Review of Ruby Princess Alaska Cruise, I hope is not my last cruise

[Cruisin_Greg]

Thank you for your time and efforts on putting this trip report together. It is very enjoyable. All the best to you, and Happy Birthday to your Grand-child. :)

[DavyJoneses]

Enjoyed the photos of Ketchikan... never been there.

[MJSailors]

Hello Bill-

I am very glad to have found your review ! My DH and I took a Princess cruise on the Inside Passage up to Skagway in 2004.

Your photos are reminding me of that wonderful cruise. I chuckled to see that Dolly's is still there on Creek Street!

I must say that you seem to be a very positive thinking person and to me, your photo shows a very kind hearted man.

I have sent up a prayer for you and your wife for good results and my best wishes in planning your next cruise together.

[shredie]

Great Ketchikan pictures! The Duck Boat tour is so much fun. I recommend it to anyone with kids.

[Colo Cruiser]

Nice! :)

[Thrak]

Thanks for the review and for the pics. It's great that you are still cruising. Cancer is freaking evil. Do all you can to not give in to it. Keep doing what you can as long as you can (how about another 20 years or so? :))

 

I think it's great that you aren't letting it rule your life any more than absolutely necessary. Best of luck in all you do. The pictures of the ship and the shore destinations are great but it's the pictures of you with your wife that are the best. :D

[Mom33]

Thank you for your review. I'm glad you were able to take this cruise and I wish you the best of health in the future.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Great that you were able to take this cruise and post so much info that will help future cruisers.

 

One of my high school classmates was at the same hospital in Houston and is now at the City of Hope for her stem cell transplant. One of those giving her moral support is a survivor of the same type of cancer who was the homecoming queen who was stricken in our senior year, but fully recovered from it (and back then in the 70s, the odds were against her) so hopefully you'll be joining the ranks of survivors soon too and will be taking many more cruises to come.

[Rstamper]

Thanks for the review. Leaving in a week to board the Ruby. Do you know if Captain Terry Barkley will be on our cruise in a week. I have heard someone from the Deadliest Catch will give a presentation.

[WWCJR]

Thanks for the review. Leaving in a week to board the Ruby. Do you know if Captain Terry Barkley will be on our cruise in a week. I have heard someone from the Deadliest Catch will give a presentation.

 

I doubt that it will be Captain Terry as he was going to be the Captain of the Aleutian Ballad the rest of the season. If by chance he does make a presentation it will be a great not to miss presentation.

 

I hope that you enjoy your cruise as much as we enjoyed ours.

[WWCJR]

 

 

 

[WWCJR]

 

 

 

[WWCJR]

 

 

 

[WWCJR]

I forgot that after getting back onto the ship after our Duck Boat Tour I had email exchanges with my Leukemia Oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Since Juneau would be our last port that has a pharmacy where I could get a prescription filled she asked if I could locate a pharmacy in Juneau that could fill a prescription for a drug she wanted me to have but not to take unless instructed to do so later in the cruise. I did a search on the internet and made a call to a pharmacy in Juneau that is located near the docks where the cruise ships dock. I called and they did have the drug so I gave them all of my Medicare and Supplemental Insurance information. I let my Oncologist know that they could fill the prescription and she called it in to them. FYI if anyone finds themselves in need of a pharmacy in Juneau near the dock, it is Juneau Drug Company. It is an easy walk for most people, in fact when we were there in 2007 we walked past it then.

[windsor26]

Thank you for your posts God bless

[caribill]

After we ate supper, again a delightful meal, we went to the Princess Theater and watched the Production show Stardust. As always they tell people no video recording or pictures allowed during the show.

 

In the past they have said no video or flash pictures. No pictures allowed at all is a change.

 

In the Patter for the day it did say that the Laundromats on three decks would be closed for several days for environmental reasons, but the ones on four other decks would remain open.

[geesherry]

Hey Bill!

 

Remember your next door neighbor form the Canada/New England cruise? :)

 

Saw your post, and wanted to wish you all the good kind of luck in your battle for better health!

 

Sherry

[WWCJR]

In the past they have said no video or flash pictures. No pictures allowed at all is a change.

 

Yes, I think that the way they were doing it they would target ANY device with a screen lite-up. Such as a cell phone being used to text or check their onboard information now available. Speaking of the onboard information the Ruby Princess did not have the messaging available to text each other onboard.

 

I also noticed that this system was only used for the production shows and not for other shows or presentations.

[WWCJR]

Hey Bill!

 

Remember your next door neighbor form the Canada/New England cruise? :)

 

Saw your post, and wanted to wish you all the good kind of luck in your battle for better health!

 

Sherry

 

Yes Sherry I do remember you and also the others from that cruise. I often watch the video I made of that cruise and enjoy re-living a most enjoyable cruise. Kathy and I just did not like what we return home to...the damages and problems of Hurricane Ike that hit our area. But even that did not ruin a great cruise with great fellow cruisers.

[WWCJR]

Thank you for your time and efforts on putting this trip report together. It is very enjoyable. All the best to you, and Happy Birthday to your Grand-child. :)

 

Thanks for wishing my granddaughter happy birthday. We had a wonderful afternoon and evening at the pool party that her uncle, my oldest son and his wife held for her. All had fun and I managed to get what I consider a fantastic picture of her diving into the pool.

 

 

Sorry for the diversion but I am a proud grandfather and she is and always has been my “sweetie”. Now on with my photo review in my soon to follow post.

[ChiefBoats]

Thanks for the review and will look for your next seqment . We were on the Ruby the end of May and once again enjoyed our Alaska cruise. We take the Aleutian Ballard excursion every time we are in Ketchikan. We have booked next May already.

 

Good luck on your treatment and recovery.

_____________________________________

Island Princess 2008 Alaska, Island Princess 2009 (B2B) Alaska, Royal Princess (Old) 2010 Alaska, Golden Princess 2011 Alaska, Coral Princess 2012 Panama Canal, Star Princess 2012 Alaska, Island Princess 2013 Alaska, Crown Princess 2013 Western Caribbean, Caribbean Princess 2013 Western Caribbean, Royal Princess 2014 Eastern Caribbean, Royal Princess 2014 New England, Emerald Princess 2014 Western Caribbean, Ruby Princess 2015 Alaska

[WWCJR]

This day is truly the highlight of this cruise. It will take multiple posts to fully cover it and do it justice. I doubt that I can do it all in one sitting but hope to at least get all of Tracy Arm completed today.

 

I woke-up at 3:30 AM and it was already bright outside:

 

 

We had an early breakfast in the Horizon Court and then headed to the Princess Theater, our meeting point for the Tracy Arm Excursion. By the time we got there it was already a full house and the location we were, we would not end up on the boat with Casey. But Casey spotted us and came down and talked to us. She then made an announcement asking if there was a party of four on the first boat that would trade places with four people on the second boat. She quickly got a response from four people that were happy to make the trade. Boy did we luck out on this one. We quickly boarded the boat and were off to Sawyer Glacier. On the way we passed several waterfalls.

 

 

Sawyer Glacier had been actively calving earlier in the day but not so much so during the time we spent there. We did see it calving several minor times.

 

 

We were then off to South Sawyer Glacier. On the way there we passed the other Excursion Boat from The Ruby Princess.

 

 

As we approached South Sawyer Glacier we passed a number of very large Ice burgs, the size of a couple of city buses.

 

 

We kept hitting small ice burgs that caused loud thuds and some of them made the boat shift to the side a bit. As we got closer the ice burgs got even larger.

 

 

I must continue my photo review in my next post as I have reached the limit for pictures in this post.

[WWCJR]

When we stopped near the Glacier my wife and I went outside to get some pictures. Here is one of my wife and me.

 

 

Then here is a picture of my wife and me with Casey.

 

 

Then a picture of my wife taking a picture of my sister and me.

 

 

There are lots of harbor seals in near the glacier as they come in here to have their babies since their predators, mainly Orca Whales will not come in this close to the glacier…it is too cold for them. Also on the ice burgs the bears cannot get to them.

 

 

 

If the next photo of Sawyer South does not move you I don’t know what will move you.

 

 

More photos and descriptions of Tracy Arm to follow.

[WWCJR]

After we had lunch we headed off of the ship and found a taxi. Seems the Taxis by the ships REALLY want to do tours and not just take a person somewhere and back. So I found that we could hire a taxi for $70 for an hour long tour and we would be taken where ever we wanted to go. So we made the stop at June Drug Company and I picked up my prescription and we were on our way. Our taxi driver was a lady and she felt we should see Juneau not from the usual tourist locations but more of the places the locals would go. We drove over onto Douglas Island and headed away from town and the docks. Not too far out we pulled over and there was a nice view of Mendenhall Glacier from across the bay.

 

 

We went out a little further and she showed us where the locals go to “make-out”, not something that we needed to see or know. We decided it was about time to head back and asked to be dropped off at the Mount Robert’s Tram. We had tickets for it and wanted to at least ride it up to take some pictures.

 

 

 

There were five ships in port that day, the Ruby Princess and Grand Princess, two Holland America ships and one smaller ship anchored in the harbor.

 

 

That evening there was a talk given by Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod.

 

 

It was another early to bed for me as the next day was going to be a long one in Skagway.

[WWCJR]