Review-Ruby r/t Alaska Inner Passage May 8-15, 2016

Technically we started on the 7th for the 1 night Vancouver to Seattle trip. So, I'll start with our experience there.

We flew from upstate NY to Seattle and picked up our Enterprise rental car for the approximately 120 mile drive up to Vancouver.

We experienced no issues on the drive up. Stopped about 50 miles north of Seattle to eat and to pick up some soda (Pepsi please!) and water to take on board with us.

We reached the boarder and northbound (Friday afternoon) wasn't too backed up - perhaps a 20 minute wait. Zoomed through and thought we had plenty of time to get into Vancouver before going to stay at our Richmond hotel (Best Western Abercorn near the airport).

NOT!! We came to a total stop. Only about 7 miles from our exit! So, right before the Massey Tunnel, 4 lanes were being moved into 1 lane of northbound traffic. We thought it was due to road construction or accident . Turns out (1 1/2 HOURS later) it was due to the commuter time re-routing of 1 of the 2 northbound lanes allowing for there to be 3 southbound lanes. Not fun.

Eventually we made it to the hotel. It is very conveniently located on the road to the airport. Right near several shopping and eating establishments. A huge COSTCO is directly across the street.

**Be aware that if you rent from Enterprise, their 'airport' location is NOT located at the airport! Glad I had called prior to arriving - turns out their office was actually located 1 block from our hotel (their system has an airport shuttle). We were able to drop the car off and walk back to the hotel with no problem.

We were quite pleased with the Best Western. Our room was clean, there was a Chinese restaurant located on the property, the morning complimentary breakfast was sufficient. The staff were very helpful and they arranged for a taxi to pick us up the next morning at 9:30 to head to Canada Place.

Our taxi arrived at 9:00 and we were off. The cab fare was approximately $35 Canadian. I had exchanged USD to CD prior to leaving home. When we arrived at the port, the outside had HUGE numbers of people! I understood from their local news that they had up to 2 hour waits for taxis!! I was SO glad we got there before 10:00! Our taxi drove up to drop off the luggage and the long shoreman went to confirm where we needed to go. There was a HAL ship in port (the Niew Amsterdam) and ALL pax must line up for security 1st, and then ALL pax go through US Customs. After that, they direct you to what cruise line you are traveling with. I can't recall when the line for security actually began, but it moved quickly when it did. Customs was quick and then we were directed to the preferred waiting area. I believe it was right before noon before we boarded. We went directly to the DaVinci (deck 6) for lunch.

I'll be back with the 'rest of the story!'

Looking forward to the "rest of the story".:)

I'm excited to read about your cruise! We will be on the Ruby in 20 days! [emoji3]

When you post the next installment, can you use line spaces between sections. Makes it easier to read. I am also looking forward to your next posts.

I, too, am looking forward to more. We leave on the Ruby roundtrip from Seattle on Sunday May 22nd.

So do we!!

We are very interested in reading about your impressions of the Ruby. We are contemplating a cruise on the Ruby in October to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

According to the American Gem Trade Association, ruby is the 40th anniersary gem. Now, you know a guy would never know that. Mrs. XBGuy pointed that out to me. :)

Of great interest - we are doing identical cruise this Friday on the Crown. Anxious for more details!

I'm also in line to hear more! We are doing the R/T from Seattle on July 3. Hopefully you have lots of good pictures to share! It's our first time to Alaska, so always looking for more information and pictures.

Thanks for posting!

We also drove on Friday from Seattle to Vancouver for the 1 night cruise and hit the same tunnel traffic. We left downtown at 1:30 and got to Canada Place 6:30.

I'm back - had to do the drudgery unpack, laundry - oh - and go to work!

After a nice relaxing lunch, we headed up to our cabin. There was no card given at check in to say cabins would not be ready.

We had B433 - midship by the stairs/elevators. We prefer this location and have never had any noise issues. DH and I are both off surgeries, so the convenience was really appreciated. The midship elevators WILL be busy during the normal busy times, but not exceptionally so.

We did encounter a couple elevator 'rushers' (those who don't seem to understand the process of letting those pax who want to get OFF the elevator before they get ON the elevator). But for the most part, everyone was polite and accommodating.

OK, so back to our cabin. Our 1st issue was our bed was configured as 2 twins and not 1 queen. (Perhaps DH was sending a message?? Haha!) I always do a 'walk thru' to see if there is anything not right. I opened the fridge and found it still had pillow chocolates inside and it had obviously not been cleaned.

I immediately called the number for our steward (Carlos) and he arrived right away. He began to explain that he has 19 cabins to take care of and the lady in our cabin left late. He apologized profusely and had everything taken care of before we returned from muster. After that, we had no problems with him. (Note that the previous cruise was a major corporate event with all the VIPs on board along with a couple hundred travel agents.). It must have been a very high stress trip for this crew!!

I forgot to mention that this is our 2nd time on the Ruby. We were on her sister ship in March (the Emerald). We find all the Princess ships to be elegant and (once you've figured it out), easy to find places since they're all mostly in the same places. We never encountered any crew who were not quick with a smile or a happy greeting.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Interesting pictures in the atrium. I get the theme - I will be curious if they are up all week. They sort of make the atrium look less classy.

We are very interested in reading about your impressions of the Ruby. We are contemplating a cruise on the Ruby in October to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.

 

According to the American Gem Trade Association, ruby is the 40th anniersary gem. Now, you know a guy would never know that. Mrs. XBGuy pointed that out to me. :)

Well you STILL get the bonus points for planning for your anniversary!

We have very good feelings about the Ruby (or the Emerald). They are very classic in design. The ONLY downside (to us) was they replaced Sabatini's with SHARE. We have not eaten there, so I can't say anything about it - but we had enjoyed eating at Sabatini's on the Ruby in 2014 while having a wake view up on the aft of the ship.

OK, since the rest of the season is simply the round trip from Seattle, I will move on to the start of the Seattle trip.

Since we were B2B, we were instructed to report to the Wheelhouse Bar (also the Platinum/Elite disembark lounge) at 10:00. I wish I had written down the times, but it seems we were walked off the ship around 10:45, handed in our US immigration form and walked back on board.

I immediately called the DINE line to reserve dinner in the Crown Grill for the night in Juneau. We had no problem getting our preferred time.

NOTE- there are TWO 'open seating' dinner nights. The 1st is while in Juneau (10:00 pm departure time) and the 2nd is while in Victoria (7pm-12:00am).

We tried the 'early' traditional at 5:30 held in the DaVinci MDR midship, deck 6. We have always done the 'early' in the Botticelli MDR, aft, deck 6. This time, we liked being in the center of the ship to be able to move quickly to the theater or any other event.

The Anytime Dining was held from 5:30-9:30 in the Deck 5 Michelangelo MDR. DaVinci was 5:30-7:30 as "Early Seating Enhanced Dining" and 7:30-9:30 anytime. The 1st night at DaVinci, they were checking cruise cards to determine if you had an assigned table for 5:30. If not, they sent you downstairs to Michelangelo.

IF you happen to have DaVinci and you are lucky enough to have WILSON and JERVIS as your servers - you will not be disappointed! And if you see ION, the tall head waiter - he's one of the BEST head waiters we've ever encountered. He may be wearing a tie clasp of a fork and knife - ask him about it (my DH gave it to him in appreciation for all the care he gave to us).

Here is the menu for the 1st evening:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Here is the list of entertainment:

Princess Theater:

Production shows Colors of the World & Stardust (note: our email said that the new show, Magic to Go, would be performed - never was. Don't know why)

Comedian- Steve White

Ventriloquist - Michael Minor (DON'T miss his show if he is still on board! We're not into ventriloquist - but this guy is phenomenal! He only performed in the Explorers Lounge, so you need to get there early!)

Voice of the Ocean - we had this on our Canada/NE cruise as well. The Finale was held at an 'off' time for this itinerary. Rather than the normal 8:00pm time, it was held at 4:00pm on Saturday night due to our arrival into Victoria at 7:00pm. I don't know if that affected the attendance or not. We did not go ourselves this time.

Discovery @ Sea events

Ye Olde London Pub Night (I have to say, our CD, Peter Tredgett, was a HOOT! - he was out everywhere and very involved).

Party band - Nexus

Magician - Justin Gentry

Piano Man - Daniel Oliver

Cruise Cult Classics - Rock N Roll night, 70's night and Country & Western Night

Naturalist - Shari Newitt. Shari was very passionate about her subject and also very involved throughout the trip.

Iditarod Champion - Libby Riddles - in the Princess Theater at 8:00 pm while docked in Juneau

Skagway performer - Steve Hites

Puppies in the Piazza - while in Skagway. The young Iditarod racer is the grandson of the found of the race. He brought 2 puppies (thought they'd be more). They allowed anyone to hold them and the ship's photographers were taking photos. He took questions from the audience.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for taking the time to do a review! I love reading about all different cruises. We've been to AK, but not by ship, so it will be interesting to note differences!

Patiently waiting...:p

Magic To Do was performed on the 4NT previous, but unlike the other shows, it requires one specially-trained cast member as the Magician. If he wasn't onboard, they may not have an understudy who could fill the role.

Sorry you missed it - I think it's the best show I've seen on Princess.

Can you explain the open seating nights.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Can you explain the open seating nights.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

This means Traditional dining isn't available. Everyone just goes to a dining room when they want.

Since many people are in port and eat dinner in port, they often close the Traditional dining room and use the other 2 and people just show up for dinner. Or maybe the Traditional dining room is open but you don't have to go at your assigned time and eat at your assigned table.

If you have anytime dining - everything is the same.

We are booked for the same cruise next year. Out of curiosity would you mind sharing how much your one way rental car was? I'm trying to figure out if it would be better off flying straight into Vancouver. Thanks!

Thanks for the review.

Excellent review and photos. We were on the Ruby for 10 days in March. Thank you for helping me relive the great time we had.

Sorry if I missed this (crazy busy packing and talking our 3 cats out of a cruise protest/riot:)......are the stores onboard open on the one-nighter? We have done stockholder OBC to burn [emoji3]

We are booked for the same cruise next year. Out of curiosity would you mind sharing how much your one way rental car was? I'm trying to figure out if it would be better off flying straight into Vancouver. Thanks!

We were on this cruise and flew direct into Vancouver from DFW and direct out of Seattle to DFW. We paid around $550 total for two round trip tickets on American. You are early enough that you should be able to get a good deal. The ships actually dock right next to the Pan Pacific Hotel in Downtown Vancouver (the port is actually connected to the hotel).

We are booked for the same cruise next year. Out of curiosity would you mind sharing how much your one way rental car was? I'm trying to figure out if it would be better off flying straight into Vancouver. Thanks!

We have Southwest points, so that is why we flew r/t to Seattle. I booked the car early and kept checking on any price changes. There are limited number of Enterprise vehicles available for 1 ways to Vancouver. The final cost was $119.

The cost of flying from upstate NY to Vancouver was way more than that.