Live Review of Ruby Princess Alaska August 16th through the 23rd.

[MisterMet]

Well done. Looking forward to more photos.

[kunta67]

We just got back home to Portland a few hours ago and it still feels like we have sea legs on the ship. This was a great cruise and here's some thoughts before I start editing photos from our adventure. This was our first adventure on Princess and here's some of the positives and negatives that we compared Princess to RCI.

 

1. The food on Princess is hands down better than anything we had on all of our cruises with RCI. From the food in the MDR, napoletana pizza, fresh waffles, pub lunch, fresh gelato, and the Crown Grill, we were thoroughly impressed with the food offerings that Princess had vs. RCI. Normally with RCI the food isn't terrible but to find really good quality you have to go to a specialty restaurant and we felt like we didn't have to do that with Princess. The pub lunches and pizza were probably my favorite things on the Ruby. The chicken curry at the Wheelhouse Pub was as good of a curry as I've had in London or elsewhere.

 

2. Not a fan of the drink packages that Princess offers vs. RCI. I would say that this is one big negative that both my wife and I felt against Princess. In the upgraded non-alcoholic package on RCI it includes bottled water vs. having to buy an alcohol package to have it included on Princess.

 

3. The regular balcony rooms on RCI are better in my opinion than on Princess. We missed having the little sofa to either sit on throw some stuff on in the RCI balconies vs. more closet space which we didn't use that much on Princess. Also I think having a shower curtain in those small showers are a pretty bad idea and a couple times water got out, even though I was careful on making sure the shower curtain was inside.

 

4. Layout of the ship, maybe we're being a bit nit picky but I think the ship designers for RCI are a bit better than Princess. I felt like Ruby Princess was more fragmented and wasn't as intuitive to get around like on other RCI ships. I think having the LCD wayfinders on RCI help quite a bit. My wife still doesn't like the atrium shops/piazza concept and would rather have the Royal Promenade.

 

5. Love the fact that on the Future Cruise program that Princess lets you make the deposit and combine it with other travel offers to get the maximum value out of your travel.

 

6. We missed the WiFi packages that RCI offered in paying $199 for the week and getting multiple devices and being to be signed on all the time. My wife and I at night like to post things on social media or read news stories online. We were able to do a decent live review but we wish the Princess Wifi packages were more like RCI.

 

Thanks for reading my thoughts and I'll get photos and videos hopefully up in the next couple of days.

[yukongold]

Quick stop in the lovely Victoria! Lots of shopping and lots of places to get some food or drinks! Lovely sunset!

 

 

 

 

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Love Victoria. One of the best North American stops.

[cruiser7princess]

We just got back home to Portland a few hours ago and it still feels like we have sea legs on the ship. This was a great cruise and here's some thoughts before I start editing photos from our adventure. This was our first adventure on Princess and here's some of the positives and negatives that we compared Princess to RCI.

 

1. The food on Princess is hands down better than anything we had on all of our cruises with RCI. From the food in the MDR, napoletana pizza, fresh waffles, pub lunch, fresh gelato, and the Crown Grill, we were thoroughly impressed with the food offerings that Princess had vs. RCI. Normally with RCI the food isn't terrible but to find really good quality you have to go to a specialty restaurant and we felt like we didn't have to do that with Princess. The pub lunches and pizza were probably my favorite things on the Ruby. The chicken curry at the Wheelhouse Pub was as good of a curry as I've had in London or elsewhere.

 

2. Not a fan of the drink packages that Princess offers vs. RCI. I would say that this is one big negative that both my wife and I felt against Princess. In the upgraded non-alcoholic package on RCI it includes bottled water vs. having to buy an alcohol package to have it included on Princess.

 

3. The regular balcony rooms on RCI are better in my opinion than on Princess. We missed having the little sofa to either sit on throw some stuff on in the RCI balconies vs. more closet space which we didn't use that much on Princess. Also I think having a shower curtain in those small showers are a pretty bad idea and a couple times water got out, even though I was careful on making sure the shower curtain was inside.

 

4. Layout of the ship, maybe we're being a bit nit picky but I think the ship designers for RCI are a bit better than Princess. I felt like Ruby Princess was more fragmented and wasn't as intuitive to get around like on other RCI ships. I think having the LCD wayfinders on RCI help quite a bit. My wife still doesn't like the atrium shops/piazza concept and would rather have the Royal Promenade.

 

5. Love the fact that on the Future Cruise program that Princess lets you make the deposit and combine it with other travel offers to get the maximum value out of your travel.

 

6. We missed the WiFi packages that RCI offered in paying $199 for the week and getting multiple devices and being to be signed on all the time. My wife and I at night like to post things on social media or read news stories online. We were able to do a decent live review but we wish the Princess Wifi packages were more like RCI.

 

Thanks for reading my thoughts and I'll get photos and videos hopefully up in the next couple of days.

 

Great pictures and comments! I'm on the same ship as Tom, leaving a week from today out of SF.

 

We just sailed on the Serenade of the Seas in April and have RCCL fresh in my mind.

 

I totally agree with you on the food and the shower curtain. Princess has way better food. And lots of nice touches like the cookies and popcorn at the movies, and afternoon tea!

 

We had friends that bought the wifi package on RCL but had a terrible time with the slow connection. We used the internet on princess last November on the Star and saw our minutes fly by also, but at least we got connected when we wanted it. I think it's an area cruiselines are working on since so many want to stay connected these days.

 

I would also add that the entertainment on RCCL, IMO, is more suited to my generation, the baby Boomers, while I felt Princess was playing to the generation older. I just can't get into the music of the 40's! It wasn't every night, but enough that I was disappointed.

 

Bonnie

[Bimmer09]

We'll post photos from our DSLR camera when we get home to Portland. Cheers

 

 

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I'm looking forward to those.

Thanks for all you have shown in the meantime.

 

Norris

[Captain_MM]

You forgot to mention the great couple that you sat with at the muster drill! :)

[villager13]

Looking forward to your pictures and videos. Hope you get a chance to post them over the weekend. :)

[Kauai Kid]

Thanks for your review. Well done. It brought back great memories and I've only been back from Alaska 8 days.

[kunta67]

You forgot to mention the great couple that you sat with at the muster drill! :)

 

 

Haha true sorry for peppering you so much on plane questions!!

 

 

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[kunta67]

Thanks for your review. Well done. It brought back great memories and I've only been back from Alaska 8 days.

 

 

Thanks!! I'll have the pictures up this weekend. I've been busy at work and haven't had time to edit it this week

 

 

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[peety3]

Maybe not. Every excursion is not offered on every cruise so maybe this is not one that you have available on your itinerary???

It's listed as TA1-660 within the Princess systems. It's not always offered, and I think a lot of it depends on day of the week. Allen Marine has to divert one (as we saw for the Grand Princess in July 2014) or two (as we saw for the Ruby Princess in August 2014) boats from Juneau work to the Tracy Arm excursion, at least during the morning hours until about 1:00 or 2:00pm. Then for any afternoon tours, they have to swap out the crew, as they apparently start their day at 3:00 to get the boat ready and out the door to meet the ship in Tracy Arm around 7:00 or 8:00am, so by 2:00 they're just whipped.

 

It's a great tour, but some of the logistics are "less than ideal". You'll have to "hurry up and wait" in the Princess Theater, possibly 30 minutes, while either seeing black screens or a repeated three-minute Princess promo, and not the bridgecam. Even if the tour gets you back on time (Grand, July 2014), you still have to reboard the Princess ship through security, which can take 20-30 minutes if the boat is full. If they run two boats (Ruby, August 2015), they board both boats in parallel but only unload back onto the ship one at a time, so if you're late (as we were) you can end up really late. Our tour was scheduled 0730-1300, and we boarded Ruby at 1346 then had to run across for our Juneau tour which we were supposed to be at by 1335 for a scheduled 1345 tour, only to find that the bus had left. It did come back for us, but Princess will hopefully be explaining that to me soon.

[cruisingram1]

We just got back home to Portland a few hours ago and it still feels like we have sea legs on the ship. This was a great cruise and here's some thoughts before I start editing photos from our adventure. This was our first adventure on Princess and here's some of the positives and negatives that we compared Princess to RCI.

 

1. The food on Princess is hands down better than anything we had on all of our cruises with RCI. From the food in the MDR, napoletana pizza, fresh waffles, pub lunch, fresh gelato, and the Crown Grill, we were thoroughly impressed with the food offerings that Princess had vs. RCI. Normally with RCI the food isn't terrible but to find really good quality you have to go to a specialty restaurant and we felt like we didn't have to do that with Princess. The pub lunches and pizza were probably my favorite things on the Ruby. The chicken curry at the Wheelhouse Pub was as good of a curry as I've had in London or elsewhere.

 

2. Not a fan of the drink packages that Princess offers vs. RCI. I would say that this is one big negative that both my wife and I felt against Princess. In the upgraded non-alcoholic package on RCI it includes bottled water vs. having to buy an alcohol package to have it included on Princess.

 

3. The regular balcony rooms on RCI are better in my opinion than on Princess. We missed having the little sofa to either sit on throw some stuff on in the RCI balconies vs. more closet space which we didn't use that much on Princess. Also I think having a shower curtain in those small showers are a pretty bad idea and a couple times water got out, even though I was careful on making sure the shower curtain was inside.

 

4. Layout of the ship, maybe we're being a bit nit picky but I think the ship designers for RCI are a bit better than Princess. I felt like Ruby Princess was more fragmented and wasn't as intuitive to get around like on other RCI ships. I think having the LCD wayfinders on RCI help quite a bit. My wife still doesn't like the atrium shops/piazza concept and would rather have the Royal Promenade.

 

5. Love the fact that on the Future Cruise program that Princess lets you make the deposit and combine it with other travel offers to get the maximum value out of your travel.

 

6. We missed the WiFi packages that RCI offered in paying $199 for the week and getting multiple devices and being to be signed on all the time. My wife and I at night like to post things on social media or read news stories online. We were able to do a decent live review but we wish the Princess Wifi packages were more like RCI.

 

Thanks for reading my thoughts and I'll get photos and videos hopefully up in the next couple of days.

 

Really enjoyed your review as we are RCI cruisers who will be on the Ruby to Alaska next May. Travel mates trump loyalty! :p We have one other Princess cruise under out belt..a standard balcony cabin.. and like you, missed the small couch. As a remedy for the lack thereof, we booked a mini suite this time which is more in line with RCI's D balcony cabins. It costs more, but feel that the relaxation factor is worth it. Maybe Princess can remove the desk in their cabins and put in a small love seat. I can't imagine people really sit at the desk as compared to needing a nice spot to just hang out and chill.

 

I probably could have written this review as I agree with so many of your points.

 

We were on the Oasis last January and the unlimited internet package is affordable and useable. To the point of being able to Facetime audio and video home from anywhere on the ship. A cruise to Alaska has many days of local phone service so it won't be missed as much as one to the Caribbean. Agree that more and more people want the ability to keep in touch and I'm sure this is an area that will improve with time. I am really interested in how messaging to others on board through Princess@Sea worked (or didn't work) The Princess website says the Ruby has it up and running, but I have not read any success stories.

 

I am glad you pointed out that the Future cruise certificate is refundable if not used in two years. We will definitely purchase as there is no risk if we don't cruise Princess by then.

 

I will not miss not having a Royal Promenade at all. While it is pretty impressive the first time you see it, I don't cruise to shop. If I want to visit a mall, there are many to choose from at home. I cruise to see the ocean and prefer a stroll on an outside deck. We have been to Alaska once before so I know the weather can be iffy. Layer I believe is the key to being prepared for any type.

 

I can't recall too much about the food on our Princess cruise other than enjoying High Tea mid afternoon. A fun touch. We are not picky eaters and can always find food we like. Am looking forward to a change of menu from RCI.

 

I love the photos of your bear expedition. WOW is all I can say. I assume you were far enough away from them to avoid danger. The photos make it look like you were close enough to almost touch them.. which of course would not have been a good idea!

 

Great review.. great photos. Glad you had a great time.

[AF-1]

kunta67, Thanks for posting your review and all the great pics. Seems like you enjoyed your trip; but seems like you enjoy RCI a little better. Having sailed on Allure, Freedom, and Voyager of the Seas; I too enjoy the layout; and I enjoy the Royal Promenade; nothing beats Allure of the Seas. Again, thanks for your review.