Ruby Princess November 11, 2012 Trip Report with Pictures

[voltdoc]

Nathaniel,

What a great review of your Ruby cruise. We will be on the 2-10-13 sailing and after reading your review we can't wait.

I was hoping that if you took pictures of the dinner menus could you please post them. I would love to see them and wet my appetite..............voltdoc

[afrazier319]

Enjoying your review!!!! Cant wait till Dec 16th... Hoping the virus is gone before we go as some of my family health is ups and downs and dont want my FIL to have to be stuck in his room like his last cruise.

[Cupcrazy]

Nathaniel,

What a great review of your Ruby cruise. We will be on the 2-10-13 sailing and after reading your review we can't wait.

I was hoping that if you took pictures of the dinner menus could you please post them. I would love to see them and wet my appetite..............voltdoc

 

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the menus. The only thing I have is the menu for the Crown Grill http://cruiseweb.com/princess-imagelibrary/princess-CrownGrillSampleMenu.pdf

 

I don't normally like taking pictures in the MDR other than a picture of the people at our table. However; Towards the end of the trip I did take some pictures of food. For my next trip report I'll make sure to take pictures of the menus.

 

Enjoying your review!!!! Cant wait till Dec 16th... Hoping the virus is gone before we go as some of my family health is ups and downs and dont want my FIL to have to be stuck in his room like his last cruise.

 

Thank you, Hopefully your trip will be carefree and everyone will be able to enjoy themselves without being sick

 

 

Nathaniel

Edited November 29, 2012 by Cupcrazy

[centralcalicruzer]

Nathaniel,

What a great review of your Ruby cruise. We will be on the 2-10-13 sailing and after reading your review we can't wait.

I was hoping that if you took pictures of the dinner menus could you please post them. I would love to see them and wet my appetite..............voltdoc

 

There is another recent Ruby review thread where photos of the MDR menus are posted.

[TracieABD]

Loving the review and the photos... (well, most of them, anyways!):)

[voltdoc]

There is another recent Ruby review thread where photos of the MDR menus are posted.

Centralcalicruizer

If you can tell me where I can find the thread of the review I'd be most appreciative........voltdoc

[Paula_MacFan]

Centralcalicruizer

If you can tell me where I can find the thread of the review I'd be most appreciative........voltdoc

 

Me too! I have only seen 2 of the new menus posted so far......

[centralcalicruzer]

Centralcalicruizer

If you can tell me where I can find the thread of the review I'd be most appreciative........voltdoc

 

Oh, oops, I am sorry, I went back and looked and it was the Patters they posted! Sorry for the confusion, my bad! :o

[cormike1]

Hey Shelley,

 

Remember me, Corinne (and Mike) that sailed with you last year when you & Ric were on with Leigh. I saw your post and said "I know her" lol.

 

We are sailing on the Emerald on Jan. 16th. Do you have any trips planned?

 

How is Leigh doing? Last I heard she was going to Nashville was she not? Is she still there and how is she making out?

 

I keep wondering if someday I can say "We knew her when she was entertaining us on the Emerald" lol.

 

How are you and Ric doing? We are great...still enjoying cruising.

 

Take care...talk soon.

 

Corinne

 

p.s. sorry for stealing your post ...I am loving your trip report!!!

Edited November 29, 2012 by cormike1
spelling error

[centralcalicruzer]

Hey Shelley,

 

Remember me, Corinne (and Mike) that sailed with you last year when you & Ric were on with Leigh. I saw your post and said "I know her" lol.

 

We are sailing on the Emerald on Jan. 16th. Do you have any trips planned?

 

How is Leigh doing? Last I heard she was going to Nashville was she not? Is she still there and how is she making out?

 

I keep wondering if someday I can say "We knew her when she was entertaining us on the Emerald" lol.

 

How are you and Ric doing? We are great...still enjoying cruising.

 

Take care...talk soon.

 

Corinne

 

p.s. sorry for stealing your post ...I am loving your trip report!!!

 

Uh oh, I hope we don't get these deleted for thread hi-jacking, except that since Leigh is actually singing on the Ruby right now, it is kind of relative to this review! Of course I remember you Corinne. Leigh did go to Nashville and record a CD over the summer, and she has been on the Ruby since August. Her contract is up in February. Unfortunately we are not able to sail with her this time, I was really hoping to but we have a lot going on right now. It is fun to read reviews of the Ruby and hear that other people enjoy the singers and dancers (although I recently also read a review that said they were terrible, go figure!) Have fun on the Emerald, are you doing the other itinerary this time?

[Cupcrazy]

We woke up around 8am and Aaron, Dave, Felicia & I headed to the buffet for breakfast. There was nothing special at the buffet today, just the normal breakfast items. We met Allison & Jodi back in the cabins at 9 as the ship was anchoring off the island. At 9:30 we went down to catch a tender. Tender tickets were being given out at Michaelangelo's Dining Room on Plaza Deck (deck 5 mid-ship). We received tender ticket number 6 and waited no more than 10 minutes until our number was called. We then walked down the stairs to deck 3 to board the tender. Tenders in this case are the ship's life boats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After about 5 minutes on the tender we reached the "Love Boat Marina". Once off the tender we went left in search of some clam shells on the beach. We had rented 2 shells for $29 each. We walked past the buffet until we spotted some shells by the locker & snorkel rental hut (#6 on the map). All the clam shells are chained up and someone at the hut needs to unlock them for you.

TIP: The back of the shell doesn't stay on the sand. If you hold the shell down and kick sand on it the sand will be heavy enough to keep the back of the shell from popping up. I forgot to take a picture of the back of the shell.

 

Edited November 30, 2012 by Cupcrazy

[Cupcrazy]

 

 

 

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

We went swimming for a bit and then came out to lie in the sun. At around 11:30 I noticed a big dark cloud heading our way. In the distance you could see that it was raining. About 10 minutes later it started pouring. The rain lasted for about 25 minutes. Aaron and Dave had gone to the buffet and were under cover there. The rest of us moved our loungers under the clam shells and waited out the rain in there. It was funny that before the rain the ship was facing one way then during the rain it had moved to face a different direction and then when the rain stopped the ship was back to where it originally was. The rain was coming down so hard, at times it was difficult to see the ship.

 

Here is a short video of the rain ---->

 

 

 

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

 

 

 

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

The rain stopped and the ship turned back.

 

 

 

 

Last time we were in Princess Cays we did the banana boat excursion. It was and still is $19 per person for about a 20 minute ride. We had a blast doing it. These people looked like they were having fun.

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

The offshore pavilion took a hit during Hurricane Sandy. It was off limits and blocked off with caution tape

 

 

 

The Crow's Nest Overlook (number 5 on the map)

 

 

View from the first balcony

 

 

View from the top of the overlook. The ship and the locker & snorkel rental hut

 

Edited November 30, 2012 by Cupcrazy

[Cupcrazy]

 

 

 

The private bungalows

 

 

The grill & BBQ pavilion and picnic tables where you can sit to eat in the shade

 

[Cupcrazy]

 

 

 

 

[lovevacadays]

Thank you so much for your review and pictures. Your pictures are amazing. What kind of camera do you use? I think there are a few of your pictures that you could enter into Princess' picture contest and you could win!:):):)

 

It's a year away until my next Princess cruise so I'm enjoying looking at pictures from Princess ships until it is my turn to board the new Royal Princess.

[Cupcrazy]

 

 

 

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

At 12:30 everyone but myself and Felicia went back to the ship. Caleigh had had enough sun for the day. They all like the the pool better than the beach anyway. They like that the pools are fresh water instead of salt and there is no sand to get into everything. Felicia & I actually like the beach and we went back to the ship around 2pm. The last tender was scheduled to leave the island at 3:30.

 

 

 

This is what happens when I let someone (Felicia) take a picture of me who doesn't know how to...

 

 

This is what happens when you ask that same person to take another picture because the first one wasn't very good...

 

 

 

[Cupcrazy]

Thank you so much for your review and pictures. Your pictures are amazing. What kind of camera do you use? I think there are a few of your pictures that you could enter into Princess' picture contest and you could win!:):):)

It's a year away until my next Princess cruise so I'm enjoying looking at pictures from Princess ships until it is my turn to board the new Royal Princess.

 

Thank you Michelle! There are a couple that I'm considering sending in for the picture contest. I have to figure out how to do that first, haha.

I know the feeling of waiting a long time for a cruise. I had waited 2 years before boarding the Ruby. Now I have another 10 months until my next cruise. These CC boards keep me sane. Or insane, depending how you look at it or if you're my family.

 

I use a Sony Cybershot DSC-W55. I've had it since 2007 and I'm now looking for a new one. I've started to research new ones.

 

[TracieABD]

More fun pictures and everyone has their pants on!!! Bonus!

[rdsqrl]

I agree with Michelle, your photos are really good and it's fun to see Princess Cays so comprehensively. In fact, thanks to you, I now realize that I have never actually been to Princess Cays. The private island I have such vivid memories of must belong to another cruise line, because it sure doesn't look anything like the photos you've posted! I've been staying aboard, thinking "been there; done that." And it turns out, I haven't. Oh, well. . . . at least thanks to a land trip, I definitely have been to Eleuthera before, so it's not like I have to scratch a whole island off my list.

 

Anyway, keep up the report and photos -- really enjoying it!

[Cupcrazy]

When Felicia & I got back on the ship we walked around the pool area to find everyone but couldn't. Neither of us ate anything on the island so we went to the buffet to grab a bite to eat. After eating we again went around looking for everyone. We didn't find them so we grabbed a couple loungers by Neptune's Reef Pool. We were there for sailaway at 4pm, as the house caribbean band 'Signature' played. They played for an hour but the singer only sang 2 songs. She just stood there the rest of the time, kind of weird.

 

We left the pool and went down to the rooms at 5pm. As I normally do while on a cruise, I go to the gym before dinner. The difference is, this was the one & only time I went on this cruise. The other days I think I was just a little tired and wanted to relax before dinner. The gym on the Ruby seemed to have the most equipment I've seen on a ship. There were a lot of machines (ellipticals, treadmills, bikes & spin bikes), and lots of free weights along with a Smith machine. I've never seen a Smith machine on a ship before. On the cardio machines there were little tv monitors which you can flip channels and plug your headphones into. This is a good alternative to an iPod.

 

I didn't bring my camera with me to the gym. I took these pictures on the first day as I was walking around the ship

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2012 by Cupcrazy