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

[ROWSE]

Ketchikan cont.

 

Over near the museum we saw the city bus stop. My friend suggested we take it out to Totem Bight Park. I had thought it was Bright till we asked the bus driver if this bus went there, and he growled the proper word out to us. He was not a jolly fellow that is for sure.

 

He did tell us this was the right bus and to get on he wanted to leave. For $2 each way we went out to the Park. It was quite a ways out from town maybe 40 minutes on the bus, but may have been less.

 

There was an entrance fee and it way okay, but not super impressed. The pictures came out quite nice, though.

 

This was some group tour's guide explaining the totem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dkitty]

I love the photos and stories... thanks for sharing! I have offered an upsell to a balcony, may I ask what deck you were on ... thanks!

[ROWSE]

Ketchikan cont.

 

More totems...

 

 

The area was just beautiful!

 

 

 

We had an all aboard at 12:30. This was a very short port time! Catching the bus went great, and we even

had a different, rather friendly driver. BUT he told all cruise ship people to get off at this certain point

to catch the free shuttle back to the port.

 

Okay, seemed odd, but we didn't quite know the route so we, along with several others, got off here.

Sure enough it was the free shuttle stop. BUT when the shuttle came it was full and they would not let

anyone stand up. The next one would be 20 minutes or the walk was about that. Well, we were

getting too close for comfort to our all aboard if we waited and then found that shuttle full too, so we

hiked on in. Just wasn't pleased to have paid for a bus ride and then had to walk.

 

We made it fine as we hustled, but there were some name announced on the ship over the PA so hope

no one waited for the shuttle and found it full. Not sure if anyone was left at this port. We did leave late.

 

We enjoyed a buffet lunch and I saw several Eagles in the trees out by the Ruby. We then spent time

listening to another presentation by Naturalist, Michael. He was great, but I was so sleepy it was hard

to stay awake.

 

We got ready early for an early dinner. It was another formal night, and the Captains circle party also.

 

This was very tasty ravioli...

 

[ROWSE]

Ketchikan cont.

 

The Captain Circle Party for Platinum Elite was not crowded at all. At first they told me I could not order a pina colada as I often have done, but then a few minutes later the server brought one anyway. My friend had a few white wines.

 

Here we are having a picture with the Captain. He became a Captain in 2016, I believe, and quite a

charming young man.

 

 

The comedian who we had loved had another different show in the Explorer's Lounge tonight and

again he did not disappoint, he was hilarious.

 

The theater show tonight was called Once Upon A Dream. The young people were so talented and entertaining!

 

Ketchikan, though a short day, was a fantastic time!

[ROWSE]

I love the photos and stories... thanks for sharing! I have offered an upsell to a balcony, may I ask what deck you were on ... thanks!

 

Thank you so much! We were on the Baja deck in B235. It was just a few rooms ahead of the front stairwell.

 

We loved our room and room steward!

 

 

Happy Cruising to you!!!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Ngamtns706]

Thanks for the review. On this Aug 25:)

[hopestotravelmore]

Rowse,

Thank you for a wonderful review. WOW!! your iPhone sure takes great photos...I love your pictures especially the ones of Glacier Bay. I go to Alaska May next year on the Coral. My first time to Alaska so am very excited reading your review. Thanks once again.

[ROWSE]

Thanks for the review.

 

Glad you are here checking out my review!

[ROWSE]

Thanks for the review. On this Aug 25:)

 

Thank you for reading along, you will probably have warmer weather than we had and will

 

see Salmon in the river in Ketchikan. Have a wonderful cruise!

[ROWSE]

Rowse,

Thank you for a wonderful review. WOW!! your iPhone sure takes great photos...I love your pictures especially the ones of Glacier Bay. I go to Alaska May next year on the Coral. My first time to Alaska so am very excited reading your review. Thanks once again.

 

I am so excited for you to get to experience the beauty of Alaska! Thank you for compliment. Iphones can be a blessing and an aggravation as well. Have a fantastic time next May! Bring warm layers!

[ROWSE]

Sea Day ending with Victoria

 

I enjoyed watching some of the goings on on ship today. Earlier in the week I had done a Line Dancing class and that

was a lot of fun. I watched Zumba's end waiting for the Disney Trivia. I stood at the window at Club Fusion and saw a few sightings of whales. Not great pictures but I kept trying to get something on camera.

 

This is the size of the window's in Club Fusion...

 

 

Look at the little dark areas out there, it is a Humpback. Also forgot to mention that coming in to Juneau,

we were lucky to see two Orca's close beside the boat. Those magnificent dorsal fin's standing in all their glory.

Sadly I did not get a picture of them.

 

 

 

This is what a spray of the whale looks like and that is what you should search out over the horizon when cruising

Alaska. "There she blows" was on the tip of my tongue every time, and I so wanted to yell it out, but just would

yell out "Whale" if I was on deck and spotted one. This never gets old and it is equally exciting to see every one of them!

 

[ROWSE]

Sea Day ending with Victoria cont.

 

The Disney Trivia was fantastic. I knew so many of them. Did not win, but I love playing trivia. My friend joined me

for the one following of General Trivia. Ummm... let's just say I am a Disney girl and NOT a general trivia girl. These

questions were very hard and we did terrible!

 

Usually I do better than we did on this trivia. I guess it was one of THOSE days. LOL

 

We had our one and only lunch in the dining room. As I mentioned earlier this was the only slow service but the

food was delicious. Again, every bit of service after our initial meeting with Customer Service over the 45 minute wait for the cruise card to be printed for my friend, was stellar. I have to say there seemed to me to be more people lined up at Customer Service every time I passed than I've ever noticed before.

 

We went to the final presentation by Naturalist, Michael, and loved that they had all these wonderful presentations for us to attend!

 

Princess has a singing talent show called the Voice of the Ocean. This was the day that they presented the Voice of the Ocean show. My friend and I attended most of the show, but due to coming in to Victoria, we had to plan dinner to

fit in there as well. Heaven forbid we miss a dinner. LOL

 

This is so much like the show with the swiveling chairs and the judges critiquing each singer. Always done in a wonderful uplifting way! We enjoyed all the singer's we saw and marveled at how brave you have to be to do this in the first place.

 

After dinner, I started to feel so tired and felt something of a cold coming on. We watched from our balcony as we pulled in to Victoria. The sun was shining but there was a great deal of wind.

 

 

A little tug hard at work...

 

 

 

Since it was such a late port of call, and I was feeling blah, I stayed in the room and my friend went on in

to Victoria and just did a walk around. I used up some of my internet minutes and finished packing. Packing

to leave the ship is NEVER fun.

 

My friend returned about 10 and she reported that the line to leave the ship was again totally dysfunctional. I am

hoping reports from later Ruby cruises will be that they finally figured out a better plan.

 

Off to bed for a last sleep before disembarkation.

[ROWSE]

Embarkation

 

I woke up very early AGAIN. There was no noise in this cabin so I can't blame it on that. I guess I just get excited

to see what each day will bring. Even embarkation day!

 

We were already tucked in tight at our berth in Seattle. Pier 91 to be exact.

Looks like those embarking have about the same kind of weather we had when we got on 7 days ago.

 

 

We got some coffee from International Cafe and some fruit and breads.

 

There has been many posts lately about the Coffee card. Since I am Elite I like to turn in my free mini-bar set up for the two coffee cards they offer as a trade. I had bought a past coffee card as sometimes the room service takes awhile to trade this out and I might want a coffee before that. They were however down to trade it out within the hour I called.

Neither coffee card has an expiration date although I have been reading that many lately had an expiration date printed

on them. I also read in the new rules Princess put out that all these cards will expire next August 2019. WOW, is that

a bum deal. People purchase these and some, like me, have them as loyalty gifts. WHAT THE HECK!!!

 

To me they should never ever expire. We purchased in good faith, and they should not snatch a gift that they gave us for our loyalty back from us. I hope people really give Princess the "what for" over this issue!

 

I also posted my picture on another thread, but here is a picture of my old and smaller new card I received this trip.

 

 

[andiRN]

Thanks so much for your great review! We'll be on this cruise at the end of July. There will be seven of us including two kids, and it's the first cruise for all of us. We're getting so excited!

[ROWSE]

Thanks so much for your great review! We'll be on this cruise at the end of July. There will be seven of us including two kids, and it's the first cruise for all of us. We're getting so excited!

 

Fantastic that you will have so many together on a cruise. How fun! Thank you for joining me on this review!

 

I hope you have a wonderful first cruise. Mine was in 1995 and I was hooked ever after!

[ROWSE]

Debarkation cont.

 

We had asked for a early departure being able to not carry off our own large luggage. We were assigned 8:10 for our

time. There was an Platinum/Elite departure lounge set up in the Crown Grill.

 

It was just so comfortable waiting in there! Here was some of the goodies they set out for us.

 

 

 

 

Yes, even though I had eaten just a short time ago, I managed to squeeze in a little bit more.

The pastries were all the cutest little miniatures of what is served in the International Cafe. Loved all of it!

 

[ROWSE]

Debarkation cont.

 

Precisely at 8:10a.m. our color and number were called to get off the ship. It was to the right and around the corner.

Wow, how easy was that!

 

Finding the luggage went well and the TSA agents glanced at the passport and we were off. Easiest time

I have ever had getting off.

 

Once outside we called my friends family to pick us up.

 

I had been on the Ruby a few other times, so really didn't take pictures of the outside of the ship till we had to

leave it. Here she is in all her glory from outside in the general pick up area.

 

 

This area gets a little chaotic with traffic and all, but we were soon picked up and on our way home.

We had had a wonderful girl's cruise and I thank you Princess for consistently providing a great trip to us!

 

It is customary to do a departing shot of our boo boo lip before we leave.

 

 

BUT... of course once home I always try to have another cruise in the works to look forward to. The next

is on the Celebrity Reflection, October 1, 2018. This is just around the corner, so this debarkation was not

at painful as some others in the past.

 

Thank you again for reading along, and I hope you all have wonderful cruising days of your own to look forward to!

[land lover]

love the sad faces...fun review...often I loose interest, but not with yours...photos are worth a 1000 words.

 

 

Thx L:Dri

[cub77cub]

Thank you for posting the pics and the great review! We are sailing on the Ruby August 5! We sailed to Alaska on Celebrity Solstice in 2014 (May). We are very excited to try Princess and an August itinerary. We did Tracy Arm on the 2014 cruise. Thanks again for the great review and tips!

 

Debarkation cont.

 

Precisely at 8:10a.m. our color and number were called to get off the ship. It was to the right and around the corner.

Wow, how easy was that!

 

Finding the luggage went well and the TSA agents glanced at the passport and we were off. Easiest time

I have ever had getting off.

 

Once outside we called my friends family to pick us up.

 

I had been on the Ruby a few other times, so really didn't take pictures of the outside of the ship till we had to

leave it. Here she is in all her glory from outside in the general pick up area.

 

 

This area gets a little chaotic with traffic and all, but we were soon picked up and on our way home.

We had had a wonderful girl's cruise and I thank you Princess for consistently providing a great trip to us!

 

It is customary to do a departing shot of our boo boo lip before we leave.

 

 

BUT... of course once home I always try to have another cruise in the works to look forward to. The next

is on the Celebrity Reflection, October 1, 2018. This is just around the corner, so this debarkation was not

at painful as some others in the past.

 

Thank you again for reading along, and I hope you all have wonderful cruising days of your own to look forward to!

[ROWSE]

Thank you for posting the pics and the great review! We are sailing on the Ruby August 5! We sailed to Alaska on Celebrity Solstice in 2014 (May). We are very excited to try Princess and an August itinerary. We did Tracy Arm on the 2014 cruise. Thanks again for the great review and tips!

 

So glad you were able to get a little information from this review! You are sure to have a wonderful time on your

August cruise! I have sailed on the Solstice and loved it! Celebrity and Princess both have their things they do better. We love them both!

[Joyinthemouse]

Thank you for your report, I am going on Princess Emerald later this summer, so very excited for my first Alaska Cruise, and second Princess Cruise, I am a veteran Disney Cruiser, but like Princess too.

 

Joy

 

 

Day Three Juneau cont.

 

We had an amazing moment and sadly no one had their cameras out but a Humpback did a complete

breach right beside the boat. This just takes your breath away! They said this is rare.

 

Next, the bus took us out to Mendenhall Glacier. We were to catch the Blue Bus back, the last bus leaving at 6:00.

We did the approximately mile hike out to Nugget Waterfall.

 

 

Mendenhall Glacier.

 

 

Thanks to this young man directly behind us in the following picture as my friend dropped her phone

and he alerted her.

 

 

 

We left earlier than the last 6:00 bus and there was quite a crowd. Luckily we were able to get on.

We headed back to the ship.

[ROWSE]

Thank you for your report, I am going on Princess Emerald later this summer, so very excited for my first Alaska Cruise, and second Princess Cruise, I am a veteran Disney Cruiser, but like Princess too.

 

Joy

 

Thank you for letting me know you read along! Hope your Emerald Princess cruise is fantastic!

[dkitty]

Thank you for the wonderful post and pics! We leave 6/30 on Ruby ...going north to Alaska........I cant wait !

[XBGuy]

Rowse, I just stumbled onto your report and enjoyed it, very much. I hope you're still following because I have a question.

 

The cemetary/waterfall hike that you took in Skagway sounds very interesting to me. I've been to Skagway on previous cruises. but I'd never heard of this. We have two cruises booked to AK, next year--on the Ruby Princess in April and on the Royal Princess in September. I'm pretty sure that both of those stop in Skagway. Can you give me quick directions to the cemetary?

 

We were on the Emerald Princess to Alaska late April/early May. In Skagway I did find some neat hiking trails close to town, but I did not see any waterfalls like you saw. Oh, and for what it's worth, there was no problem leaving the ship at any of our stops. Your unfortunate report was quite surprising.