Ruby Princess 3/6/14 - Review with lots of pics/video! First time on Princess! :)

[ebandive]

Cruise background: Carnival twice, RCI twice, NCL once. First time ever on Princess!

 

I have pictures of the Patters, which I'll be posting. I don't have pictures of any menus.

 

Personal background: We are both 30 years old. Celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary this year. We have a 3 year old and 1 year old boys. We left them at home with Gramma. :cool:

 

So... here's the review!

 

We left out of FLL, which we've never done in our history of cruising. And if you are cruising soon, let it be known, that the whole area by the port is under construction and is a MESS to try to figure out. We left our car with a friend who lives in FLL, and dropped us off at the port. He got lost. And he lives there. Soooo.... just be forewarned.

 

We got to the port about 11:45, and moved pretty quickly through security, then got our princess cards, and onto the ship.

 

Nice thing about Princess that is different from the other lines that we have sailed is that, upon boarding, our room was ready. We went straight to the room to check it out.

 

We had E701, on the 8th deck, an obstructed window room. This was a great room, and the view was hardly obstructed, as you'll soon see. This was actually our first ever room with a window, we've always just gone the cheap inside route. Only being $10 more, I went with it, and am SO glad we did! We are big time interior room advocates, but it sure was nice to have the view of the ocean right when we woke up in the morning!

 

My husband, Charlie. I surprised him with the window. He looooved it!

 

We then went and ate lunch in the Da Vinci dining room. On the way, we asked several crew members which direction to the dining room that was open. All of them told me "No dining room is open, you have to go to the buffet" Knowing they were liars (or simply chronically misinformed) I looked up in the patter, figured out where to go, and we enjoyed a very nice lunch of beef tenderloin with roasted vegetables at our leisure in a mostly empty dining room. Delicious way to start off the cruise!

 

 

Then off to explore...

 

 

Beautiful Atrium!

 

Edited March 11, 2014 by ebandive

[melody hounddog]

Thanks for the review! We too like to go to the MDR for our lunch on the first day. It's such a nice way to relax after all the hectic time spent getting on board. Last time we had a window seat and everyone in line to get on the ship was envious.

[Colo Cruiser]

Always a great way to start the cruise! Lunch in the DR! :D

[ebandive]

Day 1 Patters:

 

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2014 by ebandive

[ebandive]

After lunch we did a bit more exploring and people watching. We also purchased the "soda and more" card, which happens to be the best purchase ever! I so wish every line had this! I had my fill of virgin pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris, milkshakes, soda, juice, and more! Such a great buy!

 

Our ship also selling the $49/day unlimited alcohol card. I saw many people throughout the cruise totally wasted with the little white sticker on their card. This sort of surprised me from Princess. Might have had to do with spring break though, too.

 

So, let's talk about the demographic. We were a bit worried that we were going to be bored out of our minds and surrounded by crotchety rich white people. :p No offense intended. However, this was not the case at all. Everyone was friendly and nice. Honestly, both DH and I now think Princess is our favorite. The food was sooooo much better than our last NCL cruise, the entertainment was great, the staff were average (but average in cruise standards is good!) and we loved and embraced the "escape completely" mindset. It was so nice not to be woken at the crack of down by announcements blairing into our stateroom trying to sell us bingo cards. As my hubby said, "This is REAL freestyle cruising." Maybe we are just getting older. Maybe it's because we now have 2 kids and we come on a cruise to relax and get away from it all instead of to live it up. But regardless, we LOVED princess and hope to sail with them again.

 

 

 

 

[serene56]

After lunch we did a bit more exploring and people watching. We also purchased the "soda and more" card, which happens to be the best purchase ever! I so wish every line had this! I had my fill of virgin pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris, milkshakes, soda, juice, and more! Such a great buy! ]

 

 

Im taging along for the read.

 

What did you pay for the soda and more card for your cruise?

did you purchase it before you left FLL and is there tax on it?

 

I am trying to read the information on the bottom right of the 3rd page about the thermal suite. does it give a price for your cruise>

Edited March 11, 2014 by serene56

[ebandive]

Im taging along for the read.

 

What did you pay for the soda and more card for your cruise?

did you purchase it before you left FLL and is there tax on it?

 

I am trying to read the information on the bottom right of the 3rd page about the thermal suite. does it give a price for your cruise>

 

Oh shoot. Figures the tiny bit I didn't get in the picture is the info you needed. Sorry, I don't know how much it was.

 

The Soda and More card was $8/day plus 15% gratuity. No tax that I'm aware of. I paid on the ship. Got a nice little souvenir cup to go with it.

Edited March 11, 2014 by ebandive

[ebandive]

Sailaway was rained out, but we didn't care. It rained a good portion of the cruise. We heard quite a few people from up north being disappointed with the weather, but we didn't mind. Just aided in the relaxing, lounge about, eat and watch movies type of relaxing cruise. :)

 

 

 

 

I can't figure out how to add videos from my iphone. If someone knows, please inform me. Youtube isn't letting me upload them. :confused: I have at least a dozen short videos I'll add if I can figure out how.

Edited March 11, 2014 by ebandive

[Woobstr112G]

Great review, thanks for posting.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Ilovepj]

I am looking forward to the rest of your review, I will be on the Ruby Princess in 1 month, so thanks for doing the review.

 

Helen

[ebandive]

We were kind of crazy and booked a 5:30 dinner. Requested a table for 2. We got our table for 2, next to a window (just by chance), at 5:30. Which was waaaay to early. We usually like 1st seating, but this extra early 1st seating really just didn't work for us. And, even though we were at a table for 2, we were in a whole row of table for 2's that were too close to eachother for comfort, making it totally impossible to have a private conversation. Because of these factors, we didn't return back to the dining room until our last night. Next time, we will probably do the freestyle dining choice (I forget what it's called.)

 

So, after sailaway, we went to the room, unpacked, and got ready for dinner.

 

Here is the view from our "obstructed" window:

Isn't it terrible? ;)

 

Our favorite place to stroll on board is the promenade. LOVE the promenade. And Ruby Princess is officially my most favorite promenade, though I didn't discover that until the 2nd day. Here's a couple pictures.

 

 

 

 

[melody hounddog]

 

I can't figure out how to add videos from my iphone. If someone knows, please inform me. Youtube isn't letting me upload them. :confused: I have at least a dozen short videos I'll add if I can figure out how.

 

I'm not good at this kind of stuff, but I think what others do is just copy and paste the link to the YouTube video.

[Colo Cruiser]

Very nice.

[ar1950]

...................

I am trying to read the information on the bottom right of the 3rd page about the thermal suite. does it give a price for your cruise>

 

"4 Day Unlimited Cruise Pass only $69"

 

We were on this cruise for the second half of our B2B. :cool:

[ebandive]

Love this man!

 

Went to dinner, had the fettuccine alfredo, then came back out to catch the en of the sunset.

 

 

After awhile it was time to watch the production show "Once Upon a Dream" which, though a little creepy/weird, was a really wonderful show! The costumes and set were outstanding! Unfortunately, no pictures allowed, so I have nothing to show you.

 

 

 

We had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before - March 1st-5th we went camping in St Augustine, came home the 5th, did laundry and packed and left for the cruise first thing on the 6th. So we were T-I-R-E-D. I think it was only 9 pm and we were going to bed. :p And with no alarm to set, I was sooooo happy to be on the cruise!!

Edited March 11, 2014 by ebandive

[ebandive]

Great review, thanks for posting.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

I am looking forward to the rest of your review, I will be on the Ruby Princess in 1 month, so thanks for doing the review.

 

Helen

 

Thanks so much!

[ebandive]

"4 Day Unlimited Cruise Pass only $69"

 

We were on this cruise for the second half of our B2B. :cool:

 

Thanks! Wish we were able to do a B2B too! :)

[ebandive]

I'm not good at this kind of stuff, but I think what others do is just copy and paste the link to the YouTube video.

 

That's what I thought. Trying to figure out how to upload to youtube. :eek::rolleyes: I'll figure it out...

[BuzzBuzzen]

Nice photos , review and couple , thank you :)

[crazy4midwest]

Really enjoying your review, can't wait to read more. :)

[ebandive]

Well, went to sleep at 9 pm and slept until 9 am! Woohoo! 12 hours of sleep! I LOVE vacation!

 

I really liked the duvet cover and pillows, super soft, fluffy, and perfect to cuddle up in at night. But the bed itself was kind of wonky and crooked. It was hard on the edges and soft in the middle, to the point that I'd wake up in the night with my hips/low back hurting if I fell asleep on my back, because they'd be crooked. I even stripped off the sheet and mattress pad trying to figure out what the heck was causing it, but came up with nothing. Meh. Oh well. Still slept like a rock.

 

And I just love waking up to this view!

 

A few more pictures of my "obstructed" view!

 

 

Went up to breakfast at the buffet. Our room was aft, so we always went up the aft elevators at the entrance to care caribe. Didn't realize until the last day that cafe caribe was not the same as the front buffet Horizons, and so we missed out on the made to order omelets, and several other selections. We didn't know what we were missing though, so no harm done. I had french toast and bacon pretty much every day. No bacon police either! haha.

 

Oh, take me back here, please.

 

mmmmmm bacon

 

[ebandive]

Nice photos , review and couple , thank you :)

 

Really enjoying your review, can't wait to read more. :)

 

Thanks for the nice comments! :)

[ar1950]

...........................

Didn't realize until the last day that cafe caribe was not the same as the front buffet Horizons, and so we missed out on the made to order omelets, and several other selections. We didn't know what we were missing......................

 

Sounds like a good reason to take another cruise. :cool:

 

Thanks for the review. Great reminder of the cruise for my wife and me. And, we do remember seeing you guys on the ship.

[ebandive]

Woot woot! Watched a video on youtube to figure out how to upload videos to youtube. Genius.

 

Here is sailaway! :)

 

[ebandive]

Sounds like a good reason to take another cruise. :cool:

 

Thanks for the review. Great reminder of the cruise for my wife and me. And, we do remember seeing you guys on the ship.

 

haha I agree! Wish we could have met you! :)