Live from the Ruby Princess, Dec. 26-30

[geoherb]

We're beginning to embark on our second cruise on the Ruby Princess. We were on the first cruise with Pia. She had a live thread here that details a lot of the things about the ship.

 

The first cruise was very relaxing for us. I enjoyed the four-night itinerary--day at sea, Princess Cays, then day at sea. We'll do a similar itinerary this cruise, going to Grand Cayman instead of Princess Cays. The seas were smooth, although one of our tablemates felt the motion on Christmas Eve, when the swells were five feet. He did not make it to dinner that night, but his wife came.

 

The food the first cruise was very good. We ate as many meals in the dining room as possible. I also sampled a few things at the Horizon Court. Last night, for instance, they had a huge pile of shrimp with cocktail sauce. I loaded up a plate and took them with me up to the cocktail party in Skywalkers.

 

We received our new cruise cards last night with instructions on how to do the back to back today. They started disembarkation about a half hour ago--promptly at 7. Most people are walking off with their luggage. It's the default option. I did not see many people putting out luggage last night.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the first of the two cruises and enjoy your next cruise.

 

Keith

[riclop]

Enjoy your second half of your B2B.

[lynwar]

Have a great time. My screen saver/desktop is now one of the Royal sailing into the sunset. Beautiful!!

 

Lynne

[Woobstr112G]

We're beginning to embark on our second cruise on the Ruby Princess. We were on the first cruise with Pia. She had a live thread here that details a lot of the things about the ship.

 

The first cruise was very relaxing for us. I enjoyed the four-night itinerary--day at sea, Princess Cays, then day at sea. We'll do a similar itinerary this cruise, going to Grand Cayman instead of Princess Cays. The seas were smooth, although one of our tablemates felt the motion on Christmas Eve, when the swells were five feet. He did not make it to dinner that night, but his wife came.

 

The food the first cruise was very good. We ate as many meals in the dining room as possible. I also sampled a few things at the Horizon Court. Last night, for instance, they had a huge pile of shrimp with cocktail sauce. I loaded up a plate and took them with me up to the cocktail party in Skywalkers.

 

We received our new cruise cards last night with instructions on how to do the back to back today. They started disembarkation about a half hour ago--promptly at 7. Most people are walking off with their luggage. It's the default option. I did not see many people putting out luggage last night.

 

Enjoy part two.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited December 26, 2013 by Woobstr112G

[jarand]

Thanks for posting! I'll look forward to hearing all about it!

[geoherb]

The turnaround day in Fort Lauderdale consisted of more waiting than I anticipated. We had breakfast in the Botticelli Dining Room around 8:30 this morning, then played basketball a few minutes and then a few games of table tennis. At 10:30 we went down to the Wheelhouse Bar, which was the gathering place for in-transit passengers. According to one crew member, there were 59 of us doing the back-to-back cruise. She kept checking off people’s names. There was one couple missing. I think they were a mother and daughter. Cabin number B304. The ship’s crew paged them over and over again. They never showed up at the Wheelhouse Bar. Eventually, a little before noon, the crew member in charge led us down to Immigration. The officers there checked our passports. We then stood in line for 15 minutes waiting for the missing passengers. The staff members finally led us over to some seats, and we waited another 10 minutes there. Finally we saw the missing women, walking nonchalantly over to Immigration. They even had the gall to break ahead of people who were sitting down.

 

Overall, though, the experience was not too bad. We ate lunch in the dining room. I don’t recommend the beef. It was tough. The salmon four days ago tasted much better. I had the ravioli again. This time the waiter listened to my request and brought me an appetizer size portion. Service was slower than it had been four days ago, but we were not in any real hurry.

 

We walked off the ship to go to Total Wine and Walgreens. I was running out of toothpaste and of course we wanted to get our two new bottles of wine that we can drink in our cabin. We decided not to bring any extras on board. We did fine without wine at dinner on the first cruise. Between wine in our cabin, drinks at the evening cocktail party, and the “cheap champagne” events (art auction and champagne waterfall) and the bottle we won at trivia, we had enough alcohol the first cruise.

 

Our walk took an hour. Fortunately for us, the lines to go through security were light when we came back to the ship. We changed into our swimsuits and enjoyed time at the spa pool. I did not enjoy the rude spa attendant who would not let me cut through. She said everything was closed except for tours. I ended up having to go outside and the back down to the pool. We had a few people try to hurry us along to the muster drill. One of the things mentioned in the letter we received with our new cruise cards was that we did not have to do a second drill. That was nice.

 

We received the notice for the Platinum/Elite/Suite cocktail events. The menu is totally different from last cruise: salsa with chips and mojitos; sushi and Japanese slippers; shrimp and cosmos; and stilton and port.

 

I’m now showered and ready for sailaway. There’s time for one more quick phone call to my mother before we leave. We’re looking forward to another relaxing four days on the Ruby. Let me know if anyone has questions.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Have a great trip!

[Moviegirlnyorlando]

Herb did we meet or not this past cruise ? Pia said you were there but I wasn't sure if we met. I have started a review of the 12/22 cruise it's long so posting in sections. Had a great time.

[Moviegirlnyorlando]

Hey did anyone on this to on the beach on princess cay ? Everyone in our party got bug bites. I thought I saw an ant on my toe but now we see they are all over our lower legs, itchy itchy, hydrocortisone cream helps. Only wondering if ante knew what was biting. I got bit by these tiny little black flies in the rainforest in Puerto Rico a. Purple of years back and had a bad reaction that lasted weeks

 

Maybe anyone planing on the beach there consider bug spray

[bhopal21]

A lot of people in the past have posted about bites from sand fleas or noseeums while at Princess Cay.

 

I am putting our "OFF" in the travel bag now.

 

Mike:)

[megatlx]

My wife and I will be doing January 13 and January 18 on Ruby. Some questions about the shorter Princess cruises as we have never done one less than 7 days.

 

1. Dress at dinner: I have read elsewhere that there is no "formal" night on the shorter cruises. What is your experience in terms of "formal" night if there is one and, if so, how were guests dressed?

 

2. Does the RUBY still show ONCE UPON A DREAM during the 5 day cruise?

What other shows are performed?

 

3. Is the CAFE CARIBE still set up nicely in the evening for a slightly "upmarket" buffet dinner?

 

4. Could you check the SPA POOL to see if the ENDLESS POOL function is working? (This is the feature that generates a current in the pool so you can swim in place. Sort of like doing laps but staying in the same place.) We were recently on the CORAL and this feature was not working. Just wanted to check if it is working on the Ruby.

 

5. When doing a B2B, do ELITE members get a full mini-bar setup each cruise?

 

That's my questions for now. Enjoy yourself.

 

Geoff

[WendyG]

Next time you're in skywalkers can you see if Joel is still the bartender? Loved him!!!

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T217A using Forums mobile app

[geoherb]

I’m ready for another relaxing day at sea. The ship is moving a lot faster. Current speed is 18 knots. I don’t think we ever exceeded 12 knots on the first cruise to Princess Cays. We are sailing to the west of Cuba. I haven’t seen the island yet. There was a beautiful sunrise this morning as I walked around the Promenade Deck.

 

Some of the entertainment this cruise is new. A doo-wop trio (Spank) performs in the piazza a few times each afternoon and evening. There’s also a new acoustic group (Atomic) that plays standard rock songs (Beatles, Elvis, etc.). On the last cruise, the featured guest entertainers in the piazza were a physical comedian (Jim Maltman) and the magician (Ben Seidman). The remaining performers are regulars on the ship—the pan flute player, the group from the Explorers Lounge, and the pianist. I miss having string players playing classical music.

 

Last night’s featured entertainer in the theater was comedian Mike Marino. He was OK. Some of the things on MUTS have been a lot of concerts (U2, Pink, Bon Jovi, James Brown) and movies (Hitch, Jobs, Wolverine). On the first cruise, they showed football on Sunday and Monday.

 

We did have the future cruise consultant leave us a voicemail message letting us know that our future cruise credit had been processed and she apologized for any delays. She acknowledged that she had received complaints on our first cruise.

[geoherb]

My wife and I will be doing January 13 and January 18 on Ruby. Some questions about the shorter Princess cruises as we have never done one less than 7 days.

 

1. Dress at dinner: I have read elsewhere that there is no "formal" night on the shorter cruises. What is your experience in terms of "formal" night if there is one and, if so, how were guests dressed?

 

2. Does the RUBY still show ONCE UPON A DREAM during the 5 day cruise?

What other shows are performed?

 

3. Is the CAFE CARIBE still set up nicely in the evening for a slightly "upmarket" buffet dinner?

 

4. Could you check the SPA POOL to see if the ENDLESS POOL function is working? (This is the feature that generates a current in the pool so you can swim in place. Sort of like doing laps but staying in the same place.) We were recently on the CORAL and this feature was not working. Just wanted to check if it is working on the Ruby.

 

5. When doing a B2B, do ELITE members get a full mini-bar setup each cruise?

 

1. They're allowing anything goes in the dining rooms in the evening--men in shorts and T-shirts. On the "dress to impress night" on the first cruise, I saw about 20 percent of the men wearing sport coats or suits. Some wore dress shirts and ties. Some of the women were dressed very nicely for that night as well. But there were still men eating in shorts and T-shirts. At least I did not see anyone in a baseball cap.

 

2. I'll try to find out. The two production shows on our four-night cruises are Colors of the World and Broadway Ballroom.

 

3. I haven't noticed it being anything special. They did have a huge mound of shrimp on our last night. I carried up a plate to go with the food we were eating at Skywalkers.

 

4. It's not working. But at least the pool is open. It's my favorite. On the first short cruise, it was closed the whole time. The hot tubs there are not very hot. I've heard several people complain about them being too cool.

 

5. We heard people behind us in line at the turn-around saying that their new minibar set-up was already in their cabin. So far, I have been using leftover Internet minutes from the first cruise. I'm going to have to talk with the Internet guy about getting my new minutes.

[geoherb]

Herb did we meet or not this past cruise ? Pia said you were there but I wasn't sure if we met. I have started a review of the 12/22 cruise it's long so posting in sections. Had a great time.

Thanks. I'm not sure if we met. We were part of Pia's gang at all the trivias, and we also sat with her one night in Skywalkers.

 

I don't need to see the Internet guy. I figured it out myself. I just went to "purchase" more minutes and the new 150 free minutes showed up. It's great that the leftover minutes from our first cruise carried over.

[geoherb]

Bhopal21: We did not have any problems with bug bites at Princess Cays. Then again, we did not lay out in the chairs. We went swimming and snorkeling, ate lunch, then went swimming again. Our total time on the island was under three hours.

 

Megatlx: The third show on the five-night Ruby cruises is Once Upon a Dream.

 

We got off to a late start this morning, making it to the dining room around 8:30. The daily special was different from the previous cruise’s specials, so that was a nice touch. Today was the mushroom frittata with polenta, foccacia, and sausage. There was also a “pineapple boat,” which consisted of a thin slice of pineapple with finely chopped melon and pineapple salad and a spoonful of yogurt dressing. The first cruise had the Alaskan scrambled eggs (with smoked salmon), eggs Florentine, blueberry pancakes, and French toast as daily specials.

 

Morning trivia was almost all new faces in the visual trivia and new questions in the running trivia. We met a couple from Florida to play with. We did well in both—winning the running trivia and coming in second with the famous faces. The funny thing is I did not remember George Orwell from the first cruise. I knew his face was a repeat, but I couldn’t think of who he was. We ended up giving away the lanyards we won.

 

Thanks to Michelle for organizing the meet and greet this morning at Skywalkers. She managed to get a huge contingent of officers. When we got there (right after trivia), the hotel manager (Guenther) was talking. We also had Andrea, the food and beverage manager; Jeanine, the customer service director; Delip, the bar manager; Veronica, customer relations director; and two hotel controllers. They talked about the Ruby and Princess and different itineraries. Commodore Romano joined us for a few minutes after the other officers had left.

[bhopal21]

Bhopal21: We did not have any problems with bug bites at Princess Cays. Then again, we did not lay out in the chairs. We went swimming and snorkeling, ate lunch, then went swimming again. Our total time on the island was under three hours.

 

That's good to hear.

 

We have been to PC a couple of times before and not had any bug problems either.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Mike:)

[Moviegirlnyorlando]

That's good to hear.

 

We have been to PC a couple of times before and not had any bug problems either.

 

Have a great cruise.

 

Mike:)

We defiantly have bites but laid out a bit on the chairs, I'm thinking it's noseeums as we saw no Mosquitos . I also saw one ant but I'm not sure if they have fire ants in the Bahamas like they do in Florida . The bites settled down nicely with a little cortisone cream.

 

Now we are all coughing so I think another bug got us too! My son started yesterday on the way home so I'm assuming he caught it in teen club remix

 

I'd really like to have the IC available right now for a little snack! Oh well adjusting to being back on land and planning our next cruise today . Back to work Monday

[geoherb]

I figured out the pan player isn’t playing the pan flute like I thought—he’s playing the steel drum. I thought we had just missed the pan flute performances. They had one playing on the Island Princess when we went on our cruise to the Panama Canal.

 

This afternoon was for relaxing. We took a nap. We also went to the art auction for a bit of free champagne. The auctioneer sold quite a few works, including one by Peter Max for nearly $10,000. That sale helped his quota. We also enjoyed more time in the spa pool. The pools were more crowded today than they’ve been our previous five days. Both hot tubs at the spa pool were full the whole time we were there. I noticed the other hot tubs and pools had plenty of people in and around them.

 

Our trivia team tied then lost the tie-breaker by one year. The answer was 1986. We guessed 1984 and the other team guessed 1987.

 

It’s now time for sushi and a Japanese slipper at the evening cocktail party. Tonight’s show is Colors of the World again. I’m not going. We may go to Princess Pop Star or the piano bar after dinner. The menu tonight is new. It’s nice that they’re varying the menus a little bit for those of us doing back-to-back cruises. Escargot is one of the appetizers.

[Pia1913]

I figured out the pan player isn’t playing the pan flute like I thought—he’s playing the steel drum. I thought we had just missed the pan flute performances. They had one playing on the Island Princess when we went on our cruise to the Panama Canal.

 

This afternoon was for relaxing. We took a nap. We also went to the art auction for a bit of free champagne. The auctioneer sold quite a few works, including one by Peter Max for nearly $10,000. That sale helped his quota. We also enjoyed more time in the spa pool. The pools were more crowded today than they’ve been our previous five days. Both hot tubs at the spa pool were full the whole time we were there. I noticed the other hot tubs and pools had plenty of people in and around them.

 

Our trivia team tied then lost the tie-breaker by one year. The answer was 1986. We guessed 1984 and the other team guessed 1987.

 

It’s now time for sushi and a Japanese slipper at the evening cocktail party. Tonight’s show is Colors of the World again. I’m not going. We may go to Princess Pop Star or the piano bar after dinner. The menu tonight is new. It’s nice that they’re varying the menus a little bit for those of us doing back-to-back cruises. Escargot is one of the appetizers.

 

"Geo" you're certainly giving them more food info than I ever would. Good to hear the wins are going strong. How did you miss old George, since it was you who identified him in the first place? :eek:

[geoherb]

Pia: It was a different question that I was able to identify him. This was his photo.

 

We enjoyed another nice champagne waterfall this evening. The champagne was flowing freely. We did not stay for the introduction of the officers this time. We did meet up with the woman who organized the meet and greet and her family. It’s “dress to impress” tonight. About 20 percent of the passengers made an real effort. I wasn’t among them, wearing just a polo shirt and khakis. Tomorrow is our day in Grand Cayman. We may get off the ship or may decide to stay. At least it’s a long time for the ship to be there. Unfortunately, it’s a tender port. If we do decide to go ashore, it will be later in the day, after they’ve stopped requiring tender tickets.

 

We saw the couple who were complaining during the turn-around. They were upset about having to change cabins. They're much more relaxed now. She said they've had the best day so far today. That's good.

[OCruisers]

Thanks! Looking forward to keeping up with your "Live". :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[megatlx]

Thank you for the information on ONCE UPON A DREAM as well as the other questions I asked (endless pool, Cafe Caribe, dress code, etc.)

 

Geoff

[geoherb]

It rained last night some, but there wasn’t much additional movement on the ship. We’ve had the smoothest sailing ever on these two cruises.

 

Today we’re off the coast of Grand Cayman. The ship started tendering passengers on excursions early. Two of our tablemates were supposed to meet their group at 7:30. We had breakfast in the dining room late. The specials today were an egg dish with asparagus and muslix. The spa has having a port special of three 20-minute treatments for $119. The options include mini facial, milk wrap, scalp massage, back massage, lime and ginger body scrub, hand and arm massage, and reflexology. We’re not doing any of them.

 

Tonight’s menu is a repeat from our first cruise. I’ll order the rockfish again. It’s delicious. We enjoyed morning in the spa pool and hot tubs. I also enjoyed the sauna. It was nice to have most of the passengers off the ship. It seemed from the excursion desk monitor that most of the tours sold out.

 

We played morning trivia. Only five people showed up. One was a woman from our roll call. She and I had been looking for each other at trivia. It was great to finally meet her, even if we did play against her. We ended up with more correct answers, but Kat gave prizes to everyone. We ate lunch at the International Café. The paninis tasted great. I also enjoyed the gumbo and the baby cheesecake. Sam ordered the gelato again and I helped him eat a bit of it. We’re heading to shore now. They announced that passengers did not need tender tickets around 10:30 this morning.

 

There wasn’t any wait to get on the tender, but we did have to wait a few minutes for other passengers to get on the boat. It’s just a short ride over to the dock. They were checking ship cards several times but we did not need our photo IDs. We took them anyway.

 

The shops in Georgetown are similar to those in every other Caribbean port. We bought some jerk seasoning and a bottle of Tortuga rum, which hopefully will be delivered to the ship by the store and to our cabin tomorrow night.

 

Tonight’s show is a repeat from our first cruise—magician Ben Seidman. I’m not planning on going. They’ve also scheduled the ultimate deck party. On our first cruise, they moved the activities inside because of rain. I’m hoping it stays clear tonight.