Rogueperson's Ruby Princess Live May 5 - May 10, 2019

[Rogueperson]

Welcome everyone.  I've not been too much of a presence on this board until recently because I don't normally sail Princess.  I've sailed a combination of Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL and Celebrity, but as of this date, Royal Caribbean has been my go to line.  Not that I have anything against other lines, it just happened that way.  So during this Live thread, I will be comparing a lot to Royal Caribbean, so here we go.

 

I'm starting a little early just to document everything.  My last and only Princess cruise was in 2010.  I was on a 7 night Caribbean trip in November of 2010 on the Crown Princess.  I know that they are the same class, but its been 9 years.  I loved almost everything about that cruise.  Here's hoping it is as I remember it.  This cruise is a present from my mother who we are cruising with.  My mother was initially going to join us on our Allure of the Seas trip later this year, but pricing it out for her, it was actually far more expensive for her to do that cruise with her husband (including travel) than it was to pay for all four of us on this cruise for two balcony rooms (she got an AMAZING deal).  We haven't seen my mother since our wedding in 2015, so this was a pleasant surprise.

 

Anyways, I will post a lot of pictures of food, because, I like food.  But, I will generally just go nuts with photos and pick and choose, so i don't bore you too much.

 

On this trip, we are doing 5 nights from LA with a stop in San Diego and Victoria.

 

I have already made plans.  We will be taking a tour in San Diego and in Victoria, we are planning to head downtown to get some good dim sum (hopefully) and visit the Royal Canadian (I keep saying Royal Caribbean) BC Museum.  We will be there until midnight, so we may do other things as well as the museum closes at 5pm.

 

I hope you enjoy the ride.  I've already pre-purchased the internet at a low low price of $8.99/day.  Royal Caribbean has been hovering at 11.99/day (19.99/day if purchased onboard) for the full speed effect, so 8.99 is an unheard of price for me.

 

One plan which I can't seem to reserve is Chef's table.  Apparently, you can only book this onboard, and apparently there's a lottery and there's a chance we may not be able to do it.  My wife and I do Chef's table on all our cruises since our first major one together in 2012 on the Carnival Pride.  Since then, we've done Chef's table on Royal Caribbean as well and hope we can experience what Princess has to offer there.  I plan to take my mother and her husband to this dinner because..well THEY PAID FOR OUR CRUISE!!!

 

So sit back and enjoy.  

 

 

 

[cynbar]

I'll be following, looking forward to your posts .... and your tips for a successful family vacation!

[skynight]

Show up at the pier around 10:30, you should be on board by noon. There is lunch in the DR from noon until 1:30, probably the deck 6 mid ship DR but it could be another DR. You can also have lunch at the buffet, Salty Dog grill or Slices by the Lido pool, or the International Cafe on deck 5, piazza.

Sign up for the chef's table on boarding day. I think you can do this at passenger services. You may also be able to sign up in the DR if you decide to have lunch there.

 

 

[CynCyn]

5 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Welcome everyone.  I've not been too much of a presence on this board until recently because I don't normally sail Princess.  I've sailed a combination of Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, NCL and Celebrity, but as of this date, Royal Caribbean has been my go to line.  Not that I have anything against other lines, it just happened that way.  So during this Live thread, I will be comparing a lot to Royal Caribbean, so here we go.

 

I'm starting a little early just to document everything.  My last and only Princess cruise was in 2010.  I was on a 7 night Caribbean trip in November of 2010 on the Crown Princess.  I know that they are the same class, but its been 9 years.  I loved almost everything about that cruise.  Here's hoping it is as I remember it.  This cruise is a present from my mother who we are cruising with.  My mother was initially going to join us on our Allure of the Seas trip later this year, but pricing it out for her, it was actually far more expensive for her to do that cruise with her husband (including travel) than it was to pay for all four of us on this cruise for two balcony rooms (she got an AMAZING deal).  We haven't seen my mother since our wedding in 2015, so this was a pleasant surprise.

 

Anyways, I will post a lot of pictures of food, because, I like food.  But, I will generally just go nuts with photos and pick and choose, so i don't bore you too much.

 

On this trip, we are doing 5 nights from LA with a stop in San Diego and Victoria.

 

I have already made plans.  We will be taking a tour in San Diego and in Victoria, we are planning to head downtown to get some good dim sum (hopefully) and visit the Royal Canadian (I keep saying Royal Caribbean) BC Museum.  We will be there until midnight, so we may do other things as well as the museum closes at 5pm.

 

I hope you enjoy the ride.  I've already pre-purchased the internet at a low low price of $8.99/day.  Royal Caribbean has been hovering at 11.99/day (19.99/day if purchased onboard) for the full speed effect, so 8.99 is an unheard of price for me.

 

One plan which I can't seem to reserve is Chef's table.  Apparently, you can only book this onboard, and apparently there's a lottery and there's a chance we may not be able to do it.  My wife and I do Chef's table on all our cruises since our first major one together in 2012 on the Carnival Pride.  Since then, we've done Chef's table on Royal Caribbean as well and hope we can experience what Princess has to offer there.  I plan to take my mother and her husband to this dinner because..well THEY PAID FOR OUR CRUISE!!!

 

So sit back and enjoy.  

 

 

 

Hope to see you at the Chef’s Table.  I am going to run to try to sign up- haha!

[jwattle]

Looking forward to following along 😃

[dickinson]

Looking forward for your cruise and pictures.  Enjoy it!

 

[Rogueperson]

10 hours ago, CynCyn said:

Hope to see you at the Chef’s Table.  I am going to run to try to sign up- haha!

 Oh, its a race now...According to my mother, we get priority boarding...so..heh heh heh.

 

14 hours ago, skynight said:

 There is lunch in the DR from noon until 1:30, probably the deck 6 mid ship DR but it could be another DR.

 

 

oooooh, the dining room is open seating for lunch on embarkation day?!?!?!?  Now that's different from Royal Caribbean, Carnival and even Celebrity, I think.  I don't remember Celebrity having lunch on embarkation day in their dining room.  

[smelmel]

Looking forward to reading your review - we are loyal princess cruisers but eyeing Royal Caribbean - that is quite a difference in the internet pricing - have a fabulous cruise!!!!

[Rogueperson]

19 minutes ago, smelmel said:

Looking forward to reading your review - we are loyal princess cruisers but eyeing Royal Caribbean - that is quite a difference in the internet pricing - have a fabulous cruise!!!!

There are certainly more choices with Royal Caribbean.  25 ships vs. 17.  I kept looking for a Royal class ship to try, but there are only 3, and 2 don't do Caribbean cruises when I'm looking.  This is the primary reason i haven't gone back.  Crown Princess is the one that keeps coming up on the date's and itinerary I'm looking for, and I didn't want to do another cruise on Crown since that was what my last cruise on Princess was on.  

 

Also, Princess is usually about 20-30% higher than Royal Caribbean for the same cruise, so this cruise, I'm going to see if the upcharge is worth it.

[sfpd3000]

See you on board in a couple of days, Kat!  We'll be in the MDR for embarkation lunch.

[Rogueperson]

Does tapatalk not work with Cruise critic again?  I thought they fixed it where it worked again 😞  If not, then its back to using Chrome, which was annoying before.

[Rogueperson]

Just now, Rogueperson said:

Does tapatalk not work with Cruise critic again?  I thought they fixed it where it worked again 😞  If not, then its back to using Chrome, which was annoying before.

It keeps telling me to log in over and over again, but i know my password isn't bad.  It gives me information like i was logged on if i close the screen, but won't let me post or anything 😞

[sfpd3000]

1 hour ago, sfpd3000 said:

See you on board in a couple of days, Kat!  We'll be in the MDR for embarkation lunch.

Kat and Hansen

[smelmel]

4 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Also, Princess is usually about 20-30% higher than Royal Caribbean for the same cruise, so this cruise, I'm going to see if the upcharge is worth it.

I did not know this - Have not gotten that far in the process yet 🙂

 

4 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Royal class ship to try, but there are only 3, and 2 don't do Caribbean cruises when I'm looking.  This is the primary reason i haven't gone back. 

Soon to be 5 Royal Class ships - Sky & Enchanted - The Sky will be doing the Caribbean - hopefully, that will give you more choices

[pathi]

Just FYI, For embarkation lunch. The dining room is open until 1:30pm. The crew will probably tell you that only the buffet is available if you ask. The daily patter well tell you which dining room is open. Note(You can get this at passenger services.) It should be midships, deck 6 dining room.

 

For the chefs table you need to dial the dine line. You can do this from any phone. I frequently use the phone outside the dining room. :) So you dont have to run to your room.

[CynCyn]

14 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

 Oh, its a race now...According to my mother, we get priority boarding...so..heh heh heh.

 

 

Then you can sign me up with you! Let’s hope we all get in!

[caribill]

11 hours ago, pathi said:

Just FYI, For embarkation lunch. The dining room is open until 1:30pm. The crew will probably tell you that only the buffet is available if you ask. The daily patter well tell you which dining room is open. Note(You can get this at passenger services.) It should be midships, deck 6 dining room.

 

 

For my cruise on the Emerald last December, it was in the deck 6 aft dining room.

[Rogueperson]

We are checked in with Southwest.  Flight looks on time as of today, but we are expecting thunderstorms tonight. 

 

Minor gripe.  So i see that I can get my boarding pass on my phone.  However, I can't log onto anything because I don't have access to my account.  So i do the retrieve account with my name and email address.  No account exists.  No problem, I create a new account...can't, email is already associated with an account.  So i call Southwest.  26 minute wait, BUT, its a call back, so i'm not so upset about that, especially since it was 10pm at night.  I get my account situated.  and bottom line...STILL NO MOBILE BOARDING PASS!.  Meh

 

We are going to be exhausted tomorrow.  We fly out at 9:50 tonight and arrive at LAX at 12:30.  We are staying with my mother who lives in Mission Veijo.  Its a good hour or so away from the airport. My guess is that we would arrive at her place at about 2:30am, which is the equivalent to 5:30am for us.  The days of us pulling all-nighters are in the past.  We will endure!!!  I will probably be asleep by 2:45.

 

Man,  I would have loved to fly into SNA, but there are no direct flights there, plus, stupid city ordinance prevents me from flying into SNA in the evening, so if i did, I would have had to fly out tomorrow at sometime.  

 

I'm actually at work today.  I had intended to take off, because there are still last minute things I need to do, but i just moved office last week and everything is still not up and running.  Despite it NOT being my job description, I am the IT professional in this office.  Without me, the technology in this office, as it is, would fall apart.  I'm the liason with our REAL IT guy because I am not a network engineer.  Nonetheless, we're not 100% up and i'm trying to fix it so it is at least operational.

 

More to come...

 

 

[Rogueperson]

I just got a pleasant surprise.  I'm printing out all my receipts just to make sure i get everything when i board, and I notice that our travel agents included a complimentary specialty restaurant credit in addition to our OBC.  Score!!!  I had not planned on doing any specialty restaurants because we were going to do Chef's table and it only being a 5 nighter, but hey, its sitting here free!

[Rogueperson]

Tapatalk still refuses to work with cruise critic.  I guess its Chrome for now

[Rogueperson]

So far so good.  We made it to our gate on time.  The flight out to LA is on time.  So far, so good.

 

 

[Rogueperson]

Of course, after I post that, the delay came in.  only about 45 minutes.  Still good so far

[bellebaby]

Hope you made it to your mother's house and are getting some sleep.

 

B

[Country-Bumpkin]

Looking forward to seeing your posts and photos.  Would love to know what movies are playing as we will be on the Ruby a few weeks after you.  Thanks for sharing and enjoy your trip.

[voljeep]

23 minutes ago, Country-Bumpkin said:

Looking forward to seeing your posts and photos.  Would love to know what movies are playing as we will be on the Ruby a few weeks after you.  Thanks for sharing and enjoy your trip.

since movies on the Princess ships mostly seem fleetwide - we got an email a couple of weeks ago for our cruise on the CB - Mary Poppins and Aquaman were listed