency slide would be used to enter them.. That was a total paraphrase but I think you get the gist of it.. LOL

Edited October 24, 2014 by Kenswing

[Shogun]

Hi All

Port Saguenay today first time here for us, best way to describe it would be to compare it to a Norwegian fjord, sea plane and helicopter tours of national park on offer, loads of folks in costume on peir to welcome you ashore shook hands with so many folks. They have had 35 ships this year,we are the biggest town officials onboard to swap plaques,

They have two hop on hop off bus routes one 15 dollar ticket does both each about hour long, they run every 15 minutes, each bus has a tour guide and another at each stop to provide more detailed information.

Very pretty port of call clean streets, very nice people very happy to see cruise passengers.

Tonight is formal which surprised many as to more is a sea day.

No in cabin TV guide as it is on a TV Chanel,

Coins for washing machines come from a machine that you swip your card so no need for dollar bills.

Weather dead calm water, full sunshine nice in the sun but a little cool for some.

Time for lunch chat more later.

 

Yours Shogun

[rogerdawhip]

Looking forward to the rest of you blog. I did this itinerary last year on the Emerald and it is one of my favorite cruises in terms of ports visited. My favorite was Corner Brook which is not visited this year. We arrived in a blinding snowstorm which I have not encountered since I left Michigan 30 years ago. After about a hour the weather got much better and spent the day hiking the many trails around the town. A second reason I'll be reading the blog daily is I'm board the Ruby in FLL after you get off for B2B (5+7) Caribbean cruises. The Ruby has been my favorite ship since I first sailed on her in 2010.

Edited October 24, 2014 by rogerdawhip

[cruiserjanet]

They changed the shampoo since the last time we were on a Princess ship (which was October of last year) and it is so much better, including the smell. It's a conditioning shampoo. The lotion is better too.

 

Beautiful day in Saguenay as Shogun mentioned. Also, I've never seen so many people show up to watch a ship leave. It was an amazing site to see.

[Shogun]

Hi All

Commodore has given weather up date sea state 3 to 4 m wind 50 miles per hour some decks closed for safety, ship has slowed down to reduce movement, some folks having issues getting about.

 

Pub lunch today, might not be any queues casino boss said one lady one 8000 dollars on poker machine.

 

Got notice that we are doing chefs table.

 

Ordered flowers nice display but no guy with stall selling them.

 

Formal appeared well attended all at our table in tuxes.

 

Interesting chatting about food, one cruiser not been on Princess for 10 years said no change in food quality other same time away said not as good.

 

Heard a few folks saying they have no hot water this morning, so far cruise has gone well no issues service better than a few weeks ago.

 

Yours Shogun

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

Weather interesting to say the least, speaking to crew the waves today were not the biggest seen, add in the wind, angle etc and the movement by the ship from side to side was the worest that they had seen, a number of crew dealt unwell,

 

As to our cc meet a number of folks stopped by to say hi, then went to find a quite spot in the ship, number of folk there may be 40 to 50 good number of crew attended,

 

Hotel General Manager, Cruise Director, Food and Bervage Director Customer Services Director and Manager as well as Head of House Keeping as well as Staff Captain, Commodore phoned to say could not leave bridge, Water in pools decided to start flowing inside ship, wind on the deck recorded as strong gale.

 

Came across a very nice passenger today, rough seas had no affect, having four legs comes in very handy sometimes.

 

 

 

Yours Shogun

 

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[cruiserjanet]

Nice day in Halifax. We got to enjoy Peggy's Cove and return before the rain started. Was coming down hard when the ship left. Nice to see rain, which is a rare sight for us from California.

 

Also got word that we are doing Chefs Table so we will get to enjoy it with Mr. & Mrs. Shogun. We have never done Chefs Table before so we are very excited.

 

Food has been so good this cruise. I've been surprisingly pleased at things I thought might be okay like the pureed vegetable soup. I had seconds. Shared both with DH. I don't think I've had a bad meal at all.

 

Bar Harbor tomorrow. We are doing Acadia National Park and Cadillac Mountain.

[Shogun]

Hi All

 

Halifax a great stop now some times the best laid plans just go wrong, was sitting in bed this morning watching my clock, using my smart phone , as it lights up, so when l got up l thought l had over an hour before my tour left, so l got a shock when l spotted the clock was saying a different time, turns out UK time had changed and as such so had my smart phone, so with only minutes to spare instead of over an hour l was glad to see the ship had not docked,

So to my private tour, now l like Americans but love Canadians so when this big beautiful blonde ran up to me asked for a hug and stuck her tongue in my ear, l was so happy, Mrs Shogun got the same welcome, as Samoyed loves everyone and l am sure they can tell at a distance who is a dog lover, our little group did normal stuff we stopped of at a restruant ordered our lobster and then went to Peggy's Cove before returning for our lunch, they should us an 8 lb beast they had,

Onboard the RMCP Pipeband did two shows standing room only,

Respects were given to the Canadian service men killed recently,

The ship no longer provides a TV guide cost savings gone mad no way to tell what tomorrow's movie is going to be or when,

Everyone has to go through US passport inspection tomorrow, then tender.into Bar Harbor.

 

Yours Shogun

[cruisealot54]

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.

 

Janet, hope that you guys have a great trip. I look forward to reading the live review

[jdavid]

Sorry we could not have come up with better weather for you yesterday. Considering the Fall we had (great), we were disappointed with the last four or five days. Janice & I went down to the Port yesterday to have a look at the Ruby and see if any recognizable crew were around to chat with. Amazing when one realizes you had been on that ship but a few months ago in British Isles and will see it next on the West coast for Alaska in less than a year.

 

Have a wonderful journey to Florida.

[princessfan12]

Can anyone currently on the ruby recently confirm if the aft hot tub has turned into a splash pool? I've been on the ruby twice and it was a hot tub both times but when I look at the deck plan it says splash pool. I have 2 small kids so its good for me but seems strange that they would put it back by the adults only pool.

 

Thanks so much! I posted a thread but nobody has answered so Hoping someone here will!