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Ruby Princess Cruise Review to Mexico

gmarshack

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 8

Overall rating:

3.3 out of 5

7 Night Mexican Riviera (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 11, 2017

Ship: Ruby Princess

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: e317

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Princess cruises has taken a nose dive in the quality of cruises since I first took them in 1986. I will no longer cruise with Princess. My overall rating is not the 3.3 that is displayed below. I would place it closer to 2.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Only ate at buffet.

Wheelhouse Bar

1 out of 5

The following review is for almost all the bars on the ship. Most had only a few windows. However they all had sofas in front of them with the back to the window. Why is that. Makes no sense.

Skywalkers Nightclub

2 out of 5

This is a beautiful bar. Would be an ideal place to have a drink and watch the ocean. Only problem is this bar only opens at 10 PM. What a waste for the nicest bar on the ship.

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

The only music that was played on deck or in the pool area was rock band that was too loud to listen to. A ragae band, a steel band or folk group would have been great. There was only 1 deck party. Too loud and no food.

Entertainment

2 out of 5

Mariachi band played all kinds of music but none of it was Mariachi music. Santana is certainly not mariachi. The band did not even have a horn player. No crafts of any kind. Not even napkin folding. No pool activities. (making cardboard boats, belly flop contest etc)

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Room size was nice but needs more storage space. Should add more cabinets near the garment rack. To much wasted space.

Ship tip

Don't choose this ship just because it has a beautiful scenic bar on top because it is always closed.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

3 out of 5

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

12 Comments

frankhw 7 years ago

I prefer Princess to other cruise lines. They seem to be interested in families as well as older singles. I choose Princess before some other cruise lines.

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quilter7054 7 years ago

Well said kfzen52.

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kfzen52 7 years ago

We are going to the Caribbean for 32 days in January for our 12th princess cruise. Hawaii, Alaska, Panama Canal have been our favorite but the Caribbean has more port days so less on the ship. After years on other cruise lines, we find princess has the best entertainment crews, We are old, they are young with our past pep,.. entertainment is for everyone, maybe we don’t want to see a violinist for 45 minutes but there may be a band elsewhere, they offer so much.. but I do find the biggest mistake people make are they don’t look for what they like. There is non stop entertainment in the piazza and if you don’t like the music at one pool there are more to choose from. Maybe princess needs to invite guest for an hour to the theater after the muster drill and do a PowerPoint of where to go, bands on board and a quick rundown of entertainment and activities, at least for first time cruisers.. personally I take my highlighter and my husband and I read the entire patter and highlight our interest for the next day. Which may not be the same, but we can find each other. I am sorry some don’t know to do this and maybe could have been helped, I firmly believe if I don’t like where I am at, I move. But I am sure I didn’t know this at first, I had to learn this.

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jaxtravelfiend 7 years ago

Irabe, I'm not too worried really. I've sailed on Princess so many times including twice on both the Ruby and Emerald (in the Caribbean and Europe).

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Dadm 7 years ago

Correction...great time.

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Dadm 7 years ago

Jaxtravelfiend, on the bright side...we were on the Ruby and you are going on the Emerald. Have a g eat time.

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lrabe 7 years ago

jaxtravelfiend, First off I hope you don’t plan on eating in the buffet every night. It’s a must to try the main dinning room and specialty restaurants if possible. I personally prefer to eat in the buffet or the international cafe for breakfast, I felt the mdr was a little boring. However, I’m not a big breakfast fan. It’s your vacation, go in with a good attitude and don’t let the negative reviews interfere with your trip. There are far less negatives than positives. I went to Alaska on the Grand in July and had a great time and booked for Mexico in February, Hawaii next October with Princess. There can be negatives on every ship and cruise line but it is what you make of it. I hope you thoroughly enjoy your trip! 🇮🇹🌮🍷🛳

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jaxtravelfiend 7 years ago

Yikes, I'm going on the same cruise this Sunday

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Dadm 7 years ago

Kfzen52, this cruiser visited Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan. The weather was beautiful. We were also on this ship, same week. It is very clean and the employees are very respectful. The food was good, but lacking variety. I agree with gmarshack, the entertainment was very low key. Band music, Mariachi, was unexpectedly LOUD. We could have slept the whole cruise away out of boredom. Haven,t cruised Princess since 2009. No urge to return soon. Back to RC.

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kfzen52 7 years ago

Where was your to?

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Cajunsailor 7 years ago

I’m not advocating for Princess (I cruised with them once and wasn’t that impressed) however, it may be a little unfair to compare a 2017 cruise to a 1986 cruise. I doubt any cruise line would compare. Times have changed and things aren’t like they used to be. Just sayin.

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jaxtravelfiend 7 years ago

That's a shame you had such a terrible experience. I cruise on Princess 90% of the time and enjoy every minute. But I look for good food in the restaurants since I hate buffets. I don't enjoy napkin folding or other crafts. They usually have pool games, great shows, tons of different types of entertainment. My cruises usually have live music in Neptunes pool and movies at the other pool. I've sailed on the Ruby, Crown and Emerald.

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