11-Day Alaska Cruise Aboard the RUBY PRINCESS

I was once a loyal Princess cruiser. I've been Elite for a few cruises and first cruised with Princess in 2001. I'm an active senior.

The last time I cruised Princess was in 2018. I had since cruised other lines with smaller ships because I do not like crowds. I booked this 16 day (15 night) Hawaii cruise from San Francisco because good friends were booked and my sister decided to join me.

This was a last minute booking. I contacted my travel agent on August 20. She was told that sailing was sold out so we went on the wait list. I called my travel agent every couple of days and was told we were still #9 on the wait list. Then a week later someone on the message boards mentioned that cabins were available. The best available was an obstructed view. We took it. This was three weeks before the start of the cruise.

We did not get the Plus or Premier package. I ran the numbers and after paying for gratuities and wi-fi, we could each spend over $30 per day on beverages and still be ahead. We don’t really drink and only drink one specialty coffee per day, or less.

We arranged for a shuttle service from my home to the pier. We arrived at 9:30 a.m. Our check-in window was 10:30-11 a.m. so we had to stand in line outside for an hour. Luckily it was good weather but it was a hardship for one of my friends who has difficulty standing for long periods. Once they allowed our group to enter the terminal, it was a short process to pick up our Mediallions and walk onto the ship. We were on board by 11 a.m. and went down to the Botticelli Dining Room for lunch.

The cost cutbacks since 2018 are quite drastic and most are quite obvious and seem very short sighted. Some items I noticed: No turn down chocolate. No note pad and pen in cabins. I asked at Guest Services if I could have a note pad and pen, she said “of course” and then handed me a pen and two pieces of 8 ½ x 11 paper, I guess to make my own note pad. No bag of toiletries for Elite passengers. No bar soap for the shower.

Cabin: We were on the 8th deck, Emerald. It was a fully obstructed oceanview cabin. The lifeboat was front and center. We could make out the weather and that was about it. The cabin is small with not much storage, but we made it work, even with packing for 16 days. We did get free laundry due to our Elite status but had packed extra in case there were delays in the laundry service. The laundry service was fine, out in the morning, back during dinner the next day.

Food:

There are reduced menu choices and the quality of food has diminished since 2018. Most common allergens were never marked on the menus or on the buffet signage. Other cruise lines are good at this. Often vegetarian dishes did not have the leaf icon on the menu. The descriptions on the menus were often not what appeared on the plate. I don’t eat pork or shellfish and a large percentage of the dishes had one or the other or both. I also prefer not to eat beef. This limited my choices substantially.

International Cafe: In my opinion, this venue has the highest quality items on the ship. I had a couple of sandwiches and more than a couple of desserts.

Salty Dog Grill: We ended up ordering items for lunch several times when there were no buffet items of interest. I really liked the hot dog with sauerkraut, it brought back memories of being introduced to that combination by my father on New York’s Lower East Side. The grilled chicken sandwich was also good.

Slices pizza: There are four choices of pizza by the slice; cheese, pepperoni, vegetarian and a special of the day. The slices I had were good, especially the tuna and red onion special.

Horizon Court and Cafe Caribe: I had a light breakfast in the Horizon Court a few mornings. I checked it out for lunch on port days as the dining room was closed and when the lunch menu there got boring. There was a good selection of items but most were not labeled with common allergens. The Indian style foods were very tasty. The Cafe Caribe towards the back of the ship was open at times and had different selections than the main buffet, so check that area out.

Main dining rooms:

Breakfast: Only two items change on the breakfast menu. Many mornings the service was very slow. One morning it took almost an hour to get our food. The next morning we were seated in the same section and might have ended up with the same long wait until the supervisor noticed and took care of everything for us herself.

Lunch: The lunch menu in the dining room on sea days has just four new options each day, the rest are the same every day. We got tired of the limited selections.

Dinner: In the main dining room I sometimes had trouble finding entrees that I would like. I asked for the Vegan menu one night and ordered the main dish from it. It was listed as Pasta e Ceci (Chickpeas) As I love chickpeas, it was an easy choice. What came had not a single chickpea. It was ditalini pasta with small chunks of zucchini and yellow squash in a tomato sauce. It was ok, but they should have told me they didn't have the listed item and offered to let me change my order. My sister ordered the starter from the Vegan menu and she did get it, so it wasn't a case of giving me the menu for the wrong day.

Afternoon tea: I went to afternoon tea once. Gone are the days when you are offered a choice of teas. It’s English Breakfast or nothing, though you can get coffee. The sandwiches and desserts and scones are just OK.

Grapevine wine tasting: This was an Elite benefit. It was held one day before disembarking. I don’t understand why it is held so late into the cruise, with only one dinner left to purchase wine with the meal? I did buy a bottle of dessert wine to take home because it's not available in the US.

Fitness Center: I used the fitness center four times, each time in the afternoon and was surprised that it was practically empty each time. There are a number of exercycles, ellipticals, treadmills and dumbbells. There is a full range of Precor weight machines that I had intended to use, but could not adjust them to my small frame. Heavier dumbbells are located near the entrance. Lighter ones can be found in the group fitness room, open for use when there is no class. Found on final day was a scale to weigh myself. I wish I had noticed it on the first day so that I could monitor my weight. As it was, I had only gained four pounds after this cruise.

Ship:

Upholstery in lounges is a bit frayed. The chairs are very hard. There are limited outlets in the cabin for charging electronics. Our cabin had not been updated with the bedside lamp fixtures with usb charging ports. I’m glad I brought along two extension cords so we could charge our phones overnight. The handle to the safe had been broken off sometime in the past. I reported it but it was never repaired. Luckily I had brought magnets and we used one to open the safe. The ship felt very crowded. It was hard to avoid people coughing and sneezing directly into the air. It was hard to find seats for activities, such as trivia.

Hawaii had been hit and was about to be hit again by hurricanes. Before the start of the cruise we were informed that our first stop in Nawiliwili, Kauai would be skipped because of the devastating damage to the island from Hurricane Lowell and that we’d be arriving in Honolulu a day early and would overnight there. We were also informed that our stay in Ensenada would be shortened, arriving at noon instead of 7:30 a.m. Shore excursions in Ensenada start times were adjusted. Then Hurricane Nolo started bearing down on the islands and Hawaii Civil Defense closed the port in Maui the evening before we were to arrive. We had an additional sea day but that allowed for the Ensenada visit to go back to the full day and new excursion tickets were issued.

All staff were friendly and helpful.

Ports and shore excursions:

Nawiliwili skipped due to storm damage the week before

Honolulu: Overnight visit. On our first day in port we walked from the ship to the King Kamehameha statue, Iolani Palace grounds and the State Capitol. It’s an easy walk but it was very hot that day. The next day I walked to the Ala Moana Center just to get a walk. It wasn’t quite as hot and there were interesting trees and birds along the way. Once there I went to the Hilo Hattie’s store to catch the free shuttle back to the pier. From the pier to the store it was often a 1 ½ hour wait.

Kona: Tender port. We went ashore just to get shave ice at Ululani’s. Delicious and refreshing. Once consumed we headed right back to the ship as it was very hot and humid out.

Maui skipped due to incoming storm

Ensenada: We took the shore excursion “Mexican Dancing Horses & Tequila Tasting” It was about $90 per person after the Elite discount. It was a waste of time and money. We expected a number of horses doing choreographed steps together. Instead it was a single horse and the same rider in the ring at a time showing the horse trotting, galloping and sometimes moving in circles in half the ring. The last couple (out of five or six) of horses did a bit of fancy foot work. Then to the local showroom for the tequila tasting. The showroom was an unmarked storefront. We were led back through an almost abandoned building to a space in the back where we were given six tiny tastes of tequila and flavored tequila mixes. The name of the company was not disclosed and we were all too far away from the bottles to see the labels other than during the quick pours. We were then offered special sale prices on bottles at truly exorbitant prices. Oliver, our guide, was good, telling us what it’s like to live in Ensenada.

Unless you’re on Medicare and looking for end of day cruise, than don’t go on princess cruise ship. It is a horrible experience ( entertainment -10 food 5 out of 10 restaurants 2 out of 10 I was going to die from being board .

I have purchased the plus package and I see that they advertising showing that you get to experience four restaurants that I can enjoy one night at each restaurant on the plus package ….. wrong It was only two restaurant not 4 as claimed

one called the salty dog or the food is horribly bad lopster macaroni and cheese is powdery. The burgers are salty and everything else is fried and super greasy.

The other so called restaurant was not even a restaurant. It’s tap it’s just a just cheese try and bunch of cold cuts ??? That’s not a restaurant??

The staff is good but entertainment is absolute disaster.

There is nothing to do except bingo every day and trivia every day that is so old I don’t even know what they talking about , weird cheap magic show and and couple of other show that was ok to but not great .

We end up being 12 day on sea due to a hurricane that hit Hawaii and we missed 2 islands .

on the cruise ship where there is nothing else to do if you’re under 70 years old even the dance club then they open from 11 to 1 playing very old music catering for the old crowd of course. You can request a song from your era that will take 1hr to hear it .

I feel like I’m in a senior citizen living facility cruise, I was ready to apply for Medicare even though I’m under 50

What pissed me off the most is when I wanted to go to an area that have games to play (foosball and hockey table ) . Looks like fun. OK something to do but they kicked me out and said it’s age restricted.

you have to be super old or you have to be young to enjoy anything on that ship , nothing for ppl between 30-60

The worst cruise ever will never recommend will never take again.

I have to say that, so far, I genuinely regret choosing Princess Cruises. My friend made the reservation and purchased the package, and since I had never taken a cruise in the U.S. before, I trusted her judgment and went along with her choice.

I have cruised with MSC in Europe on a Mediterranean itinerary, so that is really my only point of comparison. The two cruises were in a similar price range, but the overall experience has been completely different, honestly, day and night.

One of my biggest frustrations has been the additional charges. I paid about $480 for internet, and the plan can only be used on one device at a time. If I want to switch between my phone and another device, I have to go into the app and manually swap devices. On my MSC cruise, I paid around €100 for internet, and I remember both the service and overall experience being much better.

The dining experience has also been disappointing. On MSC, we were able to make restaurant reservations and enjoy different dining options throughout the cruise. The ship was newer, beautifully decorated, and, most importantly, everything felt very clean.

Unfortunately, this Princess ship feels quite old to me, and in several areas I have noticed a musty or mold-like smell. I have also been surprised by some of the extra gratuity charges. For example, we noticed an $18 gratuity charge associated with dining, which was mentioned in very small print at the bottom of the menu. I only realized it after seeing the charge on our account. On another occasion, during formal night, champagne was being handed out and appeared to be complimentary, but we later noticed another gratuity-related charge. These types of charges should be communicated much more clearly upfront.

The buffet has probably been one of the biggest disappointments. The food quality has been mediocre in my experience, and the variety is extremely limited. On MSC, I remember being able to choose from several different cuisines and food stations representing different countries. Here, the selection feels repetitive and much more limited.

Customer service has also been inconsistent. With a few exceptions, many of the front-desk and restaurant staff members I have interacted with have seemed impatient or unfriendly. A Brazilian staff member in one of the restaurants was especially pleasant, and our cabin attendant, Fred, has been wonderful, friendly, professional, and one of the few people who has consistently made us feel welcome.

Another frustrating example: I called to request a bottle of water for my room, fully expecting to pay for the water itself, but I was told there would also be an additional $5 charge just to have it delivered. At this price point, these constant extra charges start to feel excessive.

The pools are also quite small and crowded, and, personally, they have not looked clean enough for me to feel comfortable getting into them. The ship also seems to move quite a bit, although that may simply be related to the ship's size, weather, or ocean conditions.

The passenger demographic on this particular sailing also skews considerably older than I expected. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it does affect the atmosphere and entertainment, and it may be something younger or more active travelers want to consider when choosing a cruise line or itinerary.

Overall, my experience so far has been disappointing. Between the condition of the ship, limited food choices, extra charges, internet pricing, and inconsistent customer service, I have not found anything significant that makes Princess stand out in a positive way.

Based on my experience on this sailing, I personally would not choose Princess Cruises again. Compared with my previous MSC Mediterranean cruise. which was in a similar price range, the difference in value, cleanliness, dining, and overall experience has been substantial.