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Ruby Princess - Light Review, Plethora of Food Pics 12/09 to 12/16

Taer al Saefer

By Taer al Saefer,
in Princess Cruises

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Taer al Saefer

Taer al Saefer

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Warning: lots of food pics coming up.

 

Other Warning: photos are still being uploaded to MyAlbum, they'll be up soon.

 

This was our first cruise ever, and my mom and I were thrilled to be there. We had been looking for a cruise for some time now, but never quite bit the bullet because the upfront cost to her always seemed pricey compared to traditional holidays. As we all know, cruising is affordable because it encompasses everything, with excellent service to boot. She is indeed a believer now, and believes that cruising is the best value for your buck, to my chagrin.

 

We were a group of 3, mommy who is 54, myself 24, and my 19 year old brother. Recently I had been hospitalized for two weeks with pneumonia, my grandfather has passed away after a long struggle, and my elderly little puppy barely pulled himself out of pneumonia. So this was quite needed. We booked the 7 day Mexican Riviera on board Ruby Princess leaving San Pedro and going to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.

 

DAY ONE:

 

Never again, I told myself, were we going to fly out of Seattle at 6am. We live about half an hour from the airport, and so we got up at 3 and Uber was there right before 4am to pick us up. Somehow, our Uber driver just happened to be someone I had ridden with before and with horror, he lifted our four giant bags into his Prius and asked how many years we were going to be away. With that, we were off.

 

For about five minutes, anyway. The fog that morning was so bad that we could only see about five feet ahead of us. So we inched our way down 405 to SEA-TAC where it was disconcertingly quiet for a Saturday morning right before Christmas.

 

Flight was uneventful, Alaska Airlines was on point as always. Fun fact, we fly to China every year and due to the overcrowding at the Beijing Airport, a lot of flights drop their passengers a mile away on the tarmac to deplane and then bus to the terminal. For some reason, my mom HATES it and has likened it to racism, terrorism, and airport-must-have-no-money-ism. Lo and behold, SeaTac is remodeling their N gates and guess who got to make a long walk to the plane in 35 degree weather AFTER she had already changed into her shorts? Woooo! Some torture to start her morning, and some pure entertainment for mine.

 

Oh yeah, and that 6am flight? Somehow I have another one coming up in March to go to Anaheim. Sometimes you never learn...

 

Like I said, flight was uneventful. I spent half of it wrangling go-go wifi. As an aside, I claim to hate Alaska Airlines because I work in a financial institution that directly competes with their Visa Signature card. Me having the Alaska car is similar to treason and surely my head would be chopped if anyone ever found out. But after free TSApre, free luggage check for all of us, and one hour of complimentary inflight wifi, I will lay my head on that block.

 

If anyone at work every asks about this I'm burning everything down.

 

A little complaint about John Wayne Airport...they're too small. I use this airport frequently to go to Disneyland, and we have this issue every time. The luggage gets there before we get off the plane, and is shuffled off the claim before we even get there. I'm usually quick enough to get down and grab my bags before they get taken away, but I'm working with a bad bladdered mother and a brother who just NEEDED to have an egg mcmuffin. So it was off to the Alaska offices we went to pick up our sad abandoned luggage children in the principals office. Note: we did NOT spend 15 minutes aimlessly digging through another flights bags on the claim. We did NOT.

 

Right.

 

Uber was a $38 ride from SNA to San Pedro, much better than the cruise transfer prices we were offered. The driver played a perfect mix of late 90s bedroom R&B and Mariah. There was also some Ja Rule and Ashanti thrown in this, to which I was jamming out to but my teenage brother was demanding to know what this ish was.

 

Traffic was very good, and we took the scenic route through downtown Long Beach, which has really developed beautifully.

 

And then there we had the ship. Those who have been on or seen the Ruby know of its size and grandeur, and as we stood staring at it, our bags were stolen from right underneath us.

 

Oh sorry, that's the porter.

 

Four suitcases and $10 lighter, we made our way into the terminal and promptly got yelled at by a Princess clerk shoving us to the left side of the terminal. "But the bathroom is right there!" we cried.

 

"Shouldn't have had two Dilletante mochas then," came the reply.

 

So maybe that one came from my mother.

 

It was about 10:45, and we had a brief wait until they started organizing check ins. The Elite passengers were called first, and I don't think I had ever seen people move so fast. Elites were running over each other trying to get to the check in desks first, bags and bras flying everywhere as they rendered their garments and punched their neighbors.

 

I kid, but it kind of was a mess as people tried to sneak into the lines. It didn't help that some decks were checking in on the right hand side, some on the left, and the PA system was very quiet. The same woman who wouldn't let me pee was back, and Princess would be better off giving her a microphone instead of paying for a PA system.

 

We got checked in shortly after the Elites, into room E302, an ADA obstructed OV. We loved the room to pieces, big picture window with a bit of lifeboat view, but you could still see the ocean. Two twin beds and a pull down, and just lots of room to move around. As bad as I feel for occupying an ADA room white being able bodied, the room was just wonderful.

 

A little drama once we were lining up to board, evidently someone had overheard that it was boarding and a stampede was rushed and ended just as quickly.

 

--- onboard ---

 

We were told our room would be ready at 1 so we headed towards one of the MDRs for lunch and seated promptly. We were still one of the first on the ship so it was nice and peaceful. The staff was pushing the Horizon Court pretty hard though, and the MDR was at maybe 5% capacity. It grew as we ate. My family ordered the bay shrimp appetizer, I got the salami antipasto. We received the tenderloin and salmon as entrees. The salmon was delicious, but something was off about the texture of the tenderloin. It was very salty and tasted almost like ham or pastrami. If you look at the pictures, you can kind of see what I mean. Just an odd flavor and texture. We had the soufflé and trifle for dessert, and left to poke about the ship before muster, which in my brothers mind, apparently meant second lunch at the Horizon Court.

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capriccio

capriccio

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Great and enjoyable review thus far! Looking forward to the remainder especially since we will be taking our two grown children, spouses and granddaughter on their first Princess cruise (and first cruise ever for 2 of them) on the Ruby Princess in June. I plan to share your review of the ship and cruising through a new cruiser's eyes with them.

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judyjudy56

judyjudy56

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Love your writing. So entertaining. Can't wait for the rest. In our experiences in San Pedro (which have been many) there is a gal who works there who loves to be in charge and can be extremely rude. We have a nickname for her, large and in charge!

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Taer al Saefer

Taer al Saefer

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Love your writing. So entertaining. Can't wait for the rest. In our experiences in San Pedro (which have been many) there is a gal who works there who loves to be in charge and can be extremely rude. We have a nickname for her, large and in charge!

 

The one who kept yelling at us was tiny!

 

I don't blame her though, 3500 people coming through already in vacation mode would probably get me in the strangling mood!

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Zoey1 "Live from...." Rare

Zoey1

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We are avid cruisers but have not been on Princess in many years and never in the Ruby. I am thoroughly enjoying your delightful story telling, thanks for taking the time to post your review.

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Host CJSKIDS Holiday Sharing Rare

Host CJSKIDS

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Loved your first installment and the pictures are amazing!

 

I had that beef for lunch on embarkation day on The Regal in December and totally agree. It was off and just didn't taste or look like beef like it normally does. I didn't eat it.

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

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Taer al Saefer

Taer al Saefer

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Would it be possible to put labels on the pix, so we know what we're looking at??

 

I tried but the stupid thing wouldn't let me :( I've never used this host before, but since photobucket charges now, and I opened Flickr and screamed because my Emo high school pics were there, this is the only option I've got rn. I will be happy to explain any photos you have questions on!

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Taer al Saefer

Taer al Saefer

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So we left Brother's lunch #2, and headed out to the first pool. To be honest, I'm still not sure which pool is which, but this was the MUTS pool, as it will now be called. It was pretty busy, with buffet revelers stacked as far as the eye can see. One thing about the Horizon Court, what they lack in food quality, they make up for in service. Tables were turned faster than you can blink, and water showed up almost immediately. This includes all the way down past the MUTS pool and down to the next pool.

 

So, a bit of backstory about Mother. Directionally challenged is not a strong enough term for her, she openly admits to be incompetent when it comes to directions. We have those buzzer things on all of her keys, Bluetooth linked to her cell phone. This doesn't work because then her cell goes missing, and then we still have no keys.

 

We walked past the MUTS pool and chose to go through the sliding doors where the "panoramic elevators" were, and stepped outside. We were still docked in LA and my mom took a brief call. Evidently in this time, she must have rotated her body because she did a 180 turn, went BACK to the other pool, and proceeded to panic because she lost her children. It's probably because we got separated from her that the next debacle happened.

 

Brother discovered the Trident Grill and went off to have Lunch #3 (he's 6ft, 153 pounds, and left the ship 3 pounds lighter) and I discovered a sales person. Guys. Those 3 minute massage tasters...DON'T DO IT. The masseuse was fantastic...on the one shoulder that she worked on. The second I said "that felt nice", a brochure was plopped in my hand and the other shoulder would not be massaged until I agreed to book a service. Once upon a time, my friend from work took a look at my hand and "kindly" asked if I was rocking the werewolf look these days. We were again, rocking the werewolf look. Before I knew what was happening, and feeling strangely lopsided from only one shoulder being massaged, I had a little card telling me that I had an appointment for 11am the next day. As she finally moved to the left shoulder, Mother finally burst from the doors with a wild look in her eyes and was immediately shoved into a chair for a right shoulder massage.

 

Just as quickly, we got escorted on a tour of the Sanctuary, thermal suites, and gym. I'm going to skip past what went down, but it involved a LOT of selling and a very disappointed escort out of the spa.

 

With that done, we made our way to our room on the Emerald deck and met Jerome, our efficient and kind ghost of a room steward who said that we no longer needed vests for muster. Before he left, my brother proclaimed that we needed naps after three meals in two hours (he forgot that we just watched him eat) and could Jerome please bring a bed down from the ceiling? Being more tactful, Mother said that Jerome should go on his busy way and we will make do until evening. This whole time, I was guzzling down the $4 bottle of water found in the fridge, and ignoring the 24 bottles I pre-ordered, because stupid. But I think they forgot to charge us for it because I went over the bill the last night and it wasn't there.

 

Two minutes later, the two of them were asleep and so I went off to explore the ship a bit more. Deck 7's tour contained a peek at the Effy Store (this will play a very unfortunate big part in the review), the shops, a stroll to the library where I discovered all the books had been taken, and a peek in the beautiful Explorer's Lounge. If anyone here has been to The Triple Door in Seattle, Explorers Lounge is very similar, but much classier. I attempted to walk the promenade but got scared of the mad rush of late folks stampeding onto the boat and went back in.

 

Deck 6 was also fun, but the casino was too smoky for me to stay in for long. I had a ten day hospital stay on October, and smoke and mycoplasma pneumonia do not mix.

 

That left Deck 5, where I had planned on ending up because I needed some more coffee. Bad.

 

So...I consider myself a foodie but I am very open towards all food. I like luxury but will happily live in a hostel. The one thing I cannot compromise on though, is coffee. I won't even use a keurig because I find something very offputting about whatever wax they put in the K-Cups. As a Seattlite, we are spoiled with superb coffee. Not Miss Mermaid, mind you. If anyone is ever in Seattle, please visit Caffe Ladro, Macrina Bakery, Storyville, Issaquah Coffee Company, Dote, Woods, Ghost Alley Espresso, Monorail Espresso, and Dutch Bros. Tullys is also a favorite for chain coffee.

 

I'm not sure what pool water is being passed off as IC coffee but...it's not good. Not as bad as the syrup masquerading as coffee in the HC, but almost that bad. I don't drink coffee for the caffeine, I do it for the taste. I also drink about 4 cups a day so I was happy to get the coffee card, until I got the coffee. What I did like though, 3 shots of espresso over ice with a little water. A little diluted, but not too bad.

 

What was excellent was the shrimp salad with chickpeas and what tasted like sesame oil. I wasn't fond of the sandwiches in the IC, but the salads and desserts were incredible. This cruise had the above mentioned shrimp salad, curry and green bean shrimp salad, shrimp with fennel, beef and citrus salad, chicken Waldorf, Thai beef, orzo, and more. Not a bad one in there! I did have some horrible clam chowder a few days in, but again, spoiled from the PNW. It tasted like Progressos.

 

The ship was being decorated for Christmas and the Piazza looked beautiful. I took a picture of the beautiful tree by the stage, and admired it every day. On day 6, I was admiring it and...then they turned the lights off. So they could ceremoniously turn it back on and call it a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. The feeble "oooh" from the crowd says enough about that.

 

I took a plate of shrimp back to the room so Brother could have Lunch #4. He was speed eating shrimp when we got the muster drill, and off we went. On the way out, Jerome burst into the room apologizing for getting his weeks mixed up. It was NEXT week that didn't require vests. Vests in tow and six shrimps still stuffed in my brothers mouth, we went down to Gatsby's Casino for Muster.

 

Not much exciting happened, though I do wonder about the safety demonstration for those who do not speak English. My family is Chinese, and my aunt was once asked to move from an emergency exit seat in the good old days of U.S. Airways (may she rest in pieces) because of the language limitation. Drama happened on the way back to the room, where mother once again got lost and wound up staring at the feet of a man wearing flamingo fluffy slippers. This guy became my hero, he had at least 6 pairs of animal slippers that he wore at all times.

 

Reconvening in the room, we made reservations for 7pm Anytime Dining at the Michelangelo Dining Room and split. Brother went to the gym, and mother and I...

 

So. The Effy Store. I knew that she's always loved jewelery。What I didn't know, was just like my brand of vodka is Tito's...her brand of jewelery is Effy. She has SETS of matching emeralds, rubies, pearls, all bought at 70% off (remember this number) at the number one Effy retailer, Macy's.

 

I knew I should have covered her eyes when we walked past it but I needed to pee after drinking that $4 bottle of water and she wandered in. Daniel the manager, and Salil both showed her piece after piece with calculators out, as she attempted to bargain more and more. Luckily they busted out the cheap champers so I was in a pretty good mood by the way I finally shoved her out of there. Based on the way she was talking, I'm pretty sure they thought she was a big spending collector and they walked us to the door with well wishes and asked us to come back in the evening for a drawing.

 

This is the moment my mother thought they would be raffling off diamonds.

 

It was about 4:30, sail away time, so we marched up to the pool where the Hot Funk Party Band was playing. We got our pina coladas and headed up to the chairs and stretched out, ready for Sailaway. Down below us, the staff was dancing and it was a wonderfully start to the trip. That is...until the Irish lead singer of Hot Funk (this name is ridiculous) started singing Shakira, attempting a Colombian accent.

 

Ayyyyy.

 

We took the opportunity to people watch and a couple who looked oddly like Alma from Desperate Housewives and John Boehner sat next to us. It was a beautiful evening and we really enjoyed getting to hang out there with our drinks, enjoying the gorgeous water.

 

Then my mother discovered that all the photos I took of her were cut off right at her feet. The residents of LA were very concerns of the screeching that ensued.

 

Next up:

Dinner at the MDR

Effy drawing

Colors of the World show

Bedtime

Brother rousing us out of bed for more food

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Taer al Saefer

Taer al Saefer

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Being that this was our first cruise, we weren't quite sure what the Smart Casual code meant so on went the dresses and the button downs and the slacks. Turns out, smart casual just meant no basketball shorts and tank tops, but it made for some nice family photos. My brother is always in jeans and shorts and I rock the typical Seattle grunge hobo-chic so my mom takes every opportunity for us to dress nicely and take photos. Now, I do work as a bank manager and am required to dress well for work, but the second we are off the clock on comes the flannel and jeggings.

 

There was no wait for the dining room, and we went in on the left side of the main entrance and were shown to a table immediately. Chairs were pulled, napkins were laid, bread was available. I am currently on a DietBet using the Weight Watchers program and bread is not allowed to excuse me while I sob a bit mourning the loss of Princess's sesame rolls.

 

---two hours of crying later---

 

As far as the great butter debate goes, we didn't get a LOT of butter, but we had four little balls. We personally don't eat a lot of butter, we prefer bread with the equally fattening olive oil, but I think if we did eat a normal amount, this wouldn't be very much. The crusty white rolls were good, but there was a sesame roll that was whole wheat and it was INCREDIBLE. Just...amazing.

 

Service in the MDR is slow, but comfortable. I find that it might just be your tablemates eating slowly so the food doesn't arrive. I mean, it's pretty pre-cooked so it can't get that slow. My mother complained on day 3 that the main course was slow and I helpfully reminded her that her son was smacking down on Appetizer #3 so they kindly waited until he was done.

 

Two of us ordered the pineapple and snapper ceviche, and I ordered the spinach and tortellini fortified chicken broth. All was delicious, but I ended up switching with my momma, who was feeling a cold coming on and wanted the soup. The soup was a little salty but the spinach was delicious. The ceviche is very acidic so if you can't handle too much acid, don't order it. It's lime and pineapple and that got to be a little much for my brother, but not me. Main courses then came, and two of us ordered prime rib with baked potatoes and mother ordered the basa fillet with mango salsa. The prime rib was a bit of an odd texture, but flavor was very good. I get home late and never have the patience to bake a potato for an hour, and then produce all the accouterments so that was a huge treat. The fish was good too, and I say this as someone who is very picky about fish.

 

Remember when I said that my mom thought that they were raffling diamonds? Instead of letting me eat my hazelnut soufflé, she shuttled us off to the Effy store for the third time today, as the horrified waiters scurried after us promising chocolate delights and sexual favors if we stayed. But no, despite my furious protests, the call of the diamonds were too strong for her and off we went. As it turned out...I won. I delivered the nicely wrapped bag to my delighted mother and she opened the bag, ready to put on Rose's Heart of the Ocean as I hummed the Celine Dion tune...and then the $5 pendant dropped into her hand with the rhinestone planted loosely inside. Ironically, it was a blue rhinestone.

 

I went into the Princess Theatre where they were presenting Colors of the World, which was essentially just different lights flashing as the singers performed the songs best known to the American public from various countries. It set the mode when the Pussycat Dolls version of Jai Ho started playing, and then Time to Say Goodbye was sung using the British popera group Il Divo's cover for Italy. But, I am a huge musical nerd and grew up as a theatre kid, so I loved loved loved it. Out of the four lead vocalists, the two males were very good but didn't pop, one girl didn't have the most control over her voice but had great presence, and then the last singer named Alisha was just INCREDIBLE. She was the perfect mix of Alicia Keys and Megan Hilty, and looked like baby Whitney Houston.

 

After the show, I went up to bed where everyone else had made it back as well. My brother had gone swimming and my mom had walked the promenade, their go to places for the rest of the cruise. We put pajamas on and Jerome had set the third bed nicely and turned the lights off, ready for a good day tomorrow.

 

...then the lights were flipped back on and my brother leaped off the top bunk and announced it's time for breakfast!

 

"Um, it's 10:45 PM."

"BUFFET IS OPEN STILL LEGGGOOOO"

 

And so off we went to the buffet. All three of us. The only good thing really is that I got to make up for lack of dessert, but in my opinion, the HC dessert really lacks compares to the MDR ones. Though that might just be my love for creme brûlée speaking. I also loved the cheese displays they set up at dinner. From what I saw, they had crackers, bread, figs, tapenade, all accompanying gouda, cheddar, Swiss, and the best tasting pepperjack I've had in a while. MUTS was playing Planet of the Apes, I think, so we didn't really have much interest in that.

 

Oh!! I should also mention, I am a carnivore and will almost always order meat, but was disappointed by the prime rib. I got to try a bit of the leek and ricotta tart at the buffet and HOLY S€%¥ IT WAS GOOD.

 

And now it's time for bed.

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