Ruby princess 3/24-3/31/13 review

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

We had a wonderful cruise on the Ruby Princess 2 weeks ago and I am hoping to share our experience. Hopefully some of the info may be helpful to those planning an upcoming voyage on this beautiful ship plus it gives me a chance to relive our vacation as I suffer through post-cruise depression here in cold, snowy Minnesota. I'm a slow typist so my goal is to get one day at a time done.

 

We are a family of 5, me, my wife, and our 2 daughters ages 16 and 14 and son who is 12. This was our first time cruising with Princess and first time cruising out of a US port. We had been on several cruises on Royal Caribbean out of San Juan. 3 of those cruises were on the Serenade of the Seas which we are very fond of, but we wanted to try something different.

 

We flew into Fort Lauderdale late Saturday night with embarkation planned for the next day. We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Dania Beach. It was a nice hotel, but we had trouble getting a taxi to take us to the port. I assumed there would be plenty of taxis waiting but to be safe, I called the front desk about 15 min before checking out to arrange for one. Maybe if you're staying closer to the port this isn't an issue. We waited over a half hour and still no taxi. Luckily a van shuttle showed up to pick another couple up and we were able to hop on that. The lesson I learned is to prearrange your transportation to the ship in advance. Was never a concern in San Juan.

 

We arrived at the port at around 11:45am. There was already a huge line but I was impressed how quickly it moved once they started letting people check in. Within 45 min-1 hr after arrival we were walking up the gangways onto the Ruby. We normally head right for the buffet, but for a change we had lunch in the MDR which was surprisingly empty and made for a relaxing start. After making reservations for Sabatini's and the Crown Grill for later in the week, we registered the girls at the teen club and our son at the 8-12 kid's club.

 

We then went to check out our rooms. Our luggage was already waiting which was impressive. We booked 2 rooms on the Caribe level-deck 10. Our kids had an inside cabin and my wife and I booked a room directly across the hall with a balcony. This was our first time with a balcony. I don't think I could ever go back to not having one. It was worth the extra money. I love being outside watching the ocean as we're sailing or arriving at a new port or sailing away. To be able to step outside at any point and watch the ship cutting through the water was awesome. Not a night went by when I wouldn't sit out on the balcony before calling it a day.

 

We unpacked, got through the muster drill and were ready for sail away. We decided to check out the back of the ship and found a table just above the Terrace Pool at the patio just outside of Adagio. Quite a rush as we left the mainland behind and headed out to sea. We then made our way to the front of the ship and found the door on the lido deck that leads out to the area above the bridge. I could feel the stress of real life and the "daily grind" melting away.

 

We always prefer traditional dining as it gives us a chance to get to know the wait staff. This has always been a highlight of our cruises. Our waiters did not disappoint. Prasad was fantastic. Very professional and a terrific outgoing personality. He has been with Princess for 12 years and his experience showed. My 14 year old daughter has Celiac Disease and must avoid eating gluten unless she wants to get violently ill. The Ruby's wait staff and chefs both in the MDR and in the Horizon Court did an amazing job. Instead of being restricted on what she can eat, they went out of their way to prepare meals gluten free so that she may enjoy many things that she usually doesn't get to eat at home or in our local restaurants.

 

We spent the rest of our first night exploring the ship a bit(which is absolutely beautiful) and listening to David Moore in the Crooner's Lounge. He's fantastic. Aside from being a brilliant pianist, his dry humor and wit was hilarious and had us laughing hard many a night. He quickly became our favorite source of entertainment on the cruise. The martinis in the Crooner's Lounge weren't so bad either. Not much was going on in the kids/teens club that first night so our son joined us for a bit at Crooner's and my daughters explored the ship on their own. We played some trivia, put our son to bed, had another at Crooner's, and wrapped up the night by having a decadent dessert at the International Café at midnight. After a spell on our balcony, the lights went out and we slept quite soundly that night. It was a great first day.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for the initial post and I look forward to hearing more.

 

Keith

[TracieABD]

Sounds like you had a lovely time. Looking forward to hearing more...

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

I must admit I wasn't overly enthusiastic about our first port, Princess Cays, so we weren't compelled to get up early. We slept in and had a leisurely late breakfast in the Horizon Court at around 10am. By the time we were ready to go ashore at around 11:30am, no tender tickets were required. My wife who is terrified of small boats and my 16 yo daughter who fears the thought of someone getting seasick decided to give this a pass. So, me and my 2 younger kids gathered up our snorkel gear and hopped on the next tender. This was a first for us and it was probably a good idea that my wife and oldest sat it out.

 

For me, the joy of going to the beach is relaxing on a lounger with the warm sun beaming down on you, feeling an occasional gentle breeze, and hearing the sound of the waves crashing while you chill with a cold one in your hand. It's all about relaxation, and there is simply no way to relax when you are on a beach packed with 3000 people. Princess claims there are 3000 loungers available at Princess Cays and there probably is, but by the time we got out there at noon, there was not one single lounger available anywhere on the beach. We finally found a place on the sand, got out our snorkel gear, and left the bag with a trustworthy appearing couple. It was 85 degrees so going in the water felt great. We snorkeled past the pavilion and were out there for about an hour. The snorkeling was ok. We saw fish but the reef isn't too impressive. After this, we had enough on Princess Cay and headed back to the ship.

 

The positive is that we had the rest of the afternoon to relax around the pool, which was much less crowded than the beach. I'm not a big fan of MUTS, so I headed to the Neptune pool. MUTS is great at night as an alternative form of entertainment on the ship, but during the day, I find it quite intrusive. Again, just like at the beach, I want to relax when I'm at the pool. The beauty of the Ruby is that it has several pools to choose from. I much prefer to listen to a live band playing poolside, and the Caribbean band Signature was fantastic. They played plenty of Bob Marley and UB40 tunes much to my enjoyment as I indulged in many rum filled cocktails.

 

After another enjoyable dinner in the Botticelli MDR, we split up with our kids going to the teen/kids club, and the wife and I playing some trivia in the Explorer's Lounge, listening to David Moore in Crooner's, and enjoying the comedy show in the Princess Theater. I must say that even though we are big fans of Royal Caribbean, especially the Serenade of the Seas, I think the entertainment options were better on the Ruby. Impressive was the number of cruisers filling the different venues. Even the trivia sessions were often packed which was a bit of a shock. So kudos to Princess and those fellow passengers who really added to the enjoyment on board the ship that week. Now the kids club is a different story, but I'll get into that on my next post.

 

Another relaxing evening on our balcony before calling it a night. A sea day tomorrow so no need to get up early which was good.

[Bimmer09]

Following your review as it unfolds...I love the Ruby, love David Moore! and Signature is a band with a fantastic singer. Neptune pool was my hang-out also in January and Signature is exactly the kind of band you need when sailing the Caribbean. I hope you saw them at the St Maarten sail-away deck party.

 

The other band Volume however was rather lethargic and lacking in feeling, so a bit ho-hum for me.

 

More, please!

 

Norris

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

Being a sea day, it was a pretty easy decision to sleep in again. The weather was absolutely fantastic. Plenty of sun and 80 degrees. A great day to lounge around the pool. I was impressed how easy it was to find an open lounger at any time of the day. I hung out at the Neptune Pool most of the time, but for some real quiet I also found a couple rows of loungers on deck 16 on the side of the ship just in front of the Calypso Pool. The only problem here is that the waiters don't venture into that area so I had to head back to the Neptune Pool to have the necessary refreshments brought to me. Along with some mini-golf and table tennis with the kids, it made for a relaxing day.

 

It was then time to get ready for formal night. Another excellent dinner in the MDR. The rest of the night involved visiting the various venues, Crooners, Explorer's Lounge, and Club Fusion.

 

This may be a good point to throw in my 2 cents on the kids club, or should I say lack of one. There were over 700 kids on board ship. Yikes! Even as someone who has kids on board, that is too many for my liking. My teens did fine on the cruise. Even when things were a bit lame around the teen club, they could hang out together and entertain themselves. As the week went on, things actually improved, highlighted by the teen late night hot tub party in the Sanctuary. However, my 12 year old was pretty bored in the 8-12 club. There simply wasn't much organized for them to do. This particular night consisted of some arts and crafts project at 8pm followed by everyone sitting around watching a movie from 8:30-10pm. He ended up joining us to play some trivia that night. He ended up back in the cabin at 10pm watching some TV.

 

This was the most glaring difference between Royal Caribbean and Princess. It isn't just about having a rock climbing wall or skating rink, etc. On RCCL, there was a genuine effort to make sure kids have plenty to do to keep them busy. Every day, the kids club would have its own "Princess Patter", listing all the specific activities planned for that day and night. When my kids were younger, they couldn't wait to finish dinner, get changed and see what was happening in the kids club. On our very first cruise, I recall a conversation with one of the kids club "counselors" on the Serenade of the Seas who had previously been on Princess. He explained that every one who works in the kids club on a RCCL ship, has a degree in child education. This is not the case with other cruise lines. He also explained the philosophy that if mom and dad know that the kids are having a good time, then they can relax and enjoy themselves as well. On Ruby, the kids club really came across as an afterthought. Just a place to stash your kids. This was really disappointing. Luckily, we are at a point now with are kids getting older that we will not need the kid's club on future cruises. This is good as we really enjoyed sailing with Princess. I'm also thankful that we chose to sail on Royal Caribbean when our kids were younger. I suspect that we would not have been as compelled to cruise as many time as we have done had we not had this positive experience.

 

Well enough negativity. The night ended with all of us nearly watching the new James Bond movie, Skyfall at MUTS, but we were all pretty tired from all the sun and rum during the day so we called it a night a bit early. Looking forward to our arrival in St Maarten the next morning.

[Tak8]

I'm enjoying your review. The Ruby is a great ship.

[Cleocruiser]

I totally agree with you regarding the kids club. I was on your sailing as well. My 15 year old son tried to go to the clubs. The listings of activities were very geared towards girls with fashion shows and nail parties. He said they would not let him just play video games. The staff was rude and he never went back. He just hung out with us and attended the shows and games shows and watched movies. Royal has a totally different feel. He loved the clubs with them.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

We awoke to find ourselves gently gliding into St Maarten next to several other ships that had arrived earlier. Amongst these was the gargantuan, Allure of the Seas. Both fantastic and a bit frightening at the same time. The cloudy skys soon turned to rain which sadly continued for most of the day, but luckily not all of the day.

 

As our planned horseback riding excursion in Grand Turk was not going to happen anymore that week, we scrambled and signed up for a ship excursion to do some riding at the Seaside Nature Park on Cole Bay. My daughters are experienced enthusiastic riders and I'm a novice(but foolish), so we wanted to do this during the week of our cruise. It poured with rain the whole time and we got drenched from head to foot. However, my daughters seemed to have a good time. The guides and staff were very professional and helpful. However, the stables are located at what is probably the most unattractive beach on St Maarten. Right next to the beach is a gigantic power plant. When we were on the beach and in the water(which was for only about 10 min), I couldn't keep looking at this eyesore. If the stables were located on a different beach, and if it hadn't poured with rain the whole time, I would have considered this excursion spectacular. But it wasn't. However, I'm sure it will continue to provide us with some very vivid memories for years to come.

 

We got back to the ship at about 1:30p, and after having a quick bite, we decided to head out to the beach as the rain seemed to be lightening. Besides, we were planning on being in the water, so who cares if we get wet from some rain. We headed to Dawn Beach where we had gone previously. Again, it was just me and my daughters as my wife and son were happy as clams to hang out on the ship. The beach was understandbly empty. The "guy" on the beach offered a lounger and umbrella for $5. Mr Busby's Beach Bar still has $1 beers throughout the day. We ended up having an excellent couple hours on the beach. The sun actually started to poke out between the clouds after about an hour, and we could start seeing the beautiful views on Anguilla off in the distance. Usually the surf can be quite rough along the east coast of the island, but ironically, it was calmer than usual today despite the weather. We should have brought our snorkel gear as there is a reef nearby.

 

More to come from today

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

Continuing with our day on St Maarten, we headed back to the Ruby, and watched as the other ships glided out to sea. It was then our turn. It was a spectacular sunset that evening as we sailed away. If I can figure out how to download a photo, I'll try to include it before my next post.

 

We had made reservations at Sabatinni's that night for all 5 of us. I hate being Mr Negative, but the experience was really disappointing. The food was excellent, and the atmosphere was quite nice, but the service was awful. Our waiter was very pleasant and seemed experienced, but they had him covering 6 tables. Maybe we caught it on a bad night. The service in the MDR was twice that of Sabatinni's, which is simply not right. We gave up on anyone filling our wine glasses and just started doing it ourselves. We were in there for nearly 3 hours, from 7p to 9:45p. I realize that it is suppose to be an "experience" dining in Sabatinni's, but I know the difference between a nice dining experience and painfully slow, unattentive service. Despite telling the manager when I made the reservation and reminding the waiter when we sat down, that my daughter has a gluten allergy, no attempt was made to accomodate her. Even the chefs in the Horizon buffet go out of their way to offer some gluten free bread when they find out she has Celiac. All we got in Sabatinni's was her being told what she can't eat on the menu.

 

As a result, my wife and I cancelled the reservation we had made for Friday night in the Crown Grill. This turned out to not be so much of a disappointment as the service we were receiving in the MDR was truly excellent.

 

As it was nearly 10pm, there was no catching a part of the magician, David Cats who came on at 9pm in the Princess Theater. Instead, we enjoyed our favorite entertainer on the ship, David Moore in Crooner's. We made it an early bedtime as the plan was to get going early the next day arriving in St Thomas at 7am. The plan was to get over to St John for some beach time by catching the 8am Red Hook Ferry.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

thanks for all the positive feedback. Despite my painfully slow typing abilities, I will try to sustain this endeavor:)

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

Without doubt, this was our favorite day of the cruise. I absolutely love the island of St John, and even though it is cumbersome and rather expensive to get over there from Charlotte Amalie, I think it's worth it even for a few hours of beach time. We were off the ship just past 7am and hopped in a taxi with another family who had the same plans as ours. We made it to Red Hook with 10 min to spare and rode the 8am ferry to Cruz Bay. We have always chosen Trunk Bay in the past but wanted to try something different, so we headed over to Cinnamon Bay. By 8:45am we were on the beach enjoying the beautiful sand, scenery, and waves. The waves were surprisingly pretty rough that day which made for a good time, but I still was able to get in some snorkeling as I followed the reef line from the beach to the island just off shore.

 

We made plans with the other family to head back to Cruz bay at noon to catch the 1pm ferry as we were to be back on board by 3:30p. I would have stayed on the beach and took my chances with the 2p ferry but my wife wanted none of that, and now she had others to support her:rolleyes:

 

Back on board safely(at 2:30pm), we relaxed the rest of the afternoon around the Neptune Pool listening to Signature some more, and then got ready for the second formal night. Another great evening watching David Moore this time in the Explorer's Lounge, playing some Beatles trivia, and visiting other drinking venues such as Vines. The one place we never got to all week was Skywalker's Nightclub. Maybe we're just getting old. Actually I'll blame my wife, as she complained her feet hurt. I think she just knew I would embarrass her badly on the dance floor. I also regret not watching a movie at night with MUTS. Life of Pi was playing that night. The weather had taken a turn and it was really windy with a few sprinkles. We should of just sucked it up. Something to look forward to do next time.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

The next day was our second sea day. After waking up the previous day at 6am, it was a pretty easy decision to sleep in this morning. Instead of the Horizon Court, we checked out the Pub Lunch in the Wheelhouse Pub. Very tasty. It was a bit cooler today but still nice to hang out around the pool. We explored other areas of the ship. My daughter and I walked all around the promenade deck. We had already visited the "whale's mouth" a few times but today we went to the back of the ship. This is an equally spectacular view when the ship is moving at full speed. We watched the acrobats Duo Push perform in the Piazza, played some more table tennis, and generally grazed all day at various places to eat. Tried a cheeseburger from the Trident Grill, some pizza, and a Panini from the International Café. It is a wonder I was able to eat anything at dinner that night. Unlike past cruises, I chose not to exercise any this trip(I usually like to run the jogging track). As a result, I usually don't gain weight when we cruise. Bad move this time. I easily put on 5-6 pounds.

 

That night, we watched the very funny Miguel Washington in the Princess Theater, and did get to catch the magician David Cats, as he did another show, this one on the smaller Explorer's Lounge. The place was packed-standing room only. It was 80's/90's night in Skywalkers Nightclub but I still couldn't convince my wife to go:(

 

The night ended with me having to retrieve my 2 teenage daughters from the late night teen hot tub party in the Sanctuary. I found them at 12:40am. They "forgot" about the midnight curfew.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

I woke up a bit sad knowing this would be our last day on board the ship, but we would try to make the most of it. Our planned stop in Grand Turk was cancelled the week prior to our sailing because of health concerns on the island. Apparently many people from different cruise ships were getting ill after visiting the island. Instead, we headed for Nassau, Bahamas. We had never been there so we were looking forward to it.

 

It was sunny but a bit cool this day-only a high of 69 degrees. My children and I had booked a catamaran sail and snorkel for that afternoon. My son decided not to do it as he was still suffering from the sunburn we received while at Cinnamon Bay on St John. We booked an independent excursion with Seahorse but the catamaran was packed with people from a ship excursion off another cruise. They took us to a reef and we got about 50 min snorkeling time. It was actually pretty good snorkeling. However, another excursion showed up and at one point there was over 100 people in the water. Most of the 3 1/2 hrs on the trip was spent slowly motoring to and back from the site.

 

That night we said our goodbyes to our wait staff in the Botticelli Room. Again, I can't say enough about all of them. The service was excellent. Prasad was very warm and professional. We watched Miguel Washington again this time on the Explorer's Lounge, and had one more night in Crooner's listening and laughing with David Moore. With sadness, we went to bed knowing that reality returns when we wake up.

[Caribbean Beach Bum]

An early wake up as everyone needs to be out of their stateroom by 8am. We went and had breakfast in the MDR. I think we were trying to hang on to a small piece of the wonderful pampered service that we enjoyed this week. It was Easter Sunday and apparently US Customs were short staffed that morning. As a result, disembarkation times were running slightly over an hour behind throughout the morning. Some people were getting understandably very nervous about missing flights. Our departure of 9:20am didn't happen until 10:30am. Once that occurred, getting off the ship, collecting baggage, and going through customs took about 45 minutes. Luckily we had not made many extravagant plans. Our flight wasn't until 6p, so we had made arrangements to rent a car and head over to South Beach in Miami to grab some lunch.

 

Overall, it was a great cruise. Sabatinni's was disappointing and the kids club wasn't too organized, but everything else was outstanding. The ship was beautiful and the service excellent. Food quality was terrific. I was impressed by the entertainment options as well as the participation of fellow cruisers. There was several things we never got to try out like MUTS at night and Skywalkers. The itinery wasn't my favorite. I much prefer leaving from San Juan and getting a chance to visit more islands in the eastern and southern Caribbean like Antigua, St Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados. I wish Princess had a ship leaving out of San Juan. With that said, we will look forward to sailing Princess again some day.

 

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this. Hope it wasn't too boring. I really enjoyed writing it as it gave me a chance to relive our week on board the ship. Hopefully there is some useful information here for someone who hasn't sailed on Princess or the Ruby. And for those who are seasoned Princess cruisers, hopefully it brought back some good memories from your own trips.

[warb]

Great report ! I could tell you enjoyed telling us about your Cruise. Have never been on

 

Ruby, or gone to St. Johns. Sandy got in the way of making it to St. Johns.

 

Caribbean Princess use to sail out of Puerto Rico, but stopped last year. Thanks again.

[caribill]

Hope it wasn't too boring.

 

Not a bit boring. Thanks for the report.

[Matcodixon]

Nice review, thanks for posting it. We sailed on the Ruby last August in the Mediterranean and also loved the ship.

Quite a few years ago we took an RCI cruise from San Juan and also loved the itinerary. We also went to St John via a taxi to the Red Hook Ferry. We rented a jeep and had a great day. St Thomas does not really interest me. Cinnamon Bay is beautiful, as is the entire island. Barbados and St Lucia were also among our favorites.

It is too bad that Princess quit sailing out of San Juan.

 

ps Once you've had a balcony, it's tough to go back..for us, impossible! On the Ruby we were upgraded to a mini-suite... Hmmmmm.:rolleyes:

[wineforhealth]

Thank you for your review

 

Our family was on this same cruise and had a great time

 

we had no trouble doing a walk off the ship to make a 9:30 flight out