texswamper

When she posted that there are only 1969 guests I was so wishing that I was on that sailing! We were on 1/8/23 and had 2900 but a lovely week and decided to return in February. Sadly the first week we were on 2/26, was the week that the norovirus reared its ugly head but we had less than 50 kids onboard. Unfortunately, for our b2b we were forced to disembark for 4.5 hours while the ship was sanitized and the week of 3/5 had over 370 kids! We had never been on a Princess cruise with that many and decided that we would never cruise in March or April going forward lol. The 1969 guests sounds wonderful! 🙂

Thanks, we will be visiting in February 2024 so I'll reach out soon.

How far in advance did you reach out to Leo? Thanks

Sadly, so many people don't understand how cruising works and how far in advance these schedules are made. They are not easily altered.

Knowing what the sargassum situation has been and is predicted to be, I cancelled our Maya Chan reservation for our May cruise on the Allure. It's not supposed to peak until July. Sad but going to try and go when we stop in December on our Christmas Regal cruise. So sorry to hear that ya'll missed both of those ports! It's extremely disappointing.

We were on from 2/26-3/5 so the first week it was less than 50 kids but the second week it went to 370. We too had never sailed on Princess with those kinds of numbers in 30 years of cruising with them. We will try really hard not to again. No more March or April cruises for us and particularly not on short 7 day cruises. The week after we disembarked they had 700 kids.

Thank you for your balanced post. Having lived in Angola Africa, I'm very familiar with what is reported vs what is reality when we live in those countries. I appreciate always wanting to be safe during traveling and using common sense but I hate when places get a bad rap as a blanket statement. There are many places in Houston Tx I wouldn't go day or night.

Thank you for giving your experience. The meteorologist was just talking about the sargassum issue in the Caribbean and a lady posted that photo saying it was taken at Maya Chan but you are correct, without more detail from the owner of the photograph it's just speculation.

This photo was posted to a Houston meteorologist's social media page last week as being taken at Maya Chan. Can anyone confirm this is the location? Not thinking our 3 grandchildren will enjoy the beach in May if this is the scene we're likely to encounter. 😞

This is a recent photo of Maya Chan, according to the person posting, with the sargassum. We had reservations for the end of May but with this at the beach I think we've decided to cancel and either stay onboard or wonder around the port area. Has anyone been within the last couple of weeks that can confirm this photo? TIA

Just got off of Ruby for b2b cruises and I had purchased both of my coffee packages well before 2/20/23, however neither was honored when we boarded on 2/26/23 in Galveston. The first week, they refunded the price I had paid online and gave me an additional $50 OBC because of being blindsided by the new policy but the second week the cost was simply refunded and I just purchased individual coffees every morning. It was disappointing.

I can't believe they chose the Island for the World cruises either.

Exactly what was happening on the Ruby, so it's not working for anyone really! Even the dining room managers are stressed and wishing they could return to the old system but as they said, corporate tells them what they are going to do. 😞. I didn't talk to a single long time Princess cruiser in 3 weeks time that thinks Dine My Way is working.

We were on the Ruby 1/8-15 and then again 2/26-3/12 ( just got off this morning 🙂 ) and sadly, those pictures give an accurate depiction of dinner lines. Our first week we did 5pm every night in Da Vinci but literally got in line about 4:35-4:40 just to be at the front of the line to get in and get started. The last 2 weeks, we did Bottecelli for a change of scenery and I would never do it again as the waiting area for lining up is insane with so little space. It was chaos beginning at 4:40 to get in for 5pm every night. Dine My Way is nothing but stressful for passengers and crew alike. According to the food services director, they don't love it either.

I just got off of Ruby today after 2 weeks and I had prepaid for both weeks of the coffee package. Day 2, realized I was being charged for each latte and/or fresh brewed coffee only to be told that it wasn't available. Can't understand why they even allowed us to buy the package when they knew our sailing date was after the 2/20/23 change. So, it was pay as I went but they did at least refund my money to OBC. Buying the Plus package or the non alcohol package just doesn't pay off for me. 😞

On the Ruby now & definitely no sinks.

I second Island Wings! She was a wonderful pilot and the excursion was breathtaking!

It is the closest to Terminal 2 and a majority of the time, Ruby is indeed parked at Terminal 2. It was the perfect spot to walk a few feet to the door. Used it in January and will park there again end of the month.

I hope someone that actually took that route chimes in because when we went the week of 1/8 we tried to go down the Port Industrial Rd and before we could get to the Express lot entrance it seemed the road made us turn right back onto Harborside and we had to make a U turn and go back down to the normal entrance. Of course the traffic was terribly backed up and the left turn light wasn't that long. I'm looking for an alternate route to the entrance of the Express lot as well. Looking at the Google maps satellite view is helpful. Let's see if we have anyone who has found an alternative.

Were you able to know the cabin number before agreeing?

We did as well last month and I'm expecting it to be there on the 26th when we embark lol.

In 2018 we were already in England visiting the Cotswolds pre cruise when we got the phone call & email from Princess directly even though the cruise was booked thru Vacations to Go. We were offered the typical refund to give up the cabin but since we were already across the pond, we asked if instead we could take a lower category cabin. They agreed and we were able to choose an Oceanview in place of our deck 7 balcony onboard the Pacific Princess and received our full fare in OBC and then refunded after we arrived back in Texas. Our traveling friends didn't respond quickly enough & every evening at dinner many laughs were had over our best free cruise ever! Keep hope alive that one day you will be the recipient of such an offer and jump on it quickly! 😊

So, if we are boarding in Galveston for a B2B, we can legally carry 2 bottles each without problem? We thought we might have to find a place to buy wine on turn around day in Galveston.

We are going back in late February and are going to book Nachi Cocom because they limit the number of people per day to 130. Paradise Beach has many more people but we aren't traveling with any kids or grandkids.

Just disembarked from our Ruby Princess cruise yesterday & as promised I wanted to report our experience in E731 mini suite. We were please with the location of the room & the balcony size was great. We did see the connecting door upon entering the cabin but I was hopeful that it would not be a problem. A bit later we saw our neighbors arrive at their cabin & I was immediately concerned because it was 3 young (20's) people. Two male & one female. With the average age of our cruise at well over 70, I wondered if they had booked the wrong cruise lol. Our fears became reality on the very first day/night. They were discernibly loud talkers but when they came in at 1am laughing and carrying on waking us up, I knew we could/would be in for a very long week & of course I was kicking myself for not following my own rule about cabins to book instead of listening to what others experienced. Long story short, next day I went to the Guest Services desk to ask if anything might be done to keep it from being a nightly issue. Princess handled it as well or better than we could have hoped however, I also can't help but somewhat feel that we were deprived of having the very thing we booked the cabin for in the first place. The solution was to move us to D611. I never book on Dolphin because I don't like the completely uncovered balcony but at this point, sleep became more important than the extended covered balcony. Our good fortune of a cabin to move to came at the expense of 3 people who for some reason didn't make the cruise. We were very thankful to have moved to a quiet cabin with undisturbed sleep for the rest of the week but we will never book a cabin with connecting doors. The only day we used the balcony, we did smell some smoke from deck 7 but it wasn't enough to move us back indoors. Hope this helps anyone who might be on the fence & to those who noise doesn't bother, it's a nice mini suite and a wonderful extended balcony.