REVIEW - RUBY Princess - January 29

I've been back a week now and life is slowly getting back to normal. I usually just submit my review to the review section, but this time I decided to try a review with pictures here. So here goes...

I was my big 3-0. Not my birthday, I’m older than that, it was my thirtieth cruise. My fifth cruise on Princess, I’ve also cruise on Royal Caribbean, NCL, Carnival, Celebrity and Disney.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale two nights early, January 27, via Delta with a stop to change planes in Atlanta. The flights were uneventful, we arrived on time. Although we were one bag short when the carousel quit going around. We proceeded to the baggage office to inquire. Luckily when we gave our name they said that our bag is on its way. It must have fallen off the little luggage train onto the tarmac.

We stayed at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel. I was able to book this hotel on Hotwire for under $100 a night before taxes and fees, listed as a 3.5 star in the Fort Lauderdale Beach zone with the following amenities; near beach, smoke free, fitness center, pool, restaurant, business center and high-speed internet access. This property was recently remodeled and was very nice and clean. We were assigned a room in the main tower on the third level over looking one of the pools. The room had fresh paint and carpet and nice bedding. The furniture was kind of cheap, the bed a bit on the firm side and the bathroom small. But all fine for the two nights we would be there. Our room overlooked the skyway over to the marina tower, but because of the curve in the road we also had an ocean view. We went to explore the hotel and found the beach bar and infinity pool. We thought the beers were affordable at $5 each and had some very tasty chicken quesadillas for $10. We also found a happy hour at that Mexican restaurant there where beers were only $4.

Our room.

The hotel from the beach.

The beach pool, looking toward the beach.

Before long it was time to meet friends for dinner at Kelly’s Landing. We had a nice meal mostly seafood, but I had a really yummy French dip. After dinner we stopped at Total Wine and Publix for some supplies.

On Saturday I went to the fitness center at the hotel to do my 30 minutes on the ellipse machine. The fitness center was nice. After hitting the fitness center we went for a walk down the beach, pretty soon I realized the fitness center wasn’t really necessary since walking on the beach was plenty of exercise. By the time we made it back to the hotel the pool bar was open, so we stopped for a refreshing beverage. It was time to go meet more friends, so we walked north along A1A to LuLu’s at Beach Place. We had drinks and appetizers including; mozzarella sticks, calamari, and oysters all good. Then after 4 we went across the street to watch the ships sail. After watching some ships, we walked south and stopped at the Elbo Room, but it was so packed we didn’t stay long. Next we took the trolley over to 17th Street and stopped in at Duffy’s the drinks were two for one and we ordered loaded potato skins and fish tacos. The fish tacos were tasty; the loaded skins were a joke. Since the trolleys were done running we took a cab back to our hotel and were hoping to stop at the pool bar, but the pool bar was closed, so we went to the Wreck Bar. This bar has windows into a pool and they do a mermaid show in the evening. After a couple martinis we decided to call it a night.

Up and down the beach from our hotel.

Enjoying the review! Keep it coming!

Finally it’s Sunday morning, the day we are boarding Ruby Princess! We spent the morning getting our suitcases in order. This was my first chance to use my new reusable luggage tag holders. They worked well; I’ll be using them again in December for the Caribbean Princess! We had gotten a box from Total Wine. I packed a six pack of water, a 12 pack of Yuenling and a 2 liter of diet Coke into the box and filled in with dirty clothes. Then I taped it up and taped a couple luggage tags to it. We packed our wine and champagne in our carryons.

reusable luggage tag

Our friends picked us up and our plan was to have breakfast at Waxy O’Conner’s, but they weren’t open, so instead we went to Joe’s. We had some yummy omelets while sitting in the swings. Joe’s is a good breakfast place it’s in the same mall as Publix just off 17th Street.

We got to the port about 10:15. We dropped the suitcases and box with a porter, and then found the end of the line. It looked like people were still disembarking. That seemed kind of late to still be disembarking. They came around with the health forms for us to fill out in line. Then at about 11:00 they let us in and through the x-ray and metal detectors. Upon entering we were given a #2, then directed to seats. It must have been about noon when they started calling people into the registration lines, because it was 12:05 when we stepped onboard the ship.

We went directly to our room R508 and unpacked our carryons. I loved this room! There are several oversized inside rooms on Riviera Deck that are not wheelchair-accessible. These cabins have much more floor space and storage space and doors on the closets. We had plenty of room for all our stuff and then some.

Our room R508

We also had a great cabin steward, Julio, he was great! He was quick cleaning our room and always kept our little cooler full of ice. I love the ice they have for the cabins; the cubes are nice and big. We always use more ice than the ice bucket holds, so we bring a small cooler and ask our cabin steward to keep it full for us. I like spending time at the MUTS pool, so this room was very convenient, just one deck below. The only issue we had with the room was that on the first day when we were unpacking it was very hot in the room although the thermostat was at the coolest setting, I reported this right away to guest services and the cabin steward. Maintenance was sent to our room while we were out at dinner and the temp was improved, throughout the week the room occasionally felt warm, but for the most part it was cool.

It was time to explore a bit. We made it to the pool bar at the MUTS pool. We met up with the friends we were cruising with here. They had invited us to join them for the Ultimate Balcony Dining experience, so one of us from each room set out to get it set up. Our first stop was guest services, where they told us to call the dining reservation line. Next we called the dining reservation line, but then were told to call room service. Finally we called room service and got a hold of George. George is in charge of the UBD program, he got us set up for Wednesday night. We had two decisions to make, what before dinner drink would we like and would we like lobster, or steak or lobster and steak. After that task it was time to move to the aft pool for our meet and greet. Unfortunately a couple of us had to miss the meet and greet to go sit in line waiting to fix our dining assignment. This was the second cruise in a row booked with this travel agent that I had to waste time on embarkation day fixing my table assignment. I think it’s time for a new TA. It took an hour to fix our table assignment. By the time we were done it was time to stop at the cabin and get our life jacket for the muster drill. Our muster station was in the Explorer’s Lounge, we found a seat, they scanned our card, we listened to the instruction and we tried on our life jackets. We went back to the aft pool for sail away. It has been a few years since we sailed from Fort Lauderdale; sail away out the channel goes so fast there.

The Carnival Miracle followed us out.

After sail away we unpacked and got ready for dinner. My first stop was at Vines for a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and some tapas, both were tasty. Since we were dining traditional late in the Botticelli we decided to meet for pre dinner drinks in Adagio. Adagio is a nice quiet under utilized venue, good drinks and nice atmosphere. There’s a piano player, that occasionally sings, but should stick to just playing the piano. We stopped at the podium on the way into dinner for our new table assignment. We were seated at table 102, which was a four top back in the corner, nice and quiet back there. We met our servers; Tawari from India and his assistant whose name was too long and unpronounceable to remember. These servers were a fantastic team; dinner was always paced just right, not rushed and not extra long. I usually order the prime rib, but decided to try something different and got the pork, it was good. We’re not into the shows, so after dinner we went back to the room.

Monday we are at Princess Cay. First thing I went to the fitness center and did my 30 minutes on the ellipse machine, it wasn’t crowded and there were plenty of machines. We had breakfast from the buffet and ate outside back by the Outrigger bar. I love eggs benedict and the corned beef hash. We decide to wait until the big rush to the tenders is over and head to the dining room for our tender tickets between 10:00 and 11:00. The weather was nice; sunny but not real hot, we found a spot on the main beach. I went in the water for a bit and was glad I brought shoes that I could wear into the water it was very rocky. We had lunch onshore and stood in line for a long time for what wasn’t very good. There weren’t even any burgers when I went through. The best part was the banana bread and chocolate cookies. We went back toward the tenders between 2:00 and 2:30. Then we went straight to the aft pool, where we found out how chilly the pools were on board. We stayed at the pool long enough to have a few happy hour drinks. Tonight we stopped at Crooners before going up to Adagio before dinner. We met Adrian the bartender at Crooners he was fun to talk to and mixed a good martini. I like trying different martinis from the long list they have at Crooners, but then I settled on the Cosmopolitini. Princess does lack a good variety of vodka, I prefer Belvedere, but the best they have is Grey Goose. We still had time for a stop at Adagio before dinner. Tonight was Italian night; I had the eggplant parmesan and the veal. The eggplant was so good, I have to find a recipe and try it myself. Again we had great service in the dining room. After dinner we decided to check out Skywalkers. It was pretty dead up at Skywalkers, they were doing a tribute to Michael Jackson that got old after a drink so we left.

Princess Cay

Enjoying your review..... we will be on her for 33 nights in 8 weeks, can't wait. :D

Tuesday we were at sea. Again I went to the fitness center for my time on the ellipse machine, again it wasn’t crowded. I ate breakfast at the buffet again, more eggs benedict. We chose loungers one deck up from the pool with MUTS, it was windy but sunny. I’ll have to say that I didn’t like how they programmed the MUTS on sea days. When I cruised on the Emerald on sea days they would play three movies, one day I saw Shrek 1, 2 & 3, another day Oceans 11, 12 & 13. Well on this and other sea days they played a concert then a movie and then another concert. I would have much rather watched more movies. Today it was a Lionel Richie concert, then Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I decided to do some laundry this morning. There was a laundry room right down the hall from our room, so it was easy to go back and forth from my chair to the room and the laundry room; I bought my travel alarm with me so I could keep track of the time. I always bring the Purex 3-in-1 sheets, they are easy to use and transport. A wash cycle and a dry cycle are $2 each, only one dry cycle is required to get things dry. Just before noon the captain made the announcement that the threshold had been reached for norovirus and the ship would be in a code red status. After the movie it was time to get clean up for the Sommelier Wine Club Tasting. I did this wine tasting with the higher end wines and better snacks on the Diamond a couple years ago. I think it was much better on the Diamond, the wines were better then than they were this time. On the Diamond we got to taste an Opus, but on the Ruby we only got Robert Mondavi Reserve. Also they would have us try the wine and then tell us which snack to eat with the wine and notice how the taste changes a bit. This time they never really told us what to eat with each wine. Renee the sommelier was inconsistent with her dialogue, taking too long on the first couple of wines, and then rushing us through the last few wines. After the wine tasting it was time to get ready for formal night. We took a couple pictures and watched them build the champagne waterfall. I always try a waterfall picture and one of these days it will turn out good. I had the Halibut for dinner and it was wonderful. Again we had great service even though now the bread and butter weren’t allowed on the table; our service team also served them. After dinner we went to the Explorer’s Lounge for the comedian, it was crowded so we sat out in the hallway, but we could still hear and the show was funny.

champagne fountain

This has the making of a all time winner of a review :)

Looking forward to your next installment

Srpilo

Love it! The Ruby was my very first Princess ship and I hope to sail on her again someday. I had a fabulous time and your review is bringing back some great memories.

Betty, what a terrific cruise review and wonderful pictures. An excellent review. I was wondering if the bartender at Crooners, Adrian, was a chap from Wales? If so, we have been on a couple of cruises with him and he made our evening at Crooners, very enjoyable and fun.

I look forward to more posts!

Betty, what a terrific cruise review and wonderful pictures. An excellent review. I was wondering if the bartender at Crooners, Adrian, was a chap from Wales? If so, we have been on a couple of cruises with him and he made our evening at Crooners, very enjoyable and fun.

 

I look forward to more posts!

Yes, that is the same Adrian:) He is a hoot!

Wednesday we were in St. Maarten. First stop the fitness center, then breakfast in the buffet. We were a bit late arriving in St. Maarten, so they announced all aboard was 6:30 instead of 5:30. There were seven ships in port that day; it was a very busy day. We took a cab to Maho Beach to watch the airplanes. It was pretty much mass confusion at the taxi stand with so many ships in port, but we were able to get into the second cab to Maho after we found the right spot. Even though the sign said $8 per person with more than 5 passengers we were still charged $9 per person. We got the last lounge chair at the beach for $10. The beach was crowded, the surf was up, the sun was shining and the beers were cold; Caribes were only $3. We saw several big jets land and take off and many small planes. At about 3:00 we got a cab back to Phillipsburg. We stopped at the Belgium Chocolate Shoppe, which was crazy busy, then to the Guavaberry Hut. We stepped out of the shop and there was a cab right there, we hopped in and went back to the port, I think it was $3 each. Back on board we got a cheeseburger at the grill. After getting cleaned up we had time for a martini at Crooners before our Ultimate Balcony Dinner.

Some Maho pictures.

Yes, that is the same Adrian:) He is a hoot!

That is fantastic! His bartending partner, Daniel, who has since been promoted, worked Crooners together. We laughed and laughed every evening with both of them. We keep in touch with him through FB and have numerous pictures with him. DW loved both of them. I believe we were with him on the Caribbean and the inaugural of the Ruby. It would be great to be on a cruise with him again.

Wow, those pictures at the beach are cool. We've never gone their, because DW said regarding the low flying planes, "That would freak me out!" LOL

Again, I look forward to more reviews from you. It sounds like you had a splendid cruise!

That is fantastic! His bartending partner, Daniel, who has since been promoted, worked Crooners together. We laughed and laughed every evening with both of them. We keep in touch with him through FB and have numerous pictures with him. DW loved both of them. I believe we were with him on the Caribbean and the inaugural of the Ruby. It would be great to be on a cruise with him again.

 

Again, I look forward to more reviews from you. It sounds like you had a splendid cruise!

It sounds like Adrian will open the Royal. We are hoping to book on the Royal during it's first year, so we're hoping to see Adrian again then.

We had a great cruise!

What a wonderful review so far. Thanks for taking the time to post. I can't wait board the Ruby in November. Looking forward to the rest of your review

It sounds like Adrian will open the Royal. We are hoping to book on the Royal during it's first year, so we're hoping to see Adrian again then.

 

We had a great cruise!

Wow, that is good news! We are hoping to book the inaugural cruise, but it has to be in the U.S. since DW cannot get enough time off for Europe. I look forward to the Royal. I think my last real CC review was on the inaugural of the Ruby. It will be nice to see Adrian, again, and maybe get to sail with you, too.

Thanks for this great review.

Amazing Maho photos.

Thanks for this great review.

Amazing Maho photos.

Thanks, it takes a little practice, you end up with the first few looking kind of like this...

That is fantastic! His bartending partner, Daniel, who has since been promoted, worked Crooners together. We laughed and laughed every evening with both of them. We keep in touch with him through FB and have numerous pictures with him. DW loved both of them. I believe we were with him on the Caribbean and the inaugural of the Ruby. It would be great to be on a cruise with him again.

 

Wow, those pictures at the beach are cool. We've never gone their, because DW said regarding the low flying planes, "That would freak me out!" LOL

 

Again, I look forward to more reviews from you. It sounds like you had a splendid cruise!

Hey there I'm tom I was with bettycruiser and would love to find adrian on facebook do you know his last I can befriend him

thanks

I'm thinking might be better to e-mail his info

thomas.borries@compucom.com

thanks

love the pics - and where ever did u get those reusable luggage tags>???? Genius I HAVE to have them.

love the pics - and where ever did u get those reusable luggage tags>???? Genius I HAVE to have them.

I learned about the luggage tags here on Cruise Critic, they work great.:) Try serendipity dot com and search for luggage tags.

OP;

Thanks for your review. It's great when reviewers post pics to go along with there review.....:):):)

Bob