Live from the Ruby Princess - 10 day Alaska Inside Passage 5/20-5/30

[Drews_Cruise]

7 hours ago, Happiest when cruising said:

What sort of cabin was inferior? I understood they were using balcony cabins, which should be adequate for the isolation period. 

Yes  I meant "inferior"  If you are in a mini suite or a "premium balcony such as true aft" you got moved to a standard balcony.  Its ok but was not expected. In our case, the stateroom had worn older design of carpet and it was not at all clean, an old scratched and improperly caulked shower that looked like a 2 start hotel, Stains on the walls (who knows what it was) the Hair dryer didn't work, the balcony door was so tight that my wife couldn't open it to get out to the balcony.  And the entire cabin including the doors and walls that squeaked and rattled all day and night.  To us that's inferior.  Trust me, we are not that fussy but it was not at all an acceptable cabin that I would have stayed in given the option to get out of it.  

[tcdcruiser]

Thank you

havedogwilltravel

nice job

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Thanks @tcdcruiser

 

 

I believe it’s safe to say the vast majority had a great sailing. Masking was common but not universal. The Princess response reported here of treatment when testing positive has been encouraging.  

 

There was so much wildlife on this leg and I’m hoping for a repeat on the next leg. The best bit for me was watching an eagle flying around the bay in prince Rupert hunting , coming down talons first back arched, grabbing a fish and flying away. Loved those new binoculars. 

 

The game shows were packed, the dance floor was hopping in explorers when the SuperSonics played, crooners was crowded  ……….so pretty much back to normal!   I don’t go to production shows and I watch the enrichment lectures on the TV so can’t speak to that. 

 

I am shocked to report that I never had a bad elevator experience. I always use the aft or forward elevators unless it’s 6 am and I’m coming back from IC.  No crowds of people bum rushing the doors.  I never had to get off because it was too crowded. I averaged 12 flights of stairs a day, down a little from my April cruise where the elevator behavior was horrific. 

 

The only complaints I heard were regarding food and internet.  Somebody will always on every cruise on every cruise line complain about food.  Feeding this many people this diverse a menu almost guarantees there will be a few misses. 

 

My expectations in the MDR are what would I be happy with if I went to a restaurant and paid $30 for a meal.  I’d expect decent food, nice plating and reasonably fast, pleasant service. That’s what I got on this cruise. I asked my server what was coming out nicely, if I didn’t like something I gently requested something else, my meals took 45 min when ordering 2 courses. Add a third and I was there an hour. 

 

The IC, lido deck grille and pizza were great. Room service picked up except for 3 times when called in the heart of the busiest times. Everything I ordered came correctly and quickly

Edited May 30, 2022 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

So waiting in line and chatting to folks three more complaints came up. 
1 no clocks in the spa 

2 not enough trash cans on upper decks 

3 sewage smell somewhere on lido deck (wasn’t clear where exactly, I never smelled it) 

 

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

And as I sit here looking at the port side of the ship I’ve seen 8 people on 8 different aft aloha deck balconies. Hmmmmmm those fire doors to aft aloha deck have been shut for the last 10 days. It’s only 9:30 so these are not new passengers/crew. And several are almost assuredly passengers. Hmmmmmmm. 
 

a CC friend sent me a screen shot last week showing these cabins for sale on the upcoming cruise that leaves today. Hmmmmm 

[PacnGoNow]

45 minutes ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

And as I sit here looking at the port side of the ship I’ve seen 8 people on 8 different aft aloha deck balconies. Hmmmmmm those fire doors to aft aloha deck have been shut for the last 10 days. It’s only 9:30 so these are not new passengers/crew. And several are almost assuredly passengers. Hmmmmmmm. 
 

a CC friend sent me a screen shot last week showing these cabins for sale on the upcoming cruise that leaves today. Hmmmmm 

If they are not crew in quarantine, could they be passengers who tested positive before the turnaround and were given the option of doing their b2b?  Or, getting removed by personnel after everyone is off the ship and being moved to a hotel?

Hmmmm

 

[PescadoAmarillo]

50 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

If they are not crew in quarantine, could they be passengers who tested positive before the turnaround and were given the option of doing their b2b?  Or, getting removed by personnel after everyone is off the ship and being moved to a hotel?

Hmmmm

 

To the bolded:  Yes. 

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

a CC friend sent me a screen shot last week showing these cabins for sale on the upcoming cruise that leaves today. Hmmmmm 

 

The two upcoming cruises on the Ruby, on the 9th and 19th are showing as sold out on a popular site I check.  On Princess, they both show as  Currently Not Available.  

It's been displaying like that for a week already.  

 

Not sure if they are just stopping all new bookings or what .... maybe full, maybe just halting bookings at a certain capacity based on crew levels / stock.   Last week when still open for bookings, there was nothing higher than an oceanview room available, though.  Of course, with the number of CoVid cases increasing in this area, I would think there will be some cancellations right before the cruise.  Time will tell.  

 

[cruzin4us]

19 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

The two upcoming cruises on the Ruby, on the 9th and 19th are showing as sold out on a popular site I check.  On Princess, they both show as  Currently Not Available.  

It's been displaying like that for a week already.  

 

Not sure if they are just stopping all new bookings or what .... maybe full, maybe just halting bookings at a certain capacity based on crew levels / stock.   Last week when still open for bookings, there was nothing higher than an oceanview room available, though.  Of course, with the number of CoVid cases increasing in this area, I would think there will be some cancellations right before the cruise.  Time will tell.  

 

Our cruise the Ruby, June 9th is now showing Currently Not Available....it's been that way for the past few days.   There was quite a few inside/OV available last time I checked.    Don't they usually state "sold out" when it is in fact "sold out"?   I sure hope to hell it's not sold out if it is still short staffed.

[CAZephyr]

2 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

The two upcoming cruises on the Ruby, on the 9th and 19th are showing as sold out on a popular site I check.  On Princess, they both show as  Currently Not Available.  

It's been displaying like that for a week already.  

 

Not sure if they are just stopping all new bookings or what .... maybe full, maybe just halting bookings at a certain capacity based on crew levels / stock.   Last week when still open for bookings, there was nothing higher than an oceanview room available, though.  Of course, with the number of CoVid cases increasing in this area, I would think there will be some cancellations right before the cruise.  Time will tell.  

 

 

1 hour ago, cruzin4us said:

Our cruise the Ruby, June 9th is now showing Currently Not Available....it's been that way for the past few days.   There was quite a few inside/OV available last time I checked.    Don't they usually state "sold out" when it is in fact "sold out"?   I sure hope to hell it's not sold out if it is still short staffed.

Restart your browser to refresh, then check Princess.com again.  The availability of cabins on cruises seems to "zone out" if you go in and out of the cruise schedule lately.  Unsure why.  I restarted my Chrome browser and saw many cabins available throughout the ship for June 9 sailing.

[blubberwon]

21 hours ago, gerig said:

Does it continue through September

By September you may get a few late arrivals, Ketchikan usually get the salmon first

Edited May 30, 2022 by blubberwon

[Cruise Raider]

34 minutes ago, CAZephyr said:

 

Restart your browser to refresh, then check Princess.com again.  The availability of cabins on cruises seems to "zone out" if you go in and out of the cruise schedule lately.  Unsure why.  I restarted my Chrome browser and saw many cabins available throughout the ship for June 9 sailing.

I had already done that as well as checked several other online travel agencies …

Are you sure it didn’t bump you to the July 9th sailing?   There doesn’t seem to be any availability for either June 9th or June 19th on any site … even after refreshing Chrome.  

[cruzin4us]

41 minutes ago, CAZephyr said:

 

Restart your browser to refresh, then check Princess.com again.  The availability of cabins on cruises seems to "zone out" if you go in and out of the cruise schedule lately.  Unsure why.  I restarted my Chrome browser and saw many cabins available throughout the ship for June 9 sailing.

I did as you suggested, but the June 9th sailing is still showing "currently unavailable".   It defaults to the July 9th sailing which had me fooled for a bit.   

[CAZephyr]

4 hours ago, cruzin4us said:

I did as you suggested, but the June 9th sailing is still showing "currently unavailable".   It defaults to the July 9th sailing which had me fooled for a bit.   

It fooled me.  I see this now.

[tcdcruiser]

Record fast disembarkation (not walk off).  First independent disembarkation.  I was having coffee in the Marin district (with all my luggage) at 830am.  

[cant_hug_teddybear]

If you can share pictures of the patters, it would be great. Thanks.

[zentraveler]

On 5/28/2022 at 10:59 PM, caribill said:

 

Paxlovid is only effective if taken within a day or two of having symptoms.

 

By the time you can see your own doctor it will be too late for this medicine.

I recently listened to a grand rounds at UCSF and the current thinking seems to be that paxlovid is best started 2-3 day into symptoms. Gives the virus enough, but not too much, time to replicate so 2-3 days is now seeming to be optimal.