LIVE - Ruby Princess, Nov 6 - 20, 14-day Circle Caribbean

[aring75]

Hello everyone! I’m Angela, and my husband Mark and I will be sailing with Princess for the first time since 2010. 
 

 

 

Our itinerary is the 14-day Circle Caribbean on the just-out-of-dry dock Ruby Princess. We depart tomorrow from Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades) and I am giddy with excitement!

 

 

We booked this cruise through our travel agent with the Plus Package, and she gifted us an upgrade to Premium and some OBC that we are really looking forward to using!

 

 

We’ve sailed with Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL, Disney, Celebrity, and Holland America. 50+ cruises spread out over multiple lines. We are currently Platinum with Princess. 
 

Just so you know. We have never had a bad cruise. Never. We are very much go-with-the-flow kind of people and things would have to be pretty bad to ruin our vacation. I do really appreciate the LIVE threads with honest and up to date information, however, and I will do my best to return the favor here!

 

I take lots of photos. Menus, ship photos, food. Mark is even in the habit of pausing before his first bite so I can snap a quick pic of his dinner. 😂

[aring75]

When I first booked this cruise, I chose a balcony guarantee. Right around 45 days before the cruise, we were assigned a standard balcony cabin on Baja Deck 11 and I was quite happy with it. 
 

We received an offer to upgrade shortly after that and decided, “What the heck.” We put in an offer on a premium balcony and it was accepted. 
 

We are now sailing in a B2 cabin on Caribe Deck 10 with a slightly larger balcony. The cabin is located halfway between the midship and aft stairs/elevators. 
 

 

We have four excursions planned. Two through the ship and two on our own (through shore excursions group).

 

We have reservations at Sabatini’s and Crown Grill and Mark wants to try the balcony dining. We’ll see if that happens. I’m not 100% sold yet so we are going to decide after we board. 

[aring75]

Has anyone ever cruised right after a time change? 😩

 

We turned the clocks back last night and now I’m so discombobulated (do people still use that word?) 

 

 

 

Plus. I left all of my packing until the last day and I am currently regretting that decision. 

[banderboo]

Excited to see your live. I will be on Ruby in a few weeks with my parents, sister and husband. Seasoned cruisers but first time cruising with Princess so any and all information you provide will be great. 

[kywildcatfanone]

Enjoy your cruise.  The Ruby is a beautiful ship.

[aring75]

2 minutes ago, banderboo said:

Excited to see your live. I will be on Ruby in a few weeks with my parents, sister and husband. Seasoned cruisers but first time cruising with Princess so any and all information you provide will be great. 

I will definitely provide as much info as I can! It’s been so long since we’ve sailed with Princess that this cruise will feel very new to us too!

[aring75]

Just now, kywildcatfanone said:

Enjoy your cruise.  The Ruby is a beautiful ship.

Thank you very much!

[skynight]

I'll be watching your posts. I'm booked on the Ruby Feb 28th for a 10 day followed b2b by the same Circle the Caribbean itinerary as you on March 9th. During this dry dock Princess has changed the former cigar lounge off of the casino into a game room. If you can please post where the new cigar smoking area is located. It probably will be mentioned in the hard copy list of daily activities on the first or second day. Why? I want to avoid that area.  

[aring75]

2 hours ago, skynight said:

I'll be watching your posts. I'm booked on the Ruby Feb 28th for a 10 day followed b2b by the same Circle the Caribbean itinerary as you on March 9th. During this dry dock Princess has changed the former cigar lounge off of the casino into a game room. If you can please post where the new cigar smoking area is located. It probably will be mentioned in the hard copy list of daily activities on the first or second day. Why? I want to avoid that area.  

Sure, I’ll take a look!

[canadarocks]

So excited to follow along! We're on a true 14-day Circle Caribbean on the Emerald in February and we have a Deluxe Balcony on Caribe deck for the first time as well. Please please post pictures of the MDR daily dinner menus if you can. Have a wonderful cruise!!

[CruisinCadie]

Thanks for posting.  We'll be boarding the Ruby immediately after you disembark.  We sailed on her a few years ago and I'm anxious to see what changes they've made.  

 

Kathy

 

[aring75]

22 hours ago, canadarocks said:

So excited to follow along! We're on a true 14-day Circle Caribbean on the Emerald in February and we have a Deluxe Balcony on Caribe deck for the first time as well. Please please post pictures of the MDR daily dinner menus if you can. Have a wonderful cruise!!

Will do! We have two specialty dinners planned, but I’ll do my best to get all the MDR menus also. 

[aring75]

3 hours ago, CruisinCadie said:

Thanks for posting.  We'll be boarding the Ruby immediately after you disembark.  We sailed on her a few years ago and I'm anxious to see what changes they've made.  

 

Kathy

 

It’s been so long since we’ve sailed Ruby that I’m sure I won’t be able to recognize all the changes. But I’ll take lots of photos!

[aring75]

We drove the 3-1/2 hours to the port. Typical Monday morning traffic, but no real issues. We dropped our luggage off a little after noon, parked the car in the garage ($20/day parking), and got in line to enter the terminal. 
 

A man was there to direct eligible people to the green lane. This probably cut 15-20 minutes off our wait time. Through security, scanned medallions and passports, then on to the ship. Easy peasy. 

[Cruisintimer]

Just sailed on the Ruby in August, amazing crew had a great Alaskan voyage with family.

[MrSchwump]

We sail on 1/19 for a Panama Canal partial transit. Looking forward to your pics and comments. 
We haven’t sailed on a Grand class ship since 2010 and one of the things I’m

look forward to is the full promenade deck for walking. 

[cltnccruisers]

We're booked for the Circle Caribbean on Majestic in Feb, 2025.  Mostly the same itinerary.  Will definitely be following along.

[schnapperin]

24 minutes ago, aring75 said:

We drove the 3-1/2 hours to the port. Typical Monday morning traffic, but no real issues. We dropped our luggage off a little after noon, parked the car in the garage ($20/day parking), and got in line to enter the terminal. 
 

A man was there to direct eligible people to the green lane. This probably cut 15-20 minutes off our wait time. Through security, scanned medallions and passports, then on to the ship. Easy peasy. 

arrived around 12.45 and there was no line for either the blue or green line, super fast and quick to get on board 

 

just that the delivery from ocean now is still taking ages - waiting since probably 50 minutes for a drink and the key lime cheesecake, doubt it will show up 

[schnapperin]

Ocean view cabin on deck 5 (sorry for crashing your live but thought I add the pic on here)

[CeeCee59]

Do the lamps by the bed have USB charging?

[cltnccruisers]

22 hours ago, canadarocks said:

So excited to follow along! We're on a true 14-day Circle Caribbean on the Emerald in February and we have a Deluxe Balcony on Caribe deck for the first time as well. Please please post pictures of the MDR daily dinner menus if you can. Have a wonderful cruise!!

We've been getting casino comps from Princess for a while now.  We're booked for a Circle Caribbean on Majestic in Feb, 2025.  Not sure why we started getting the casino offers, but it's a great way to keep cruising into retirement.  We get comp'd a deluxe balcony and for a few hundred dollars bump it up to a mini-suite.

[aring75]

15 minutes ago, CeeCee59 said:

Do the lamps by the bed have USB charging?

Not in our balcony cabin. 

[aring75]

24 minutes ago, schnapperin said:

Ocean view cabin on deck 5 (sorry for crashing your live but thought I add the pic on here)

Crash away! I love to hear about every else’s experiences too.

[aring75]

First stop was the dining room on deck 6 for lunch. 
 

 

 

 

They definitely try to steer you toward sharing a table, but you may wait for a table for two if you like. 

[aring75]

I started with the appetizer portion of the spinach ravioli. 
 

 

 

Mark was healthy (blech) and got the salad. He did say it was really good. Crisp and cold.