Ruby Princess - Alaska Inside Passage - June 22 - 29, 2019

[jaycruising]

This is the Starbucks Head Office.

 

 

 

 

A rate sighting in the blog... a selfie! Just to prove I exist and that I was in Seattle!

 

 

That ends our harbour tour, it was great and gave us a lot of information regarding the surrounding area. We have taken a few boat tours in different places we have visited and have always really enjoyed them!

 

Now it was time to get out of downtown Seattle, in rush hour! The first street we were on was not moving, so I cut through an alley and over to another one and it moved much better. The problem is you are on pretty steep hills, thank goodness I don't drive a standard anymore.

 

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Panda Express for dinner, which was $25 total, which works for us!

 

We made it back to the hotel room around 7PM, we just spent the rest of the evening relaxing and re-organizing our bags for embarkation day.

 

It was such a great day! I really like Seattle.

 

I walked 6.5 KM today!

[jaycruising]

June 22, 2019 - Embarkation Day

 

Yah! It is cruise day finally!

 

Up and down to the restaurant in the hotel just before 9am for breakfast, it was alright nothing great. Back up to the room to relax a bit and just finish getting our stuff together before heading to the ship. We left the hotel right around 10:30am. It took us about 45 minutes to get to our parking. We parked at Seattle Cruise Park, it cost $157 for the week, which is pricy, but they all are in Seattle. They asked us not to arrive before 10:30am and before 2:30pm. They quickly loaded the bus and we were on our way to the port.

 

I was super happy we had not taken a ride share to the port, they have to drop you off almost a mile from the terminal building. It sure is a different terminal then the Fort Lauderdale one. We could not locate a porter anywhere, and since 2 ships share the same building you have to look for a porter wearing a certain colour for your ship. Since we were close to the building I just hauled our luggage in. We were quickly through security and had our cruise cards in hand in about 15 minutes.

 

We got on the ship and we immediately headed to the Da Vinci dining room for lunch. When I asked the staff wanted us to go to the Lido Deck buffet, but I just said, no I wanted the main dining room and they sent us on our way. It was right around noon and there were maybe a dozen tables filled in the restaurant, it is so peaceful.

 

Here is the embarkation day lunch menu.

 

 

 

I started with the smoked salmon and crayfish... it was interesting.

 

 

For my main I had the beef tenderloin, it was tasty

 

 

And the hazelnut souffle was delicious!

 

 

Our waiter was of course selling the wine tasting package for the next day for $25, I am not much of a wine lover so the money wasn't worth it to me, but mom decided to sign up for it the next day. The beauty of the ship, we don't have to do the same things all the time.

 

At 1pm they made the announcement that the rooms were ready, we finished our meal shortly after this, so we headed to our room and all 3 of our bags were already there! So in to check out our room.

 

We sailed on Ruby Princess to the Caribbean in 2014, in basically the same room so it was really just to see what differences. The biggest difference was new carpet, both in the hall and in our room. The small TV in the corner had been replaced with a larger flat screen mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed, just like the Royal. And then the new beds! The new beds are amazing! 100 times better then the old ones.

We spent some time unpacking and getting settled and we were quite happy to shove those suitcases under the beds for the week. I was tired of hauling them around!

 

[jaycruising]

At 3pm we headed down towards the Wheelhouse Bar which is our muster station, yes we were early, but wanted to make sure we had a seat for mom, and well me too! Muster was as uneventful as usual, and we were hanging out in the bar for a bit, since it is always such a madhouse after muster. We were chatting with a couple from Georgia and when I looked out the window we were already moving!

 

So we quickly headed out to the promenade deck to catch our sailaway, no way we were making it up to the lido! It is a very different sailaway since it is an industrial port there really is no crowd to wish us off. Instead though, we had even better. A dock worker came down to the end of the pier and was playing us out on his saxophone! It was the best, I am so happy we ended up on that side.  

 

 

 

So if you are sailing out of Pier 91 in Seattle try and be on the dockside for sailaway and maybe he will play you out as well!

 

I also got a few pics on our way out, including some of the Norwegian Joy, which was at the other pier.

 

 

 

 

Next we headed down to the Internet cafe, I had pre-bought the single device internet package, but we decided that we would upgrade to the 4 device package, which was not on my cruise personalizer as an option to purchase ahead of time.

 

We got that sorted and we walked around the shops a bit and just wandered around. The beauty of being on a ship for the second time was that we didn't need to spend a bunch of time exploring, we were able to quickly get our bearings.

 

We then went and sat in the Piazza and had a drink and just did some people watching. We also talked to our server for quite some time. Her name was Georgie... I love talking to all of the staff and learn more about them and find out their story.

 

[jaycruising]

Around 7:30 we headed down to the Michaelangelo dining room for dinner, I was still pretty full from lunch, but we did it anyway.

 

I started with a crab cake... it was amazing, and recommended by our waiter

 

 

For my main I had the braised short rib and it was pretty delicious as well.

 

 

I really had no room for dessert tonight so I had the cheese plate with apricots.

 

 

After dinner we walked around a little bit and then headed back to our cabin. I watched some shows on my iPad and mom read for a while and then we passed out in those amazing new princess beds!

 

[tompeter]

Enjoying your report!

[jaycruising]

4 hours ago, tompeter said:

Enjoying your report!

  Glad you are enjoying it. Just have to finish dishes and I’ll have another post. 

[Colo Cruiser]

Nice!!  Love all the glass artwork at Chihuly!!

[jaycruising]

1 hour ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Nice!!  Love all the glass artwork at Chihuly!!

 

Thanks!  Chihuly is amazing!

[jaycruising]

June 23, 2019 - Sea Day

 

So today is going to be super light on pictures... it seems that I only took 3, all day, very unlike me.

 

Was awake around 7am, but lazed around until 9am and just was watching a show on my iPad.

 

Around 9ish we headed up to Horizon Court from some breakfast, it all looks so good, but I stuck with yogurt, granola and fruit. I love sitting at the windows here, we spotted some whales not far from the ship!

 

On a side note, I really like the new Ocean Concierge, it is much more customizable then the old princess@sea was. When you open it up it will show any excursions that you have booked through the ship and then you can go through the events schedule for the day and add anything you may be interested in to your schedule and personalize it.

 

 

You can also view your shipboard account, the weather, use the messaging app (still not great) and more.

So as you can see I added a few things. First we did head off to trivia, we managed to get 12 out of 20, not bad.

 

After that we decided to head tot he dining room to do the arts and crafts, however by the time we got there it was full, so we didn't get to partake.

 

I will say there are more kids on this cruise then I have ever seen on a Princess cruise, for the most part it did not bother, but there were a few moments, and I don't blame the kids... it was all the parents not paying attention to them. More on that later.

 

We were pretty lame after this, just enjoying our day at sea, the relaxation and comfort!

 

Mom had her wine tasting at 2:45 so she headed out for that. About 10 after 3, I headed down to the Da Vinci dining room for tea time. I would have taken pictures but I felt so awkward I didn't. I was placed at a table with 6 other people, all appeared to be mother's and daughter's, which was cool, but no one said a word to me, or each other. But the tea was amazing, along with the sandwiches and pastries, I did love the experience and will be back, but I really couldn't wait to get out of there.

 

As I got back to the cabin I met up with mom, who was just getting back, and as it turns out she didn't get to enjoy the wine tasting, she had a bit of a sea sick stomach and one glass of wine made that turn. I won't share the rest of the details, but they did come and spot sanitize our room about half an hour later.

 

So that was it for mom, she spent the remainder of the day in bed. I feel really bad for her and wish that she didn't go through that on pretty much every sea day we have, and especially because it doesn't bug me at all. Last time we were on Ruby we had 10-15 foot swells, everyone was sick that time, not me!

 

We both napped for a while, I got up around 6 and went and walked around for a while. I popped by the main dining room to see if there was anything on the menu that I really wanted, that would make me want to go and get all dressed up for since it was formal night, nothing really appealed.

 

I went and grabbed a slice of pizza for mom and took it back to the room for her, then I headed up to the buffet for my dinner, nothing super exciting.

 

I headed out to the promenade deck and found my favourite spot on the ship and did take a couple pictures of the wake.

 

 

wandered around for a while to try and find a quiet place found one and just hung out and watched my iPad for a while.

 

Then back to the room for a fairly early evening.

 

I promise tomorrow is more exciting, we are in Juneau.

[jaycruising]

June 24, 2019 - Juneau

 

I'm going to get started on our day in Juneau but I probably won't get it done tonight, since I have to be up early tomorrow and back to work.

 

Up this morning and went for another first, we decided to head to the main dining room for breakfast, on the Royal we would eat at the buffet and sit outside, not really an option here! Breakfast was delicious, I had sausage and eggs and you could tell it was freshly cooked, my eggs were still hot. There is also a waiter that goes around with a tray of pastries, the chocolate croissant is amazing!

 

Back up to our cabin to finish packing and watch our arrival into Juneau. We arrived in Juneau and were ready to go right on time at 11:00am. We are on port side so we had a nice view while coming in.

 

 

 

 

The other bonus of our side was we could watch the tour operators setting up, so we were able to find our meeting point before even getting off the ship. We have booked the Best of Juneau (Whale Watch, Salmon Bake and Mendenhal Glacier) through the ship. We did look at other vendors, however we could not find the tour for less through any other vendor so we went through the ship.

 

Our tour was scheduled to leave at 11:45, so we didn't have to rush off of the ship, which was nice, we let the crowds dissipate before we headed out. We left right on time and started our day with an about 30 minute bus ride over to the dock where we would be getting on another boat, at least mom doesn't get sea sick on little boats! Our driver was also a tour guide and gave us a lot of interesting information about the area. I have to say they are very well trained, since she actually is from Florida, but she was great. Thankfully it also wasn't super packed as they had a couple of buses.

 

The boat was large enough for everyone, but while we were moving they only had a small deck open on the back on the second level, it was pretty stuffy in there. Not their fault, no one has air conditioning and since it was a heat wave! The trip started with the safety information, and then they told us everything they had available on the boat, there is a full bar and a few other items that are available for purchase.

 

We enjoyed the views on the way to our fist stop, Orca Point Lodge on Colt Island, it is about a 30 minute boat ride.

 

 

 

The scenery along the way is beautiful.

 

 

[jaycruising]

 

 

This is Orca Point Lodge, we were here for about an hour, they have a tide pool aquarium, and a small gift shop along with the dining room.

 

 

Our meal was ready for us, as soon as we arrived, and it was delicious, they also had a chicken option but I didn't have any as this was so so good.  It is the best tour meal I have ever had!

 

 

[jaycruising]

After I finished eating I went and explored the property a little more and down to the beach, it was low tide so you could get pretty far.

 

 

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

They also had beautiful flowers on the property.

 

 

 

 

They rang a bell to let us know that it was time to make our way back to the boat. Before leaving I spoke with a few of the employees, I always like talking to them and finding out different things about them and the places we visit. All of the people on the island that cooked for us, work for the same company that operates the boats, so they get a ride out to the island and back every day for their commute, pretty nice on the good days. They also said they had 2 more boats coming to the island, but said that was a pretty slow day as some they can have 5-6 per day. Time to get back on the boat and go looking for whales!

 

 

[jaycruising]

We drove around for a while and took in the sites while we were looking for whales.

 

 

 

 

There are so many Eagles around Juneau.

 

 

 

This picture is actually my favourite from the day, I just love the lighthouse and the little house nearby.

 

[jaycruising]

It was not looking very promising in our search for whales, so we took a little break and headed to a buoy to see the Stellar Sea Lions, they are so cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I am going to leave you here for the night, with my cute little friends and I will be back tomorrow with more!

[turquoisesea]

Thank you so much for all your great information and beautiful pictures!  We will be doing this cruise at the end of August!  I can’t wait!

Could you answer a question for me, it you know?  You wrote about getting to the port from your hotel. We are staying at the Marriott waterfront and thought we would just grab a taxi to the pier.  Will taxis not be able to take us up to the ship with our luggage?  Thus might be a problem for me.  Any suggestions?   Again, thank you for sharing!  I can’t wait to see more tomorrow. 

[jaycruising]

32 minutes ago, turquoisesea said:

Thank you so much for all your great information and beautiful pictures!  We will be doing this cruise at the end of August!  I can’t wait!

Could you answer a question for me, it you know?  You wrote about getting to the port from your hotel. We are staying at the Marriott waterfront and thought we would just grab a taxi to the pier.  Will taxis not be able to take us up to the ship with our luggage?  Thus might be a problem for me.  Any suggestions?   Again, thank you for sharing!  I can’t wait to see more tomorrow. 

You are welcome, I hope you enjoy the rest as well and your trip, Alaska is amazing. 

 

I just dug around a little little bit and the taxis can drop you off right at the door. I’m not certain on the way out, other blogs I have seen show that you have to walk out to the taxi’s or Uber/Lyft. But the porters were more readily available at the end, at least for us. 

[turquoisesea]

10 hours ago, jaycruising said:

You are welcome, I hope you enjoy the rest as well and your trip, Alaska is amazing. 

 

I just dug around a little little bit and the taxis can drop you off right at the door. I’m not certain on the way out, other blogs I have seen show that you have to walk out to the taxi’s or Uber/Lyft. But the porters were more readily available at the end, at least for us. 

Thank you, again!   All the ports we have disembarked from have been different but most have had lots of porters to help.  I was thinking maybe we should do the Princess transfer to the Airport but we have avoided doing this in the past.  I can’t wait to read your next installment!

[TexasBorderAussie]

Loving your post.  We are doing our 4th cruise to Alaska starting on July 31.  First time ever on Princess.  Vancouver to Whittier.

Your pictures are amazing!!!!  My DH is the photographer and is always taking pictures.  I will get him on to watch along also.  I know he will be a fan.

Sorry about the experience at tea.  I at one time was a very shy individual but would answer questions and try a bit of conversation.  My job (Nurse Practitioner) has developed me into a much more vocal person knowing it is my job to get things started and even though my original shy nature tries to take hold, I can push past.  One of the things, I have enjoyed about all our cruises and other vacations as well is getting to know a bit about other travelers. 

[CruzinNoony]

Your photos continue to amaze me!  There isn't a poor one in the bunch.  I would like to commend your mom for being such a trooper after her double knee surgery.  Wow.  One knee at a time is bad enough, but both of them.  I can't imagine.  It appears that she is walking around on her own and not in a wheelchair or using a walker.  Double WOW!!

[Pierlesscruisers]

Jaycruising, you've uploaded some very nice pictures. Thank you very much for taking the time and effort for doing that.I know I do and I suspect that others greatly appreciate your efforts.

 

Tom

[jaycruising]

7 hours ago, TexasBorderAussie said:

Loving your post.  We are doing our 4th cruise to Alaska starting on July 31.  First time ever on Princess.  Vancouver to Whittier.

Your pictures are amazing!!!!  My DH is the photographer and is always taking pictures.  I will get him on to watch along also.  I know he will be a fan.

Sorry about the experience at tea.  I at one time was a very shy individual but would answer questions and try a bit of conversation.  My job (Nurse Practitioner) has developed me into a much more vocal person knowing it is my job to get things started and even though my original shy nature tries to take hold, I can push past.  One of the things, I have enjoyed about all our cruises and other vacations as well is getting to know a bit about other travelers. 

 

Thank you, glad you are enjoying it!

 

It was a little awkward, But I still enjoyed my tea, I actually usually love sitting with other people and getting to know them, but the table seemed to be 3 sets of mothers and daughters and 2 of the daughters were teenagers, so I think that had a lot to do with it and I was the last to join after they had already started.  In that case I would have rather sat on my own and just been on my phone, which I don't do when seated with others.

 

6 hours ago, CruzinNoony said:

Your photos continue to amaze me!  There isn't a poor one in the bunch.  I would like to commend your mom for being such a trooper after her double knee surgery.  Wow.  One knee at a time is bad enough, but both of them.  I can't imagine.  It appears that she is walking around on her own and not in a wheelchair or using a walker.  Double WOW!!

 

CruizinNoony, thank you, and we haven't even got to my favourites yet!  As for my mom, I have to more them commend her, she has done amazing, she stopped using a walker within 2 months, for the cruise she did bring a cane along but only used it for the first couple of days, she did also have hiking poles along and used them some but she is really walking without aid.  We learnt the biggest thing with this surgery is that you need to go in with a great support team (I stayed with them for almost 3 weeks at the beginning to help take care of her), go in with the right mindset and you have to do your exercises.  She actually has said that her new knees came with a built in fitness requirement, because she actually hurts when she doesn't exercise.  She also doesn't regret at all doing them both at the same time.

 

6 hours ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

Jaycruising, you've uploaded some very nice pictures. Thank you very much for taking the time and effort for doing that.I know I do and I suspect that others greatly appreciate your efforts.

 

Tom

 

Thank you Pierlesscruiser!  It lets me relive it as well and I know when I am planning I love reading trip reports and looking at pictures.

[jaycruising]

Alright, back to finish our day in Juneau.

 

Finally some spray!

 

 

Then we had to go in search of more!

 

 

 

Finally we got lucky and we saw about half a dozen whales from the location we were at.

 

 

 

[jaycruising]

 

 

 

 

 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

On 7/21/2019 at 12:06 PM, jaycruising said:

June 22, 2019 - Embarkation Day

 

Here is the embarkation day lunch menu.

 

I am really enjoying your posts and pictures. I noticed the fettuccine came with the Parmesan crisp bowl. I’ve been told on all my cruises for the last two years or more that this was discontinued!  I’m on the Grand in a couple of weeks and I am going to ask for it again.