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LIVE from the Ruby Princess: April 2-9, 2023 Western Caribbean from Galveston

talkorpi

By talkorpi,
in Princess Cruises

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shackpacker

shackpacker

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On 4/2/2023 at 10:59 AM, roadster08 said:

Have a great cruise! I am curious how you would rate the experience of dropping off your car before boarding. Is the parking covered or open? Did they provide transportation to the ship and how was luggage handled after you parked? 

We use Port Parking. It is covered. The drop off is convenient and runs every few minutes. Upon our return there were three vans waiting for us.  Minimal time back to the car.

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shackpacker

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On 3/31/2023 at 9:27 PM, talkorpi said:

Well, hello, Princess forum!  I figured since this will be my first Princess cruise, I might as well try out my first LIVE review, too!

 

In a little under 48 hours, we will be sailing out of Galveston Bay on the Ruby Princess for Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  I've always wanted to do a live thread and since Princess brags about having the "best wifi at sea" then I figured I would give it a try! 😉

 

A little about me - I am a recent college graduate who has always LOVED everything about the cruise industry.  My dream was to work for either Carnival or Princess in their deployment or newbuild departments, but unfortunately, I was never able to get any industry experience or internships (COVID shutdowns during my Sophomore through Senior college years = no opportunities) and so now that ship has sailed.  Oh well, I guess I will have to enjoy myself as a passenger instead of an employee!

 

It will be me and mom on this cruise.  We travel together quite a bit so I'm excited.  I've always wanted to try Princess, but unfortunately, it has always been a little outside of our price range.  However, now that I graduated and have a stable income I decided to take the plunge and try it out (the super attractive fares that Princess had to try to lure people to Galveston in their first year back helped quite a bit with that).

 

We are already off to a great start - after we booked an obstructed oceanview, I placed a minimum bid for a balcony.  Not only was it accepted - we got put in one of those angled extended balcony cabins at the very back of the ship.  Not too bad!  I've been to all of these ports before and we honestly just plan on taking it pretty easy.  I probably won't be as active as other live threads in the past as I have never really done this before but I will try to answer as many questions as I can and be thorough.

 

(Im)patiently waiting until Sunday morning when we start the drive to Galveston! 🛳️

 

On 3/31/2023 at 9:27 PM, talkorpi said:

Well, hello, Princess forum!  I figured since this will be my first Princess cruise, I might as well try out my first LIVE review, too!

 

In a little under 48 hours, we will be sailing out of Galveston Bay on the Ruby Princess for Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel.  I've always wanted to do a live thread and since Princess brags about having the "best wifi at sea" then I figured I would give it a try! 😉

 

A little about me - I am a recent college graduate who has always LOVED everything about the cruise industry.  My dream was to work for either Carnival or Princess in their deployment or newbuild departments, but unfortunately, I was never able to get any industry experience or internships (COVID shutdowns during my Sophomore through Senior college years = no opportunities) and so now that ship has sailed.  Oh well, I guess I will have to enjoy myself as a passenger instead of an employee!

 

It will be me and mom on this cruise.  We travel together quite a bit so I'm excited.  I've always wanted to try Princess, but unfortunately, it has always been a little outside of our price range.  However, now that I graduated and have a stable income I decided to take the plunge and try it out (the super attractive fares that Princess had to try to lure people to Galveston in their first year back helped quite a bit with that).

 

We are already off to a great start - after we booked an obstructed oceanview, I placed a minimum bid for a balcony.  Not only was it accepted - we got put in one of those angled extended balcony cabins at the very back of the ship.  Not too bad!  I've been to all of these ports before and we honestly just plan on taking it pretty easy.  I probably won't be as active as other live threads in the past as I have never really done this before but I will try to answer as many questions as I can and be thorough.

 

(Im)patiently waiting until Sunday morning when we start the drive to Galveston! 🛳️

 

On 3/31/2023 at 9:48 PM, PacnGoNow said:

 

We were also on this cruise and loved it.  I'll be reading your posts to see how you reacted to the experiences.  We love Princess and are so glad to be utilizing Galveston again.  We always stay in the NASA area since we can take the back road down to I45 and avoid the construction. We use Port Parking (indoors since spring weather can be iffy).  Very efficient and reliable. Embarkation and debarkation was the easiest we've ever done at any port.

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shackpacker

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On 4/4/2023 at 2:16 PM, CC Rider 69 said:

FYI, Captain Lewis is going on holiday starting the 4-9-23 sailing. His dry humor will be missed. I don't know who the relieving skipper is, so if you get a chance see if you can find out. TIA

We loved his "fun facts" each day in his noon briefing.  He is quite a character!  He said he'd be back in July so those sailing then will have a bunch to look forward to.

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shackpacker

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On 4/5/2023 at 9:22 AM, KKB said:

I heard SEVERAL people RAVE about Sabatini's last week (and also how FULL they were). 

Wish I had tried it!

We had a different experience, possibly due to our waitress.  She totally messed up my entree and then tried to blame it on me, saying i had changed my order which I hadn't.  They offered to fix it but we had waited so long for the original that it was getting late so, no.

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shackpacker

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All I can say is that we had a great time!  We have been to these ports numerous times so we had just planned to stay onboard anyway. For us, the whole point of cruising is to cruise so it was fine.  We have sailed on Princess numerous times and love it.  No, there aren't as many "activities" but that works for us.  We have cruised on Carnival, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Oceania, and Holland and Princess is our definite choice.  The food was really good, the staff was amazing, Skywalkers is our favorite place to be besides our balcony.  Even though there were lots of kids on board, they were extremely well behaved.  We were impressed based on experiences with kids on other cruise lines. It is too bad that people were so ill behaved about missing the ports. This is not a decision that is reached lightly.  Also it is is in the cruise contract that the captain has the power to make those deisions and all who go on the cruise agree to that by signing the contract. No use fussing over weather. We are already booked on two more Princess cruises and have an additional future cruise credit.

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satxdiver

satxdiver

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We like Skywalkers as well since it is usually quiet and not frequently visited.  Adiago's next to Sabatini's is a well kept secret for a nice place to hang out most any time.  As for the missing ports we have been to them many times and appreciated the seadays.  Usually, we get off for a few hours and then back on the ship.  There were no tours we have not been on so it is just walk around and back on the ship.  We normally do the same thing in Cozumel but this time I decided to take the submarine excursion and it was great.  I have SCUBA dived those reefs many times before and there are much more interesting upclose but still an adventure on the submarine.  We went down to 102 feet.  

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satxdiver

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The cruise ships are tall, 14+ decks and flat sided like a giant sail that cannot be put down (forgot the nautical name).  Hence, they are extremely sensitive to the wind and unable to compensate for it with their engines.  Basically, like most ships they mostly can only go forward and steer when under power.  Even tugboats are unable to assist in high winds.  Think of the complaints when the captain who did manage to get into port was unable to leave when the wind has the ship pinned to the pier.  I have missed other ports on other cruise ships with no compensation.  I have also missed ports on Princess cruises and they have always given us some OBC. 

 

I was on a Princess tour in Nova Scotia when the tour bus broke down just out of the town.  We were on the side of the road for 4 hours before they were able to find another bus to pick us up and take us back to the ship.  They of course gave us our money back for the tour and $100 compensation as well.  What they did was cancel an afternoon excursion and use the tour bus to come pick us up.  It was a small city with a limited amount of buses available and Princess had them all for excursions.  We rode back on a bus belonging to the university athletic team.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
talkorpi "Live from...." Rare

talkorpi

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Ugh, I just looked through this thread again and BOY do I miss this vacation! I mentioned that I had to book it back home to prep for a work conference the next week.  Well I ended up catching COVID on my way home from that conference and it hit me HARD, so I was out all last week too. I'm a 22 year old without many health problems that has had four doses of vaccine too, and I still hit a 103 fever and I'm still coughing 10 days later.  YIKES!

Sorry that I haven't gotten around to post my post-cruise thoughts yet.  I'll get to that soon, hopefully over the course of this week.  Been a very busy April for me so far!

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BermudaBound2014 Great Review Rare

BermudaBound2014

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2 hours ago, talkorpi said:

 I'm a 22 year old without many health problems that has had four doses of vaccine too, and I still hit a 103 fever and I'm still coughing 10 days later.  YIKES!

 

That is a big YIKES! hope you feel better soon.

 

 

2 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

@talkorpi:  Thanks for the update.  Sorry you had to get sick.  Get well soon, and we'll be happy for your thoughts when you choose to give them to us. 🙏

 

How was your trip?? Bands?

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