Ruby Princess - Main Dining Rooms

[jaredhamburg]

Hello, all!  My family and I are sailing on the Ruby Princess in January 2023, and I wanted to ask about the main dining rooms.  Is any preferable, other than the one at the back of the ship requiring going up, down and doing the hokey pokey to get to?  Thanks!

[Steelers36]

Nope.  Just use the Deck 7 Starboard main corridor to go aft and then pop downstairs in aft elevator lobby.

[jaredhamburg]

3 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

Nope.  Just use the Deck 7 Starboard main corridor to go aft and then pop downstairs in aft elevator lobby.

 

Oh, the dining room in question is not hard to get to.  My family was mapped to a dining room in a similar location on the Grand Princess.  I was just joking around as it feels like an odd location to get to, but any real bother is truly a first world problem.

 

On other Princess ships, some dining rooms have more windows and have different seating types (I heard about his for the Sapphire Princess on Cruise Tips TV)....I was just checking to see if there were any real differences in dining rooms for the Ruby Princess even though I did not see any when reviewing the deck plan.

 

Thanks for responding and have a great day!

[Steelers36]

12 minutes ago, jaredhamburg said:

 

Oh, the dining room in question is not hard to get to.  My family was mapped to a dining room in a similar location on the Grand Princess.  I was just joking around as it feels like an odd location to get to, but any real bother is truly a first world problem.

 

On other Princess ships, some dining rooms have more windows and have different seating types (I heard about his for the Sapphire Princess on Cruise Tips TV)....I was just checking to see if there were any real differences in dining rooms for the Ruby Princess even though I did not see any when reviewing the deck plan.

 

Thanks for responding and have a great day!

All DR's have side windows.  The aft DR's also have rear windows.

[Thrak]

We're booked on Ruby in December and I made our dining reservations at the Michelangelo dining room. The reason for my choice is that it is the one very near to Vines. We often like a glass of wine before dinner and it's nice to also get a glass of wine to go and just make a very short walk to the dining room. It's soooooooooooo much faster and easier than getting wine in the dining room.

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, the above is a good point.  (wine or drinks in the MDR aren't always fast or seamless)

The midship dining rooms are right there with the bars, music/entertainment etc.

If you don't mind the walk, you can still stop by the atrium/piazza and then go to dinner.

The plus for us, on our last cruise (Regal) the aft lower dining room was half empty, unlike the other two which were busy.  The ambiance and service was great.

[Cruise Raider]

We love the Michelangelo on deck 5, for the same reason that Thrak mentioned, or even the DaVinci on deck 6.  We do not like Botticelli in the aft of Deck 6 .. as you referred to as the Hokey Pokey MDR.  

[SiliconCruiser]

We used Michelangelo because we had a Plaza level cabin right off the Piazza, it was a simple walk from our cabin to the dining room, but we had to use Da Vinci for lunch or breakfast.  Actually we seldom got up early enough, so we usually had breakfast up in the buffet.

 

[jaredhamburg]

17 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

Yes, the above is a good point.  (wine or drinks in the MDR aren't always fast or seamless)

The midship dining rooms are right there with the bars, music/entertainment etc.

If you don't mind the walk, you can still stop by the atrium/piazza and then go to dinner.

The plus for us, on our last cruise (Regal) the aft lower dining room was half empty, unlike the other two which were busy.  The ambiance and service was great.

 

I ended up booking the aft dining room (Botticelli) based on what you said about it being less busy (especially can see that based on other comments about people wanting the other dining rooms) and because it has more windows like @Steelers36 pointed out (hoping to get a table with a window and have more natural light and views).  We had the dining room in the same position when on the Grand Princess and never had an issue beyond finding it on night one.  We are on deck 5 (unless we bid to upgrade), but the extra steps will make me feel less guilty about having dessert.

 

I appreciate the feedback about the drinks and having the bars being closer is nice.  We will be herding a bunch of kids to dinner, so it is not as much of an issue for us.  I will wait if a waiter will bring me something at dinner.

 

Thanks everyone!

[KreinKrunker]

11 hours ago, jaredhamburg said:

  I will wait if a waiter will bring me something at dinner.

If you have the same wait team every night, just tell them to have a drink waiting for you.

[seekatz]

Ended up eating dinner at the rear dining room, Botticelli on a full cruise 3 weeks ago. The issue was the dining staff seemed to be way under staffed and it was difficult to line up as some nights the line went up the stairs. Once staffing improves I think this will get better, or limit people to dining at the times they are signed up for.

[jaredhamburg]

11 hours ago, seekatz said:

Ended up eating dinner at the rear dining room, Botticelli on a full cruise 3 weeks ago. The issue was the dining staff seemed to be way under staffed and it was difficult to line up as some nights the line went up the stairs. Once staffing improves I think this will get better, or limit people to dining at the times they are signed up for.

 

How recently was your cruise?  I appreciate the information!

[jaredhamburg]

12 hours ago, KreinKrunker said:

If you have the same wait team every night, just tell them to have a drink waiting for you.

 

Good point!  I reserved 5:20pm for dinner to go to shows and have fun and not have to worry about having to wait for a table to clear.

[Kay S]

On 10/12/2022 at 8:21 AM, jaredhamburg said:

Hello, all!  My family and I are sailing on the Ruby Princess in January 2023, and I wanted to ask about the main dining rooms.  Is any preferable, other than the one at the back of the ship requiring going up, down and doing the hokey pokey to get to?  Thanks!

It's one of those "you can't get there from here" things. 🙂  It was always my favorite on the older ships, but that was in the olden days of TD and immediate seating.

[Emmmnh]

This will be our first sailing with princess on the Ruby. We have sailed with another cruise line 9 times so they are the only ones I know the procedures of. Can anyone tell me which dining rooms the ruby charges for & which they don’t? I can’t get a straight answer from the 800 number or our travel agent 🙄 very frustrating! I knew some of you here would know since you’ve actually been on the ship!

thanks in advance for any help 😉

[Mary Ann 2]

43 minutes ago, Emmmnh said:

This will be our first sailing with princess on the Ruby. We have sailed with another cruise line 9 times so they are the only ones I know the procedures of. Can anyone tell me which dining rooms the ruby charges for & which they don’t? I can’t get a straight answer from the 800 number or our travel agent 🙄 very frustrating! I knew some of you here would know since you’ve actually been on the ship!

thanks in advance for any help 😉

None of the main dining rooms (Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci) charge extra for dinner.  Only the specialty restaurants Sabatini's and Crown Grill (and Salty Dog Gastropub) charge for dining.  Specialty restaurants that charge are booked separately on your Medallion app and you have to pay for them at time of booking unless you have the premier package which covers two specialty dining charges.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Mary Ann 2

[Thrak]

43 minutes ago, Mary Ann 2 said:

None of the main dining rooms (Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci) charge extra for dinner.

 

Please note that all 3 of these will have the same menus.

[bjkTX]

On 10/12/2022 at 2:43 PM, Thrak said:

We're booked on Ruby in December and I made our dining reservations at the Michelangelo dining room. The reason for my choice is that it is the one very near to Vines. We often like a glass of wine before dinner and it's nice to also get a glass of wine to go and just make a very short walk to the dining room. It's soooooooooooo much faster and easier than getting wine in the dining room.

We were on the Christmas cruise and ordered wine pretty much every night in the Botticelli (and a couple of times in the DaVInci) dining room - something we really haven't ever done before - mainly because of the time involved - and normally just brought a drink with us.  But we were pleasantly surprised at how fast they brought it to us every evening.  We might have to make a habit out of it 🙂

[travelmama06]

Can anyone tell me about the dress code for dining on the Ruby Princess ? 
thanks in advance !