Ruby Princess Alaska Cruise Review May 19 to 26, 2018.

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Having fun reading along! Thank you for sharing. We will be on the Ruby doing this cruise in September!

 

I am so glad you are experiencing what this review is intended for, which is whetting the appetite of those going on in the coming months. Ruby Princess was a wonderful experience as was this itinerary. I hope you have a fabulous cruise!

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This line made me snort coffee out my nose! :D

"But at least it would give Cruise Critic quite a lot to talk over if you did. Was that formal buff wear or casual?"

Your formal night dress is lovely.

 

Thank you for reading along, and thank you for the dress compliment. I love to feel like dinner is something special and dressing up makes it feel like that to me.

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Hopefully I am all caught up and didn't miss anyone.

I forgot to answer one question on Tom's post asking if I had made my Vegan dietary needs known before the cruise. I did not. We usually always do anytime dining and I know it is possible even then to meet with a head waiter for your needs, but I really didn't want to use my time doing that. I can always find something to eat, so it is not a big deal to me.

As I said earlier, I do have a little bit of fish only when I cruise.

 

So now back to my review....

I left off with us coming back on the bus in Juneau from the Mendenhall Glacier.

The Ruby docks a short walk from the downtown area. The blue bus is an old school type bus and they drop you off down town. We were quite hungry as we had only had a late breakfast and our tour had given us a granola bar so we hurriedly

got ready for dinner.

 

The menu tonight had crab legs on it. It has been a long time since I have seen these on a menu. Maybe I have just

missed them, but I just had to indulge. They were fantastic! Also, the bread offerings were different every night as was the butter type topping, and they list what they are on the menu. We didn't realize till after several days into the cruise that the bread offerings were listed, so be sure to read the top left of the menu to see them.

 

 

This seems like a good spot to say how incredible our dining service was on the Ruby. We usually had a different

wait staff every meal as it was anytime and they all were efficient, friendly and quick. Only one lunch in the dining

room did we have a slight wait and it wasn't very long. We went at different times, and never had to wait for a table

for two. This is definitely the luck of the draw, though, as I did see line ups sometimes as we left the room.

 

My notes did not mention a show tonight and I am thinking with the late departure there was not one. Off to another wonderful sleep in the very comfy beds!

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Day 4-Skagway I slept till 6:30 today! YAY!!! This felt like a sleep in from my crazy 4:30 mornings. We were already at port in Skagway when I opened the curtains. This was the view.

 

 

 

 

 

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Skagway cont.

 

In other visits to Skagway on Princess we were docked at the rock wall next to the train, so this was a totally new area to me. Possible this dock is new. It was really fun to watch all the helicopter activity going on later in the day. Those helicopters you see in the pictures left every few minutes. After we left the ship I noticed the Star Princess had the other dock.

 

We ate breakfast and got ready to leave to a wonderful no rain morning. Much later in the day it did rain

some with great gusts of wind.

In the following picture I am showing my beautiful hand knit scarf made by my daughter, knitter extraordinaire. This scarf is very well traveled. It usually accompanies me on most cruises. The hat is her creation as well. Yes, I am lucky!!

 

 

Our plan today was to hike out to the Gold Rush Cemetery and walk up to see the Lower Reid Falls.

It was perfect weather for this! On the way was this train that they use to break through the snow and ice.

 

 

We just loved this cute little tiny house along the way.

 

 

Nice to see a store like this!

 

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Skagway cont.

 

The walk out to the Gold Rush Cemetery is about 2 miles and we didn't see a lot of people doing this, but it was a wonderful hike. Flat till you get to the cemetery and only a very short 5-10 minute walk up to the falls.

 

 

 

Looked like there had been a big rock slide at one time.

 

 

There was a really nice bathroom facility out at the cemetery to use just for a FYI.

 

The little cemetery is great! All the characters you hear about in Skagway are buried there.

 

 

This is the grave of Soapy Smith...

 

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Skagway cont.

 

This is some pictures of the trail up to the waterfalls so you can see the terrain.

 

 

 

We get our first view of the falls. Remember this is May, so the amount of water you may see later could vary.

 

 

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Skagway cont.

 

This was such an incredible site! I could have stayed there all day!

 

 

 

Looks like at one time there was a trail to Upper Reid Falls to the right of the rock in the following picture.

 

 

Now that would be a hard hike!

[land lover]

Thank you so much for coming along down my memory lane. It is so fun to "do it again" so to speak in a review.

 

Did your cruise have as much confusion getting off in a couple ports as ours did?

 

In one word ..YES! directional signs and announcements could have been better, many new cruisers contributed to it though....2/3rds of our ship, how about your sailing?

 

Especially, Victoria ..line was incredibly long, snaked around the ship, staff was confused ...we choose to eat dinner at that time so avoid the rush...

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Skagway cont.

 

There was the cutest bird just having the time of his life in the water. He is small but in the

following picture he is in the center.

 

 

Finally we saw some sunshine!

 

 

Back down at the cemetery we see the grave of Frank Reid, he was known for killing the notorious Soapy Smith, then he laid for 12 agonizing days before he too died. After hearing more stories, I am not sure he was any better that Mr. Smith.

 

 

We walk back in to town and find the place to buy the show tickets for the Gold Rush 98 show. We have an

hour to wait so have lunch at this little place.

 

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In one word ..YES! directional signs and announcements could have been better, many new cruisers contributed to it though....2/3rds of our ship, how about your sailing?

 

Especially, Victoria ..line was incredibly long, snaked around the ship, staff was confused ...we choose to eat dinner at that time so avoid the rush...

 

Yes, our cruise was a huge amount of new cruisers and you are probably right that contributed to those lines, but some of our directional arrows pointed the wrong way even. The lack of staff was what amazed me. I am not kidding when I think they might have thrown up there hands and hid.

 

Still, we eventually got off the ship, but it put a lot of people in snarky moods before we did.

[land lover]

What a great trek you took in Skagway....I am going to put this in my notes for a return trip, that we might do last minute with no excursions planned. We did all our excursions with the ship..Taku Lodge,chilkoot hike & float and snorkel in Ketchikan

 

 

 

I had been to Alaska only once before 20 years ago and it rained it seemed like non-stop, in fact on that cruise with princess we took a heli up to a glacier and were in white out conditions and got called back, all helis were grounded after that. But did get to take a seaplane to see the bears shaking salmon etc...but after that 7 day experience out of Anchorage just did not care to return ever, until offer from son to take me.

So this time went in May in hopes of having drier weather and blue sky at Glacier Bay...and we did..YAY! Now, I told DH we need to go back. Hope ur weather improves as the review goes on.

 

 

 

Nice you made your whale watch, prior to the sea getting rough. Looking forward to more review.

Edited June 8, 2018 by land lover

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Skagway cont.

 

Next up was the Days of 98 show. I have seen the show before and it is great fun!

 

This is a little blurb off their website:

Since 1923, The Days of '98 Show has stupefied and bedazzled audiences with the tale of Soapy Smith, Alaska's most notorious outlaw. Soapy reigned over Skagway during the wildest days of the Klondike Gold Rush, and this colorful vaudevillian musical recounts his incredible story. The show features can-can dancers, ragtime music, riotous humor, and the great con-man himself, Soapy Smith!

 

 

After the show my friend wanted to browse around a bit more and I walked back to the ship. I loved being out on the balcony watching all the happenings. There was some rain and wind as I walked back.

 

 

 

 

 

I got ready for the evening and after my friend got back we went out in search of some sustenance in the Explorers Lounge. They have some special drinks they are doing in Alaska.

 

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lol I just went and read the wikipedia on Soapy Smith. Interesting read! I live about an hour from Denver and had never heard of him....now I'm intrigued.

 

He was quite the character, and we loved seeing the show I just mentioned.

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What a great trek you took in Skagway....I am going to put this in my notes for a return trip, that we might do last minute with no excursions planned. We did all our excursions with the ship..Taku Lodge,chilkoot hike & float and snorkel in Ketchikan

 

 

 

I had been to Alaska only once before 20 years ago and it rained it seemed like non-stop, in fact on that cruise with princess we took a heli up to a glacier and were in white out conditions and got called back, all helis were grounded after that. But did get to take a seaplane to see the bears shaking salmon etc...but after that 7 day experience out of Anchorage just did not care to return ever, until offer from son to take me.

So this time went in May in hopes of having drier weather and blue sky at Glacier Bay...and we did..YAY!

 

 

 

Nice you made your whale watch, prior to the sea getting rough. Looking forward to more review.

 

As you can probably tell, we didn't feel like we should spend the big bucks on some of the tours as we have been before and didn't want to do BIG stuff without the hubbies. I have done the Chilkoot Train and Float and it was so fun. Sounds like you had amazing adventures. Sorry your helicopter was grounded. A couple on our Juneau whale watch had had their plane or helicopter tour canceled that day also from bad weather, therefore they grabbed the Whale Watch.

 

 

One thing about weather in Alaska, is it is unpredictable!

[land lover]

Yes, our cruise was a huge amount of new cruisers and you are probably right that contributed to those lines, but some of our directional arrows pointed the wrong way even. The lack of staff was what amazed me. I am not kidding when I think they might have thrown up there hands and hid.

 

Still, we eventually got off the ship, but it put a lot of people in snarky moods before we did.

 

You're probably right about the staff.....:D

[land lover]

As you can probably tell, we didn't feel like we should spend the big bucks on some of the tours as we have been before and didn't want to do BIG stuff without the hubbies. I have done the Chilkoot Train and Float and it was so fun. Sounds like you had amazing adventures. Sorry your helicopter was grounded. A couple on our Juneau whale watch had had their plane or helicopter tour canceled that day also from bad weather, therefore they grabbed the Whale Watch.

 

 

One thing about weather in Alaska, is it is unpredictable!

 

Even on our cruise we had slight rain in Juneau which cancelled some heli excursions....and as you wrote most opted to replace them with whale watches.

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Skagway cont.

 

From the menu I posted I tried the Carmel Hard Shake. It was yummy.

 

 

Then we went to the Folkloric Show in the Explorers Lounge. It was great fun and the entertainer, whose name I forgot to make note of, was great.

 

 

I just realized I did take photos of one menu, so I will include that. Note how the bread is listed on the top left.

 

 

 

This nights production was Magic to Do show. It was very good! We went to Liars Game Show next which was quite funny.

[idahospud]

 

Then we went to the Folkloric Show in the Explorers Lounge. It was great fun and the entertainer, whose name I forgot to make note of, was great.

 

 

That's Steve Hites. He's always good!

[land lover]

I am so glad you are experiencing what this review is intended for, which is whetting the appetite of those going on in the coming months. Ruby Princess was a wonderful experience as was this itinerary. I hope you have a fabulous cruise!

 

I loved this itinerary so many say take a one way for more hours in ports.....but I found this cruise port hours perfect for a 7 day. yes it was rough on the open sea gng out, at least on our cruise.

 

 

I liked a full day and a half of relaxation once on the ship, I also liked the short eve stop in Victoria.

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Skagway cont.

 

I can't stress enough how beautiful the scenery is when leaving Skagway. If your are cruising soon please try to be at a viewing area when you leave. We turned the TV to channel 39 I believe, and listened to the Naturalist, Michael, describe what we were seeing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such an amazing sunset!!!

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That's Steve Hites. He's always good!

 

Thank you for supplying that, and reading along!

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Skagway cont.

 

One more leaving Skagway showing the blue of a hanging glacier if you look toward the center.

 

 

We have a very early day tomorrow as it is Glacier Bay starting at 6:00 a.m. so we needed to be earlier than that

getting our International Cafe coffee's and snack, so we fell in to bed for the night exhausted from an amazing day!

[land lover]

That's Steve Hites. He's always good!

 

I saw him too, said he has been coming on Princess ships for 30 years..since he was playing while in port not to big of a crowd.

 

 

for a week after his performance ...this was singing in my head "north to Alaska, go north the rush is on......";p

 

Is it still playing in anyone else's?

 

Hi idahospud...any big payouts from gambling recently?

[Woobstr112G]

Absolutely loved those pictures of your hike.....:):):)

 

Bob