Ruby Princess Review-ish 7/3-7/10 (Alaska)

[gnatz007]

i'll try to hurry and post the rest...

[mrswallace2012]

We were on the Ruby in Feb, and it was a lovely,lovely cruise!! A beautiful ship with wonderful staff. We had team M&M one night and they were awesome.

[gnatz007]

July 5 – Ketchikan

 

Weather: Low 60’s, a very light mist for 2-3 mins as we left the ship, but it was gone before we hit the “Welcome to Ketchikan” sign. Cloudy in the morning, sun came through in the afternoon for a stunning sail away.

 

Clothing: Jeans, T-shirt, Fleece, Rain Jacket - that we quickly ditched into the backpack.

 

• In Ketchikan we decided to grab the walking tour map that is free in the visitor center. We were really wanting to just walk around and see the town. I have a Garmin Fenix 3 watch, and we logged over 9 miles walking around. For us, it was heaven. The town is easy to walk around, with a few hills, but nothing overly strenuous and it has the quintessential Alaska feel.

 

 

• There were a lot of people picking up the very cheap ($20) rain jackets in town. If you came unprepared for rain (which I think a lot of people did) this is a great place to grab something cheap.

• We stopped in at the Totem Heritage Center at the top of town, Creek Street, and the Harbor. The cloudy sky made the walk nice and pleasant.

 

 

 

 

• For this trip (because we did Hawaii recently, the Oregon coast, and we have a cruise booked for early next year..) we decided that we would lay low on the expensive Alaska excursions. We figured that Alaska is not a once in a life time opportunity, but we will be back and target the things we want to do later. By the way, we have no regrets in doing Alaska on the “cheap”.

• I love planes… I love flying of any sorts and am a huge RC glider flyer… when we got back to the ship we had a blast just watching the float planes take off and land all afternoon.

[gnatz007]

 

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[gnatz007]

A couple more time lapse video's.

 

Crystal Serenity coming into Ketchikan (from the back of the Ruby)

 

[YOUTUBE]oYFxDBU0a2A[/YOUTUBE]

 

Leaving Ketchikan - Time Lapse

 

[YOUTUBE]PwTJLXFyq34[/YOUTUBE]

[gnatz007]

I sure hope I am not boring everyone to tears. If I am posting too many photo's let me know ;)

 

 

 

We LOVE crab legs! So to have them in the MDR was a pleasant surprise for us! we may have ordered twice ;)

 

 

And I always have to have the Love Boat Dream sometime during the cruise. It seemed to go well for with this dinner!

 

[gnatz007]

Good Night from Ketchikan!

 

 

[gnatz007]

Rather than buying the drink package, did they offer any drink offers, like 10 drinks for $75. How about wine packages?

 

Sorry, we didn't even ask or look. We vowed this was a water only trip (and we stuck to it)

[gnatz007]

Thank you so very much for doing a review! DH and I are on the Ruby September 4th to Alaska. We were on the Ruby last October to Mexico and the Norwegian Pearl was docked next to us at every port as well!

 

What cabin were you in?

 

Looking forward to your posts!

 

Cathy

 

We were in Riviera 707. We absolutely loved it! It was so convenient to go down the hall and out the back to catch more sights.

[calisilent]

Thank you so much for your review! And the menus! We will be on the ruby in sept and can't wait!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

What week are you going AZbeachbum? DH and I are on the Ruby September 4th.

 

Cathy

[Keith1010]

Enjoying your review.

 

Keith

[PoohUnderstands]

Thoroughly enjoying your comments and pictures!! Thank you so much. We will be on the Ruby this Sept.11th.

 

If you eat breakfast in the MDR again, see if they have french toast. We had it every sea day on the Star on our 15 day Hawaii cruise and it was to die for. They crust it with crushed corn flakes and then deep fry. Yum!!!

 

Pooh

[azbeachbum2016]

Calisilent us too!! Loving this review!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[caribill]

Rather than buying the drink package, did they offer any drink offers, like 10 drinks for $75. How about wine packages?

 

Not a Princess thing.

[ozjohnau]

Nice review , have been on the ruby princess in Europe and Caribbean , it's one of my fav ships

 

 

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[seamanfs]

Really enjoyed the review and the photos! We are taking our 2 granddaughters on the Ruby to Alaska next June and it will be their first cruise. They are so excited already for June 2017 to get here!

[SeaDays]

No "ish" about this review! It's first class with all the trimmings.

[gnatz007]

No "ish" about this review! It's first class with all the trimmings.

 

Thank you! (everyone). Sorry, I had a golf tournament yesterday and wasn't able to post. I have more to come today.

[red4lisa]

Enjoying your review! I especially liked the time lapse video of the Crystal Serenity docking! Thanks for sharing.

 

Lisa

[d4sunrise]

Thoroughly enjoying this! We leave on the Ruby on July 31st and this is making me even more excited to go. We will be first time cruisers and I feel so much more comfortable knowing what to expect.

Thanks so much.

[ChiefBoats]

The Ruby is one of our favorite Princess ships. We are scheduled on her next June in Alaska. Had to cancel our Alaska cruise this year. Having withdrawals. :(:(

[gnatz007]

Tracy Arm… Whoops, Endicott Arm

Weather: Grey, Misty, and overcast

Clothing: Jeans, Fleece, Rainjacket as a windbreaker… my DW wasn’t handling the cold quite as well, she had EVERYTHING on.. Jeans, Thermals, Fleece, rain jacket, stocking cap, bathrobe… you name it. I promised not to post that picture ;)

• Like so many before us, Tracy Arm was full of ice, and we couldn’t make it up. So instead we went up Endicott Arm. We haven’t been here before, so I have no idea if we missed out or not. We didn’t feel like it, since Endicott was absolutely stunning.

• We were out on our balcony by 5:00 am and really enjoyed the ride up the fjord. We had just missed seeing a bear walking on the beach (grrr), but not long after we saw a moose walking along the beach and almost looked like he was playing in the water and having fun! Very cool!

• Endicott had a lot of low lying clouds that it gave it this cool mystical and almost surreal feel as we made our way up. I know a lot of people mentioned they slept through the ride up, in favor of sleep. What a mistake! This is really worth waking up for.

• We seemed to get decently close to the Glacier, but being our first time, I have nothing to compare it too. We could certainly see it fine, and with binoculars could see minute details.

• With the clouds the glacier and ice that had broken off, cast a cool blue hue that I really enjoyed. To be honest, pictures just can’t express how stunning the views are.

• We stayed on our balcony for the complete transit not wanting to miss a thing. We loved seeing all the bald eagles sitting on drift wood along the beach.

• By 9:00 we were making our way up to Juneau. So we got ready for the day, and then headed up to a VERY busy Horizon Court for breakfast.

 

 

 

Sorry, my camera was giving it all she's got on this one.. the Moose was way the heck out there!

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

 

 

 

[gnatz007]

Just as we were leaving Endicott, we saw our first Orca. It was a ways off, but still a huge thrill for us.