Time once again to publish one of these “quick” summary posts describing a recently-concluded cruise ahead of the full travelogues set to appear on this site just this side of the heat death of the universe. Look, work’s been hectic these past few months, and then there were cruises in there that ate up time too, and it will still take up less time to read this than if I’d posted a video blog. I will get around to it, I swear.
We have just returned from an overall fabulous cruise aboard Ruby Princess, marking the first time aboard this particular ship and now the sixth Grand-class vessel operated by Princess Cruises we’ve cruised on. Of the seven remaining Grand-class ships in the Princess fleet (at time of writing this, November 2023), that just leaves the original, Grand Princess, and the only ship retaining its shopping trolley handle Skywalkers configuration, Caribbean Princess, and while we were on this cruise we went and booked a new one aboard Caribbean Princess for next year. Remember (or learn for the first time), you can always see our upcoming cruising plans on the Future Cruises page.
We flew Virgin Atlantic to and from America, with the flight out far better in terms of comfort but far worse in terms of it had those windows that can lighten or darken with buttons, and which can be controlled by the crew, so the lovely views over Greenland and Canada we’d had on the flight to Vancouver earlier this year were ruined by deep blue tinting. Not all of us want to (or can) sleep on a plane, thanks, and some of us like looking out, thanks. I’m not a fan of the tinted windows on planes.
We stayed one night in San Francisco ahead of the cruise, booked into the Riu Plaza Fisherman’s Wharf because of its walking distance proximity to the cruise pier. Getting to the hotel involved a weaving, slightly worrying, but ultimately fun ride in a taxi from right outside the airport. We weren’t entirely sure the taxi was legal as we stepped out to see a man say “Taxi?” then lead our bags towards his waiting car, but it all worked out, with running commentary of the city and sights along the way. The hotel was perfectly fine with the exception of the bar there which has to rank as the source of the second best cocktails we’ve ever drank (Hive Bar, Crawley, still holds top spot). Superb drinks. We only hit the bar (“for a nightcap”) after we’d had a short walk around the Fisherman’s Wharf area on the Saturday evening and ended up spending over a hundred dollars. We were on holiday. This part of San Francisco was lovely, had chill vibes, pleasant temperature, ridiculous number of sea lions, street entertainment, views towards the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. A nice base to spend a few days should we ever return.
The following morning we waited for a break in the rain (the locals apparently appreciated it as there’d been a bit of a drought) to walk our luggage the ten minutes to the dock. We didn’t quite make it before the heavens opened up again so we looked like drowned rats when we checked in, but arrival time at the dock to stepping into our room couldn’t have been more than another ten minutes.
Let’s mention those dry dock changes. This was Ruby Princess’s first cruise after a three-week dry dock and it had had some fairly hefty changes, plus some general sprucing up. Most of what I say here should be true based on what we were told after talking to some bar staff about what was new since the dry dock, but it’s possible that some of this was already in place. Again, this was our first time aboard Ruby Princess so we didn’t have anything concrete to compare against.
- Accessibility Improvements – People with disabilities were given a little love with the changes to improve accessibility. Most noticeably, a lot of the bars had lowered bar service areas for those in wheelchairs to get close and use. One of the exits onto the Promenade Deck was changed from a heavy, swinging door to one that slid open.
- Casino – By all accounts, all stripped out and replaced. It was certainly more open, clean, fresh-looking, hosting new carpets and new machines. What had previously been the smoking room was turned into a small arcade room (which we forgot to check out), but that meant that smoking was permitted in the casino itself. Only on the port side, and only cigarettes (no pipes or cigars), but the result was what you expect: it smells. Perhaps not as bad as we’ve found on other ships, but that’s possibly down to this being the first cruise after dry dock again. Smoking is vile, but the addictive personality that likes to smoke often likes to gamble away money too, and cruising is a money-making business. We were told that Princess are looking to scrap smoking inside completely but I have my doubts. At the very least, it would be a good move to only permit vaping. Vaping is still awful – I have no wish to breathe in exhaled water vapour from someone’s lungs just as I have no wish to breathe in tobacco smoke – but it could improve the overall feel there and reduce the stench for those wanting or needing to pass through.
- Skywalkers Nightclub – Brand new star-field carpeting and furniture giving it a more modern look. Around the dance floor there are stools and a small bar. Now, on other Princess ships, this bar is flat and ideal for putting your drinks on while you’re dancing or people-watching, but on Ruby this had a rounded top stopping that, and also making the point of the stools pointless. It’s possible this has always been like this on Ruby Princess, but if it’s new then it’s a bad move.
- Carpets and Furniture – Pretty much everywhere, as far as we could tell, the carpets had been replaced, and most venues appeared to have new seating too. The big exception was the Adagio lounge, but it’s likely so underused that it wasn’t worth it.
- Princess Links – This is the mini golf course that on all the other Princess ships we’ve been on has been some green carpet with a couple of holes in it. On Ruby, though, it was a proper miniature golf course. A very nice improvement, even if I’ve never managed to persuade Marie to play a game with me.
- Cabin – Other than the new carpet, the only thing we could see that was decidedly different from other Princess ships in this class was the lighting in the room. Side table lamps had no upgrade so, nope, no USB outlet near the bed. However, under one side table there was a narrow strip light with a motion sensor to switch it on. Mildly irritating, but you can stuff a pillow in there and stop that. Far more annoying, but probably part of the accessibility movement assuming it’s a new thing, was the closet light. It was almost impossible to go to the toilet during the night without triggering the light, and that light is bright. Really, really bright. Like “oh, has a lighthouse crept into my room while I’ve been snoozing” bright. I said “almost impossible” because my top tip here is make sure you’ve got some plasters and cover the sensor on the light for less-interrupted nights.
Onto the cruise from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale via the Panama Canal then, and first, the itinerary.
We’d known at the time of booking that there were a fair few sea days. After we’d booked, that increased by one when a planned stop at Nicaragua was cancelled due to political unrest. On the cruise itself we then lost the stop at Panama too for the same reason. Panama, and the planned visit to see a native tribe, was what I’d most been looking forward to, so this was a big disappointment, but it happens. We still got to visit Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia.
Mexico – Cabo San Lucas was the stop here, and a first time at this particular Mexican port for us. It didn’t look like there was much to do in the port itself if you didn’t want to visit a beach or stroll around shops, so we took an excursion to the town of Todos Santos for a walking tour of it and lunch at the Hotel California. A really pretty town, the hotel was interesting and filled with gorgeous artwork, Marie got a free mini-margarita, we both tested some tequila before buying some. Very, very hot and humid.
Costa Rica – Our second time hitting the port of Puntarenas and this time we opted for a walk in the cloud forest tops. This involved a hike through trails with lots of downs followed by the inevitable ups interspersed with walks over suspension bridges that were supremely wobbly. If you don’t like heights then probably avoid this one. And if you don’t like snakes then avoid it too because we came across a viper curled up by the path at one point. And if you don’t like tarantulas then hope that you’re as lucky as us and that your guide can’t get one of them to crawl out of its hole for you. Actually, though, a great little trip, with lunch included, and despite the dripping, beetroot face of Marie thanks to the exertion of the climbing segments, we both enjoyed it and the re-visit to a souvenir shop we’d hit years before too. Very, very hot and humid.
Colombia – We opted for a highlights tour of Cartagena for our first visit to this country. After some hellish traffic jams partly from localised flooding that had occurred before we arrived, this included a visit to a fortress (some steep slopes brought on the sweating and panting once again), a shopping arcade in old walls, a walking tour of the absolutely beautiful old town, some free time in the town, a visit to the former home of the Inquisition, the cathedral, and a maritime museum, plus a short folklore show. Beautiful, as I’ve mentioned, but brace yourself for all the people trying to sell you tat every few metres, and practice your “No, gracias” before heading here. Great local beers, though, and had the joy of both seeing a drug deal take place and being offered some too. One other wonderful thing about this port is that there was an aviary at the port entrance containing loads of exotic birds, all free to access. Very, very hot and humid.
And, obviously, there was the transit of the Panama Canal too. A good experience to tick off the list, but not much else to say about it. After entering the canal in bright (and ferociously hot) sunshine and moving through the three locks, most of the transit took place in rain, with some parts in fog. Not quite as extreme as when we did the Suez Canal.
One of the best aspects of this cruise on Ruby Princess was that in many ways it felt like a return to the sort of cruising we did when we first fell in love with this form of travel. The ship’s staff were fabulous (with one massive exception (more on him in a bit)), and you could tell this was a happy crew. We had some of the best service we’ve had at sea on any line. We had the best cabin steward we’ve ever had.
On the first night, there’d been a little disappointment when the staff in Skywalkers didn’t pay enough attention to the few of us in there leading to me giving up waiting for someone to come over, refusing to walk to the bar in the nearly empty venue on principle, and ordering a drink on the app that was then delivered from the Lido deck bar. It all annoyed me enough to post a comment to Princess Cruises on an Instagram post of mine. After publishing and reading it, I decided that since it was the first night I was possibly just being tetchy for no reason so deleted it. That comment was visible for all of twenty seconds. But it was seen. A few days later we had a message on the phone from the general bar manager aboard wanting to talk to us. We didn’t know what the reason was and figured something had been left or appeared on a bill or something like that. No, apparently, Princess must have contacted him, worked out who we were based on our Instagram account, and asked him to make us happy. He took us to Crooners and bought us drinks and had a chat about what we’d experienced on the first night. We tried to wave it all off, saying we didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, one of those things, we didn’t want anything, really we didn’t want anything, no we didn’t want to dine at Crown Grill as we’d done it the night before, no we didn’t want to dine at Sabatini’s as we had it booked for the day after, seriously we didn’t want anything. We were then talking about general changes and about how we were sad to see that Belle Glos Pinot Noir was no longer in Vines, although it could be bought elsewhere. “Oh, you like Belle Glos?” he asked. When we got back to our cabin that evening there were two bottles waiting for us.
Seriously, we didn’t want anything. We’re not those sorts of cruise bloggers. But you bet we enjoyed the hell out of them. Thank you, Princess, and thank you, Prishant, who made a point of checking in on us numerous times on the cruise to make sure things were still okay and had improved. They had. Immensely. We never even had to ask for new drinks in Skywalkers after that as they knew what we liked; we even had new drinks arriving before we’d finished the old ones most of the time. Great service.
But, I feel it’s only fair to mention the blot on the landscape of this cruise ship (not counting the debacle of a debark tour that wasn’t really in Princess’s control), and that was that massive exception I mentioned earlier. The DJ. I won’t mention his name as a small courtesy (but when I post Princess Patter imagery in the full write-ups you can find it there if you’re really interested). I cannot think of a less-suitable-for-cruising person working in the cruise industry. He was young, so perhaps he can learn, but he also needs a complete personality overhaul. The music he played was okay, but he played it every night. A different order, maybe mixed a little differently, maybe with a different song every now and then, but ultimately, the same core of songs every single night. Every. Single. Night. There were no themes. You got a mixture of disco, pop, and bloody Latin. The same mixture. Every. Single. Night. So far, not great, but not the worst thing in the world. Ah, but let’s fast forward to about the fourth night of this when it was just me and Marie and maybe a couple of other people seated in the club.
“Hey, mate, as there’s nobody here and nobody dancing, any chance of some rock instead?”
“No.”
“But some other night, maybe, yes?”
Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.
“Do you have any Rob Zombie? Probably not, but thought I’d ask. AC/DC would be good, though. What have you got?”
Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.
“So any classic hip-hop? Late 80s, early 90s. You’ve got to have Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, yeah?”
Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.
Yeah, I was not happy. The impression I got was that this was a DJ who thought he was headlining a massive club in Ibiza and I should be thankful just to be in his presence as he honed his skills, whereas I’d thought he was the DJ on a cruise ship whose purpose was to entertain guests and be an ambassador for the cruise line. I seethed, but said nothing.
A few days later, though, some new people turned up in the club late one night, and just as we were leaving we overheard the guy say to his wife “This music sucks. I wish he’d play some Led Zeppelin.” I couldn’t help myself, so I wandered over and said “We’re right there with you and the Led Zeppelin, but good luck getting this DJ to play it.” “Oh, watch me try,” he said, and wandered across the empty dance floor to the booth.
We didn’t hear what was said, but we stood there with his wife as the guy first talked, then threw his hands up in the air, then started gesticulating to the DJ. The next thing that happens is the music stops, the lights come up, and the DJ starts shouting “No, I will not be told what to do. That is it! It’s over!”
The guy walked past us, gesturing to his wife to come along, and told us “That DJ is a fucking asshole!” as he left. I decided to pop over to the DJ and said “Hey, I don’t know what was said to you by that guy, but if anything was said in anger then let me apologise on his behalf, it’s late, try to let it go, and try not to lose your cool.” I then got an angry explanation along the lines “No, people can’t tell me what to do. Somebody punched me yesterday and they’re getting kicked off the ship, so no, nobody tells me what to do.”
The club’s manager was behind me as I went to leave and asked what the problem was. “A passenger and your DJ had a difference of opinion, I’ve tried to pave over the cracks, but this may be more your job.”
So, yes. Worst cruise ship DJ ever. And while I could never condone violence against a rude, arrogant little shit like this DJ, I can at least guess what led to it.
But, the cruise itself. We loved it. It felt not just like the before-Covid times, but before even the before-Covid times in many ways. Friendly, helpful, professional staff who remembered your name and cabin number and drinks or dining preferences, and no long waits for drinks or food, with decent entertainment from a happy crew on a cruise with interesting sights and new ports of call and experiences. It’s what we wanted.
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