Ruby Princess British Isles Cruise: Detailed Review

[tourismtessy]

Before I start with my review, I want to send a huge THANK YOU to all those that contribute information on this wonderful website. The forum is my Number 1 place for research before any cruise and the information is always accurate and helpful. I want to hopefully give back to a community that I have taken from so much in the past. I followed the advice of DeloreanGirl (after reading her extensive review of the same cruise from a couple years ago). There were a few things I chose to do different in some ports so I will be contributing NEW information for readers here! (Yay for new options) To avoid overload, I will give the review in daily roundups. Since I am from Texas, a Round Up seems like an appropriate choice of words. As difficult as it will be, I will post just ONE favorite pic from each day. I took an average of 800 per day so that in itself is going to be VERY difficult for me. Selecting just one pic to share that captures a whole day of magical memories……….Well, I do love a challenge! My wonderful Hubby and I took this cruise on 23 May to celebrate 23 years of marriage. To get the party started, I will tease you with a starter page: Our arrival in London. If you look closely at the photo (under the wing), you will spot some of the key landmarks that London is known for! A hint for one is: EYE spy something in the sky. I actually tweeted this photo and called it “getting high with a Virgin in London”. I write a blog where my goal is to inspire people to travel AND to see things with a new perspective. Taking old words and phrases and giving them new and IMPROVED meanings is part of my personality. It’s where I have the most fun! So, get high with me the NATURAL way and soar over the beautiful city of London as we set sail for the British Isles, like a Princess, NOT a Virgin :-)

[silverbird]

I love your sense of humor already. Can hardly wait for your reviews. Thank you for posting.

[tourismtessy]

Day 1: Arrival and Sightseeing

 

We landed at Heathrow about 10 am and got through the LONG line in Customs by 11. We grabbed our luggage and hopped in a cab for the short ride to our Hotel for the night. We were using a Free Night Stay at the Marriott that we had earned as part of their loyalty program. We are members of both Hyatt and Marriott and trust their consistency with both service and quality. I am a HUGE advocate of Loyalty programs because of their cost: FREE, and their benefits: PRICELESS. Free wifi and water are just a couple of the bonuses we get just for being rewards members. We weren't sure if our room would be ready because it was barely noon at this time. We were prepared to just have our luggage locked up so we could head downtown and get our one day of sightseeing in. However, when we stepped up to the Registration desk, we were greeted with a big smile, warm welcome AND a room that was ready if we didn’t mind the airport view. NO problem for us. We weren’t going to be in the room until later that evening and just falling asleep by then anyway so the view was not important. We dropped our luggage off in the room and walked just a block down the street to the bus stop where we picked up the FREE bus back to Heathrow to get the Underground. I had planned on getting the Original Hop on Hop off bus tour for the day once we got to Picadilly Circus. However, they were selling the tickets for them in the same line as the ticket for the underground so we were able to get both in one place and wonderful guidance from the sales clerk. He clearly marked out his “suggested itinerary” for our one day in London and we were off! It was about a 45 minute ride on a fairly empty train to our stop: Green Park. We got off and strolled through the Park to Buckingham Palace and enjoyed the lovely weather. It was cool and clear even though it was supposed to be raining all day. I knew we would probably have some rain at some point so we were prepared with rain gear (Hubby wore a Rain Jacket and I had a plastic rain poncho in my bag). I did not expect to get out of London without having rain! We then walked to the bus stop to pick up the Original Tour for our ride around London. I knew we wouldn’t have time to get off and go into any Museums or attractions along the way. I was prepared to snap away from the top of the bus and just enjoy the day. I have been to London before but my Hubby has not. He was happy to just take in what he could from the bus and hit the main landmarks at least. The weather was looking angry and we hopped off at the stop by the London Eye and Big Ben so I could get a few better pics from the ground. As I was walking across the bridge to get the Big Ben shots, it started lightning and pouring! I whipped out my poncho and threw it on. My camera is the Canon D10 (waterproof and shockproof) so there were no worries there. It is the only camera I travel with and love it for those reasons. Even if I am not planning to take it in or under water, it is ready for any rain or accidents (like dropping it). I enjoyed the downpour, got my shots and headed back to my Hubby who was waiting under the cover of the building by the bus stop. We got on the next bus and were able to get seats inside and out of the rain. The rain ended up stopping about 10 minutes later so we were able to resume the ride on the top open deck of the double decker. I just took off my wet poncho, turned it inside out and laid it across the wet seats to sit on. We enjoyed the rest of the loop and got off to eat dinner before hopping on the underground and heading back to Heathrow and our Hotel for the night. Even though we only had a few hours in the city, we managed to have a great day AND see most of the main sights, including riding over the Tower Bridge. We definitely plan to go back to London one day and spend more time so we can actually go IN the Museums and some of the wonderful attractions and buildings. I took over 800 pictures and decided that if I can only show you 1, this would be it

[maggieq]

I am so happy you are doing this review. We are going to stay at heathrow for a couple days pre cruise for the quantum. Have been wondering the best way to get into central London to see the sights. I did hear you have to pay for a shuttle back and forth to heathrow. Mean I ask what hotel you stayed at? Mi also heard the national express bus is a good option?

 

Thanks!

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Thank you for doing this review......Waiting for more. We are on the Ruby in August doing the British Isles then the TA to NY.

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. I'm enjoying it so far. Is there any way to make your pictures bigger?

[caribill]

Thank you for your review. I'm enjoying it so far. Is there any way to make your pictures bigger?

 

Click on the thumbnail and it will get bigger. Not enough to fill the screen, but bigger.

[MtnBikerFallDown]

Really enjoying this so far! Thanks for taking the time. I've done reviews before, and I know they're time consuming, so thank you!!!

[MaChere]

We are on the August 3rd cruise and look forward to your details!

 

:D

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[speedyjane]

Tessy,

Can't wait to read the rest of your review. We are doing this cruise the end of August.

[Esprit]

Thanks for taking the time to produce a comprehensive review, but please can you just a few paragraphs.

[jones721]

Going on this cruise on July 22nd and have excitedly logged in every day to read further extracts. Did the same itinerary last year on Caribbean Princess so know the ports, but wanted to know more about the Ruby.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Tracey

[cougaraz]

Going on this cruise on July 22nd and have excitedly logged in every day to read further extracts. Did the same itinerary last year on Caribbean Princess so know the ports, but wanted to know more about the Ruby.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Tracey

 

I am also on the 22 July cruise and am loving the review so far!

[granny49]

Can't wait for the rest of your review. We are doing this 2015.

Thank you for taking the time to do a review.

[cruising family 3]

I Tourismtessy, can't wait to hear more. We are going on the July 22nd cruise.

Thanks for doing this. We like taking public transportation and avoiding the cruise excursions. Can't wait to hear about the ports!!! Thanks

[tourismtessy]

SORRY for my absence! I actually "forgot" I was doing this review (I blame menopause) and have been focused on writing for my blog. I LOVE constructive criticism and welcome every comment, concern, and helpful piece of advice I can get. I am going to play around with the format and see if I can get it to read a little easier (larger font, paragraph setting, etc). I have a Mac and when I try to load the photo with the "insert image" link, it brings me to a http:// page and I don't know how to load a pic from my iPhoto via a website address (Sorry for my computer illiteracy). That is why the pics are currently so small and unable to enlarge (I am currently loading them as attachments). ANY and ALL advice on how to load iPhoto pics for FULL view is welcome and ENCOURAGED! PLEASE help me so I can help YOU :)

Don't give up on me and I will try harder to give a better product for your reading and visual enjoyment as well as education! I definitely want to help as many people as possible. For now, I can answer the question about the Hotel we stayed in. It was a Marriott Property (Renaissance London Heathrow). I don't think we paid for the bus from the property to Heathrow to go into London. We took a cab initially from Heathrow to the Hotel because of our luggage. It was 10 pounds for the 10 minute cab ride.

Seriously friends--I don't get offended or my feelings hurt when people comment in a non positive manner. Feedback is Feedback and I view it as communication. I would rather have too much, and unhappy conversation with you than to be talking and have NO RESPONSE and wonder if anyone is even hearing me-lol! I use everything you say to try and write better FOR YOU! I'll continue with the next day tomorrow so please come back and see me!;)

[tourismtessy]

OOPS! Just played around with sizing and after reading it realized it might look like I am NOW YELLING AT YOU! I will go down to a 4 and see if that is better :o

 

Honestly, bear with me---I didn't mean to yell--honest mistake and I will keep practicing till I get it right. Maybe the third time will be my charm:cool:

[tourismtessy]

Until I can get more time to load all my pics to my flickr account, you can see some of them at my Joyful Journeyist Facebook Page. It may be easier to see them there in larger size than here (at least until I figure out how to upload them larger on this site). I have loaded 2 photo albums from the cruise there and will get more done in the next couple of days. Its a tedious process when you have multiple social media sites to upload to and THOUSANDS of pics to go through :o

 

HI, My name is Teresa and I have been camera free for ZERO days. Yes, I am an addict and No, I don't want the cure!

 

I am also writing about my cruise experience on my Joyful Journeyist blog. I need to go to sleep now (even though my brain is saying NO, NO, NO, my eyes are crying YES, YES, YES). I will definitely get the next entry done today when I wake up so you will have something new to read by tomorrow. Once again, Thanks to all for your feedback and constructive comments.:D

[Starlaker]

Love your attitude! I am looking forward to your trip report.

[insidecabin]

Great,

 

When doing long reviews I usually do them of line in a plain text editor then cut and paste, format, review(button) just to check then submit.

 

There is an edit button tht is active for a few mins so you get a chance to fix things if they go wrong, which they do no matter how hard you try.

 

For some reason white space between paragraphs works wonders on the screen where as on paper you seem to be able to get away with just new paras.

 

Might be that people use different width screens and on wide(landscape) screens the white space helps a lot.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment, we were on the follow on cruise so very interested in the comparisons on each trip as we will probably do it again next year if the price is right(we are local)

[tourismtessy]

We enjoyed a wonderful complimentary FULL breakfast at the Marriott before going back to the Airport to pick up our Princess Cruise Transfer to the Ship. I easily found one of the Princess Reps near the Baggage Claim area and Hubby and I turned over our suitcases and had a seat. We would not be seeing our luggage until it was delivered to our cabin onboard (that was nice to hear)! We got there plenty early (about 9 am) and knew that the first bus wouldn’t leave till about 10. I amused myself by walking around and taking pics of signs, and myself.

 

 

We were called to head out to the bus at exactly 10 am sharp and walked to our chariot. It was almost full by the time we got there so Hubby found a seat in the middle and I was able to sit up front with some ladies I just bonded with. They were sisters from California traveling together with their parents. We had a wonderful time visiting and getting to know each other during the ride to Southampton. We were dropped at the Terminal about 11:45, walked in, NO LINE, right up to check in and walked onto the ship! I was actually a little bummed because I was looking forward to spending some quality time in the Platinum/Elite Lounge since it was our first time in this category. I got over it (instantly) and we stopped by our cabin to say Hello to our Steward and then off to the Horizon Court for lunch. It wasn’t crowded at all and we enjoyed our first meal and even met a new friend that was traveling solo. She is 84 and has been cruising alone since her Husband passed away years ago. I fell in love with her immediately and looked forward to seeing her during the Cruise.

 

We had a lovely sail away and the sun even came out for us. We were on Caribe Deck, in C101 and our Muster Station was The Princess Theatre. After a nice, relaxing briefing, we headed to the Dining Room for Dinner. We had Anytime Dining and sat with 3 other couples that we didn’t know. We enjoyed conversation, a wonderful meal (Prime Rib) and even a Magic Show from one of our Table Mates! We were exhausted by the time we finished eating (most of you already know that cruise eating is kind of like an active sport……maybe like a marathon……you have to train for it and it requires lots of stamina.) Anyway, EATING wore us out and we headed to our cabin to crash. The next day was going to be a LONG one with an early start. We were docking in Le Havre and taking the Princess Excursion to PARIS!!! Early departure and a late return. Sleep was needed to be fully prepared for our whirlwind day! Good Night all and we will see you tomorrow in FRANCE!

 

Oh, WAIT……before I go I want to share my little hashtag with you. I had started posting on instagram, twitter and Facebook about our trip and came up with (what I thought was) a VERY clever one. Because we were going to be seeing England, France, and then Ireland and Scotland, I decided to go with #londonfranceriverdance. It is catchy, reminds us all of the whole “I see London, I see France, I see someones…..…” RIVERDANCE!! The Land of Riverdance is far better looking than someones underpants.

 

Anyway, its a theme I am going with and you will see it more throughout the journey. I like to use themes in my stories because it just makes it more fun. For ME! I hope you enjoy them too but even if you don’t, I have enough fun coming up with them and cracking mySELF up! So now, REALLY, I’m being serious here………..I am going to sleep and I will see you all tomorrow to share about our “Day in Pa-Ree, Wee Wee” (the proper spelling is Paris and Oui but I wanted to make sure you got the whole rhyming thing so I spelled it phonetically FOR YOU—to make sure we had effective communication. Oh, You’re Welcome!) Now SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH, I really need to go to sleep.

[tjwa]

Excellent presentation.:)

[loma linda ca a & j]

what a great beginning - loved our british isles cruise last year -

eager to read about yours - we want to repeat it perhaps in 2016 !;)