LIVE: Ruby Princess to Alaska (round trip from San Francisco)

[KellyCz]

On 7/19/2022 at 4:34 PM, edspec said:

I was VERY nervous about my April Princess cruise due to what I read on these boards. I envisioned a crowd of wizened entitled cranks yelling at me to get out of their hallway. The reality was completely different as the people I met on the ship were lovely. These boards do Princess no favors, unfortunate for those of us who want to find information before sailing.

It's true, and the facebook groups are even worse. If I listened to all the complaints and negativity, I never would have taken my 7-night cruise on MSC last month. Had a great experience and am now looking at Princess or Celebrity to Alaska for 2023.

[Adventures ahead]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:34 PM, edspec said:

I was VERY nervous about my April Princess cruise due to what I read on these boards. I envisioned a crowd of wizened entitled cranks yelling at me to get out of their hallway. The reality was completely different as the people I met on the ship were lovely. These boards do Princess no favors, unfortunate for those of us who want to find information before sailing.

 

39 minutes ago, KellyCz said:

It's true, and the facebook groups are even worse. If I listened to all the complaints and negativity, I never would have taken my 7-night cruise on MSC last month. Had a great experience and am now looking at Princess or Celebrity to Alaska for 2023.

 

PandaBear62,  glad you're having fun. While everything may not be perfect, a positive attitude goes a long way to enjoying any vacation. Thanks so much for taking the time to post! Much appreciated!

 

Apologies for digressing a bit... (hey, I'm Canadian so expect me to apologize, eh? : ) lol

 

edspec, glad you had a lovely cruise!

Although we've encountered a very few rude, 'entitled' passengers, most are regular folks who understand and accept that a vacation isn't like home and roll with whatever happens, their glass always half full.   There are a lot of wonderfully kind people in the world and many are found on cruise ships!  

 

Maybe the CC name should change to "Cruise Comments"! The name of this board does this board no favours either.  "Critic" has the bad connotation of a negative form of analysis... finding faults.  (I think a name change was discussed years ago and didn't fly.)

Many of us value this board for upbeat posters' helpful information.  For me, the rest is entertainment.

[LreedCA]

Wondering if you have had any interaction with Ksenia from Ukraine, a buffet server, in the Horizon.  She is one of the few females working there and she is the nicest lady!!!  We met her on the Emerald in October and ran into her again on the Ruby July 9th-19th.  She will take great care of you.  I hope you get the chance to meet her if you haven't already.  

 

Thanks for all your posts.  I am enjoying them.

[masterty]

Is the Crab Shack still a thing on the Ruby? We are boarding this ship Friday. 

[SiliconCruiser]

8 minutes ago, masterty said:

Is the Crab Shack still a thing on the Ruby? We are boarding this ship Friday. 

Didn't see it on the 7/9-19 trip.  As a matter of fact, never saw Caribe opened for food service, though people were in the seating area as overflow from Horizon.

 

[SiliconCruiser]

2 hours ago, KellyCz said:

It's true, and the facebook groups are even worse. If I listened to all the complaints and negativity, I never would have taken my 7-night cruise on MSC last month. Had a great experience and am now looking at Princess or Celebrity to Alaska for 2023.

I found none of the complaints about the food or food portions on the FB groups to be valid.  There was little difference from the pre-Covid days, except that the desserts were inconsistent.  As a matter of fact, the cycle has even changed much, some of the menus were predictable and correlated to the number of the cruise day; the Formal night menus seem unchanged from pre-Covid days.
They used to have a set group of desserts as "Princess Favorites" and then a group that changed each day.  This time most of the dessert items were consistent.

[SiliconCruiser]

23 minutes ago, LreedCA said:

Wondering if you have had any interaction with Ksenia from Ukraine, a buffet server, in the Horizon. 

I think we did several times.  She was handing out plates and utensils.  Every time my wife approached in her wheelchair, she would drop everything to help my wife and call out for a replacement for her station.  I did have a problem with her though ... she would get my wife seated and was off getting something for my wife and I had no clue as to where either one of them were.  Then would get back to the buffet and saw me standing there, so she told me where she had seated my wife ... (she was kinda quick.)

 

[Phantom of the Seas]

1 hour ago, Adventures ahead said:

 

 

PandaBear62,  glad you're having fun. While everything may not be perfect, a positive attitude goes a long way to enjoying any vacation. Thanks so much for taking the time to post! Much appreciated!

 

Apologies for digressing a bit... (hey, I'm Canadian so expect me to apologize, eh? : ) lol

 

edspec, glad you had a lovely cruise!

Although we've encountered a very few rude, 'entitled' passengers, most are regular folks who understand and accept that a vacation isn't like home and roll with whatever happens, their glass always half full.   There are a lot of wonderfully kind people in the world and many are found on cruise ships!  

 

Maybe the CC name should change to "Cruise Comments"! The name of this board does this board no favours either.  "Critic" has the bad connotation of a negative form of analysis... finding faults.  (I think a name change was discussed years ago and didn't fly.)

Many of us value this board for upbeat posters' helpful information.  For me, the rest is entertainment.

 

[Phantom of the Seas]

“Beauty in the eyes of the beholder”........enjoy your Cruise.....

[LreedCA]

50 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

I think we did several times.  She was handing out plates and utensils.  Every time my wife approached in her wheelchair, she would drop everything to help my wife and call out for a replacement for her station.  I did have a problem with her though ... she would get my wife seated and was off getting something for my wife and I had no clue as to where either one of them were.  Then would get back to the buffet and saw me standing there, so she told me where she had seated my wife ... (she was kinda quick.)

 

Hi - thanks for the reply.  I wrote Buffet Server but should have said Steward.  She works the tables and not the actual buffet area.  However, all the gals in the Horizon were great.  : )

[SiliconCruiser]

8 minutes ago, LreedCA said:

Hi - thanks for the reply.  I wrote Buffet Server but should have said Steward.  She works the tables and not the actual buffet area.  However, all the gals in the Horizon were great.  : )

Wait, are you referring to Alina from the Ukraine, whose role is a Buffet Steward?  I don't remember seeing her in the buffet, but she remembered us, but we always saw her in Da Vinci for lunch and Michelangelo for dinner and she took exceptional care of us, having made her own designation for a table for us (a table for 4 that she had converted to a table for two.)  She would regularly divert the directions of other staffers to take special care of us.  I just don't think we tipped her enough.  She was one of the people that I made a special note of in our post-trip comments.

[LreedCA]

50 minutes ago, SiliconCruiser said:

Wait, are you referring to Alina from the Ukraine, whose role is a Buffet Steward?  I don't remember seeing her in the buffet, but she remembered us, but we always saw her in Da Vinci for lunch and Michelangelo for dinner and she took exceptional care of us, having made her own designation for a table for us (a table for 4 that she had converted to a table for two.)  She would regularly divert the directions of other staffers to take special care of us.  I just don't think we tipped her enough.  She was one of the people that I made a special note of in our post-trip comments.

Her name is Ksenia.  I am sure of that as I had to check her name tag several times in order to write a positive review about her on our survey.  It is nice to know you had a crew member that treated you just as well.  They really know how to spoil us!  

[HaveDogWillTravel]

8 hours ago, Adventures ahead said:

Maybe the CC name should change to "Cruise Comments"! The name of this board does this board no favours either.  "Critic" has the bad connotation of a negative form of analysis... finding faults.  (I think a name change was discussed years ago and didn't fly.)

Many of us value this board for upbeat posters' helpful information.  For me, the rest is entertainment.

Yes 100% yes

[palolake]

We’ll be on the Ruby next month. Can anyone tell me what form of transportation you used from the airport to your hotel/ port?  Thanks in advance. 

[EDDY0827]

Uber, Lyft or taxi.

[Phantom of the Seas]

Uber X.......$40-$50....

[san diego sue]

3 hours ago, palolake said:

We’ll be on the Ruby next month. Can anyone tell me what form of transportation you used from the airport to your hotel/ port?  Thanks in advance. 

We took a taxi from airport to cruise port. it was $60 (we asked before we got in the cab) and tip on top of it.

[roxievegas]

we flew in the morning of the cruise, and did the Princess transportation.  I think we paid $39 each.

We got off the plane, headed for the baggage area, there was a Princess person with a sign at the bottom of the stairs in the baggage area.   She told us to get our bags and go to the exit area and find the next Princess host.  We found her and she directed us to the bus and we boarded.  It was a 40 minute bus ride to port.  The dropped us off at the parking lot, told us to leave the bags at the bus and they would have them delivered to the ship and we got in line outside. (took an hour) to get inside the building.

[SiliconCruiser]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:56 PM, LreedCA said:

Her name is Ksenia.  I am sure of that as I had to check her name tag several times in order to write a positive review about her on our survey.  It is nice to know you had a crew member that treated you just as well.  They really know how to spoil us!  

It just occurred to be that I was a heartless effin' idiot for not expressing my compassion for the people of the Ukraine.

[clueless2]

11 hours ago, roxievegas said:

we flew in the morning of the cruise, and did the Princess transportation.  I think we paid $39 each.

We got off the plane, headed for the baggage area, there was a Princess person with a sign at the bottom of the stairs in the baggage area.   She told us to get our bags and go to the exit area and find the next Princess host.  We found her and she directed us to the bus and we boarded.  It was a 40 minute bus ride to port.  The dropped us off at the parking lot, told us to leave the bags at the bus and they would have them delivered to the ship and we got in line outside. (took an hour) to get inside the building.

Thanks for the info.  What time did you get to the port?

[roxievegas]

13 minutes ago, clueless2 said:

Thanks for the info.  What time did you get to the port?

Our flight was out of Orange County, Ca left at 9:05 a, got to SF airport around 10:30, we sat on runway waiting for a gate to open up for 30 minutes.  Got to gate around 11:00 and got to the port around 12:00.  I figured there would be a line, due to past reviews, but we were lucky that the weather was beatiful and not too bad waiting outside.  Once we got on board, we were too late to get lunch in the MDR by 2 minutes.  -  closes at 1:00p for lunch

They really need to get more people checking everyone in.

[Cruise Raider]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:00 PM, SiliconCruiser said:

Wait, are you referring to Alina from the Ukraine, whose role is a Buffet Steward?  I don't remember seeing her in the buffet, but she remembered us, but we always saw her in Da Vinci for lunch and Michelangelo for dinner and she took exceptional care of us, having made her own designation for a table for us (a table for 4 that she had converted to a table for two.)  She would regularly divert the directions of other staffers to take special care of us.  I just don't think we tipped her enough.  She was one of the people that I made a special note of in our post-trip comments.

 

Alina is wonderful.  Always with a great smile to greet us at the Michaelangelo when we went for dinner.  

[masterty]

I board today. So anyone who still needs information can ask it. I am not doing a live thread but happy to be a point of contact aboard for the next 10 days. Hello from the Ruby Princess. 

[RLK33853]

PandaBear62 - maybe I missed your response to my earlier query.

 

We are also driving to San Francisco next month prior to boarding the Ruby - could you please let me know where you parked and how you reserved your parking?  Was the parking garage secure? 

 

Any current information would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Ray

[EDDY0827]

11 minutes ago, RLK33853 said:

PandaBear62 - maybe I missed your response to my earlier query.

 

We are also driving to San Francisco next month prior to boarding the Ruby - could you please let me know where you parked and how you reserved your parking?  Was the parking garage secure? 

 

Any current information would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Ray

Google is your friend:

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=cruise+parking+in+san+francisco