Live from th e Ruby Pricess 9/16 9/23

Living in Tacoma Washington getting to pier 91 should be no problem, well it was not. Called Uber and the driver showed up, we loaded our luggage and off we went. Did not take us long, but I saw stuff I have never seen before. (We have lived in Seattle area for some time.) Once in the embarkation area things went smoothly and we were off to wait for our Zone. We were a #2 so soon after 11:30 we were on board, getting pictures taken and all that stuff. We dropped our hand carry stuff in our room, D736, St Thomas Suite and got my camera out. We have the Sip and Sail Promotional and tested it on the lido deck, kool it worked. I say that because we had signed up to traditional dinning but showed any time dinning. After talking to the Matra’de (sp), we told that suites are in the Club Suites Dining Room and it is open seating. At this stage I am learning that things have changed since the last time we cruised on Princess. They are using computer data big time. No longer are there stickers on your card, it’s all digital. After the emergency drill and sail away, (Seattle was really smoky), but it was fun watch the sights. (I pulled in Seattle for the first time in the 1978, it was awesome!).

We headed to the suite dining room, Club Suites Dinging Room, and it was wonderful. The wife had the Crayfish Etofay, (I’m not on the internet to get the spelling). I had the steamed cod fish and it was great, and I’m not a big fish eater. I was stuffed and so was the wife.

After we watched “Magic to Go”, I was entertained, (don’t expect Broadway stuff)

Afterword’s we went to Club Fusion for “The Voice of the Ocean”. Good time was had.

Now we are getting tired it is now 10:30, so back to our room and ordered a tuna salad sandwich and it was wonderful.

Any questions, just ask and we will try to answer.

Sail on

Sue and Val

Hi Sue & Val

Enjoy your cruise on Ruby Princess. Early days yet so enjoy exploring the ship,

Cheers

Let us know how your weather is and also let us know how you enjoyed all your suite perks

What cruise are you on?

Bon Voyage and enjoy your cruise! :cool:

Thank you for posting live! Following along and taking notes since we'll be doing this cruise next year!

Thanks for posting live. We will be on the Ruby in 3 weeks so very interested in your posts; especially the food and entertainment. Looking forward to your next post, Shirley

Have a wonderful cruise to Alaska ! We found that it was a totally different world -- a magical time, with enchanting, beautiful scenery. :D

Have a wonderful cruise to Alaska !

We found that it was a totally different world -- a magical time, with enchanting, beautiful scenery. :D

Looking forward to your live thread. I'm hoping to get back to Alaska next year.

Thanks for sharing and all the your efforts

Enjoy the Ruby

Srpilo

Please ask if a Head Waiter named "Franz" is on board. I would assume any of the Head Waiters would know him and could verify.

He's a fantastic guy with a very dry wit.

If you meet him, please let him know that Scott and Irene from Vegas will be on board October 1st

Thank you

Sorry I have not posted, I did not see the post until today. I will catch up.

Live on the Ruby Princess day 2. Formal Day. Clocks moved backwards one hour and some folks were confused, but that is the way it is. Had a beautiful breakfast in the Crown Grill. I and the wife shared an eggs benedict breakfast since we don’t eat that much sometimes, it was good. So we hung out in the sky walkers club. When you want to just veg, this is a good place. I got at least a half hour nap!

We did the Horizon Court to get some snacks and they were great. Off to the room to relax and enjoy our snacks.

The weather in my opinion was wonderful, the sun was out the wind was blowing but the temperature for us was shorts and t-shirts (we are from Washington). We saw that New England was beating New Orleans and there was some depression setting in. We don’t know what the score was but it is what is is we are Seahawks fans and any who beats the Patriots is good in my boots!

Many thing are happening on a day at sea so we just thought we would chill, there was art auctions’, t-shirts sales and of course the inch of gold sales.

What we were looking forward was the Formal dinner hoping it would be some good stuff. It did not disappoint us at all. I had the leg of lamb and the boss had the special off the menu Prawns something that she enjoyed!

After Dinner we went to the Sir Elton John Tribute and had a good time.

I’m sure you are seeing a general trend that we are having a good time, mostly because we want to. I retired at the end of June and this is my splurge.

Well tonight the swells are going to be around 12 feet so the ship is starting to bounce around. (Ex-Navy here no problem!)

Juneau is the stop tomorrow coming in around 10:30 or so, so it will be fun to watch the work both the ships cruise and pier cruise happen.

But back to the current, I notice that formal night is not really all that formal. Yes there are folks dressed to the maxed, but many folks were dressed down. It did not bother me since I went tie less!

Again a cruise is what you make of it

Enjoy.

Also Seas are going to be 12ft it will be a fun night!

Since I am doing this off line it may take a touch to answer any questions

Val & Sue

...

Day 4 – Skagway

The morning happened, and we tied up to the pier in Skagway. We were able to have our breakfast in the Crown Grill and as usual the service was grand and the food was as you would want it.

Then it was off to our tour. This time we bought all our tour on board, this is the first time since our first cruise. Yes it is more expensive but it is convenient. The tour we chose was “The Best of Skagway”. We got on our bus for the drive to Fraiser BC with stops along the way for pictures and to get an idea of what the gold rush trekkers had to contend with on their trek to the gold fields. Several trips would have to be made since Canada had a rule on what they had to take and it was about a ton of food and equipment. At Fraiser we boarded the train for the trip back down. The railroad was completed after the gold rush was over, so it was no use for the Klondike folks. On the train keep your camera at the ready since there are plenty sights to shoot. We also saw Sasquatch, and a rabid merry melodies character. It happened real quick, no pictures were able to get shot. After the train ride we went to Lairsville for a salmon bake and show. We are from Washington so salmon is a known item to us, and they did not disappoint, the fish was fresh and caught in Juneau and sent to Skagway. Yes it was good! The show afterword’s was fun. Three ladies put on an entertaining act, then it was off to pan for gold. Yes everyone found a flake or two (we are rich!). Back on the bus and off to the Red Onion Saloon. We were early so the driver took us to an observation point over the town. Skagway is a small quaint little town with about 840 full time residents. At the Red Onion Saloon we had the tour of the bordello and the lady who was our tour guide was dressed to the part and innuendos ran rampant! The bordello/saloon only ran for 2 years and after that it was used as many other things. The story of how they moved the building was kind of neat.

The weather in Skagway was the talk of the town. It started out partly cloudy and a light breeze blowing but comfy. By afternoon it was sunny and sixty degrees! Even the locals were commenting how good the weather was today, some say there was only about 10 days this season that it was sunny and nice. I guess our cruise was bringing the good weather everywere we are going.

We stayed in town and wandered about. Did I mention there are jewelry stores here? The funny part is we collect magnets and were looking for t-shirts that would mention the town we were in. That part did not happen! So far both in Juneau and Skagway there is a big chain t-shirt and gift store and nothing that mentioned the town we were in. We bought some stuff and then off to the ship.

Dinner was in The Club Suites Lounge and the crew that work in our section were right on cue and the service was wonderful. After dinner we went to Classic Music Trivia in Club Fusion. We knew we wouldn’t win but just wanted to have fun. There was 20 music clips and you had to write down the title and the band who did it. We did not answer 4 tunes as we stared at each other wondering what song was that! We did miss two titles, but of the bands that did the songs we were able to get everyone.

The next stop was the Explorers Lounge for the Liars Club game. The game would have four from the Cruise Director’s staff and a word would be put up and each member would give the meaning of the word. “Titup” is burned into my eye and I don’t think I’ll ever get it to go away!

After that on to the cabin to order a tuna salad sandwich, with wine of course! We slept good, and had a wonderful day.

Val & Sue

Day 5 Glacier Bay

This is an at sea day to view two glaciers, the main one is Margerie Glacier. This one does calving. The first one I forgot the name is a smaller glacier in height.

The day started out a little foggy and started to clear out as we proceeded into the bay. By the time we got to the first glacier it was clear and, well, warm to us. Not much was going on here, but I found out I had the wrong lens on my camera and had to go get the smaller one. About an hour later we were at Margerie Glacier. Folks were all over the weather decks watching what was going on. Upon hearing the first crack, or thunder, everyone’s attention was on the glacier with the cameras at the ready. At first there was only some small stuff crashing down, but most of us were watching one place, it seemed like it was ready to go. We were able to see some fairly good sized calving and the sound was wonderful. Then the place we were watching let go. You could hear everyone gasp. All I can say is it was awesome and incredible. I will have to go through my pictures and pick out the best. Later in the day they said we may be able to see some whales. Well they were right and we got to see a humpback blow several times, and then he did the dive thing and we got to see the tail! No breaching, but seeing the tail go down was one of the highlights of the day.

Later in the evening we did the Music Trivia Quiz, and then another show in the Explores lounge.

All in all it was one of the best days. Perfect weather, glaciers calving, and humpback whales.

Val & Sue

Day 6 Ketchikan

The shortest day in port, bummer. We had the Eagles and Lighthouse tour, and it left soon after docking. So breakfast was in the Horizon Court. We are not big fans of the Horizon Court, but it is just us.

We got on our bus and out to the boat that was going to take us out to the light house. On the boat, right after getting underway the first eagle was spotted. (This is Alaska and there are bald eagles everywhere!) While we were watching a young bald eagle, a float plane flew by and spooked it and it took to flight. What beautiful birds. Down the way we spotted many other eagles and their nests. Also we sailed past a totem display put up by the three tribes in the area, it was cool to see. After that, off to the light house, don’t expect to see something like on the east coast. It was short and squat but ships could see it 13 miles away. We circled the island the light house was on but did not see any other wild life. On our way back we saw an eagle perched on a radar reflector and as we got closer it took to flight, again beautiful birds. But looking closer under a log was another eagle eating its catch that had feathers. Mother Nature is awesome.

Back in town we had 40 minutes to be on board. The time in Ketchikan is from 7:00 am to 12:30 pm, so we did not see all the jewelry stores!

Onboard we started collecting our goodies so they can be packed tomorrow.

Again after dinner we did the music trivia quiz in Club Fusion and then in the Explorers Club there was a comedian, it was a hoot and at one point you could tell he did get off routine and he worked it. Sorry I don’t remember his name.

I hate bedtimes on cruise ships, I wish we could just stay up 24/7 and enjoy everything and then crash when you get home!

Val & Sue

Thanks for sharing very nice review.

Tony

Day 7 Victoria

We pretty much call this day a sea day. We pull into Victoria at 7:00 pm and leave at Midnight. It is also packing day, also there are sales abound (surprise!). We finished packing around 2:30, so we headed out to find a beer. The beers were found. We also we learned most of the bars were closing at 5 or 6 due to Canadian rules. So we had bottles of wine delivered to the room, and before dinner it was in the cabin along with the alcohol we bought on board. All the dining rooms were setup for anytime dining tonight. The Club Suites Dining Room opened at 4:30, normally opens at 5:15. After dinner we went up to our cabin and drank our wine, and watching the others get off the ship and head off on their tours.

Also you should have your luggage outside your cabin door by dinner with your assigned Color/Number tag. We Green 2 and according to the schedule our departure would be 9:05. It was nice to see a schedule.

Last Day/Morning Debarkation

I had set my alarm clock the night before, and not checking what ring tone it was, well it was a rude awaking! It was the opening to Crazy Train! Well, that started the day. After breakfast, back to the cabin and gathered our carry-out and headed to the debarkation meeting room. All the clubs were open so folks could try to relax before they had to leave the ship. If you are in a full suite you meet at the Wheelhouse Bar, and they call your color and number and you get to leave. Like I said our time was going to be 9:05, but we got called at 8:50. So off to pick up our luggage, and we found them fairly quick. On the columns were listed the color of the luggage tags, so finding your stuff is really easy. We got a porter since we had 7 pieces of luggage and off to customs, a few questions and we cleared. We told him that we had bought 6 quarts of Rum and he thanked us for letting him know. Then off to the passenger pick up zone and a call to Uber and we were gone by 9:20.

Just a note about this debarkation, it felt like it was one of the best organized ones we have been through. It seems like Princess keeps learning and trying new things, it would be hard to say if there are better ways.

Hope those that joined the ship today have a good time, and the good weather we had.

Val & Sue

You are welcome Lucky TGO

Thank you for your review! We go next June and I'm starting early to plan.

Very nice review of the cruise. We were on the same cruise in August and enjoyed it but we had done it several years before on the Golden out of Seattle. We will be back on the Ruby in two weeks out of LA. Your review has increased our anxiety to get back onboard. Thanks.