Ruby Princess Review

First Cruise Ever - Ruby Princess

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Ruby Princess
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lvlj65
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
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Additional details

Sail Date: Mar 2017
Cabin: Oceanview (obstructed view)
The Sanctuary - my favorite place (aside from the Wheelhouse bar!). Ahhhh.
View from our cabin window. Since I could see water and sky, I was happy en
The Ruby Princess anchored near Cabo.
The bathroom of our cabin.
Shower stall.
Closet/dressing area.
Our cabin E611...and my husband's feet.

My husband and I have always wanted to take a cruise and decided in January of 2017 to just book it already. I don't know if booking only a couple months prior to the sail date is considered last minute (there weren't many cabins left to pick from), but that's what we did.

I was a little nervous because I get motion sick and was violently ill on a snorkel tour we took in Hawaii, but everyone said you don't feel the motion as much on a large ship, so I hoped for the best. I used sea bands and Dramamine, and was fine, except for the last night as we were returning to the L.A. port. The seas were very choppy and the ship rolled and shuddered quite a bit. I was fine as long as I stayed laying down - so we stayed in the cabin that last afternoon and evening.

Anyway, other than that...we were delighted with the entire experience! Being first time cruisers, we have nothing else to compare it to, but we truly felt like we were waited on hand and foot on this cruise. The service in every department was wonderful and the ship was gorgeous.

Cabin Review

Oceanview (obstructed view)

Cabin OW

I was quite happy with our cabin. I imagine all of the cabins in this category are the same, except for the view would vary.

We had nightstands on each side of the bed with drawers for clothes. There was a desk with a drawer and cupboard. There was a small fridge and counter on top of it for an ice bucket, glasses, whatever. I put our vitamins and stuff there. There was one chair by the window, and a small round table, where they can put the room service tray, if needed. Also, the window ledge could serve as a sort of seat, or as an additional shelf if you really needed it.

The closet/dressing area was large, with a long shelf above where the clothing hangs. Plenty of room for clothing. And in the closet/dressing area was a long cupboard with a door on it, with several shelves for shoes or extra clothing space. The safe was also in this cupboard.

The bathroom shower stall had a shower gel dispenser and shampoo/conditioner combo dispenser and a small shelf for other shower toiletries. The bathroom counter had three shelves for other personal items and a small sink. We found it perfectly adequate for what we brought.

The description of the view says "obstructed", but it was really only partially obstructed. There was just the tail end of a tender in front of our window, and some pulleys and stuff above it, but we still had a decent view out onto the water. I have to thank our travel agent for that, because when he booked the room, he took great care to look at the ship's layout and choose a room that seemed to have the least amount of obstruction as possible. He also looked at what was above and below our room to make sure it would be quiet. He did a great job! The only noise we heard occasionally, is some hallway noise, and even that was never late at night or anything.

I didn't feel ship movement, for the most part. The only time was on the last night when there were rough seas. I'm sure it would have been worse near the front or back of the ship. We were as close to the middle as our agent could get us, at the time we booked. I'm including a couple pictures. The view is from the window of the cabin.

And the bed...the bed was super comfortable!

Port Reviews

Los Angeles

Not too much to review here. It was very similar to an airport waiting room. Some vending machines would have been nice, since we had to wait about an hour or so total - maybe longer. The port authorities could have made for a smoother screening process. We put our stuff on the conveyer belt, like you do in an airport, and the guy at the metal detector motioned for us to walk on through, so we did. We waited on the other side for our stuff to come through and when it didn't after a few minutes, we realized we needed to push it through further, before going through the detector. We had to go the opposite direction through the detector to rectify the situation and caused a bit of a kerfauffle. Maybe that's just us, but there could have been a little more direction from the port agents in that regard.

Puerto Vallarta

The port was a little crazy - lots of people and vendors. We needed to get to a bus stop and the guys standing around trying to sell tours and stuff were actually really helpful. After assuring them we wanted the adventure of a bus ride and not a taxi or tour (a decision we would come to regret later - see link in my review) they directed us to right bus stop so we could make our way to our adventure.

Mazatlan

The Mazatlan port was less busy than Puerto Vallarta. We had to wait for our tour guide for a bit and had a bit of confusion because he wasn't holding a sign, like we had expected. But the other guides, who are all competing with one another for business, were very helpful and directed us to where he was. So, a piece of advice - if you are unsure about something at the port - just ask! The drivers and guides are all very friendly and helpful.

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