September 17 - Impressions and Comments about the cruise on the Ruby Princess

As we sit here in the Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow, I thought I’d write some observations about our cruise.  The Ruby Princess is in great shape and the staff provided us with excellent service.  Captain Yeoman is as charming as ever and kept us well-informed about weather conditions, port arrival times and any relevant information.

The itinerary from Barcelona to Venice is a very interesting one but tiring, especially if you want to see and do things every day.  While we had been to several of the ports already, there were new things we wanted to visit.  Thus we were on the go every day.  We took several Princess tours and were happy with them.  The ones we did were all elite tours so we didn’t travel with a large group.  I think the maximum we had was 22.  We did three private tours, one with two other couples who were very nice people and whose company we enjoyed.  The other two were with just us and a driver/guide.  Those offered us the most flexibility to do what we wished and we felt they were worth the additional expense.

On the whole the food was good on the ship.  We didn’t find the dining room menus very inspiring so we ate most nights at the Crown Grill and Sabatinis.  The food there was quite good, but it would be nice if they could vary their menu occasionally.  For example, we think perhaps they could offer one or two specials each night in addition to the traditional menu for each venue.

We are untraditional cruisers in that we never go to shows or to the casino.  There seemed to be quite a variety listed in the Patter but that’s just not our thing.

We were booked on the maiden transatlantic of the new Royal Princess next October, but after this cruise on the Ruby we are more convinced than ever that we will do something different instead.  There are a number of reasons.  First, the cabins.  We really enjoy the aft  corner cabin on Aloha Deck  we’ve had on the Ruby and her sisters.  On the new Royal it appears that those cabins will be substantially smaller and will not have the same kind of  access doors directly to the aft, rather they’ll be on the side.  I spoke with Lindsay, the Future Cruise Consultant, and her read of the plans seemed to be the same as ours. In the space where there are now four cabins across the stern there will be eight on the new Royal.  Second, they have eliminated the Adagio Lounge, the one we like best for a pre-dinner drink.  There is no lounge up at the top of the ship other than the seaview bar which will no doubt be packed due to the novelty of it.  Skywalkers will be gone as well.  That was a nice place to go during the day for a quiet  game of Scrabble or just a good place to curl up with a book.

Whereas the Ruby has five swimming  pools, the Royal will have two.  We noticed on this cruise that in the Sanctuary, which on prior cruises has been quiet, we could hear the music from the middle pool and even the sound track from MUTS occasionally.  With the new design, we think perhaps one will be able to hear MUTS everywhere on the upper deck and we don’t find that appealing. Also the second, adult pool on the Royal will be surrounded by cabanas  (we assume to rent) with TVs inside.  Again this makes us think the adult pool area and adjoining Sanctuary will not be as quiet and relaxing on those many days at sea during the crossing.

When our concerns with the ship design are combined with the fact that with the exception of one port (Messina) on the Royal transatlantic, we ‘ve been to the others many times, it ‘s time for us to look elsewhere. So for these and a few other reasons we’re going to try something different.  We have no doubt we’ll go back to Princess again at some future time. They do offer a very nice cruise experience.