Posaune

We were on Riviera in an inside at the absolute most forward position, right against the bridge. You should have heard the crowds flying up and down the bridge access stairs for the hour and a half or so of the fire event. It was frightening to look out in the hallway and see staff in their lifejackets.

Yes, the Captain dos say incinerator room on deck 2 & 3. Madison is a gem. We certainly enjoyed meeting her. Royal is her next contract.

I am currently on the Emerald 4 day. Late on Friday night we had an incinerator room fire. Fire crews were called to deck 2 & 3. The Captain called crew to their stations and then kept us all informed every five minutes or so of the status. Passengers were not called to their stations. After a little over an hour the emergency was over and we resumed full speed to Grand Cayman. Everything is on schedule and now headed back to Port Everglades at 21 knots in fairly heavy seas.

I faxed in my shareholder information and the cruise credit was posted in a little over 24 hours. This has happened for us on the last three or four cruises.

We have only had one problem boarding in Fort Lauderdale and it was because a back to back couple did not leave the ship to go through immigration and they could not find them. Delayed the entire boarding process. All the back to back folks were held until they could find this couple.

Sorry, I had pulled up the wrong ship in my search.

Not sure you are correct on Houston.

It will be interesting to hear nationally syndicated radio consumer reporter Clark Howard when he returns from this cruise. He will have an unbiased opinion on how everything was handled in a crisis.

Durn! We don't drink and I hate coffee. Just about to turn elite and I was looking for options for the mini bar swap out. Yes, I will look on the website now.

can you swap the elite mini bar for this card?

I personally much prefer Gatwick for going out of Southampton. However, we do not have that airport option out of Atlanta on Delta. Delta stopped going into Gatwick out of Atlanta several years ago.

Good news! The stuck webcam and weather reports led me to a wrong assumption. Very sorry.

Hearing about real strong winds in Seattle now.

Is the webcam showing Ruby in Victoria much longer than expected?

Were you on the small boat (about 30 passengers) with the female captain? We were on it last week. I just posted a review of our cruise with a couple of pictures taken in Tracey Arm. At one point we saw more than 100 whales. (in the distance)

Ruby Princess

Tracey Arm

8/16/2015

(just published on reviews a few moments ago)

We have just returned from a fantastic cruise on Ruby Princess. From embarkation to the end of the cruise we were treated great with wonderful hospitality, great food and fantastic service. Food was some of the best we have had on Princess both in the anytime dining room (Katerina in Michelangelo was a wonderful head waitress) and on Horizon Court. We were lucky to have the Commodore as our Captain. He is all over the ship and very approachable. Dancers were superb and the comedian was brilliant. Our inside cabin (C620) was perfect for this cruise. We usually love to be in an inside cabin far forward but this was all that was left when we booked. A balcony would have been quite chilly. I really enjoyed my workout time on the machines and with the weights. In Tracy Arm be sure and take the small boat excursion. You disembark Ruby several miles from the glacier onto a small boat and travel through the ice field to get very close to the glacier. The boat then meets back with Ruby shortly after she docks in Juneau. The only real disappointment on the cruise was the very short time (most of it after dark) in Victoria.

We spent one night in Seattle at the Hampton Inn Downtown. It was a very nice room and the folks at the hotel were quite helpful. Breakfast was more than expected and they arranged a shuttle to the pier for a reasonable fee. Be sure to visit Chihuly Glass, just a few blocks from the hotel and right next to the Space Needle. Lines for the Space Needle were far too long due to mis-management of special events at the Needle. We spent two hours waiting to get on the elevator even with timed reservations. It was another hour and a half in line to get down.

For those on Cruise Critic interested in such things, there were 44 elite, 173 Platinum, 127 Ruby, 431 gold and I was told 2700 Rookies! Most traveled had 112/1583 days. Second place was 120/1407 days and third place 40/624 days.

I must chime in and say that on two of our British cruises the port talks were excellent. On the third mediocre.

On our first Med cruise the lectures were very good. On the second Med cruise the lectures were horrible. The information was VERY out of date.

The shopping talks are not our cup of tea and we stay away.

In other words, the quality varies cruise to cruise.

We have done this cruise three times. (I think you can tell we liked it) Twice with Orkney and once with Liverpool. Orkney was our favorite by far.

We were on Regal's Thanksgiving cruise and found the food the best of any of our cruises.

You found my favorite cabin ever! It is so quiet.

On Regal during our Thanksgiving cruise they were checking cards and sending Traditional diners away. We never had to wait on a table!

I use Magic Jack on my laptop to make calls. It just costs me the internet time and since we are Platinum it is essentially free. We have used this on eight cruises to keep our business going and to check on elderly relatives.

A Princess transfer will usually not get her there in time. The busses do not pull out until they have a full load and most of the busses will be taking folks with a 2PM or after flight time as Princess suggests.

Our last time out of Heathrow we were scheduled to dock at 6, got off at 6:45 and took a National Express bus about 7:15 which arrived at Heathrow at about 9:30. (and this was on a Sunday) The lines for check in and then security were huge. We felt lucky to make a 12:30 flight.

We were on the Regal Thanksgiving cruise. We found the internet service to be better than on other Princess ships. We had no connectivity issues in our cabin (R101) and the speed was much better than usual. Still much slower than high speed at home, but better.

Our favorite entertainer was soprano Phillipa Healey on Golden Princess in 2005. She possesses a gorgeous voice with supreme musicianship and a wonderful personality on stage.