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An Incredibly Relaxing Cruise

Elba

This was our 37th cruise;  we are Diamond elite or above on Princess, Cunard, RCCL, Celebrity and Silver Sea.  I did not realize this was the first sailing since the ship was in dry dock following running into the pier earlier in 2023.  The public spaces were not refurbished much, new carpet and bedding in some areas and cabins, and adding a video arcade for children in the casiono were all we noticed.

Check in was not bad even though it was raining and a larger class Princess was also sailing that afternoon.  We boarded from the smaller pier which is difficult at any time; the boarding queue begins directly from the uncovered sidewalk on the street outside the terminal.

For just coming out of dry dock this ship is unbelievably dirty.  The toilet stains are permanent; our steward who was the best part of the cruise tried very hard but it was impossible.  The glass on windows and doors made viewing outside difficult and spotty.  This was a 16 night Panama Canal cruise;  the glass was not cleaned once during the cruise.

The elevators:  doors closed too quickly or not at all, several passengers including me had large bruises from the doors closing on our arms, one lady using a cane was knocked down.  We heard of 2 occasions of passengers being stuck between floors for 15-30 minutes.

Our stateroom had unused light fixtures in dresser drawers; the new larger TV did not have a cable attached and was unconnected until the second day which made watching the saftey video impossible and we had repeated calls from the Services desk asking why we had not viewed it and reminding that is was mandatory.  Other passengers told us of dirty work boots left in their cabins, used coveralls in the closets, oil stains on the carpets and food trays left from the shipyard workers.  Several cabins flooded as well as the kitchen, the 16th deck bar locker and other public spaces.  None of the passengers who had to change staterooms because of the flooding were offered any assistance in moving.  There was a fire in a laundry room late at night which was never fully explained.  Wi-fi was out for 3 days which made the Medallions not work for some of the functions, and the casino was closed until the Wi-fi restored.

Correcting the room charges was a daily and sometimes twice daily chore.  This began on the first day when we were charged for 2 cheese plates 2 hours before we checked in.  When we questioned it and told the front desk that it was an error and that my wife was allergeric to dairy products the response was "are you sure"?  The cheese plate charges happened 2 other times.  Charges that had been fixed the night before appeared again the next morning.  I was charged the 18% bar tip but there was no drink charge.  Two credits we were supposed to get for wrong charges were entered as charges resulting in 4 wrong charges. I had pre-ordered a can soft drink package to be delivered to the room and was charged the new $5.00 room service delivery fee 3 times.  On a port day our steward was able to get off the ship and we needed the ice bucket refilled the services desk said to call room service.  There was another $5 room service fee "because ice is edible" and "you could have waited for the steward to get back to bring the ice later".  There were frequent drink mistakes including my buying a round for friends on deck which were charged to one of the friends I was buying for.  I believe we spent at least 3 hours of the cruise trying to get these charges corrected and finally gave up and have disputed them with my credit card company.

On a very serious saftey issue, one of the seats on the bar stool was broken; one of the passengers tried to sit and almost fell on the deck if her husband had not grabbed her arm.  We reported it to both the bartender and the service desk.  When we returned after dinner it had not been repaired or a warning sign attached.  As it happened, the ship's Captain was on deck having a smoke and we told him about it.  Within a couple of minutes two other officers came, taped off the stool while the Captain watched and checked the other stools and found 4 more that were broken. It was obvious the Captain was frustrated and quite concerned.  He made a comment to one of the other officers that the bar area was filthy and why had it not been cleaned.  There were no more problems with that bar.  Thank you very much Captain.

Food:  On a Princess cruise in 2022 the food was outstanding and compared to Celebrity.  This year almost nothing was prepard correctly or was good.  All fish over cooked to the point of being minced as well as dry, my lobster in one of the paid dining rooms was so over cooked I asked the waiter to cut the meat with a regular knife and she couldn't.  Only a steak knife was strong enough.  Twice wrong menu's were given out, we were told that some of the food supplies weren't loaded in San Francisco and some of the daily menu entrees could not me made, the night they offered Key Lime Pie as an option our Head Waiter checked with the kitchen and he was told the chef decided not to make it.  No explanation.  Last year the Alfredo sauces were the best I had ever had.  This year it tasted as if they used Campbell's muchroom soup watered down with some cheese thrown in. 

Services desk:  The ship was advised by the US State department not to dock in Panama City due to riots.  I wasn't aware this had been going on for months and wanted call my family and let them know we were safe.  There was no cell service so I needed to use the ship's phone. The service agent  gave me 3 different access codes to make an international call, none of which worked.  I found out later they are different on each class of ship.  When I asked to speak to a supervisor she said "No, you have to talk to me and hung up".  I went to the front desk, spoke to the supervisor who solved the issue and gave me the name of the agent who had hung up.  Later in the cruise the ships toilet system was down for over 12 hours.  This was a passengers fault who had tried to flush a hand towel.  I called the desk to find out the status, got the same agent as before with the same result. Refused to forward my call to a supervisor and hung up.  Since I knew her name I was able to talk to the Pursur who was kind and offered me some compensation.

I read in another review that several other Princess elite members said this was the last time on Princess.  It is ours as well.  Some issues could be resolved quickly by improving cleaning and better food, but with the safety and rudeness of the front desk employees we do not trust Princess.

What has happened to Princess???  By far our WORST! cruise.

Ruby Princess needs a complete overhaul of her plumbing etc.

There were extensive problems with toilets not working, flooding in some cabins and even the kitchen got flooded.

There was a fire in the crew area on the last night as well as a sudden listing to one side. Several people were picked up by ambulances when we got to Ft Lauderdale in the morning. Don't know what that was related to.

2 Ports were cancelled so we only got to see 3 of the 5 that were scheduled.

The food in the Buffet was nothing special and mediocre at best. On the other hand in the MDR it was very good and our waiter Michael was awesome.

Princess new Medallion app system is nice but needs improvement as well as when the WiFi is not available which happened a few times the system will not work.

We talked to a few long time Princess cruisers who say they will never cruise with them again. I know we wont.

This ship is a disaster

The first cruise we ever took was on the old Dawn Priincess, So Princess has a special place in our hearts. For that reason it hurts to see how far they have slipped in quality. This 10 day cruise had perhaps the worst entertainment we have ever seen. From a female comedian who was terrible--an impersonator who wasen't even close. One "showroom" star was a guy who had been performing in the lounge all week. They promoted him to "headliner" for one night.

The dining room food was so so ,the standard in the industry. At one time Princess made the dining room special in quality and presentation, no more. They have taken a step back. It is a rush rush situation---feed you---get you out--some one else is waiting. The "specialty restaurants" are good, but they should be when you are paying a "specialty price" . Princess is known for their small cabins and this ship is no exception. Small and basic but it was kept very nice. The cabin crew was great.

Unless we receive a very good price offer in the future, I don't believe we will be looking at another Princess cruise

10 Day Alaska

We sailed to Alaska on the Ruby Princess and it was one of the worst trips of our lives. Our stateroom was directly across from a crew service area, and four days into our trip, a pipe in that service area began leaking water into our room. We noticed the wet carpet before leaving on an excursion and notified guest services. When we opened the door to our stateroom in the evening, we were met with a bare floor/ripped up carpet, towels on the ground, a bucket, and two loud fans. We immediately went to guest services to let them know that our room was now uninhabitable. After 5 hours of going back and forth with various front desk staff, we were finally able to switch rooms. We soon found out, though, that no one had switched our accounts over to the new room, so our medallions didn’t work and we couldn’t unlock the door. The porter was able to let us in, but the TV and phone didn’t work either. 

We also experienced extremely poor customer service from members of the crew, in particular from the waitstaff at at dinner. We took a European cruise with Princess in 2017 and had a great waiter who was attentive and personable. There was not even a trace of any of that hospitality on this Alaska cruise. Besides being rude and cold to us, some of the servers were outright hostile.

The food ranged from mediocre to awful. Nothing had seasoning or any flavor whatsoever. The breakfast buffet had the same food options everyday, which we got tired of very quickly. One night, we ordered the orecchiette  as an appetizer and it came in a liquid that looked like dirty dishwater. It had no taste as well, so we hardly touched it. Our waiter made a comment that implied the dish was too sophisticated for our palette to enjoy. No, your food just tastes bland and that is why we refused to eat it. 

We got sick after our fifth day despite wearing masks and washing our hands constantly. We did not see anyone cleaning any of the public areas once during our time on the ship. On previous cruises, before Covid, staff would be constantly wiping down hand rails and other public areas. 

All in all, this will be our last cruise with Princess. The quality and service has gone considerably downhill and is completely not worth the prices they charge.

Terrible ship and crew

We chose Princess Ruby because it sails from San Fransisco. We liked many activities and entertainment. But very disappointed that it has  very limited Asian food that you can only  find in buffet area. Even the limited Asian food tended to be Indian food or Tai food. 

The bar quality are not consistent. Sometime are strong while other time are week. Coffee some time are stale while other times are good. We had internet package. Most of the time, it worked, but sometimes it is very slow or stopped.

Spa and fitness center has limited classes, only in the early morning or late afternoon. But Zumba and dance class were very good. During the shore days, it does not have much onboard activities. 

Ran into many tourists have with limited English. They had a hard time to figure out things or enjoy the entertainment while no help was provided by the staff.

No Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food 

We had a great time on the cruise. I am diabetic and was happy to see sugar free desserts. I love my coffee and was glad to see the expresso being served. My wife is not fond of sweet desserts and was glad to have so much fresh fruit available. All of the staff were so nice and caring, always willing to help.  I was really impressed with them all; waitstaff, housekeeping and the crew.

Our biggest disappointment was not seeing the glaciers. We didn't get to go up that straight because of the fog which we can blame on mother nature.  The other problem we had was the last 3 days. We didn't feel that great when we got home we both tested positive for covid. We are in our 70s and saved a long time for this trip. We also were new to cruising and did not understand about the dinning room, checking the menus and times.

Disappointed 

This was a long planned family cruise including my mother, my brother, and both of our families. Fourteen of us, in all, including three great grandchildren. It was a first cruise for the grand and great-grand generations. The rest of us are spread out from Ruby to Elite in Princess’ Captain’s Circle/Medallion program.

We had great weather at all of our ports. The only weather impact was fog that cancelled our glacier viewing day. My family ate most our dinners in the Boticelli dining room. The food and service was excellent. The new things we did were to have a dinner at Sabatini’s and another at the Chef’s Table. Both were wonderful. If you eat at Sabatini’s, skip lunch. The portions are huge. I don’t think any of us are more than a few bites of our entrees. We were stuffed by the time they came. The Chef’s Table was exquitely elegant in a private dining room at Sabatini’s.  The evening was full of amazing food, wine, and conversation with the hotel and kitchen executives and staff. Everyone should do it at least once. Be aware there is s $100/person fee for it.

The ship is showing some wear and tear. The most obvious and annoying one was the elevators at the back of the ship would forget what floors were selected every time it stopped at a floor. I understand that the ship is going in for scheduled maintenance in mid September.

Overall, it was a great trip and a chance to get away from the central California summer heat for 10 days.

Alaska is always nice but ship needs maintenance.

We chose this cruise because we could drive to the port of San Francisco. Ten day Alaska cruise. We had a balcony and the Premiere package. We have been on six previous cruises - Carnival, twice on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and this would be the second Princess.  This is a long review - just too many disappointments in most areas.

We were so disappointed with the service, food, daytime entertainment, the drink package and condition of our room and balcony.  The medallion should be scrapped. Go back to the old key cards.  The medallion/app didn't work most of the time. Couldn't even check our portfolio on the TV. Had to use the app on the phone or go to customer service.  Ordering food through the app was extremely slow and food was cold by the time we got it (two hours later).  Ordering through the app or phone for room service - very slow, order was wrong, and food cold.  The food was terrible.  I have never complained about a cruise and food before until now.  We had room service for coffee and breakfast in our room.  The same old broken coffee pots made it to our room every morning.  Grapefruit - shriveled up.  Bananas - black and mushy.  We quit ordering the "hot" breakfast sandwich because it never arrived hot.

Desserts were stale or had no taste.  No real butter anywhere on the ship.  Ran out of Moscato wine and Alaskan Amber beer by second day.  We were even docked next to the Alaskan Brewery in Juneau, and still no Alaskan Amber. We were told by a waiter that the truck carrying that alcohol was hijacked!  That's when we knew any complaint would never be taken seriously or followed up on.  The buffet was confusing.  They were always shutting down lines. So if you got a plate of food and sat down, by the time you went back to the buffet, the gate would be closed and you'd have to go to the other side of the ship to a different line.  One day there was no silverware or napkins to be found.  I had to search at the other lines for some.  The food was not hot.  It was Asian food all the time.  There wasn't much to pick from.  The fruit was old. There was a schedule of theme nights for the buffet and we went up there for the Italian night.  Only one dish of vegetarian lasagne.  It was dinner time and they only had ONE buffet line open out of the the four.   

Sit down dinners took forever.  We even missed the show one night as it took three hours to get through dinner.  Reservations were a joke.  Lines everywhere.  We sat with another couple we did not know, and when the server came around to switch out silverware for dessert time, he simply slid the spoon over to my spot from the man sitting next to me! Many times when we ordered something off the menu, they were out of that item.  It got to be a joke when my husband ordered a beer, he would give them three options.  They were always out of the first two. Having a Premiere package should mean that whatever is advertised, is what you should get.  They were out of our favorites every day we asked for them.  

We had a great dinner at the Crown Grill.  Great service.  But we shouldn't have to rely on specialty dining to have great food and service.  The only complaint is that they kept trays set up at the end of the booths and would pile dishes there to noisily scrape and stack before bringing them to the kitchen.  That was something they should've done out of sight of the diners.  We also ate at the specialty restaurant Sabatini's which had great food and service. 

Servers are in desperate need of proper training. I ordered a strawberry daquiri and the bartender poured it in a glass, poured some on the back of her hand, licked it off and said "yum!".  Then handed me my drink.  It was moments like these that we just looked at each other in disbelief.  The money we paid for this cruise was definitely not worth it. 

We couldn't even get off the boat at Sitka because the tender boat ticket lines were half way down the ship.  By the time we got a ticket, it was number 59.  We anchored at this port at 1 pm.  At 3 pm they were only calling for ticket numbers 22-24!  We gave up.  By the time we'd get a tender to shore, we'd have to turn around and get back in a long line to get back on the ship.  

The mini golf was just an old piece of green carpet with holes.  No fun obstacles to putt through.  

Carpet in our room was very worn out.  The shower stall had a lot of surface cracks.  Very outdated room.  I don't know why maintenance was always painting railings during the cruise.  Wet paint signs were posted on the floor.  Many people didn't see that and were leaning on the railings.  Something like that should be done during dry dock.  

We had cruised on Celebrity in March and we had absolutely no issues with service or the food.  I don't know what happened to Princess.  It seems to have gone downhill since we went on Coral Princess 10 years ago.  Lines for everything.  The Pizza place - one person making, baking and taking orders all alone.  Getting a hot chocolate at the International Cafe took forever.  It was one disappointment after another.  The only food available 24 hours was at the International Cafe.  All it had were sandwiches, soups and some desserts.  No condiments to be found.  They handed my husband a bottle of tobasco sauce when he asked for mayo.  They didn't have any.  On Celebrity we could get pizza and pastas in the buffet till at least midnight.  It was so disappointing with the limited choices on this ship.  We found the Salty Dog Grill had the best hot food.  But had to stand in line (outside).  That's another odd observation - this ship was not made for Alaskan cruises. No solarium for an indoor pool.  Pizza, ice cream/coffee, and the grill were all outside.  

Entertainment was lacking.  One production show seemed very dark and odd.  One comedian was funny, the other was not.  During the day it seemed they only had trivia contests or some sort of sing along that didn't make much sense. Some of the dances in the Centrum were fun though.  There were way too many "infomercials" going on during the day for spa services.  I don't consider that as entertainment.  The Mysterious Duo was very good.

We won't be sailing on Princess again any time soon.  Alaska was great, the ship was not.  I never thought I'd be the "complainer" for a review.  I had always wondered about people that complained about food and service - until now.  I really expected more for the money we spent.  It was such a let down.  Yes, Alaska is great no matter what. Seeing whales and glaciers was wonderful.  When we sailed into Endicott Arm, the ship stopped in front of the glacier and slowly turned around twice.  As we sailed out, the captain announced that the naturalist that was narrating the whole time had the wrong button pushed.  So we never heard any information on that area!  Next time, Royal Caribbean to Alaska.

Very Disappointing Cruise

We choose this cruise mostly because it sails out of San Francisco and we live within an hour of SF.

Also, we have always wanted to do an Alaskan cruise and not having to deal with air travel or hotels was a big plus.  This was our first Princess cruise.  Our previous cruises have been on Royal Caribbean. 

Here are some things I preferred on the Ruby Princess.

1.	The drinks.  Don’t know why but, we never ‘felt’ the drinks we had on our RC ship.  On the Ruby Princess we definitely felt a little buzz after 2- 3 drinks and more buzz with more.  I do not know if RC waters their drinks down or what but all in the group agreed, very little effect after multiple drinks on RC.  I don’t want to get drunk/plastered, just relax and be maybe be a little silly after a few drinks.

2.	The Embarkation was MUCH better on the Princess cruise.  We were on the ship (enjoying above drinks) in a very short time!

3.	Same at the ports, much easier to get off and back on the ship. Very simple & painless.

4.	The Medallion App well.. sort of.  It has some nice features but was kind of kludgy.  Finding places on ship with the app was nice when it worked.  Ordering room service off the app was great.  But again when it worked about 25% time something was forgot on the order.  One time it never came.  It’s a great idea but needs the bugs worked out.

Things I did not like as well on Ruby Princess.

1.	The food!  It was ok but never amazing like on RC (except the 2 nights we paid extra for premium restaurants).  Same with the buffets the food was just ok but, I loved the buffet food on the Royal Caribbean cruises.  The hot sandwiches at international café (always open) were really good though on Ruby Princess.

2.	Ruby Princess was not nearly as well organized as Royal was. 

3.	Some of the ‘shows?’ were advertising for their jewelry line.  On a cruise I want to enjoy entertaining shows not to shop for their stuff!  Royal had much more and better entertainment!  Princes had a few good dance shows and a couple good comedians but still RC seemed a notch above here too.

4.	The service on the Ruby Princess was good/ok.  But, on Royal Caribbean they all always made me feel like I was someone special.   Royal seemed to go over the top with service while Princess was, ok/good.  Royal treated you amazing!!  While most personnel on the Ruby were pretty nice, not near the level as on Royal and, one lady at one of the bars had zero personality.  Normally bartenders are awesome but she should work at a funeral home or in a warehouse.  If you were on the ship, you likely know who I’m talking about.

5.	Our room steward on our Royal cruise was AMAZINGLY nice and provided all the cute towel origami’s and other.   On Princess, our room steward was.. nice but very quite and no fancy towel folding.

The overall ‘vibe’ on the Royal cruise was, nicer/funner.

Would I cruise with Princess again, maybe.  I still love a lot about their cruise but, I would most likely choose another Royal cruise next time as if was overall much more enjoyable!

Cruise was ok but, could or should have been a lot better.

I sailed with Princess to Alaska in the past and I brought my whole family to experience Alaska with Princess this time. This cruise did not disappoint,  and my family was able to see more sea life such as whales, fish jumping, and a truly massive salmon in the wild on this cruise than they had seen before on any vacation. My family is already planning our next princess cruise back to Alaska.  

Our ports involved Ketchikan and Prince Rupert.  While at Ketchikan we enjoyed shopping, sight seeing, walking through the historic town.  Some of our family also went zip lining though the rain forest.  Prince Rupert was a nice final stop where we did some more shopping and learned about the local history.  The Princess staff really went out of their way to make our cruise a great experience.  On board we really enjoyed are balcony cabin and the Buffett.  We will defiantly be going again.

July 6. 2023 Alaska 

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