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

[ebandive]

A few pictures of the Aft Pool:

 

 

 

Lounging. Notice the dude with the full plate of bacon on the side of the pool. Love it.

 

 

[AryMay]

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.

 

Sounds like us! :rolleyes: We just did our first Princess cruise in an aft cabin on the Emerald in December. I figured out the two were different mid-cruise when my friend came to the table with some luscious strawberries that she had picked up in the Horizon Court...certainly not something that I had seen getting my food in the Cafe Caribe. I was able to get a made to order omelet in the Cafe Caribe however. Maybe you just missed it...can't say that it was all that obvious.

 

Thanks for taking time to include the photos and video with your review...I know how much work it is! (Was sorry when my review faded to the back pages of these boards so quickly after spending hours and hours working on it!)

 

Looking forward to more...

[Working 2 Cruise]

Great review, thank you!

[ebandive]

Sounds like us! :rolleyes: We just did our first Princess cruise in an aft cabin on the Emerald in December. I figured out the two were different mid-cruise when my friend came to the table with some luscious strawberries that she had picked up in the Horizon Court...certainly not something that I had seen getting my food in the Cafe Caribe. I was able to get a made to order omelet in the Cafe Caribe however. Maybe you just missed it...can't say that it was all that obvious.

 

Thanks for taking time to include the photos and video with your review...I know how much work it is! (Was sorry when my review faded to the back pages of these boards so quickly after spending hours and hours working on it!)

 

Looking forward to more...

 

haha - I can't believe I missed the omelet station! Oh well. No biggie.

 

I love writing cruise reviews, and it's fun for me to look back on even if they are forever buried. And every so often I get surprised and someone bumps it up, and I get to relive my cruise all over again!

[ebandive]

Great review, thank you!

 

Thanks!

[ebandive]

After breakfast, our next mission of the morning was finding a nice place to sit and read. Usually this is the Promenade, but it was too windy.

 

But, here's some photos and videos anyway.

 

 

Videos from the Promenade

 

 

Actually this video is from our stateroom window:

 

Edited March 12, 2014 by ebandive

[I object 2]

Enjoying your review and photos. It's putting us in the mood to book another cruise! :D Thanks for posting.

Edited March 12, 2014 by I object 2

[greenie082756]

:DThank you for posting your review of the Ruby. It looks like you were so totally enjoying the opportunity to relax. :D

[Princessmich]

Well Happy Anniversary to both of you! Glad you had such a great cruise! Your pics were wonderful! Love that aft pool! My favorite place to be! I always ask for a mattress topper for the bed since I have back issues...if and when you sail again, maybe try one of those!

Thanks for such a nice review!:)

 

Michelle

[TorontoTL]

Great review, looking forward to the rest of your review.

[TLC535]

Thanks for the review...can't wait to board her again in 3 weeks & one day for our B2B2B :D

[AzJenn]

Thanks for the review! Love your pics, and I'm the same way with inside cabins! My last little 3 day cruise I was bumped for free to an oceanview and it was really nice to have the natural light. Can't wait to read more:)

[Olentangy]

We were also on this cruise as the second of our b2b. Not only was it raining on embarkation day, it was very windy. Two tug boats were positioned up against the Ruby to keep it docked. It was very interesting to watch.

[ebandive]

Thanks for all the nice comments!

 

On with the review! :)

 

During Sea Days, the Crowne Grille was set up to play games, and they also had a full table well stocked with coffee, tea, juices, and pastries. There was hardly anyone else in there. Even though we didn't play games, we found this a nice place to sit and talk quietly or read and relax. Off the main drag but not isolated either, and with easy access to coffee/juice. Choice of views of the photo gallery with people browsing on one side or oceanside windows on the other. Not bad. We planned to eat at the Crown Grille the last night, but didn't make reservations in time.

 

 

 

[ebandive]

Here are the Patters for day 2:

 

 

 

 

[ebandive]

We then made our way up to the Skywalkers Nightclub on deck 18 aft. Boy, what a view. This was my favorite place to go during the day. Beautiful view of the aft pool and wake, and for the most part, hardly a soul in there and very quiet and peaceful.

 

The only thing I didn't like about it is there are exit doors in the back that lead down to the aft pools and whirlpools, as well as the bar. There skywalkers bar is not open during the day. For most of the day if we wanted something to drink or just some fresh air, we'd walk out the back door which said "emergency exit." and walk down. There is no doorknob on the out side so the other one of us would let us in. Nothing set "emergency exit ONLY or anything specifying that it was not to be used. Well, once it got to be late afternoon and the bartenders were getting set up for the evening, we got scolded pretty harshly. They would not let us get back in. So we had to go down the stairs outside, back inside and across to the aft elevators, then finally back up to get our stuff. Kind of put me off. We'd been doing it all day and there was no alarm or anything signaling to us it wasn't allowed. He could have simply let us in and told us not to do it again. But he made us learn the hard way. Oh well. If that's my biggest complaint of the entire cruise, really, SO not a big deal. Just kind of annoying enough to write about. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

 

 

At one point we kept hearing some pounding. Walked around to the other side of the lounge and found someone chipping up and replacing a broken tile.

 

[ebandive]

 

Took the picture above on one of my trips to the bar.

 

Here is a list of the nonalcoholic drinks included with the soda and more card. However they will make you any virgin drink. Again, my absolute favorite was the pina colada and I must have had at least 3 a day. :D

 

 

We ate a late breakfast, which led to a late lunch, which meant at 5:30 we were definitely not ready to eat again, so we watched the sunset from the Promenade.

 

 

 

[ebandive]

More sunset pictures from the Promenade:

 

 

 

A quick 10 second video of the sun setting with the ocean going by:

 

A horizontal view, if you like to look straight down at the water when you sail:

 

This one is 24 seconds, with a sweep of the ocean view:

 

Watching the water go by after the sunset:

 

[ebandive]

And then, we found our favorite place on board. And the reason why the Ruby Promenade is our absolute favorite. It wraps all the way the length of the boat, so you can walk laps and have a constant ocean view. Every other ship we have been on, the promenade either doesn't go through on the front of the ship, or it does and the view is blocked. On this ship, and I can't believe I didn't know this before we sailed, but you can actually walk to the very very front of the ship. The very front. Look down and see water. I still can't believe it. We totally had a "I'm the king of the world" moment. SO amazing!

 

of course you need a video! :)

 

[Colo Cruiser]

Thats a great idea using the CG for games etc.

[ebandive]

That night we had our first MUTS experience, and it was totally delightful. We loved it. We had to fetch our own popcorn and blankets, but during the movie, staff came around with pizza and milk with cookies.

 

The movie that night was Captain Phillips. I don't know whose idea it was to play a movie about a ship getting hijacked by pirates for MUTS, but it was brilliant. Totally added to the suspense! :p

 

The moon above the lights of the ship:

 

 

The non-MUTS pool at night:

 

 

And the movie:

 

[Psychedout]

Thanks for the Review and pictures, looks like you had a great time.

 

Hugh :cool:

[ebandive]

After the movie, we went to the late comedy show with Rollin Jay Moore. Which was a total waste of time. I've never been to a worse comedy show. It was pretty bad.

 

 

Went to bed about midnight, and got up early the next morning to prepare for our day in Grand Turk! We had a really exciting excursion waiting for us.... WHALE WATCHING!! We booked with Crystal Seas, and payed $150 each for a 4 hour tour. By far the most expensive excursion we ever booked, but this was our only stop on this short cruise, so we thought we'd make it worth it. They said 98% chance of seeing whales and 40% chance of being able to jump in the water with them. I was so excited! From January-April, humpback whales come to the shallow waters surrounding Grand Turk in order to breed and have babies, and then the moms stay with their calf for 6 weeks before heading out. We prayed for good weather and smooth waters so that the whales would come out. And they did!

 

Here's the sun rising over Grand Turk as we pulled in to dock:

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2014 by ebandive

[ebandive]

As we got closer, we went down to our spot on the front of the Promenade. This was our first time to Grand Turk, and the water is so beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ebandive]

As the ship pulled next to the dock, a gigantic school of fish swam out. It was quite the sight in that beautiful clear water.

 

Here's a video:

 

And pictures:

 

 

A panoramic of the island: