Just got off Ruby Princess, 7-day California Coastal

[Sillyjilly]

It's a shame that people tie up fixed dining and go to buffet instead.

They are taking that space away from people that would have preferred

the opportunity to have assigned dining rather than anytime.

We were on for two weeks. The first week for Mexico, our late dining was pretty empty, but on Formal nights most showed up. Second week on the Coastal, much more went to their assigned tables.

 

Glad you talked me into trying the Ruby. I enjoyed her immensely. The food and service were much better than on the Crown.

 

I agree about those who pick fixed dining and then use the buffet every night or try to hop over to ATD. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

[LaurieHoffman]

 

Not Princess's fault, but the Port of San Pedro was not a pleasant experience compared to other ports I've been to. Mainly the long lines, the first 15-20 minutes or so being outside in the open. Thank heavens the weather was good.

 

 

What time did you arrive in San Pedro. I was very surprised and impressed at out quick check in time. We arrived about noon. We walked past security and directly to the counters to check in. Then after we had our room cards straight onto the ship. The biggest delay was the scanning of room cards and then the photo the took after you boarded the ship...

[Sillyjilly]

Wow. So, if I sign up for traditional, I can't even go to the buffet???

 

Who knew.

 

NO, read again. I said to the buffer EVERYDAY. If you like the buffet then pick ATD and let those who like to dine in the dining room have your unused seat.

[CU64]

Wow. So, if I sign up for traditional, I can't even go to the buffet???

 

Who knew.

 

This is a problem when you sign up for traditional and then decide, too often, to use other dining venues. There were many people who were on waitlist for early traditional. Perhaps you were assigned to late traditional, which is less desirable for many because of the time.

 

It is not about your choices being taken away. It is only that when you secure a traditional dining time, those seats are secured for your party and others have been bumped from those seats.

[msk1]

We too were on this cruise. We were really looking forward to being on the Ruby once again. We agree with many of the points mentioned. Service this cruise was not up to par. Our issues began in the cruise terminal when the woman monitoring the health forms was shrieking/yelling at guests. Her demeanor was a negative Princess needs to correct. Our biggest concern was the condition of the Lotus spa shower area. My daughter showers with her two year old daughter (inside cabin=small shower) in the spa shower with the fold down seat. The water service was sketchy all 7 days. Hot and cold water would flow intermittently, scalding one moment, freezing another. Clumps of hair were accumulated in the stalls as well as filthy tiles. This was brought to the attention of spa personnel and nothing was corrected the entire week. When asked again and again my daughter was told, "we have no way of knowing if it has been fixed."?????????? The crowning touch of the week was the white-suited officer who was verbally offensive during disembarkation. Many, including ourselves, spoke up and were reprimanded for doing so.

We have included these concerns in our evaluation. Does Princess really follow up or is it a moot effort?

 

We had a wonderful time with a great steward (employee of the month), excellent Crown Grill dinner, and the most outstanding weather! Looking forward to our return to Alaska this summer.

 

msk1

[Sillyjilly]

This is a problem when you sign up for traditional and then decide, too often, to use other dining venues. There were many people who were on waitlist for early traditional. Perhaps you were assigned to late traditional, which is less desirable for many because of the time.

 

It is not about your choices being taken away. It is only that when you secure a traditional dining time, those seats are secured for your party and others have been bumped from those seats.

 

Exactly

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...The crowning touch of the week was the white-suited officer who was verbally offensive during disembarkation. Many, including ourselves, spoke up and were reprimanded for doing so...

 

:eek:

[cougaraz]

This is a problem when you sign up for traditional and then decide, too often, to use other dining venues. There were many people who were on waitlist for early traditional. Perhaps you were assigned to late traditional, which is less desirable for many because of the time.

 

It is not about your choices being taken away. It is only that when you secure a traditional dining time, those seats are secured for your party and others have been bumped from those seats.

 

I am going to need a reference saying that if you have traditional dining you can't go to the buffet.

 

Does that also mean those with traditional dining can't go to the specialty restaurants?

[Colo Cruiser]

Deleted.

 

Deleted.

 

 

Oh come now! It can't be that bad.

[Colo Cruiser]

no, read again. I said to the buffer everyday. If you like the buffet then pick atd and let those who like to dine in the dining room have your unused seat.

 

we too were on this cruise. We were really looking forward to being on the ruby once again. We agree with many of the points mentioned. Service this cruise was not up to par. Our issues began in the cruise terminal when the woman monitoring the health forms was shrieking/yelling at guests. Her demeanor was a negative princess needs to correct. Our biggest concern was the condition of the lotus spa shower area. My daughter showers with her two year old daughter (inside cabin=small shower) in the spa shower with the fold down seat. The water service was sketchy all 7 days. Hot and cold water would flow intermittently, scalding one moment, freezing another. Clumps of hair were accumulated in the stalls as well as filthy tiles. This was brought to the attention of spa personnel and nothing was corrected the entire week. When asked again and again my daughter was told, "we have no way of knowing if it has been fixed."?????????? The crowning touch of the week was the white-suited officer who was verbally offensive during disembarkation. Many, including ourselves, spoke up and were reprimanded for doing so.

We have included these concerns in our evaluation. Does princess really follow up or is it a moot effort?

 

We had a wonderful time with a great steward (employee of the month), excellent crown grill dinner, and the most outstanding weather! Looking forward to our return to alaska this summer.

 

Msk1

 

 

+1.

[Sir Eatsalot]

What time did you arrive in San Pedro. I was very surprised and impressed at out quick check in time. We arrived about noon.

 

Not being Premier/Elite/Suite, we were instructed to arrive later.

 

Being relatively local, we drove to the port, which added two levels of problems. First, the roads at the port simply aren't built for that amount of traffic (just a single lane, with other traffic trying to cross through from an on-ramp), so it took the better part of an hour between reaching the port exit off the freeway until being parked (Princess had cautioned us to allow plenty of time). Second, the parking lot was jam-packed and offers no covered parking, but since it was good weather that wasn't really a problem this time. (Parking is $16/day. Ouch. We'd paid $12 per day at Long Beach for covered parking, but that was five years ago.)

 

We got in line about 1:30 PM. At that point the "snake line" was about four passes out in the sun and two under cover before getting into the building. Inside were even more snake lines, for security and for check-in. Once past security, things picked up. The check-in line was short and there was no wait at all between check-in and boarding. Still, it was about 2:30 by the time we boarded. Heh... the boarding ramp is a zig-zag, too, so we'd covered a heck of a lot of ground going back-and-forth without actually going very far. My fitness-tracker says almost 1/2 mile spent in lines and boarding. (If there's a next time, I'm bringing a roller for my carry-on. Having to keep picking up and putting down the relatively heavy case I was carrying added to the nuisance.)

 

Again, none of this is Princess's fault. But after dealing with many other cruise ports, including Long Beach, in the past, I found San Pedro to a bother.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Sir Eatsalot

[san diego sue]

People, please read correctly.

Anyone can go to the buffet whenever they want. What we have said is people sign up for fixed dining and don't use it. I had fixed on this cruise and tables around us were empty most nights. The two formal nights the parties showed up at some of them.

If this is their intent, then they should take anytime dining.

I found that when we had any problems on the ship, it was taken care of quickly. Not only that, but we got follow up calls from Customer Relations to make sure it was done.

One night we were told by the Captain (via loud speakers in our cabins) that hot water was being shut down for two hrs for repairs). We quickly took our showers before that happened.

We have been on Princess ships where water was not hot enough. When brought to someone's attention,the plumber came and took care of the problem.

We found the service in dining room to be slow and sometimes the waiter seemed confused. Our table for 10 didn't mind as we had a great time with our tablemates and looked forward to our evening meals with them.I guess if we were in a hurry, this would have been a problem.

[san diego sue]

Pier 92 was not the usual terminal. I have to agree some confusion there. We were on for two weeks. The first week was when the Ruby had just arrived from their 49 day South America and it was the first cruise

on West coast. Even so it was organized well. Second week for in transit

passengers there was some confusion and instead of us boarding first(had been sent to wrong places), we wound up boarding with general population. Part of the problem was passengers before we were to leave the ship and reboard, hadn't left the ship at their assigned time. They were still leaving when we went through customs. Not the ship's fault but rude passengers doing this.

 

[san diego sue]

Hi Silly Jilly,

Totally missed you both weeks. Did you go to M&G?

We missed both sailaway get togethers. Went to first M&G but second one stayed only for a few minutes.

Glad you liked the ship.

Gloria:D

[san diego sue]

To Sir eatsalot,

Parking at Long Beach is $17.00 a day (we were there in February).

San Pedro was $12.00 till about a month ago and is now $16.00.

Still cheaper than pier parking in Seattle and San Francisco (that isn't even at the terminal), New York etc.

If you are on a longer cruise, best advice is stay at one of the Hotels in area one night and park for free there.

If only one week, I prefer to pay the parking fee at pier as it is still cheaper than one night at hotel with free parking.

[Sir Eatsalot]

Now some lumps of coal:

 

A few other annoyances that I'd forgotten:

 

Not Princess's fault, but in Santa Barbara we had to run a gauntlet of security people to get to the tender going back to the ship. I expected to show my card one or two times in that process, but there were security people (Port Security, I think) stationed every 15 feet or so along the line, demanding to see everybody's card. Not that they really examined them, you just needed to flash your card. I lost count, but it was probably six to eight times I had to show my card before I reached the tender. Good thing I wasn't carrying shopping bags or anything, or I'd really have been annoyed. As it was, I just needed to keep fishing the card out of my pocket. Was it "security theater"? Full-employment activity for Port Security? I dunno. No such problems at San Francisco or San Diego; we didn't get off in Ensenada so I don't know about there.

 

At the International Cafe, my wife ordered one of the bacon/egg/cheese muffins, but without cheese. The muffins come prestacked, and all the server would have to do would be to pop the top muffin half off, remove the cheese slice, and put the top back on before putting it into the warmer. He said he couldn't do that; he could only heat the muffins as they were. It was just a tiny irritation, but one I've never encountered before on a cruise.

 

We didn't like that beverage service in the buffet was done by waitstaff rather than self-service. By the time someone took your beverage order and returned with it, your food was either half-cold or half-eaten. They did have coffee and water as self-service, but that was about it. Having watched some of the other guests slopping their coffee as they walked, maybe the change to using waitstaff was done for safety reasons.

 

Princess really pushed for everyone to use the Purell alcohol hand sanitizer at all food locations. Never had norovirus myself, but I've been on a couple of cruises that had norovirus outbreaks, and it sure doesn't look like any fun. The thing is, norovirus is a non-enveloped virus and isn't particularly affected by alcohol, so the hand sanitizer is mainly hygiene theater.

 

Many of the Purell stations did have signs saying to wash your hands first. Hand washing with soap is the easy way to squelch norovirus. But in what struck me as another penny-pinching move by Princess, the liquid soap dispensers in the public toilets put out only the tiniest amount of soap. I'd typically make four rounds at the dispenser to get enough soap to properly wash my hands.

 

I should repeat that I did enjoy the cruise. Most of it met the high expectations I've developed over decades of cruising, but those parts of this cruise don't stand out in my memory. That's unfair because it sounds like all I'm doing is griping. Please note that my complaints are all really minor! I just don't think so many of them should have happened on one cruise.

[SoCal Cruiser78]

Oh come now! It can't be that bad.

 

:D I think I changed my mind about responding to a less-than-pleasant comment.

[Colo Cruiser]

:D I think I changed my mind about responding to a less-than-pleasant comment.

 

 

Sometimes my tongue starts bleeding. ;)

[Sillyjilly]

Hi Silly Jilly,

Totally missed you both weeks. Did you go to M&G?

We missed both sailaway get togethers. Went to first M&G but second one stayed only for a few minutes.

Glad you liked the ship.

Gloria:D

I only went to the sailaways. Sorry we didn't bump into one another,

[SoCal Cruiser78]

...At the International Cafe, my wife ordered one of the bacon/egg/cheese muffins, but without cheese. The muffins come prestacked, and all the server would have to do would be to pop the top muffin half off, remove the cheese slice, and put the top back on before putting it into the warmer. He said he couldn't do that; he could only heat the muffins as they were. It was just a tiny irritation, but one I've never encountered before on a cruise...

 

:) I have to smile at this; a similar thing happened to us years ago on a Celebrity cruise. There was a pancake/waffle/omelette station (made to order), and noticed the staff member making them had both plain and blueberry batter set out for the pancakes and waffles, or so I thought. I said that I would like plain-batter pancakes, please. He said that he was told to make pancakes with the blueberry batter, and waffles with the plain. He wouldn't do it the other way around.

 

At first I though that perhaps there was some cross-contamination concern with the blueberries, but there was no such concern shown when making the omelettes, so I figured he didn't just want to get into trouble somehow.

[Colo Cruiser]

:) I have to smile at this; a similar thing happened to us years ago on a Celebrity cruise. There was a pancake/waffle/omelette station (made to order), and noticed the staff member making them had both plain and blueberry batter set out for the pancakes and waffles, or so I thought. I said that I would like plain-batter pancakes, please. He said that he was told to make pancakes with the blueberry batter, and waffles with the plain. He wouldn't do it the other way around.

 

At first I though that perhaps there was some cross-contamination concern with the blueberries, but there was no such concern shown when making the omelettes, so I figured he didn't just want to get into trouble somehow.

 

 

Can't see the forest for the trees. :D

[judyjudy56]

We were on this cruise also. We arrived at the pier at about 11:00. Walked right up and checked in. We are elite and were give boarding group A. At about 11:45 people started standing up and going to board the ship. One gentlemen said not yet. Then he disappeared. We assumed the in transits and BVE folks were boarding. When we realized everyone was just going we got up. There was a woman at the doorway and I showed her our boarding ticket she rudely said "We are not doing that. This is crowd control." I realize these people are not Princess employees but her attitude was terrible. We were on the ship by 12:15 and had a nice lunch in the MDR. We even met a couple from our hometown. We had E726. Our cabin was spotless and in good condition. We asked our Steward for a top sheet and it was on the bed that night. We were very happy with our steward. He cleaned the room promptly each morning. It was always done by the time we had finished breakfast. The first morning we went to the MDR for breakfast and had a pretty disappointing experience. The coffee was barely hot and took forever to get. Our hot food didn't come and didn't come. When we questioned the waiter he said there are a lot people here. Yes it is a large ship and it was a sea day. He acted as if this was a total surprise to him. We could barely understand him. The rest of the breakfasts we had in the MDR were fine. We had anytime dining and when we went down at about 5:15 on the first night there was a huge line going all the way out to the atrium. We decided to go the buffet. It was very good. First time I have ever seen shrimp cocktails at the buffet. We had a great dinner at the Crown Grill on the first formal night. We found the beverage service in the buffet to be very good. We ordered room service one day for lunch and our order was totally screwed up. Second time for room service lunch it was fine. We had a great time. This was a last minute cruise for us and we really need a break from all the craziness at home. The weather was great and we actually loved the rough seas. I sleep like a baby when the ship is moving. I think the MDR food was a little better than some of the cruises we have been on. I guess that explains the 6 pounds I gained!! The one thing that I didn't understand was all the Mariachi playing in the atrium. We definitely were not doing the Mexico cruise. Getting off the ship was easy. We did walk off and actually got off a little earlier than our scheduled time. Thankfully, we had no toilet issues. A couple of times we thought that it wasn't going to flush but it finally did. This was our first time on the Ruby and we found the ship to be in good shape and clean. I was happy that they had the sanitizing stations at all the food venues and that the buffet was requiring folks to use them. We were a little worried that there would be a huge number of kids on this cruise due to spring break but there were not too many. I think in a previous thread someone said there were 300. We only saw a few badly behaved kids. We came back rested and relaxed ready to face the world again.

[VibeGuy]

 

Princess really pushed for everyone to use the Purell alcohol hand sanitizer at all food locations. Never had norovirus myself, but I've been on a couple of cruises that had norovirus outbreaks, and it sure doesn't look like any fun. The thing is, norovirus is a non-enveloped virus and isn't particularly affected by alcohol, so the hand sanitizer is mainly hygiene theater.

 

The tiniest of notes: it's true that straight alcohol gels are useless against non-enveloped viral contaminants.

 

The cruise lines and high-intensity food handling environments aren't using a straight alcohol gel anymore. They're almost universally using Purell VF481, which is *highly* effective against non-enveloped viruses like Noro.

 

http://www.foodprotect.org/issues/packets/2012packet/attachments/III_025__all.pdf

 

I, too, considered alcohol gels "hygiene theatre", but that changed with the development of boosted formulations that get to a 3-4 log reduction in 15 seconds.

[caribill]

:) I have to smile at this; a similar thing happened to us years ago on a Celebrity cruise. There was a pancake/waffle/omelette station (made to order), and noticed the staff member making them had both plain and blueberry batter set out for the pancakes and waffles, or so I thought. I said that I would like plain-batter pancakes, please. He said that he was told to make pancakes with the blueberry batter, and waffles with the plain. He wouldn't do it the other way around.

 

At first I though that perhaps there was some cross-contamination concern with the blueberries, but there was no such concern shown when making the omelettes, so I figured he didn't just want to get into trouble somehow.

 

The pancake boxes at home have different recipes for making pancakes and making waffles. Possibly that was also true on the cruise ship and the waffle batter was not the right recipe for making pancakes.

[CU64]

We were on this cruise also. We arrived at the pier at about 11:00. Walked right up and checked in. We are elite and were give boarding group A. At about 11:45 people started standing up and going to board the ship. One gentlemen said not yet. Then he disappeared. We assumed the in transits and BVE folks were boarding. When we realized everyone was just going we got up. There was a woman at the doorway and I showed her our boarding ticket she rudely said "We are not doing that. This is crowd control." I realize these people are not Princess employees but her attitude was terrible. We were on the ship by 12:15 and had a nice lunch in the MDR. We even met a couple from our hometown. We had E726. Our cabin was spotless and in good condition. We asked our Steward for a top sheet and it was on the bed that night. We were very happy with our steward. He cleaned the room promptly each morning. It was always done by the time we had finished breakfast. The first morning we went to the MDR for breakfast and had a pretty disappointing experience. The coffee was barely hot and took forever to get. Our hot food didn't come and didn't come. When we questioned the waiter he said there are a lot people here. Yes it is a large ship and it was a sea day. He acted as if this was a total surprise to him. We could barely understand him. The rest of the breakfasts we had in the MDR were fine. We had anytime dining and when we went down at about 5:15 on the first night there was a huge line going all the way out to the atrium. We decided to go the buffet. It was very good. First time I have ever seen shrimp cocktails at the buffet. We had a great dinner at the Crown Grill on the first formal night. We found the beverage service in the buffet to be very good. We ordered room service one day for lunch and our order was totally screwed up. Second time for room service lunch it was fine. We had a great time. This was a last minute cruise for us and we really need a break from all the craziness at home. The weather was great and we actually loved the rough seas. I sleep like a baby when the ship is moving. I think the MDR food was a little better than some of the cruises we have been on. I guess that explains the 6 pounds I gained!! The one thing that I didn't understand was all the Mariachi playing in the atrium. We definitely were not doing the Mexico cruise. Getting off the ship was easy. We did walk off and actually got off a little earlier than our scheduled time. Thankfully, we had no toilet issues. A couple of times we thought that it wasn't going to flush but it finally did. This was our first time on the Ruby and we found the ship to be in good shape and clean. I was happy that they had the sanitizing stations at all the food venues and that the buffet was requiring folks to use them. We were a little worried that there would be a huge number of kids on this cruise due to spring break but there were not too many. I think in a previous thread someone said there were 300. We only saw a few badly behaved kids. We came back rested and relaxed ready to face the world again.

 

This is my only real complaint. We were in E724. Second day I called room steward # with question about top sheet. No answer from our steward: message said another of same crew category would respond. None did. I let it go as my face and mouth had already been around top of duvet.

Apparently these duvets are not washed every time? The whole thing is why people get sick from others. The most germs are on those blankets they put on top of bed in cabin. I really could not believe the duvet did not have clean sheets on top and bottom. Never have had it happen before.