Ruby Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,976 reviews

Great Family vacation

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Ruby Princess
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dsjmal135
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jul 2010
Cabin: Balcony

Your comments were: Overall a very good experience but many corners cut by Princess.

The shore excursions were great. If you book through the cruise line, you are over paying a huge amount. There are alternative choices at every port at much lower prices. A good small example is Rome. We chose the on our own for us and the Elite for our friends. We paid $89 for the bus trip that was ok but the Princess guide lost two people just because she didn't pay attention. These people ended up taking a cab back to ship at $350 cost. At the docks, a train ticket to same drop off was less than 10 Euros. Bus fares were equally as low. The same tours for "Elite" type guided tours were also equally as low. I would suggest that you look on line and book elsewhere rather than through Princess. Also, there really are alternatives to Princess at every port so don't worry about being shut out if you don't book anything.

Dining was disappointing. We had "Anytime Dining". This means you can reserve dining before 6:30 or after 9:30. If you wait between 6:30 and 9:30, it can be a long one. We waited over an hour on many occasions. It is not anytime dining. It is wait to dine until there is room for you. The food was fair at best. The buffet varied from good to horrible. We gave up waiting for anytime dining some nights and went to the buffet. Service varied from terrible to excellent. The staff complained they did not have enough people working the dining rooms. Forget about bringing your own bottle of wine. They charge $15 to open it. If you have two bottles it is $30. They clearly want to squeeze every dollar out of passengers. We had four or six in our party for dining so maybe two people would get seated sooner.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BB
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