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

Country-Bumpkin · May 4, 2019

7 minutes ago, voljeep said:

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

Thank you for the info.

Rogueperson · May 4, 2019

8 hours ago, voljeep said:

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

Funny story. I haven’t seen Aquaman. I actually have it waiting for me at home as Netflix just shipped it. But i saw it “offered” for inflight entertainment in my flight last night. However, it wasnt offered. It was a tease! It was just a poster they used to aay “hey, we got movies”. I kept hitting the photo wondering why no movie was playing. I felt ripped off.

Rogueperson · May 4, 2019

So I knocked out hard last night. I am still a little groggy from coming out of that sleep.

Lunch was at the Snooty Fox just because its a cool name.

Afterwards, we went to a meetup of my group board on a site i can’t mention here. We were meeting at one of our member’s coffee shop, but as fate would have it, it was not opened yet. Still, we had access and so far it looks beautiful.

Requiem Coffee and Tea, opening soon in Anaheim.

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

So, I’m not sure about this priority boarding thing. My mother is Platinum and she had priority boarding, however, the rest of us are not. She was told that we could all board with her because we’re in the same party though 2 rooms. We shall see. I know Carnival has been strict with their assigned boarding times, but not sure if Princess is. I know RC doesn’t do assigned boarding times.

Tonight, I ended up at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.

I was a little disappointed. I heard good things about this place.

We missed dinner with my parents due to odd circumstances. 1. Having to take our friend home to Culver City from Anaheim before going back to Mission Veijo. 2. Missed text from parents saying to meet them at the restaurant. 3. Realizing that text when we pulled up to the house and realizing they were 20 minutes away. 4. Realizing the wife left her purse in Anaheim and we had to go back there to get it. I drove a lot today

skynight · May 5, 2019

So, I’m not sure about this priority boarding thing. My mother is Platinum and she had priority boarding, however, the rest of us are not. She was told that we could all board with her because we’re in the same party though 2 rooms. We shall see. I know Carnival has been strict with their assigned boarding times, but not sure if Princess is. I know RC doesn’t do assigned boarding times

Princess says it has assigned boarding times, but it really does not. Most passengers arrive by 10:30, 11am. After check in passengers are grouped and sub-grouped in order of arrival. 1) Full Suite and Captain's Circle Elite and wheelchair are placed in one location, 2) Platinum in another*, and then 3) everybody else in a 3rd location. When boarding begins, usually around 11:30, maybe earlier, group 1 are first, followed by 2 and 3. Once boarding begins it goes quickly. The biggest potential hold up for boarding are the possible immigration delays for disembarking passengers. The ship must be totally cleared before any new passengers can board. This past February/March we did two turn arounds in San Pedro. One of them was normal, but with the other Immigration only sent 3 agents. Disembarkation was slow, and thus embarkation of new passengers was delayed.

* you could be grouped with the Platinums.

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

Waiting on uber to get to the port. Will board soon!!!

sfpd3000 · May 5, 2019

Elites and Platinums are boarding. There is a large contingent of Michigan State alumni on this cruise. They boarded first.

LXdad · May 5, 2019

Have a great Cruise! Can't wait to hear more!

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

Time from door to ship.

Not bad with priority boarding, but doesn’t beat my record of 12:50 with Grandeur out of Baltimore, but i’m seriously impressed with Princess’ setup. Checkin, security and then boarding. I’m impressed that they did away with boarding kiosks and its just a hand held device. Pictures are taken at this point. Royal Caribbean tried to do this on our last cruise and it turned into a nightmare. Priority boarding took like 45 minutes because of it.

Another cool feature. Embarkation day lunch in the MDR. genius. First cruise ever i’ve had that. I started boarding after lunch because i didnt want to fight the insane crowds at the buffet.

more to come.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Rogueperson

skynight · May 5, 2019

Don't forget to book your chef's dinner now. Then either call the dining line or visit the restaurant of choice to book your specialty dinner. You should do this all this afternoon.

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

13 minutes ago, skynight said:

Don't forget to book your chef's dinner now. Then either call the dining line or visit the restaurant of choice to book your specialty dinner. You should do this all this afternoon.

Already done. Hope we get

picked

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

This is what i’m working with. I am not terribly impressed. Not sure how someone else on an earlier cruise got double the speed and 1/2 the ping time

polmcs · May 5, 2019

Speed does seem awful, but the ping time is not totally unreasonable, though higher than you should expect. The theoretical minimum ping time for satellite based internet connectivity is 476ms, though in reality, pings will exceed 500ms with the average being around 630-650ms.

Rogueperson · May 5, 2019

1 hour ago, polmcs said:

Speed does seem awful, but the ping time is not totally unreasonable, though higher than you should expect. The theoretical minimum ping time for satellite based internet connectivity is 476ms, though in reality, pings will exceed 500ms with the average being around 630-650ms.

I thought this ship was upgraded with the medallion net thingajig. Some on a live thread of the Ruby a couple weeks past posted a speed test of about 250ms ping and download speed of 5mbs, which is average for the new O3B network which i think the Medallion is. The difference between Royal Caribbean and Princess is Princess has stated they will upgrade all their ships whereas Royal Caribbean gave up.

Edited May 5, 2019 by Rogueperson

Rogueperson · May 6, 2019

here is today’s Princess Patters

These took a real long time to upload

Cyn874 · May 6, 2019

I was on Ruby from April 8-23rd and I had fast internet the entire time. There were a few (less than 5) times when there was no service or slow service for a short amount of time, or in certain areas of the ship. Maybe they're just having a temporary issue. I didn't do any speed tests but it seemed the same as at home.

Rogueperson · May 6, 2019

I got hungry and needed a snack. Went to the Salty Dog Grill. I noticed it earlier where they said “all burgers can be cooked to order” so i came back and ordered a rare burger. This is a good burger. One of the burgers here has a 5 dollar upcharge, but I didnt get it. i got their triple smoked burger. This burger rivaled Guy’s on Carnival and add the fact it was cooked to order (rare) pushed it to best cruise burger. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to burgers. This passes muster.

Also, another little detail. So I’m sitting here eating my burger and a guy comes up to me. I thought he was a bar guy offering me a drink, but no, he actually offered me an iced tea or lemonade. This maybe insubstantial, but this little detail has been lost somewhere, but Princess seems to have kept it. Kudos!

polmcs · May 6, 2019

2 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

I thought this ship was upgraded with the medallion net thingajig. Some on a live thread of the Ruby a couple weeks past posted a speed test of about 250ms ping and download speed of 5mbs, which is average for the new O3B network which i think the Medallion is. The difference between Royal Caribbean and Princess is Princess has stated they will upgrade all their ships whereas Royal Caribbean gave up.

I wasn’t aware that medallion net was using OB3 technology. That uses satellites that orbit at around 5000 miles altitude, so not geostationary which orbit at around 22,200 miles ASL, so yes, you would expect pings that are around 75% quicker than you would expect from a geostationary satellite service. Given your ping time, it would appear that the system on your ship is using a geostationary satellite service, or there is something else going on here.

Unlike criminals laws, you cannot break the laws of physics. 😉

Rogueperson · May 6, 2019

37 minutes ago, polmcs said:

I wasn’t aware that medallion net was using OB3 technology. That uses satellites that orbit at around 5000 miles altitude, so not geostationary which orbit at around 22,200 miles ASL, so yes, you would expect pings that are around 75% quicker than you would expect from a geostationary satellite service. Given your ping time, it would appear that the system on your ship is using a geostationary satellite service, or there is something else going on here.

Unlike criminals laws, you cannot break the laws of physics. 😉

I assumed O3B from someone else’s speedtest. I am probably wrong.

skynight · May 6, 2019

"Also, another little detail. So I’m sitting here eating my burger and a guy comes up to me. I thought he was a bar guy offering me a drink, but no, he actually offered me an iced tea or lemonade. This maybe insubstantial, but this little detail has been lost somewhere, but Princess seems to have kept it. Kudos!"

This is the way Princess does things around the pools, in the buffet and on the Horizon Terrace. Table service. You will also find waiters around the International Cafe. No free drinks there, but you don't have to get up if you don't want to for an espresso latte.

Rogueperson · May 6, 2019

Dinner last night was good. Here is menu

I had the smoked salmon

Pina Colada soup. It really is a soup

the chicken and waffles

Dessert Menu

and I had the soufflé

Rogueperson · May 6, 2019

Welcome to San Diego. We are doing the City Drive and La Jolla Highlights. We didnt really know what to do at this port so we ended up with this so we can see the town. Will post pictures later, probably before i lose signal. the wifi is the worse so far in recent memory. Thats my only complaint so far