kayred

You all have helped so much. We are definitely doing Guernsey and Cobh walking around on on our own and will do an excursion in Belfast and Glasgow. We are probably taking Princess transportation onto Edinburgh but will walk around town without a tour.

Still working on Invergorden - not sure we want another long bus ride but also not sure we want to roam on our own here. But as you can see I have stopped panicking and have a good plan in place. I am so excited for this cruise! I have finished reading Guernsey Literary and potato Peal Society book (enjoyed it) and for now my favorite thing to read are reviews and blogs. Thanks again everyone


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Yes, the German Occupation Museum is in Guernsey.  It's near the airport, not too far from the pier where you'll tender ashore.   You would proceed to the town terminus for a bus, which is immediately across from the pier, and look for buses 91, 93, 94, or 95 (please check when you're there to be sure).   When you board, tell the driver of your destination, and he'll be sure to drop you at the proper stop along the road.  And it will be a stop along the road.  I don't believe there is a proper sheltered stop at the museum.
 
If you're interested in the German Occupation, and enjoy fantastic scenery, consider continuing on to Pleinmont.  The 91 bus is likely the best option in that case, and there will be some walking to get to the site of the German emplacements, but it's worth the walk for the clifftop scenery.   There are some German observation towers in the area, as well as a restored gun emplacement. 
 
Back near the Occupation Museum are a couple of other popular sites, the Little Chapel, and the German Underground Hospital.  The hospital consists of the series of tunnels that were cut into the hillside by slave labour.  The site is rich in preserved (not necessarily restored) tunnels with some museum-type artifacts.   
 
This map shows the relative position of all of those: https://goo.gl/maps/xmnVE6Mra5kAqjv66

If you are at all interested in WWII history, do not miss the Occupation Museum.  It captivates what this island endured and so much more.  We took the public bus to a stop nearby and walked the short distance to the museum.  The artifacts and the story told are priceless.  It is not an overly curated museum--the reality of the exhibits is so powerful.

Thank you everyone. Your posts have helped me focus my energy and we made a tentative plan to walk around and enjoy Guernsey (I am reading the book now) and Cobh. For Dublin we are going to do a hop on and off bus.

Still working on Invergordon and Glasgow but I do feel more focused. Thanks again for all the advice.




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This is my detailed review 
 
 

We just booked what for us is a last minute cruise. Typically we book at least a year and a half in advance but we got a good deal on Princess British Isles cruise in August.  We have never been to Europe and as I try to figure out the ports I just get overwhelmed and shut down, sometimes for me there is just too much on YouTube and even here or CC. So I am reaching out for some help. We are in our early 50's have no disabilities and don't mind walking. We are pretty conservative travelers, one of the few people on CC who like cruise excursions but we also like to mix it up with exploring on our own.

we are going to London, Guernsey, Cork, Dublin, Belfasr, Glasgow, Invergordon, and Edinburgh

What I am trying to accomplish with my planning is a mix of city and country views. We want to tour some castles but don't want to only tour castles etc.... We are pretty sure we will walk London on our own and I have my heart set on seeing Scottland countryside but that's as far as I get before I am overwhelmed 

will you share with me:

your favorite port to walk and roam without a planned excursion 

your favorite castle tour

your favorite/most helpful review/YouTube video/website that helped you plan for your cruise

thank you - I am off to have some tea and remind myself that vacations don't have to be perfect to be wonderful!!!

Outstanding reports, Kayred. And a special shout out for the night pictures of the ship from the tender. They are great.

 

 

 

I have posted, more than once here on Cruise Critic, that service in the specialty restaurants can be iffy. We will often present ourselves at the restaurant 10-15 minutes prior to our reservation, but have never been treated discourteously, as you reported, The worst we have ever experienced is a request to wait--never more than a couple minutes--while a table was prepared for us. However, similar to your report, there have been times when we have been ignored at our table by the servers, and we have experienced mix-ups with our order. I place blame on the headwaiter. My observation has been if I see the headwaiter working in the room--helping the servers, checking with the diners, just doing whatever needs to be done--service in that room is excellent. Consistently, I find that if service is lacking--like you reported--then the headwaiter is not in sight.

You are correct no headwaiter seen at the tables

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Last few misc photos

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Before we were ready, our wonderful vacation ended. We had a great time and really enjoy cruising with Princess. Last couple notes are on dining. We went to dinner at Share and Crown Grill during our cruise. We enjoyed the dinner at Share, glad we went, but probably would not go back. It was good but for us probably not worth the extra money. We had been to the Crown before, so we knew what to expect. Our reservation was for 8:30 and we were ready a little early, we went at 8:15 and asked if they could accommodate us early.The two-people working the podium both looked at me said only the word “no” and then continued to stare at me. Ok....that’s weird so I walked away. We returned at 8:35 and was told to wait. We (group of 2) were seated at a table for six by what I am sure was a very frustrated and tired person. The table was not set up correctly I had to ask for bread plates and a knife. The waiter stopped by, apologized and said he would be a little delayed but would be with us. He was very nice but obviously working too many tables. After waiting a while we asked the person filling our water for a couple of glasses of wine. (Later in the meal we had to ask twice for a second glass). The meal we had get was very good. We both felt that our steak and lobster were very good, neither of us got our sides right (I was missing mushrooms, my husband asparagus). I know these are all small problems, and no they did not ruin our night, but we were surprised by the really bad service and were happy to get back to the dining room with our wonderful servers, Benjamin and Adi.

We tried the Sanctuary for the first time and fell in love!I have been curious to try it and we finally did on the Cabo leg. We liked it so much we went back and did it a 2nd time. We only booked for the afternoon figuring we would sleep in and probably not get there much before 1 anyway. We enjoyed that they served afternoon tea and loved the quiet comfort. My husband and I have agreed that we will budget it next time and reserve a chair for the full cruise maybe even a massage. Because we typically cruise for the pampering and relaxing the Sanctuary was a great treat.

Well I think that brings this review to a close. As we drove home we always play the “what was best, what was worse game”. Our favorite port- San Francisco, our biggest surprise – sanctuary, our best decision – same room for each cruise, biggest issue/problem – room card and security on the second leg, what would we do again – cruise with princess, what would we not do again –bring binoculars and maybe not the camera (phone worked and was easier, only used camera at the zoo).

We are hoping to cruise again in 2020 and are considering Hawaii or the Caribbean…..time will tell. Hope you all enjoy your upcoming cruises, I know we really enjoyed ours.

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The Cabo leg of our vacation was a 5-day cruise, 1 sea day,overnight in Cabo, and then a sea day before going back to San Pedro. We really enjoyed Cabo. We saw 2 different whales during the morning we sailed into Cabo, that is always exciting. In Cabo we expected to wait a long time for tenders,but we got into Cabo early and so the tenders started early. I think we went down for our boarding number about a half hour after we were cleared and waited maybe 5 minutes to get on the tender. Very easy. It was nice and warm in Cabo with a pleasant breeze. When walking in the sun it got a little warm but that just made the margarita taste better. My husband is a musician, so we walked down to Sammy’s place, Cabo Wabo and had lunch. The food was very good and we learned that the house band would be playing at 10:30 that night. We decided to walk around and enjoy the afternoon then go back to the Ruby, relax and then come back for the band. We found the people selling tours and trinkets annoying but not aggressive. We went back to the tender about 10pm and it was our first time taking a tender in the dark. We found it kind of scary but had a really great view of the ship. I don’t think the pictures turned out well but the pictures in my memory are very clear 😊

We were very surprised at how quiet the Cabo tourist area was at night. Almost every bar was closed including Senior Frog. We saw a lot of security/military/police (armed of course) and felt surprisingly safe. We stayed on the main streets, so it is possible that the night life I expected to see was just off the beaten path. We went to Cabo Wabo and had a couple of drinks, but found the music was too loud. Now I know this sounds strange, but my husband suffers from tinnitus (too much loud music for too long) and it was bothering him, so we did not stay as long as we thought we would. We were back on the Ruby around midnight and the Love Boat deck disco party was in full swing. It looked like everyone was having a great time but once again the speakers were pumping so we called it a night. There was a day when we went out at night and come home when the sun came up…those days may be over, but we did enjoy our night.

The next morning, I had hoped to get up in time to go ashore and enjoy breakfast in one of the restaurants, but we overslept. No regrets, the international cafe had my almond crescents, so all was well in the world. Sail away was delayed as we waited for 3 passengers who were paged and asked to call guestservices. One must have responded but we don’t know if the other 2 ever made it on board.While we were waiting we thrilled to watch a large, and a smaller, whale in thebay. They gave us a nice little show but were a little far away. Also, in thearea was the Princess Grand and a Norwegian ship (I think that’s right, I can’tremember which one). Sail back to LA was nice and we savored the last dayon board. I will post some pictures from Cabo and then come back with just a fewcomments about the food and the Sanctuary…thanks to anyone who stayed this far.

I just took a moment to reread some of my posts and I am not sure why the spacing is messed up. Because I am typing for a few minutes and then puttering around the house I chose to write on Word and then copy and past it to the board. I didn’t realize it was messing up I will review my posts a little better.

Here are a few more random Ruby pictures

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This brings me to the end of the first leg of our cruise. We did go to Ensenada after San Diego. We got off the ship and enjoyed a really nice morning walk but didn’t do anything else and didn’t take any pictures. Also,in port was a Carnival ship (Splendor I think) and we enjoyed breakfast on the back of the Ruby watching some brave kids up and down the slide (It was too cold for me).

This was our first back to back, so we were not sure how it worked.We talked to Reynaldo, our room steward, who told us he would give us a letter, probably after dinner, the night before departure. He confirmed we were in the same room and that we did not have to pack or do anything. We book inside rooms (we like them, and they work for us) but previously we had only stayed in the sideways rooms. We first booked the Coastal cruise and got our favorite sideways room on the 14th floor. Around Christmas we decided to add the Cabo portion and there were no sideways rooms available for both cruises but the sideways room next to us was available for the Cabo leg. This would require us to change to the room right next door, bummer. We talked about it and went back and forth and finally decided to change our reservation, so we could stay in the same room both cruises. This, for us, was definitely the right plan. We were so glad not to have to pack and rearrange another room. Although I still like the sideways room better (you get a little extra room and an extra desk) we liked the regular inside just fine. I stopped by the front desk to make sure we didn’t need to close our credit card out (we didn’t). She told us that we could use our old room key to get off/on the ship and then in the next day or two we should stop by the desk for our new cards. She said we were only getting new room keys because we were changing from Gold to Ruby status. Turns out she was confused, with our letter of instructions were our new keys. I was fine with this, one less thing to do. We met up in the Wheelhouse to depart, they were running a little behind, but we were then ushered off the ship. We didn’t not know where to go,and it was little confusing, but we found someone who we saw waiting with us to depart and we followed them. We were only off for about 15-20 minutes and we got to re-board. Security scanned my husbands room key with no problem but mine had an error. The security guard acted like I was trying to sneak on board, told me to move over to the side and “not move”. No problem, I stood there for 20 minutes while he glared at me and talked on his radio 2 or 3 times. Finally, a supervisor came over, took my card and left. We waited again for what felt like a long time now but was probably another 10 or so minutes. The supervisor came back and told me to go the front desk. The security guard tried to scan the card again, but the supervisor told him twice to just let me go to the desk, he checked me in. Everyone looked at me and wondered what was up, I almost wondered if I was trying to sneak on…LOL. My husband was very helpful and told me his card worked so he would go wait for me at the bar…. thanks honey (for the record he was of course joking and stayed with me). I went to the desk, she made me a new card (no photo needed) and then I was on my way. I worried that there would be future problems but there wasn’t, all was good. I admit I was getting a little annoyed while I was waiting on the deck and felt that the security guy was rude but not a big deal and we shook it off right away.

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Living in Vegas we get to go to San Diego often, but we hadnever been to the San Diego Zoo, so we figured this was the perfect time. Wedidn’t want to book with the cruise ship because it was more money and we wantedto be able to stay as long (or little) as we felt at the time. We have an ongoingjoke in my house about me wanting to go to the zoo and my boys alwaysconvincing us to go to Disneyland instead, so I was very excited to finally go.

The weather was perfect for a day walking around, not too hot but not cold either. Norain and little overcast so we didn’t have to worry about sunscreen. We had noproblem getting a cab at the port and although the zoo was busy we could see everythingwith no problem. We were a little disappointed with the zoo. I think I had itbuilt up too big in my mind because it felt smaller than I expected. We enjoyedthe orangutans and the penguins the most. I felt like there was way too manybirds and small monkeys. Anyway, I am sure if I were to go with kids I would havestayed longer but we had walked the entire zoo (except for the kids petting zooarea) in a little over 3 hours. Once again, the idea of relaxing on the Rubybeat out the original plan of going to Balboa park. As I write this I feel likewe missed the opportunity to take advantage of the ports but we both work so manyhours during the week (50+) and then add the chores and responsibility ofnormal life we found that we really enjoyed being pampered on the ship.

Thank you for your review and info. We will be doing the coastal that departs on Sat. Did you see any whales as you were cruising along?

We saw whales 2 different times sailing into Cabo and then when we were in Cabo, waiting to sail away, we saw a mom and her baby 3 or 4 times....very cool!

We did not see any on the Coastal leg of the tour but spoke to someone who did. I think the trick to seeing whales is spending time looking for them. I loaded 2 audio books on my kindle so we would sit outside and enjoy the water view while I listened to my books. I was glad to have the audio books so I could look at the water rather than looking at the book.

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Our next port was Monterey. The weather was a light rain off and on, but it was not cold, so it was nice. We enjoyed a lovely walk and took a lot of pictures. We had originally thought of going on the princess excursion for the redwoods and vineyards, but we felt the price of 150pp was too much.Thanks to my Cruise Critic group I had purchased a groupon for a wine tasting in Monterey. We loved it! We had a beautiful view of the Ruby and the bay, enjoyed a nice cheese tray, a few nice (and one we didn’t like) tastes of wine and then a glass of our favorite. We saw what I thought was a couple dolphins (we saw the fin). By the time we left it started to rain a little more, so we walked back to the tender and back to the ship. We are not big shoppers so for us the day was sent walking and enjoying the view.

Did they offer the Crab shack and if so do you remember when on the 5 day portion. I am really enjoying your review!

yes, it was offered on both cruises, I think on more than one day but I maybe wrong. We didn't try it but were tempted to, something to try on our next cruise :)

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First port was San Francisco and it was the main reason I bookedthis cruise. I got up early, so I could be up top for going under the GoldenGate bridge. It was very foggy, and the horn was going off steady all night and morning long. I was surprised at how loud the horn was. I was not able to go up the stairs by the pools because it was so loud, so we settled on beingout on the aft area, I think deck 16. Because it was foggy we stood out for awhile wondering when we would see the bridge. In fact, I had just started backup the stairs (kind of toward the hot tubs outside the night club) when all ofthe sudden out of the fog the bridge appeared above us. It was AMAZING…..no lieit was like a horror movie, by the time we could see the bridge it waspractically over top of us and the size of it coming out of the fog was athrill. Even my husband who was not excited about being awake that time of daythought it was cool. It happened so fast I got one fuzzy picture of the bridgeafter we passed it and before it was engulfed again in the fog. As we sailed inthe fog let up some and we ended up with a nice morning. Thanks to some great suggestionsI got on our board I pre-purchased tickets for Alcatraz for 10:30. We got offthe ship pretty early and enjoyed a walk around pier 39 and Fisherman’s Warf. Iused to live in the Bay Area and my husband and I have been to SF many times, infact we got engaged in SF, so we are familiar with the area. Like many althoughI lived there I have never been to Alcatraz and I really enjoyed my time there.We did the self-guided audio tour and would highly recommend it. It is narratedby a couple former guards and inmates and was very interesting to hear thestories. I was surprised by not just how much walking it was but by how highthe incline was on the walk up. I looked on the health app of my iPhone and we about 22,000 steps and over 19 floors. I recommend the trip and the tour butremember to book online, in advance and wear very comfortable shoes.After we finished there we were tired and hungry, so we enjoyed a nice breadbowl of clam chowder at a restaurant in pier 39, it was great, we enjoyed the soupwhile watching the sea lions. After our late lunch we walked around the stores,bought an embarrassing amount of fudge (my husband had a moment when herealized he was an adult, with money, in a candy store….it wasn’t pretty lol). Westopped at some benches to enjoy the view, and the fudge, when it started torain. We decided that we would head back to the Ruby for the rest of the afternoonand enjoy the view of the bay from Skywalkers. Later that night we were back ondeck for a very cold sail away, I will attach some photos. I had planned to doa lot more in SF, we had planned to walk down and get a cable car to China townand explore the area and have dinner there, but we ended up staying on board the Ruby. My husband reminded me that this vacation was about recharging andspending time together and rather than keep going we enjoyed our quiet time, with a nice drink,and a beautiful view.

Is the Aft Pool a public pool or in a private section? Thanks.

Public...

Some random photos from around the Ruby

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Sunday (first full day) was a sea day and was formal nightat dinner. The weather was still gloomy and cold for us. We had fun spendingthe day with trivia and just sitting and enjoying the views. One of ourfavorite places is deck 7 on the promenade deck. We found that often one side wouldbe windier than the other and was more enjoyable. When it got too cold we wentin and sat at the window by the Explorer’s lounge. Our other favorite spot wasup on deck 15 by the aft pool, some of the covered spots back there were nottoo windy.

I forgot to mention earlier that on embarkation day we signedup for the escape room, we were giving 3 different time spots and it was heldin the chapel. I thought it was well done. It was not too hard but was enoughof a challenge that we had to think a little bit. It lasted just 30 minutes andI would recommend it to anyone. You are in a group of about 6-8 people.

Onformal night we found everyone was dressed nice but not typically formal on theCoastal portion of the cruise. On the Cabo portion people were dressed far moreformal and not just on the formal night but throughout the evenings. But theCabo portion had a much younger crowd.

Most of our evenings were the same so I will just go over allthe entertainment as a group. We really enjoyed the house band, but I am notsure everyone did. They were young and called something like Party Funk Band(or close to that). They played the typically music you would expect but with alittle more of a rock feel and they a lot more guitar solos. My husband and Ithought they were all very good musicians, but they often played to empty orclose to empty rooms. For the most part they were in Club Fusion butoccasionally in the Explorers lounge, they also played all the special eventson the deck or the Piazza. Their contract ended with the Cabo cruise so someoneelse is on now, they mentioned being back in 5 weeks, but I am not sure if itis on the Ruby. We spent most of our evenings watching them. Funch was in Crooner’s,his style reminded me of Ray Charles and he was very popular. Most night’s he wasin Crooner’s and it was standing room only. We liked him there, but he was muchbetter when the ship band backed him up. His show was short but a lot of fun,we went to each on both the Coastal and Cabo leg of the cruise. In thewheelhouse bar was the Rumba Duo, I did not really care for them, but they typicallyhad a full house and people ballroom dancing. My husband said she was a reallygood singer and on the Cabo leg she had her own cabaret style show in Explorer’s(we did not go).

Linda Grey from Dallas was onboard for a Q&A and to sellher book. One of the actors for Myth Busters (I think his name was Tory) was onthe Cabo portion and did a behind he scenes look at Myth Busters. We did not goto Linda Gray, but many passengers said they really liked it and found her downto earth. We went to the Myth Busters presentation and really enjoyed that (weenjoy the show Myth Busters and remembered many of the episodes he talkedabout). Also, on was a singer from American Idle (2nd season Ithink) Lou Gazzara. We saw in the theater and he put on a much better show thenwe expected. There were a couple more piano players that I can’t remember theirname.

We had 2 different comedians on board, I forgot the name of the first leg but for Cabo it was Carlos Oscar. We really enjoyed both and they were mostly clean jokes (we like that). We saw each comedian twice, once in the theater and once the explorer’s lounge.

The Magic and Colors of the World production shows were shown once oneach leg. They had all the typical trivia and games. I lost in the Yes/No gamein about 20 seconds lol. The cruise was too cold (for us) to watch Movies Underthe Stars. I think the movies were, The Space Between Us, Thor, Battle of theSexes, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, The Greatest Showman, Darkest Hour, JusticeLeague and one other we can’t remember now. We watched Justice League in theexplorers lounge and Thor in our room (ok, I will tell the truth, I slept througha little of Thor….lol).

For entertainment we also heard a great presentation from oneof the officers in Club Fusion on navigation and he gave lots of info on theRuby. Coming back from Cabo we went out on the aft of the ship and listened toa presentation on the stars. The Captain turned off most of the lights, so wecould see a lot of stars. The down side is it was VERY windy and kind of coldbut for us it was still worth it.

Being from Vegas we don’t gamble a lot, but I did try themachines two times. Much to my surprise I won both times. Being from Vegas westop right after winning 😊. Here is how it worked for any who are notfamiliar. I used my room key and would load money from my room account to my “bank”.(When you first put in your key, you must set up your account with your DOB andthen you select a PIN number). You play from the bank and when you leave amachine you cash out to your bank. I wanted to cash out after my first win(didn’t think I would play again) so I went to the cage/cashier. I was surprisedwhen he handed me cash, I had assumed it would go back on the room. When I wentto the casino later in the cruise to waste some time again I won but had an oddamount so at the cage I cashed out most of it and left $40 in my bank. On thelast day of my cruise I got a phone message reminding me to cash out my balancebecause they would not add it to my room. I had planned to cash out anyway, butit was nice to have the reminder.

Ok, I think that’s all I can remember for entertainment andthe sea days…I will be back to add some info and pictures on our stops and dining….