The Ruby in Mexico: A Super Late & Sorta Short Review

I got back from my last cruise, a five day trip to Cabo out of Los Angeles, way back in April. I had thought about doing a review back then but realized I hadn't taken many pictures of the ship. I also had another trip planned for the end of May so I was busy planning for that. My indecision led to no decision and no review. However, I have had more than a few people ask me if I had done a review of the trip, so I put together a shorter informational piece with some pictures, menus, and food temptations. (Also, when I'm researching a trip or cruise, I love reading everything I can, no matter how old or short). Last night I found the Patters from the cruise and I have a new scanner so I'll also try to get those on here as well.

Will look forward to it.

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A few years ago, I saw a review on here of a cruise that went to Cabo. Included in that review was a gorgeous picture of the arch. I loved it so much I made it my computer's background picture and added it to my travel bucket list. I also want to go to Playa/Cozumel on a land trip, including a drive north to swim with the whale sharks.

Good Start ...

Srpilo

Looking forward to it:D

I waited to continue posting until I arrived home, in hopes that I still had the picture that inspired the trip. Sadly I do not.

Fast forward to April of 2016. My husband and I have been all over Central America and even to Columbia thanks to a Panama Canal cruise and a couple of land based trips. However, we still hadn't been to Mexico. I have my whole Playa/Cozumel/whale shark trip planned, but really didn't feel like that big of a trip. I searched for a cruise through Princess and found a well-priced five day cruise out of LA that included one port - an overnight in Cabo. Perfect! We booked an inside on the Ruby Princess for April of 2017, waited for work to approve the vacation, and then booked flights.

Final payment was due in February. We paid and impatiently awaited our trip. In March, we received a phone call from Princess with an upgrade offer. For $300 total, we were upgraded to a balcony cabin on the middle of Baja deck (B518). This also included Princess paying our gratuities for us. We had never sailed on a balcony before and felt this was a decent offer, so we took it.

We booked our flights from Detroit to Burbank, which included a layover in Phoenix. Burbank is about an hour north of LAX. It's a smaller airport so it's pretty easy to navigate. We rented a car through Enterprise, mostly because they have a location near the cruise port we could drop off at. There's a super long outdoor walkway to get to the car rental area. We picked up our car and headed to Santa Clarita, CA.

We had a room reserved for Saturday night at a small motel, the Santa Clarita Motel. Check in was at 4:00, we arrived a little after that and our room wasn't ready yet. They offered us free tickets to a cowboy festival going on a few blocks away. So we ended up attending a random festival and then had dinner at Aye Caramba in Santa Clarita. A really small family owned Mexican restaurant with really delicious and fresh food. The towns of Santa Clarita and nearby Newhall are actually kind of interesting, especially if you're interested in old west/frontier history.

Cowboy Festival:

Gorgeous cactus flower:

Newhall, CA

We woke up early Sunday morning, checked out, and drove to nearby Placerita Canyon. The superbloom was in full force and it was gorgeous. We did some hiking and took some pictures.

Walking through the canyon:

We woke up early Sunday morning, checked out, and drove to nearby Placerita Canyon. The superbloom was in full force and it was gorgeous. We did some hiking and took some pictures.

Walking through the canyon:

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You picked a great year to visit because our fall rains yielded some of the best wildflowers in years.

 

 

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It really was incredibly beautiful. I am so grateful we were able to see them in all of their glory.

Around 9:00 we headed to the reason we had flown into Burbank and ventured so far away from the cruise port – The Gentle Barn.

The Gentle Barn is "a nonprofit organization, founded in 1999 as a safe haven and place of recovery for severely abused animals. The Gentle Barn offers their unique philosophy of rehabilitating animals and connecting their stories of survival and healing to the personal experiences of inner city, at-risk and special needs children who have suffered physical, mental or emotional trauma"'

The Gentle Barn’s mission is simple: “Teaching People Kindness and Compassion to Animals, Each Other and Our Planet.”

If you're an animal lover, this is an amazing place to visit. If you're not, you might not get my desire to visit and how happy it made me. They're only open to the public on Sundays from 10-2, which was perfect for us. I had a great time cuddling and petting the residents. I have a ton of pictures from here if anyone wants them, I just didn't want to assume anyone would want pictures of me kissing cows ;)

We spent a few hours at the Gentle Barn petting and cuddling adorable animals with amazing stories, and then left to head to Hollywood.

Our first stop was a lookout to see the famous sign. We used the Hollywood Bowl scenic overlook at 7306 Mulholland Dr. It's a small parking with not a lot of space, but a walk up the stairs has a great view of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign.

I still hadn't changed clothes yet and was probably the only person in Hollywood at the time with hay and straw all over my pants from sitting with chickens, turkeys and pigs, so I changed in the car and put in the address for Grauman's Chinese Theater, 6925 Hollywood Blvd Los Angeles, into my GPS (we always pack our GPS from home).

We found parking at the Hollywood and Highland mall. There are entrances on Highland Ave. and Orange Dr. right by the Chinese theater. Parking is cheaper with validation from stores, restaurants or the theater, but $15 is the max per day no matter what. If you look up the Hollywood and Highland mall website, click on visitor information and then parking, there’s exact directions.

We checked out all of the handprints in front of the theater and walked along the stars on the sidewalk. I feel that if you go a few blocks in either direction from the Chinese theater the crowd gets sketchy, so we didn't venture far. Later on, during our cruise, we met a couple that said a guy stopped them, offered them his CD and signed it for them, then wanted $20 for it. A silly scam, but just be careful in general.

After wandering around, we went into the outdoor part of the mall and saw the Hollywood sign again. Although I preferred the view from our initial lookout, this vantage point wasn't bad. My husband wanted to have lunch at Cabo Wabo Cantina since it’s owned by Sammy Hagar and they have their own tequila.

I had initially planned to go to Venice beach after Hollywood but it was starting to get late in the afternoon, the beach was an hour out of the way, and I knew we had a nice hotel room waiting in San Pedro. We decided to head to San Pedro. I'm glad we did as a one hour drive turned into over two due to traffic. Traffic in the LA area is unbelievably crazy.

We had a room booked at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro. I have a rewards card from that hotel group (IHG), the Enterprise location was next door, and the cruise port was within walking distance. Unfortunately for us, conveniently for them, Enterprise is closed on Sundays so we had to keep the car until the next day. Check in at the hotel was at 3:00, we arrived after 6:00, and our room wasn't ready. They informed us that we had been upgraded to a huge corner suite, so we didn't mind the wait. We went to the bar, had a drink, and settled into our awesome room. There were windows around the entire room overlooking the water and the outdoor pool.

There were two choices I had looked at for dinner. Seafood at the nearby restaurant called 22nd Landing sounded good, but the San Pedro Brewing Company was only a few blocks away and we were tired of driving. Service was slow but the food was good. We watched the sun set from their small patio and went back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Pictures of the room and our view:

Thanks for sharing nice review and great photos.

Tony

On Monday morning we woke up to this view right outside of our bedroom window: the Ruby!

We went to Grinders for breakfast. It’s a diner that was within walking distance of both the Crowne Plaza and the cruise port. After eating we walked back to the hotel and put our bags in the car. We drove to the ship and dropped off our single suitcase and both of our carryon bags, keeping only our backpacks. We then headed back towards the hotel and to the Enterprise location. Dropping the car off was easy, but strange. They acted like it was out of the ordinary to receive a car from a different location but accepted the return. Plus, as mentioned before, they are closed on Sundays, making us wait to Monday to return, costing us an extra day of rental charges.

We then walked to the main street and crossed over to the waterfront. At the far end is a fun fountain. At the other end, where we crossed, was a short walk (.04 miles) from our hotel to the USS Iowa. The initial plan was to visit the Iowa before boarding the Ruby. However, after a busy couple of days and having the Ruby within our sight, we decided we’d rather be eating lunch on a cruise ship. Plus we had already toured the Missouri in Hawaii the year before. It was time to start our cruise!

Having dropped off our bags earlier in the morning, we walked past the porters and into the line to check in with Princess. This process went smoothly except for them not having the credit card on file that I had pre registered with them weeks ago online. So they added my credit card to my account at check in. Unfortunately, this would become a theme during this cruise. We went through security and took a seat. Within 15-20 minutes our group was being called to board. The entire boarding process lasted from about 12:00-1:00 or so. Not bad at all! We dropped our backpacks off at our room and checked out our first balcony. Next, some exploration and lunch.

I got back from my last cruise, a five day trip to Cabo out of Los Angeles, way back in April. I had thought about doing a review back then but realized I hadn't taken many pictures of the ship. I also had another trip planned for the end of May so I was busy planning for that. My indecision led to no decision and no review. However, I have had more than a few people ask me if I had done a review of the trip, so I put together a shorter informational piece with some pictures, menus, and food temptations. (Also, when I'm researching a trip or cruise, I love reading everything I can, no matter how old or short). Last night I found the Patters from the cruise and I have a new scanner so I'll also try to get those on here as well.

Thank you SO much! Taking this cruise in February and dying to see the Patters!

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Thanks for sharing nice review and great photos.

Tony

Thank you!

Thank you SO much! Taking this cruise in February and dying to see the Patters!

 

 

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I'm going to scan them this weekend. Last time I tried to scan daily schedules the text was too small to read, but my old scanner was from 2007. Hopefully my brand new one will do a better job. If not, I can type some of it out to give you an idea of activities, entertainment and times.

Thanks for the review.

I am enjoying your review. I have done this cruise so many times but I still love doing it. My last time was with my niece in 2011. We are looking forward to our next booked cruise to the Mexican Rivera. For me, I have to do this cruise periodically because I always have such a great time.

Excellent photos. Looking forward to the rest of the review. The Ruby is a beautiful ship.

Looking forward to the rest of your review -- we are doing this cruise March, and have a number of friends joining us. We have sailed the Ruby to Mexico before, but not the 5 day.

Also very happy to learn about the Gentle Barn, as we live in the area. Have to check that out too!