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

[JF - retired RRT]

10 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Next stop was Balboa Park.  If I had known exactly what Balboa Park was, I would have just ubered here and spent the day here.

You could spend a couple of days there...easy.

[KamAZ]

We're on the ship with you and are also frustrated with the wifi speeds. We tried to stop by the internet cafe when we returned to the ship today to ask about it, but it wasn't staffed at the time. 

 

Overall having an enjoyable time though. 

[polmcs]

Welcome to my “home” town. 😉 Looks like you lucked out with the weather. It was supposed to be miserable today (is that even possible in SAN?), but the the drizzle stopped and the clouds lifted.

 

it’s been the strangest Spring that I can recall since moving here. A little chillier and a lot wetter. I hope you enjoyed your time at Balboa. I love taking out of town guest there. 

[Rogueperson]

I’m posting today’s Princess Patter before i lose signal.

 

 

 

 

 

I got back to the ship and actually got the 5 dollar burger from the Salty Dog Grill.  It was pretty good. And after that, watched Game of Thrones while still in range of land.  Good episode.

[Rogueperson]

sorry, duplicate

Edited May 7, 2019 by Rogueperson
duplicate

[Rogueperson]

Menu for last night’s dinner menu.

 

 

This was the scallops langostino cocktail.

 

 

Shrimp Bisque.  This was just tomato bisque with a piece of shrimp in it.  I think it was misnamed.

 

 

Lamb Shank

 

Dessert Menu

 

Key Lime Pie

 

[JF - retired RRT]

2 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Key Lime Pie

 

Ummm, yummy. Love Key Lime pie.

[LHARTWICK]

Good to know that the MDR will be open for lunch on embarkation day.  Did you notice many people toting luggage with them to the MDR for lunch that day?  We usually keep our carry on suitcase with us until our cabin is ready.  Dining rooms don't have much extra room for something like that.  Just curious.  We sail again on May 18.  Thanks for the review!!

[pompeii]

1 minute ago, LHARTWICK said:

Good to know that the MDR will be open for lunch on embarkation day.  Did you notice many people toting luggage with them to the MDR for lunch that day?  We usually keep our carry on suitcase with us until our cabin is ready.  Dining rooms don't have much extra room for something like that.  Just curious.  We sail again on May 18.  Thanks for the review!!

My cabin has always been ready when I've boarded so I just run up and drop my carryon before heading to whichever MDR is open.  BTW, I am not on this cruise but my husband is, so I've been following along via this live from thread.

[Rogueperson]

1 hour ago, LHARTWICK said:

Good to know that the MDR will be open for lunch on embarkation day.  Did you notice many people toting luggage with them to the MDR for lunch that day?  We usually keep our carry on suitcase with us until our cabin is ready.  Dining rooms don't have much extra room for something like that.  Just curious.  We sail again on May 18.  Thanks for the review!!

Not really, but when we were having lunch, people were still waiting to board.  If you don’t have priority boarding, they give you a number and you can’t board until they call.  They were calling 4 when we boarded.  They almost handed me a 13 until they realized i was with my mother.  They will let you board priority if someone in your party has priority boarding.

 

We arrived at port at noon.

[Rogueperson]

Here is today’s Princess Patter

 

 

 

 

[LHARTWICK]

24 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Not really, but when we were having lunch, people were still waiting to board.  If you don’t have priority boarding, they give you a number and you can’t board until they call.  They were calling 4 when we boarded.  They almost handed me a 13 until they realized i was with my mother.  They will let you board priority if someone in your party has priority boarding.

 

We arrived at port at noon.

Thanks - we are priority, so we'll board early.

[PMGS247]

4 hours ago, LHARTWICK said:

Good to know that the MDR will be open for lunch on embarkation day.  Did you notice many people toting luggage with them to the MDR for lunch that day?  We usually keep our carry on suitcase with us until our cabin is ready.  Dining rooms don't have much extra room for something like that.  Just curious.  We sail again on May 18.  Thanks for the review!!

 

On the Caribbean princess last year one MDR was open for lunch, another was apparently storing people's carry-on luggage until 1:00 when the rooms were ready.  I didn't see this advertised anywhere, nor did I put my own carry-on there (just had a small backpack), but was told this was the case by a couple that we ate lunch with in the other MDR.  I don't know if this was normal, I've not seen it discussed anywhere on here, but the people we ate lunch with definitely left their stuff in the other DR.  I recall specifically they were in quite the hurry to move along after lunch to make sure they got it back before 1:00pm.

[Rogueperson]

So far today, i caught part of the quest game.  It seems much tamer than Royal Caribbean and Carnival.  It also held in the Centrum at noon as opposed to late night on the other lines.

 

I also caught the nature lecture.  It was pretty cool.

 

Lunch was in the MDR

 

 

 

Cured Meats

 

 

Blueberry Rolande

 

 

 

I missed my entree, Parmesan chicken, but it wasnt impressive. 

 

Now is the wine tasting.  This should be interesting.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Rogueperson

[Stikman]

8 hours ago, LHARTWICK said:

Good to know that the MDR will be open for lunch on embarkation day.  Did you notice many people toting luggage with them to the MDR for lunch that day?  We usually keep our carry on suitcase with us until our cabin is ready.  Dining rooms don't have much extra room for something like that.  Just curious.  We sail again on May 18.  Thanks for the review!!

We were on the previous Ruby sailing (12 day Alaska) with our 3 kids, and carried on a backpack each plus a carry on suitcase. We ate lunch in the MDR (it's usually Da Vinci deck 6 in case anyone is wondering!) and there was plenty of room to keep our stuff next to the table. MDR only ever seems to be maybe half full for embarkation day lunch, so you aren't tripping over everyone's stuff. By the time we finished lunch, our rooms were available, so we dropped off our carryons and headed over to the pool!

[Stikman]

On 5/5/2019 at 8:39 PM, Rogueperson said:

 

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

So we were on the Ruby sailing prior to this one (12 day Alaska) and also had major internet issues. Princess does tout that they use the new O3B network. Embarkation day and half of the first sea day, speed tests showed us connected to O3B, then suddenly it changed to SES as yours shows. On O3B, speeds were decent, maybe 10mb down/30mb up, but once we switched to SES it went downhill and never recovered for the entire cruise. Never got anywhere near the speeds the other person's speed test showed (even at the beginning). Spoke to the internet manager multiple times, no help (FYI - he had just come aboard for our sailing). It was almost non-existent at some points. We did speed tests around the ship each day, and at good times, got maybe 2mb down/3.5mb up. And it's not for lack of APs! Those suckers are everywhere. We got the internet access package to stream and so I could work. Neither ended up being possible.

[caribill]

3 minutes ago, Stikman said:

Princess does tout that they use the new O3B network. Embarkation day and half of the first sea day, speed tests showed us connected to O3B, then suddenly it changed to SES as yours shows. On O3B, speeds were decent, maybe 10mb down/30mb up, but once we switched to SES it went downhill and never recovered for the entire cruise.

 

The O3B satellites are not available above (northern hemisphere) or below (southern hemisphere) a certain latitude, so when the ship sailed north past that point, the faster O3B was no longer available.

[Stikman]

13 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

The O3B satellites are not available above (northern hemisphere) or below (southern hemisphere) a certain latitude, so when the ship sailed north past that point, the faster O3B was no longer available.

That makes sense, and was what we assumed since the previous speed tests were from people cruising the Mexican Riviera and to Hawaii.  Although on our return trip south, we never reconnected to the O3B network, even in the LA area. And Princess shouldn't advertise and sell it as such if it isn't actually available.

[Rogueperson]

O3b was online in Bayonne, NJ when we sailed out on the Anthem of the Seas.  I can’t really do a map search accurately because our connection stinks, so i’m not sure if Bayonne is farther north than San Diego.  

Edited May 8, 2019 by Rogueperson

[PrincessDano]

We are on the Ruby right now also.  On embarkation we did take our suitcases to the table and it was tight but ok; we sat at a table for two.  On leaving the dining room I noticed multiple suitcases lined by the wall on exiting.  Hope this helps!

 

Diane

[SinbadThePorter]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

The O3B satellites are not available above (northern hemisphere) or below (southern hemisphere) a certain latitude, so when the ship sailed north past that point, the faster O3B was no longer available.

 

As far as I can tell from the available information, the O3B signal is not present above about 50 degrees North and South. This would include Northern Europe and Canada.

 

Between 40 and 50 degrees it is weak. This would include a lot of the Med, both US coasts and Japan.

 

Between 40 North and 40 South, it should vary between good and acceptable. This would be most of Australia/NZ (except Tasmania and parts of the South Island), the Caribbean, Hawaii and SE Asia.

 

 

Edited May 8, 2019 by SinbadThePorter

[skynight]

6 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

O3b was online in Bayonne, NJ when we sailed out on the Anthem of the Seas.  I can’t really do a map search accurately because our connection stinks, so i’m not sure if Bayonne is farther north than San Diego.  

Bayonne is way further north than San Diego. Bayonne is just across the Hudson from NYC. It snows in Bayonne.

[TimbersfanOR]

The French toast on the lunch/brunch menu is amazing.  

[Rogueperson]

I tried to post last night but ping spiked to 1550 ms.  wifi was useless.

 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m an extreme lightweight when it comes to alcohol. So after wine tasting  I was knocked out.   But it was only for about an hour.  We barely made it to the show.  Tonight’s show was a vocal impressionist.  She was amazing.  She sang with almost exact voices of Januce Joplin to Cher to Louie Armstrong.  I saw a similar show on Grandeur where it was a guy but it still blows me away.

 

Tonight’s menu

 

 

This quiche was odd

 

so was this Rillette

 

The Lamb Shwarma was good but the sauce that was on the side (thankfully) was awful.  It was like they mixed Tzikiki sauce and mint jelly

 

 

Dessert menu

 

Chocolate Journey was awesome.

 

 

Afterwards, there was a magician but he was ok, his tricks were mediocre though.

 

After that was the party in the Piazza.  Thats what they call the Centrum on Princess.  Impresive Party.  They had a balloon drop.

 

 

We also ran into this guy with this suit.  We want!

 

[Rogueperson]

The last post took probably an hour to upload.  With my phone, i realized if i tried ti run anything else, it interrupts the download.  Since it takes forever, the autosleep can also interrupt the upload.  That 30 second video pf course was the main culprit.

 

We woke up late this morning and ended up with breakfast on the Lido.  Impressive that getting a seat wasn’t a scene out of 300.  Also impressed that the hot water here is actually hot enough to brew coffee.  I’ve had it lukewarm before.

 

Fair warning.  Tonight is Chef’s Table.  I’m really looking forward to this.  This is usually the only occasion where i ever get drunk, but it depends.  My mother is with us, so its not cool to get blasted with Mom around.  She will give me that look.