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Maximum sea days!

Ruby Princess Cruise Review to Panama Canal, Central America

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 93

Overall rating:

4.5 out of 5
Ruby Princess

16 Night Panama Canal With New Locks - Ocean To Ocean (Galveston To San Francisco)

Sail date: April 14, 2023

Ship: Ruby Princess

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: R258

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

A quiet, relaxing cruise, booked on a last-minute deal. We love the transition cruises because there are so few ports. We go for the sea days! Best parts were the Panama Canal, the quiet afternoons on deck (or in the Central Piazza!), and the seasonal crew tug-of-war contest. We were disappointed in the quality of the enrichment sessions, and (being a smaller ship) the lack of Alfredo's Pizza or a gelato bar. But the trip gave us what we wanted -- a long cruise with little to concern us.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Pre-registration was a breeze through the MedallionClass app. We booked as a last-minute cruise, so we only had to stop long enough to collect our new Medallions. Otherwise, we didn't really stop moving! Total time from door to ship: less than 15 minutes.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
I love the dining on Princess ships. A decent selection each night, with a great set of standards always available. (Love the French onion soup!) At least one fish option each night, and the cruise-themed selections were wonderful. I'm amazed that the staff on the ship tried to use coarse-ground pepper in fine-ground shakers. Not a single pepper shaker on the ship worked. If there was a British Pub Lunch, we didn't see it and it wasn't announced. This may have been a casualty of being a transitional cruise. The Good Spirits at Sea bar was having technical problems, so none of the specialty videos could be shown. Between that and the vexing decision that the Good Spirits speciality drinks are only available on specific hours, this bar really lost most of its enjoyment. The pool deck bar "The Mix" gets a special shout out from me, along with its barkeep, Lester! Very good service, very personable, and very good at handling an overwhelming number of orders at once.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
The ship is one of the typical Grand-class ships, so there aren't any of the gimmicks of the newer giants. Most notable is probably the Movies Under the Stars deck, which includes a full set of tiered levels for great viewing or great sunning without experiencing the at-sea winds. Our most crucial activity -- the Internet connection -- worked better than any cruise we've ever been on. Bandwidth through the Central America region was amazingly fast! (75 MB/sec) It did slow down once we hit Mexico latitudes, though, to about what I expected (3 MB/sec). And except for the first day out, when the system couldn't register new clients, there was never a lost connection or dropout.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
The productions shows do a decent job, though not up to the glitz and spectacle that the newer ships get. None of the guest stars (comedians and magicians) left me with any enthusiasm, or even memorable parts. However, the on-deck entertainment was great! The band that played in the center piazza multiple times a day -- Symphonee -- was fantastic! They offered a collection of pop hits, reggae, latino, soul, and some rock. I think we attended over a dozen of their performances. I would love to see these folks on another cruise.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Waiters did very well, all told. A few would occasionally lose track of where an order goes, but most did well with their recommendations and were very personable. Call-out to our cabin steward Adrian. He had everything the way we wanted it! Extra Special call-out to the cleaning staff, who found we had dropped a wedding ring in one of the restrooms, and made sure it was returned to our hands!

Ship Quality

4 out of 5
VERY clean and tidy! A few signs of wear here and there, but that's understandable with the ship scheduled for dry dock service in 6 months. I greatly prefer the Grand-class design, which includes an outside promenade that circles the ENTIRE ship. It makes walks for exercise and traversal so much easier. Granted, the bow of the ship is often closed on sea days, but the half-mile distance from end to end works well. This particular ship has an unfortunately large engine vibration on the topmost decks, so Sabatini's restaurant can shudder a lot when the engines are at high speed. Some things would fall off the tables as a result. I hope this gets fixed during this fall's dry dock service.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
The standard balcony cabin is a good size, though it doesn't offer much space to stretch out. Having the extra shelf where the TV used to be (and its electrical plug) is a nice bonus, but having the new TV wall-mounted at the foot of the bed can pinch the space between the bathroom and the sofa/desk/balcony. We find the balcony cabins acceptable, but prefer getting the mini-suite when we can. One drawback is the advent of motion sensors in the room, which light up if we stand up. We prefer a completely dark room, so the lights were an annoyance. We'll be bringing some painter's tape to cover the sensors on our next trip.

Ship tip

If you're looking for isolated and quiet spaces, try the clubs when they're not in use. Wheelhouse Bar, the back Lounge, and the bar next to Sabatini's are totally silent during a lot of the afternoon hours, and the staff will still find you with Medallion drink orders.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Galveston, Texas Did not visit port

We stayed overnight before the trip in Galveston. There were some interesting sights on the way in, so this may warrant a day or two around a future trip.
Thumbs Up

Cartagena, Colombia

4 out of 5
Weather was hot, as expected. While there are a lot of vendors across the street, the shops are a wonderful thing to wander around in! We found some very good Colombian Emeralds on shore at a decent price, though not IGA certified. Grab some street food while you wander the town! The arepas are excellent.
Thumbs Up

Panama Canal Transit

5 out of 5
This is, of course, the highlight of the trip! If you're taking pictures alone, you'll spend a lot of time dashing between the fore and aft. It works better across two people. Do remember to take multiple batteries, since you WILL run out the ones you start with! One of the joys of going through the old locks is seeing how close the ship gets to the side of the locks. Unfortunately, Princess has very few ships left that are small enough for this (Coral and Island Princess are about it) so all of the trips are now through the new locks. Not quite as close, with plenty of space for tug boats to keep the ship aligned instead of the traditional "mules". Sailing Gatun Lake between the locks is a chance to go inside for some food, but don't lose sight of the outside! There are some Great Lake views. Get a seat at the Lido buffet, and watch the lake go by.
Thumbs Up

PANAMA CITY (FUERTE AMADOR), PANAMA

4 out of 5
The setup is reasonably good, with a shuttle bus into the city while the new cruise terminal is under construction. Halfway down the causeway is the Biomeuseo - not much to visit, but great to look at, and not currently a shore stop. I hope to see that in the future. The tours that go out to the Canal Visitor Centers are quite nice, though they don't have much narration unless provided by your tour guide. I feared the 1.5 hour bus trip out to the Atlantic side would be unpleasant and boring -- not so! The bus trips over and back are scenic. and pass faster than expected.
Thumbs Up

Puntarenas, Costa Rica

5 out of 5
Most excursions go into San Jose from here, which is about a 45 minute bus trip. There are some shuttles if you want free time in town, but they aren't really compatible with going on an excursion on the same day. We went to the Andalusian horse show, which had the style of places like the Equestrian Academy in Versailles or the Lippizaner Horses in Vienna. This is a show for horse people, which concentrates on dressage and precision movements. No show jumping. We loved it!
Thumbs Up

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

5 out of 5
Such a good place to wander around in! Granted, there is still a large number of tourist traps on the shoreside, but 2-3 blocks behind that offer some fantastic local shops and taquerias. Special shouts to La Burrito leather shop, and to Dallas's Island Bar And Fish Pedicure.
Thumbs Up

San Francisco, California Did not visit port

Home town for us, so we didn't stop to see anything.
Thumbs Up

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
The ship docked at Pier 35 - SF's secondary port, since a larger Princess ship was in at the main Pier 27 port. Getting off the ship is simple and quick, but transportation out is arranged on the local streets, which can get congested. SF needs to build a dedicated spot for Uber/Lyft/Taxis.
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11 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe     4 months ago

Thanks for sharing
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CBCruising    1 year ago

Thank you... my turn soon!
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javawoody    1 year ago

Thanks for the review
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Cruiselovers70    1 year ago

Thanks for your review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise
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AuntPinkie    1 year ago

Appreciate your very informative and detailed review. Glad you enjoyed your transit cruise.
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cruising2004    1 year ago

Thank you for sharing your cruising experience. Great details!
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Gwbigdog    1 year ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise
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karlgrgurich    1 year ago

Sounds like a lovely cruise. I agree. That is a nice class of ship for the reasons you mentioned. We like the newer one tho too!
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wkran71    1 year ago

Appreciate you taking the time to write such a detailed review.
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Itspeace4me    1 year ago

Thank you for sharing.
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willwork4cruz    1 year ago

What a great review! Thank you for the details. So many people just give stars or say, “Loved it” or “Hated it”. I guess that’s important for them to tell everyone but in reality, we don’t read reviews to find out how a stranger liked their vacation. We read them to get info for our own upcoming cruises or to be entertained with experiences. That said, I’m glad you had a good time.
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