Great room, Subdued Service, Terrible Buffet Food

Item: Ruby Princess
Rating: 3
Author: Clete

Ruby Princess Cruise Review to Mexico

Clete

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 23

Overall rating:

3 out of 5

7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 11, 2017

Ship: Ruby Princess

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: C751

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Inconsistent. Room was great, but not without issues. Ship very clean and nicely decorated, but did not flow well. Food in alternate dinning and Crown grill was good, but terrible in Horizon grill. Service in general was subdued not very warm or outgoing.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Horizon Court is the worst buffet we have encountered in 34 cruises on 20 different ships. The buffet area is small, crowded and with minimal choices. Poor salad bar at lunch and only slightly better at dinner. On three occasions we walked out without anything as we were so disappointed in choices. (and in discussing with other cruisers we found we were not alone) On the two times we did eat there, hot food dishes that should have been hot were cold (not cool, but refrigerator cold) The baked goods did not appear freshly baked. They were all tough, and reminded me of something purchased at a grocery store and then frozen. The cakes were always dry. The cookies were good, but usually the tray was empty. On the first day my husband asked a server for lemonade and the server looked at him like he was from outer space and told him they didn't have anything other than water or iced tea. Overall drink choices are minimal compared to other cruise lines as there are no self serve drink stations. As example RCL provides water, Ice tea, lemonade, fruit punch and OJ at multiple drink stations throughout the buffet area. The service in the Horizon court is dismal during lunch and only slightly better at dinner. Crown Grill was excellent. Both food and service was great. at $29 per person - it should be.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Boring. N special activities around ship, just the standard Bingo, Casino.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Looked like kids activity center was good.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

I think my wife put it best when she said "there is just no enthusiasm ". Most of the staff (including officers - upper staff) will walk past without acknowledging you. The only regular exception were room stewards and Edgar in the Crown Grill. Most staff were efficient, but with few exceptions we found them very mechanical and rarely felt that they really cared if you were having a good time.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

The first thing we noticed is "you can't get there from here". The ship layout does not flow as well as the other ships we have been on. The hunt for the restaurant where we could talk with the Maître D was frustrating as several decks do not go through and some elevators do not go to all decks. You cannot go from one restaurant to another without an up-over-down trek. The up side of our adventure was that we found the anytime dining restaurant designated for suite guests that nobody had told us about and was not included in any of our information from Princess. We did notice how clean the ship was. We consistently saw crew members cleaning (and not just wiping down, but getting into every nook and cranny). The ship was one of the cleanest we have been on.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

The room was large and very clean. There was tons of storage and the walk in closet had enough hanger space for enough clothes for a round the world cruise. The room was pretty quiet except for the occasional engine rumbling. It did not have the groaning and creaking that often occurs in ship cabins. The bed was very comfortable and the sheets and pillows were of high quality. The balcony was large with two lounge chairs and a nice table and chairs. The room steward was excellent. This is not to say the room was not without issues. The couch was getting a bit tired and you could feel the metal bars underneath the seat cushions. The faucet at the mini bar was loose and when fully turned on would take forever just to fill a water glass. The water pressure and temperature issues continued into the bathroom. The bathroom included a small shower and a nice Whirlpool tub. Unfortunately the tub was hardly usable because the hot water was barely hot and the pressure so low it took 26 minutes to fill the tub just up to the bottom jets. (yes, I timed it) We tried different times of the day, but the pressure never improved. Since the water didn't start out very hot, it cooled off during the slow fill making for a warm bath at best. The shower was ok as long as you don't want really hot showers (and yes, we went past the pre-set hot water stop) and you only want to wash your hair. This is one of the few shower on a ship I have been in that did not include a hand shower so that you could rinse off completely. I ended up with a rash from not being able to rinse off the soap properly. To top it off, the towels were very rough.