Ruby Princess Review
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Our arrival at LAX and the the subsequent bus trip to the ship were happily uneventful. Our check-in/registration was amazingly fast since our bus arrived at noon, well before the usual check-in time. We have sailed with Princess before so we quickly found our cabin and again, happily, had no surprises. I did notice that both my husband's and my allergies kicked in when we were in the cabin. Since it was a balcony cabin, I suspect mold under the carpet may have been the culprit. We also noticed that the air conditioning seemed to be shut off in the middle of the night making for a very stuffy room. Perhaps some of the "sick ship" problems of headaches, sore throats, colds, etc could be traced to Ruby's older cabin carpet and drapery. Ruby definitely needs new cabin decor. If you plan to sail on the Princess, bring your allergy meds.
As for the anytime dining, we had no problems getting reservations every night in the DaVinici dining room at 7:30. Our table was always ready and the head waiter let us in early if the table was vacant before 7:30. We learned that if you eat at the late seating, they treat you like gold. We ordered wine nightly and had no problems with the staff being inattentive. True, the food was bland sometimes and the portions were small but we realized that with so many very elderly passengers with restricted diets, the chef was probably limited in just how far he could go with the seasoning.
We ate at all three of the speciality restaurants. The Crown Grill was a disappointment - not only for the nothing special steak but for the long waits between courses. We easily spent 2 hours there. The Crab Shack in the Caribe Cafe was worth the money but, again, you should plan on taking a very long time from start to finish. The Crab Shack food was great and literally overflowing. It was my favorite meal on the Ruby. Sabatini's was nearly empty the night we dined there and the portions were unexpectedly small considering that we paid a premium to eat there. Our waiter was attentive, but again, plan on being there a long time.