Review, LONG, Ruby Eastern Caribbean

[cruisequilter]

Here is the start of my review of our recent cruise, the last of this season for Ruby in the Caribbean. May 1, the day we returned, she set sail for Barcelona.

 

Background: Us, 56 and 65, celebrating our 35th anniversary. Them, our sons, 30 and 32, and their girlfriends, 27 and 32, from here on called the “Young Ones”—Yos. This is our 3rd Princess cruise in 10 years and the first cruise ever for the YOs.

 

Travel: we flew from Nashville to FLL the day before. Stayed at Hyatt Summerfield Suites which was perfect for us. Got one suite for us and a King Double suite for the YOs—it had 2 King bedrooms, each with private bath and kitchen/living area between. We took 3rd party shuttle to Hollywood Ale House, about 1 mile away—free hotel shuttle was not available on Friday and Saturdays as there were constant airport/pier runs those days. We paid $3 pp for shuttle to restaurant, then walked back. It was an easy walk and we wanted to stop at Kmart for wine and other small supplies—not a great selection of wine but we all managed to find something we liked.

Sunday: embarkation day—we decided to go with 3rd party hotel shuttle, $8 pp, to the pier. Probably should have done 2 taxis but it worked out fine. The 6 of us were the only Princess passengers so we were last—the Allure of the Seas folks filled the little trailer almost completely with luggage. Ours went in last and came out first. We left hotel about 11 am and arrived at Ruby about 15 minutes later. After short wait we entered the boarding area about noon. Within 5 minutes we were all headed up the escalators to the ship.

 

Cabins: Us, the wonderful E730, AD mini suite I snagged last August after reading about it on CC. It was great! The extended balcony was so spacious and well worth the walk to the aft of the ship. The YOs were in D711 and D721, insides, that were fine, I thought. As the week progressed, it became known they would have preferred a window of some kind. I thought they would visit us in the mini-suite—only did this right after embarkation, to declare it “awesome”. The rest of the week they enjoyed their own free time about the ship. We had the balcony and sofa to ourselves. BTW, we heard NOTHING from Club Fusion right below us.

 

Dress at Meals: my only requirement of the YOs was that they be at our dinner table at 8:15 each night, appropriately attired. Apparently, I had not made the attire issue clear: first night younger son arrived in shorts and t-shirt and I sent him back to change. Older son also in t-shirt, sent him back and he returned with collared jacket, a little miffed at having to “dress” for dinner. Embarkation Princess Patter clearly spelled out what was expected in the dining rooms. My husband, their dad, took each of them to the boutique and bought each a collared shirt to wear for dinner—each had brought only one such shirt for formal nights.

 

Meals: dinner in the dining room each night. Excellent service from both our head waiter and her assistant. They quickly picked up on the fact that eldest son is “picky”—from first night on the head waiter explained how each item would be prepared and presented and asked if he wanted sauce on the side or left off. She did not make a big deal of this and he appreciated her concern that he get his meals as he likes them. The food was very good to excellent, and there was more than enough. We ate breakfast in Horizon Buffet each morning, often sitting with others. It was never difficult to find seats, if you were willing to share. The YOs got up later and either went to the buffet or the International Café—3 of the 4 of them bought coffee cards. Interesting: those 3 are self-described “coffee snobs” and each said they found little difference in the coffee served in the dining rooms/buffet and the “brewed” coffee at the IC--all the coffee met their standards. They did enjoy the specialty coffees, though each of the 3 cards still had at least 6 punches left at the end of the week. No one went hungry and each of us agreed: Salt Air makes your clothes shrink!

 

More to come...

[WeBeGone]

Anxious to read more. The Ruby is our favorite "big" ship. Funny about the coffee - I don't think I'm a coffee snob but I do bring my own pot as I can't stand any of the Princess coffee. :rolleyes:

[cruisequilter]

Monday April 25—Princess Cays. Had an easy tender to Princess Cays. We went ashore at 10:30 am, about an hour after disembarkation began, the YOs went earlier. There were still many chairs in the shade available. I found the rocky water a problem, even with water shoes. Left knee is a replacement, right knee not real stable. I feared getting really hurt so didn’t enjoy getting in. At Grand Turk, on Friday, a guy showed me the secret—go in backwards! Just turn around, sit down in the water and walk yourself out to the deeper water, using your hands to “walk” out. Wish I had figured this out on Monday. We didn’t get the BBQ on the beach—the lines were long and we pale skin people needed to get out of the sun. Returned to the ship about 12:30 and went to the buffet, then the pool. Dinner featured excellent prime rib—I was impressed our head waiter knew our names—I was “Madam”, DH was “Papa” and the YOs she called by name.

 

Shows: we went to the production shows each night after dinner—10:30 pm show. We enjoyed them. YOs went to casino and Explorer’s Lounge. They were surprised how quiet the late nights were as there were lots of YOs on board—many appeared to be 20 and 30 somethings. They enjoyed themselves and spent time at MUTS, the Promenade deck, and other outside places—remember, their inside cabins had no window.

 

It started to get a little rough Monday, it was very windy, and one of the girlfriends couldn’t make it to dinner. I had purchased 2 boxes of Bonine and my dr. had prescribed patches, which I didn’t think I would need. I shared the meds with first girlfriend and she felt better by Tuesday.

Tuesday April 26—at Sea and first Formal night: OK, we’re really rocking now. It’s very windy and lots of people are feeling it. Girlfriend one is joined by girlfriend two—share those patches, ladies, and they both missed dinner Tuesday.

 

I went to the Meet and Greet at 11 am in Skywalkers Lounge. We were a little group, about 2 dozen, but it was good to see who we had been talking to on the Roll Call—Shogun and others. We were happy to meet the Captain, Tony Yeomans, such a great, dry wit, the Hotel GM, Gunther Kopf, cruise director, Sam Hawker-Thomas, and one other staff person I can’t recall. They were so welcoming, answered all questions asked of them, and best of all, were very friendly to me each time I saw them around the ship. Sam was a great cruise director, IMHO, as she was upbeat , personable, and there always seemed to be lots of activities available.

 

EZ check—Monday we received information about EZ check and were pleased to see Southwest was part of the program. Forms had to be turned in by noon Wednesday, and each person had to present themselves with their photo ID to the Passsenger Service Desk, along with the completed form and copy of air itinerary. I had all 6 of us meet at PSD at 1 pm Tuesday to handle this. It took very little time—I had brought an extra copy of the itineraries for all of us to turn in with the forms. Saturday afternoon we received our boarding passes and luggage tags in our cabin “mailbox”—in a sealed envelope. After dinner we put out our luggage and retrieved it in Nashville Sunday afternoon. Well worth the $20 pp it cost.

 

Wine Tasting: we went to the Sommelier Wine Club tasting at 3 pm, cost $25 pp. Room was full, selections were from the high end of onboard wines, lovely plate of canapés per couple. Nice way to spend an hour and I learned quite a bit about wines.

 

Champagne waterfall at 7:15, formal night dinner at 8:15. Show at 10:30 pm, rocked to sleep as we sailed to St Maarten.

[Elizabeth Gillian]

Hi Barbara!!

Looks like you have power now. I am looking forward to reading about "our" cruise. I will post my own review later on. Just know that I am still nursing the sun burn from the last day at sea and trying to get back to reality. It was wonderful getting to meet you.

[cruisequilter]

Wednesday April 27, 2011 St Maarten: We docked about 10 am and we got off the ship about 11. We walked to town, about a 15 minute trip, and rode the water taxi back, returning to the ship about 1:30. We weren’t into shopping but did walk along the streets with the rest of the crowds. I found 2 pareos I will cut up to use in future quilts. Along the beach we sat at a bar and listened to steel drum music. Many people were enjoying a beautiful beach day.

 

Pools: I used the pools some each day, preferring the Terrace Pool which was Adults Only. Occasionally, parents ignored the signs and let their kids in the water. My son saw Ruby staff tell parents to remove their kids twice during the week. There also were notices daily in the Patter that pool chairs could not be held and anything left on them for more than 15 minutes would be removed. The only day it was very crowded at all the pools was Saturday, the last day and a sea day. The weather was beautiful so from 10-2 it was very crowded. Later in the day many sunburned people were retreating and chairs were easy to find again. I found the MUTS pool much too loud—since I really just wanted to read and swim a little. The YOs liked the pool with the music—it was near the bars and the Pizza/Ice Cream station. Great pizza! We had a lunch snack most days, of pizza, since the big breakfast took us into the afternoon and dinner was at 8:15 pm.

 

Thursday April 28, 2011 St Thomas: As we were now in the US, technically, all our cell phones/Ipads worked with no roaming charges. At breakfast I turned on my phone to check Facebook and discovered something terrible had happened at home. We went back to the cabin quickly so I could use my Ipad while DH used the phone to be sure his family was safe in North Alabama, which had been hit Wednesday with devastating tornados. We learned they were all right but it wasn’t until Sunday we could reach someone who could tell us our house was all right. The area hardest hit in our county was about 20 miles away so we felt fairly certain no tornado had struck us but we worried about trees being on the roof. We only had a tree fall on our fence, so very little damage. Many lost so much and over 300 people died in Alabama alone that day. Power was out for 5 days, coming on about 3 hours after we returned home Sunday night. Two refrigerators with spoiled food but all in all, we were very lucky. After all, we were on a cruise ship with those we love most and not at home with no power and very little communication. For many, the suffering goes on.

 

We had no excursion planned for St Thomas and were disappointed that only shopping in the usual stores seemed to be available. We hired a taxi guy who approached us on the street and had a great private tour with him. Concern for home was still with us so after that hour tour we were ready to go back to the ship to try to find out more about home. By 4 pm we sailing away so lost touch with home, what little there had been anyway.

 

This was the second Formal night. Dinner was good, as always. There was a dance party in the Piazza after the late show that was great fun—the group was Rhapsody, they played mostly 60s music and there was much singing and dancing, by us old people. The YOs were elsewhere.

 

Friday April 28, 2011 Grand Turk and the Wedding: CNN International had almost nothing about the storms at home as it was Royal Wedding day. Once in a while there would be a minute of storm footage, destroyed houses and death tolls, but that was it. We were due to arrive

Grand Turk at 1 pm. Carnival Dream was ahead of us so finding chairs on the beach took a little longer. Here I was taught how to enter the rocky water backwards and enjoyed a great time in the beautiful blue water. Many people enjoyed the big pool at Margaritaville. After 2 hours on land we retreated to the pools on ship and relaxed on our balcony.

 

Dinner featured lobster and shrimp scampi, very tasty, but much like a restaurant at home. We didn’t go hungry, of course. Each night the maitre d’ came to our table to welcome us, thank us, and be sure we were happy. All 6 of us assured him we were. Donated about $10 to the casino. The YOs gave more.

[cruisequilter]

Saturday April 30 At Sea: Where did the week go? Beautiful sea day and the pools are crowded. Went in search of the Yos, found 2 and spent a little time with them at the pool, claiming their chairs when they left. DH found me there and we left the hot sun for pizza and a nap. Started the packing, sad it has come to an end so soon. He lost at bingo but no one had hit the jackpot yet so we both went in the afternoon. Neither of us won but it was fun.

 

At 7:15 there was a champagne toast part in the Piazza to celebrate the launch of Carnival Cruise lines 100th ship. At 8 pm the Captain led everyone in a toast to CCL and there was a balloon drop featuring a special prize for whoever got balloon # 100. It wasn’t us. So on to dinner with the baked Alaska parade. We gave our wait staff an extra tip, along with a “You made a difference” card and let them know we had kept the auto-tip in place. Did the same for our steward.

 

Finished the packing and put the luggage out. Time for bed as we had an early wake up call.

 

Sunday May 1, 2011 Disembarkation Day: Up early, went to Horizon Court for breakfast. Fully stocked and staffed and the service was as attentive this morning as every other. Finished packing and reported to Michelangelo Dining Room at 8:30 with all the other EZ check passengers. Off the ship and through Customs quickly, got 2 taxis to the airport, arriving there about 9:15. In hindsight, we could have made that 9:35 flight to Nashville, had we done Express Walk Off but you never know. We had planned for the later flight to be sure all 6 of us got home together. So we spent lots of time sitting in the airport but got home as planned.

 

After cruise survey: we received the email survey as we sat at the airport. There was a secondary, optional survey regarding smoking on board. We walked through a smoky patch EVERY time we went to or from our cabin, the smell in the hall was very strong in front of a couple cabins. Occasionally, someone on the balcony next to ours came out for a smoke, but quickly returned inside so I wasn’t bothered by that. I got ample use of our great balcony all week.

 

Arrived at our home about 9:30 p.m. to find only the tree damage to the fence and still no power. It was restored while we slept so I got to work on those two refrigerators with spoiled food. We were so lucky and thankful, but hurt for all those who lost so very much.

 

A great family vacation and the Yos all said it was even better than they had expected. We will sail Princess again for sure.

Things I wish I had brought: a small clock to see at night

Things I brought that helped: small battery operated candles for the bathroom at night, Highlighters for the Patter,

[sgjanice]

Loved your review! I cant wait to be on Ruby in November. Thanks!

[12Cruise]

Thank you for the review...can't wait for our turn in March!! :)

[Coolmama_1]

Thanks for the review. Glad that you did not have much storm damage. Prayers to those in your community who did.

[recyclelady]

Thanks for the review. We were on the Ruby in February and it is fun to relive it.

 

We have travelled with our "YOs" too. I think it is fun to see it thru their eyes!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review.

 

Kirk

[blueridgemama]

Cruisequilter, Thank you for the detailed review of your recent cruise. I posted this question for you on another thread (best mini on Crown) but thought you would have a better chance of seeing it here. I am booked on a southern caribbean itinerary on the Emerald in April and our first port is Aruba. My thought was that starboard would be a better side for the Southern cruise as land would be on the right. You said port was better for your Eastern Caribbean cruise so I was wondering if you think starboard would be better for the Southern? We are in E731 (starboard) but E730 (port) is still available. I am happy you enjoyed your cruise on the Ruby with your "youngsters" what a great way to enjoy quality family time.:) Also thankful that you didn't sustain any major damage to your home in the storms.

[CruiserGus]

Thank you for the review. I especially liked your advice on enterring the water in Princess Cays. I too had total knee replacement and need the other knee done soon! I fell once trying to get out of the water and will now use the back-up method!

 

We have been to Princess Cays on 7 occasions and this was the worst for the rocks near shore. Everyone was complaining.

 

Princess: If you are reading this, you really need to spend a little money and do some dredging near shore. If money is tight, create a few entry points where the rocks are removed on a regular basis.

[cruisequilter]

Blueridgemama, I don't know about the southern route. Port side on the eastern was recommended here on CC when I was doing my research. Turned out to be right on based on where the ports were. We always faced the port as we docked and faced the condos at port Everglades for sail away. My husband is an engineer and enjoyed watching us dock. We loved that large balcony! Maybe some who has sailed the southern route could advise you.

 

I was happy to provide the details here as I got so much info from CC that helped me plan this trip. Just trying to repay the favor! For example, I learned of the military OBC--both of us are veterans, USMC, so that gave us $100 each. I learned about stockholder credit here so I bought each son 100 shares and got them each $100. I learned our fares had dropped so I contacted our TA and had $1000 reduction on the 3 cabins. I learned about the secret door on the Lido deck--imagine my surprise when my husband told me about this great area of the ship, way up front, you could go out on! He didn't want to know all the stuff I learned and thought he discovered it himself. yes, dear, I knew that.

[nomarfan5]

Thanks for the great review. We were on the April 3rd sailing and had an equally wonderful time. Your review made me nostalgic about our sailing but I'm still getting over my post-cruise depression. Glad your home was okay and the worst you dealt with was spoiled food. If only that was the case for everyone else in that area.

 

BTW, thanks for solving the mystery of the shrinking clothes. I've been blaming the dryer but now I know the real reason - the salt air! :D

[Rockymountainsparky]

Thanks for the great review. We still have a ways to wait for our Ruby cruise.

[janniebabe]

Nice review! We are booked on the Emerald for October and had one question - did they make you turn in your passport when you boarded? Have never had to do this, and our TA seems to think we will have to.....

[msk1]

Nice review! We are booked on the Emerald for October and had one question - did they make you turn in your passport when you boarded? Have never had to do this, and our TA seems to think we will have to.....

That would be "yes" and we have since decided to carry our passport copies on our person. The ship provides each passenger with a "receipt" for the passport but our question of "what happens if one misses the ship" was met with "just show your receipt!" Uh, no! I doubt that little yellow receipt with the red number will be very helpful in trying to get to the next country's port!!!!

 

msk1

[cruisequilter]

No, we did not have to turn in our passports.

[nomarfan5]

We didn't have to turn in our passports.