Sooooo, as the name suggests, we are massive cunard fans and have only ever gotten as far as looking at other cruiseline's brochures or pricing them up. This time around however, we went for a super-late booking; just 10 days in advance of sailing, and as we couldn't meet the departure dates for cunard, ended up on our first ever Princess cruise on the Ruby Princess.
Well..... Our review goes a little something like this:
Before I start on the specifics of the cruise itself, I want to make it absolutely clear (as we were misled by Princess) that deck 9 on this ship is entirely open. Open to the elements as well as ALL balconies above you. We had initially booked a mini suite on Dolphin deck (9) but once we discovered that the balcony wasn't suitable, we were moved to Emerald deck 8.
E727 is a mini-suite, though comparable to the princess sized cabins on Cunards queens. A quiet enough and well sized room, but when the pods are in action when either docking or pushing off, the vibration is unusually fierce. Not just in the cabin, but throughout the whole of the rear of the ship. Not good for early morning docks; unplanned wake up calls.
Balcony is average, not a lot of space and the furniture is so tired its starting to look well used by bums or all sizes.