Rome to Venice on the Ruby Princess
Ruby Princess Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
12 Night Greek Isles (Rome To Venice)
Sail date: November 05, 2013
Ship: Ruby Princess
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: P226
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 11 years ago
Review summary
All in all it was a great cruise. The weather on the first week was perfect but it rained and grew much colder the second week. On our final stop, Venice, the streets were really wet and the vendors were selling throw away rubber boots! Some advice for those taking the trip: it is VERY dry on the ship. You may want to pack a humidifier if this is a problem for you. It did insure that anything I washed and hung was dry by the next morning. Don't take the panoramic tour of Athens if you actually intend to see Athens or climb to the Parthnon. Other tours are far more inclusive. Take real walking shoes as the streets are very uneven.
As for the ship. The public rooms are beautiful. Our cabin, although it had a window, was very small probably the smallest of any cruise we have taken and it was on the fifth deck which meant that all elevators didn't go there. The entertainment was fine on the three nights that there were real shows but they were short as in 30 minutes and you had to go early if you wanted a seat--at least for the early show. Deck 15, where the buffet was, had good food but finding a table to sit and eat the food was not easy. It's a big ship and there were lots of passengers so that's not surprising. We were hoping for more ethnic food and entertainment but this was not to be.
If we had it to do again, we would have made our own airline reservations. Going from FL to Rome, we were not seated anywhere near each other. On the return flight, we were routed from Venice, to Frankfurt to Chicago. With the Chicago airport closed for awhile because of storms, we sat on the runway in Detroit for hours and returned to Chicago to find the airlines had to locate a pilot to fly us to Orlando. Result: it was a 30 hour transit. There is no reason to ever go to Chicago to fly to Orlando except that the people making our reservations could care less.
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Ship tip
It's going to be dry as far as air quality. Pack a humidifier if this is going to be a problem for you. It was for me.