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Live From The 10-24-2013 Ruby Princess to Florida (51 Days)

ccrain

By ccrain,
in Princess Cruises

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ccrain

ccrain

Posted
Posted

10-23-2013

 

Ok, once again, not quite live yet, but almost. We have arrived here in Venice at the Hilton Molino Stucky in a great room overlooking the Giudecca Canal to start our 51 days on the Ruby Princess. We’ve been looking forward to a cruise like this since we got hooked on cruising in 2001 and we’re going to do it.

 

So What’s Up On This Cruise –

 

We are Charles and Judy from Colorado. Cruising is our passion, since 2001, and I like to do Live From’s to pass along information back to all the people on the boards, and to make everyone just a little jealous. We enjoy the ship, we enjoy the ports, we just enjoy the cruising lifestyle and this time we are going to enjoy a lot of it because we are going to start in Venice on the 24th and not get off until FLL on the 14 of December. 51 days of cruising bliss on one of our favorite classes of ship – the Super Grands. We’ve never sailed on the Ruby, but we have sailed on the Emerald and the Caribbean. We like to dance, we like to eat and we like to have fun on the ship with the crew. This time we have brought candy to hand out on Halloween, costumes to wear and our devil may care attitude. You will hear about Zumba classes, if they have them which I hope so, which band is best to dance to, who’s teaching what and a lot about daily ship board life. Hopefully for those of you planning a similar cruise next year, or even joining us later on in these cruises, you can get a feel for what goes on and essentially feed the OCPD beast within most of us.

 

Yeah, I should mention I am severely afflicted with OCPD – Obsessive Cruise Planning Disorder – in which I youtube video walkthroughs of airport to ensure I know where I am going, search endlessly for reviews of this place or that place and constantly haunt CC to hear the latest on the ship that we plan to be on.

 

I chose this series of cruises (actually a B2B2B2B) because of the price, they really dropped the price on these cruises and I snatched them up several months ago, and the Eastern Med ports that we have not done before. Not only that but being able to visit the same ports multiple times will allow us to venture off on our own more – something we want to do more and more in future cruises. We plan to do pretty much all Princess excursions on the first go around, then strike out on our own using Rick Steves and TripAdvisor as guides on where to go and what to do. Some ports we’ve been to before and will simply do on our own (Rome, Florence and Barcelona) to see things we didn’t see the first time.

 

So expect a lot of we did this and did or did not enjoy it, we ate this and did or did not enjoy it, basically a travelog of what we did and what we thought about it from our POV. We won’t eat in the MDR a lot, quit doing that a long time ago when I discovered that you really didn’t have to eat everything in sight – in fact one of our main dinner treats is a white wine flight, a couple of plates of sushi and a couple of salads from the IC at Vines. We probably won’t do chefs table, not since they raised the price to $95 each, but we will do Crown Grill a couple of times and we plan to eat ashore as much as possible. We will make Italian nights in the MDR, snail night and most Lamb nights as I simply love lamb. But a lot of meals will be in the HC, light salads and late night desserts.

 

Ports –

Dubrovnik, Corfu, Athens, Katakalon, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Istanbul, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence, Toulon, Barcelona, Santorini and Maderia – hope I got them all. I have TripAdvisor spots picked out for all the ports and hopefully will be able to give everyone insight on how to DIY some of these ports for those of us of the more faint hearted variety – and you can definitely put me in that category.

 

So now - The Trip In -

 

The trip itself was almost painless, but long. We left home on Tuesday morning to Chicago to catch the Lufthansa A340 to Dusseldorf arriving this morning around 0830 local time. The flight was about 8 hours, but we used FF miles for Biz class. The older A340 almost flat biz seats are ok, but nothing like the new lie flats. Food was good, service was impeccable, but they kept the cabin temperature up a little high so it was hot sleeping. I got 2 hours right after dinner and then a couple of hours just before breakfast. Judy caught most of the night’s sleep. We arrived in Dusseldorf in the Lufthansa A concourse, went through passport control and right into the Senator lounge and then promptly to the Biz lounge since the sole men’s restroom in the senator lounge was out of order. The food in the senator lounge was a bit more upscale with typical European breakfast items – cold cuts, cheese, breads, yogurts - but the Biz lounge was sufficient for our 3 hour layover – and in the fall and winter I always book longer layovers – just in case. Several people on the flight in to Chicago booked 1 hour connections and we were 30 minutes late in, so they were all scrambling.

 

The flight from DUS to VCE was on an A320 with the “domestic” business configuration of 3 and 3 with the middle seats not filled at all. Judy and I were the only ones in Biz and skipped the lunch hoping to catch 40 winks prior to landing in VCE. We both got a good nap and then split a 5 hour energy upon landing to get us through the afternoon to dinner.

 

All of our luggage arrived (HURRAY!) and we went to No. 71 booth, the Venice-Link shared water taxi, as I had decided to try this after reading about it on line. An excellent choice. We had to wait about 30 minutes for all 4 couples to show up, but we had a GREAT tour of Venice and Murano as we were the last couple dropped off. In and about the back streets of Morano and the north side of the Venice island, then the final couple was dropped off just west of Piazza San Marco, before he took us to the Hilton. If you have the time, its far cheaper than a private taxi and less stressing and time consuming than the Alliguana blue line.

 

So here we are about to enjoy an early dinner, the off to bed to catch up on some sorely needed sleep. Tomorrow is boarding, with all of its complexities and OCPD stresses, but since the Ruby is overnighting, we have 2 days to catch the ship!

 

So with all that as background, lets see how bored I can get you all with a 51 day live from thread!

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WendyG

WendyG

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Posted

Charles! You picked a great ship! I just got off the Ruby last month and the crew is wonderful!!! If you make it up to SkyWalkers please look for a tall beautiful blonde named Ivana and tell her hi from me, and also Joel the excellent bartender up at Skywalkers. Such fun people! I loved the elite 5-7 happy hour mostly because they were there :D

 

Have a fabulous cruise and I'll be reading (except the week I'm on a cruise!) ''Happy sailing!"

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travellovers2

travellovers2

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We were on that cruise until October 6. We loved all the ports except Corfu and Crete. Istanbul and Santorini were the highlights of our cruise. I hope Julio is still giving lectures, you will enjoy them. We expected the Ruby to be more Grand, but it was okay for us. The food in the MDR was very good. If you get the chance, go to the MDR and ask to be seated with Gerry. His service is impecable!! I cannot remember the name, but it's not the michaelangelo. Sorry!

 

Have fun!! We too love cruising!!! We hope to be able to do a 51 day someday. I don't know if our bosses will agree to that now. :)

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seamanfs

seamanfs

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Won't be bored at all! I love your live from posts and we love the Ruby ourselves! It's one of our favs because of the great amenities on board without feeling so crowded. Can hardly wait for you to board and get started. We leave for Hawaii on the Star Nov 5th but will catch up with you guys when we return. Bon voyage!!!

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balcony queen

balcony queen

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Posted
Won't be bored at all! I love your live from posts and we love the Ruby ourselves! It's one of our favs because of the great amenities on board without feeling so crowded. Can hardly wait for you to board and get started. We leave for Hawaii on the Star Nov 5th but will catch up with you guys when we return. Bon voyage!!!

 

Oh I agree just love the reports so no boredom here.Thank you for letting us sail along

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travellovers2

travellovers2

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My husband has better memory than me. The dining room is the DaVinci and the main waiter is Gerry and his assistant Bladiga. They're a great team. Impecable service.

 

If you do decide to ask for them, tell them that the lady that was allergic to herbs and spices recommended them :D

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kellor

kellor

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Looking forward to following you along...we LOVE the Ruby!! Enjoy the great ship and crew! Have you ever done this long of a cruise before? I'm trying to talk my husband into this so your adventures are going to be well read....

 

Lori

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