Live from the Ruby Princess…April 14-30 from Galveston to San Francisco

[PandaBear62]

On 4/19/2023 at 9:49 AM, CruisinCadie said:

Thanks for the coffee menu.  Is iced coffee available?  DH and I enjoy a casual afternoon break with iced coffee and cookies or other treats from the International Cafe.

 

Kathy

I ordered an iced coffee for your today. Non fat latte with one pump of syrup. It was good

[PandaBear62]

19 minutes ago, nini said:

Hmmm... What is with the French Onion Soup with chickpeas and Caesar dressing? Good grief.

I think that’s a misprint. The French onion soup is regular. The chickpeas and Caesar dressing are in the Caesar salad. 

[JoJo1008]

I was on the elevator after dinner last night and a gentleman asked me if I was Pandabear. At first I was confused and he repeated Pandabear from Cruise Critic and then it clicked. My husband doesn’t do social media so he was thoroughly confused. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying your blog. 

[PandaBear62]

Just now, JoJo1008 said:

I was on the elevator after dinner last night and a gentleman asked me if I was Pandabear. At first I was confused and he repeated Pandabear from Cruise Critic and then it clicked. My husband doesn’t do social media so he was thoroughly confused. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying your blog. 

LOL!!!!

[nini]

49 minutes ago, PandaBear62 said:

I think that’s a misprint. The French onion soup is regular. The chickpeas and Caesar dressing are in the Caesar salad. 

LOL! Thanks.

[PandaBear62]

9 hours ago, nini said:

LOL! Thanks.

I ordered the French onion soup for you tonight. No chick peas or dressing!

 

[nini]

1 hour ago, PandaBear62 said:

I ordered the French onion soup for you tonight. No chick peas or dressing!

 

This looks fabulous! Thanks for thinking of me.

[CruisinCadie]

20 hours ago, PandaBear62 said:

I ordered an iced coffee for your today. Non fat latte with one pump of syrup. It was good

Thanks, You are one thoughtful blogger.  I'm sure we'll enjoy our iced treats.

Kathy

[PandaBear62]

Sunday April 23

I slept late today. I had a really bad night. Falling asleep wasn’t the issue but I woke up probably 5 times with leg cramps. So when I finally slept for any length of time is was probably after 3 or 4. So I didn’t wake up until close to 10. 

 

I wandered up near the International Cafe and listened to a trivia type show that was crew against guests. It was actually pretty funny and the cruise director managed to penalize the crew enough for the guests to win. For example, during the music trivia, the song played was “Candle in the Wind” and a crew member said it was “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John and was penalized because he didn’t say “Sir” Elton John. And then one of the questions was the sing the refrain from Country Roads by John Denver (does everyone in the US over a certain age know this?? I think so). I know I’m not describing it well but it was pretty funny.

 

Dh met me here and after the game we went to the Lido deck for lunch. I think I’ve mentioned before I don’t like the buffet much on the ship (I LOVED the buffet on the Celebrity ship we sailed on; it was AMAZING, so it’s not that I’m anti-buffet) but I do really like their pizza. So I had a slice and dh had a hot dog from the grill. It is really humid on deck so we didn’t stay here long. I went and changed and visited the thermal spa. I’d like to say I read the entire time I was there, but I read and dozed, read and dozed. I then went upstairs to the room and we just relaxed until dinner. Our nightly reservations are at 5:30. With a group of 7, dinner takes about 1 ¾ hours. So we will do a show at 7:30 and then perhaps a game. Or just go to the room to relax.

 

Dinner menus:

 

 

I had the fried Camembert cheese, which was quite good. Not heavily breaded and the cheese was nice and melty. I tried the French onion soup for the first time this trip and it was good. Not too salty, which sometimes happens. Not much appealed to me for dinner, so I had the chicken pasta. The pasta was a flat pasta, not as wide as fettuccine and not rounded like spaghetti. Dessert was vanilla ice cream and caramel (kind of a standard for me)

 

Afterwards, we went to see the show. It was excellent, I thought. Of course, I do love Elton John and Billy Joel. But to show you it is individual taste, a friend said he didn’t care for some of the renditions. 

 

 

We went to the game show. It’s kind of a version of Family Feud, but with three teams of two. 

 

 

It was kind of hard to follow, because people were telling out answers, so it got kind of noisy. But it was fun.

 

Dh and I went to Crooners for a drink after this but only stayed a while. We headed back to the room and watched an episode of Love Boat. It was definitely a very lazy day. 

[PandaBear62]

Monday April 24

I was up earlier (note I said earlier and not early) and was out of the room around 9:30. I first went to the International Cafe but it was quite crowded-there was going to be a presentation on making sushi.

 

Dh had gone to the hot tub and I made my way to the Lido deck to sit in the shade and read. As we’re making our way in the Pacidic towards Mexico the humidity is greatly diminishing and it’s very comfortable being outside. 

 

We ate lunch in the buffet. I said I wasn’t impressed earlier in the trip but I’ve found it more to my liking the two times I’ve eaten there since. I had a couple of prepared salads and enjoyed my lunch. Dh and I headed back to the Lido deck and sat and read.

 

We left about 1:30 to make our way to the Explorers Lounge for trivia, this time about Broadway and West End musicals. I knew I wouldn’t know much but wanted to play anyway. Well, I was wrong. We had a great time! We ended up with 16/20. The song was played and the team had to name the show. It was a good combination of easy, harder and more obscure. Our group then agreed to meet up again for trivia at 4:30, which we did and then head to dinner.

 

Menus:

 

 

Not overly impressed with dinner and the menus were slightly different from the app (the menus were correct, not the app). Small changes, like sides. 

I had the sirloin, which was fine, but I really enjoyed the polenta side. I chose the ameretto creme brûlée for dessert, which wasn’t “ameretto” enough for me. 

 

We went to our room and then went to get seats for the Holiday Hiccips game. 

 

 

It was silly, funny in a juvenile was but we laughed and laughed. 

A background was put on the screen

 

Then crew came out in funny simple costumes and acted out a scene.

 

 

 

 

Obviously, this was Jaws and the Entertainment Director was the MC. He used to be a cruise director but still does this, because it’s so much fun. (According to Cole, the current cruise director). I would never have attended if another one in our group hadn’t been before and recommended it. 

 

We then went to Crooners for the Motown music but it was packed! Luckily people did leave about 9:45 (at the first break) and we got seats. Music ended at 11:30 but we stayed and chatted with a couple we met until after midnight. Such a fun night!

 

[FrankieJayIII]

Loving your updates

 

[no1superfan]

On 4/25/2023 at 10:24 AM, PandaBear62 said:

Obviously, this was Jaws

What a fun cruise! Thank you everyone

[MissP22]

Please refresh my memory but does the Ruby have the liquid coffee in the buffet or is made from coffee grinds like on the Royal class ships? 

[JJBhouston]

I'm guessing the internet was working as poorly as it did for us in the winter Panama Canal cruise on the Panama to Mexico coast.

 

Missing your updates Panda Bear. Hope all is well.

 

[sirclean]

to answer the internet speed question, I have the speed test which I will post below.  (.3 mps download speed... it took 4 minutes for me to reply to a work email with a 20 word email!)

 

Since leaving Cabo it got cold (at least by my South Texas Standards!)  It started cooling off within an hour of leaving the port! 

I dont know if Pandabears hibernate, but it has been a temptation to climb back under the covers and nap this afternoon, even with all of the great activities that are available!

 

[MissP22]

11 hours ago, sirclean said:

to answer the internet speed question, I have the speed test which I will post below.  (.3 mps download speed... it took 4 minutes for me to reply to a work email with a 20 word email!)

 

Since leaving Cabo it got cold (at least by my South Texas Standards!)  It started cooling off within an hour of leaving the port! 

I dont know if Pandabears hibernate, but it has been a temptation to climb back under the covers and nap this afternoon, even with all of the great activities that are available!

 

 

That sounds typical for a daytime Princess internet speed. 

If you want a faster speed try around 3 AM or when everyone is off the ship.

[CruisinCadie]

Princess has always been known to have the best pizza at sea.

Kathy

 

[PandaBear62]

I’m way behind!!!!

 

Tuesday April 25

I am typically writing notes throughout the day, but didn’t do anything on the 25th. So I am writing this the day after. So it will likely have less details. Sorry.

 

Patters for the Day

 

 

Menus:

 

 

 

I have eaten way more meat than I typically do, because I have been really impressed with the meat  dishes this trip. The meat has been tasty, cooked how I requested and tender. 

 

Tonight was no exception. I had the chateaubriand and it was really good. I could have cut it with a fork. The dish came with yellow squash and it was also good…..not mushy, yet cooked. I didn’t care for any dessert on the menu so had my standard: vanilla ice cream with caramel and whipped cream. 

 

We went to the Explorers Lounge for 80’s music trivia. I would have done terrible but Tom (a guy in our group) and Debbie (a woman we met in the Sanctuary on Panama Canal day who had joined us for activities since then) rocked. We knew 18/20 songs and artists. That was not enough to win…..the winners had 20/20. It was a lot of fun and our entire group enjoyed reminiscing about 80’s music. 

 

We then headed to Crooners and stayed the rest of the evening. I bought Kevin Brando’s CD. I’m not a souvenir person but I thought his music would be fun to enjoy when we get home. 

 

Dh and I headed to bed and watched yet another episode of Love Boat and went to sleep.

[MissP22]

17 minutes ago, PandaBear62 said:

That was not enough to win…..the winners had 20/20. It was a lot of fun and our entire group enjoyed reminiscing about 80’s music. 

What were the prize for the winners?

[PandaBear62]

1 minute ago, MissP22 said:

What were the prize for the winners?

The first Bingo, about $130. Second $200ish. Third Bingo maybe $250ish. Fourth Bingo was the rolling blackout, so about $3300 if someone won in a certain number of called numbers. No one did, so it went to $330.

 

We did not go to the final Bingo, when the blackout game had the winner of it all. 
 

To play Bingo on the iPad, it was $69. It came with the games in the iPad (maybe 16?), three paper games and a scratch off card (we won $5).

[MissP22]

Just now, PandaBear62 said:

The first Bingo, about $130. Second $200ish. Third Bingo maybe $250ish. Fourth Bingo was the rolling blackout, so about $3300 if someone won in a certain number of called numbers. No one did, so it went to $330.

 

We did not go to the final Bingo, when the blackout game had the winner of it all. 
 

To play Bingo on the iPad, it was $69. It came with the games in the iPad (maybe 16?), three paper games and a scratch off card (we won $5).

I meant to ask, what were the prize for the trivia winners. 

[PandaBear62]

3 hours ago, MissP22 said:

I meant to ask, what were the prize for the trivia winners. 

typically it was a notebook with a Princess logo, a bottle of champagne or wine stopper. The last day or so there were some string backpacks.

[FrankieJayIII]

let me ask-  the bingo for $69 is that for one day of games? the whole thing?  i am not understanding how that works.  

 

is that $69 per time...  please help me understand 

[Belle]

Bingo is played twice a day at sea. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon.

It cost you $69 for each time you play.

[nini]

1 hour ago, Belle said:

Bingo is played twice a day at sea. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon.

It cost you $69 for each time you play.

 

Thank you. I had no clue. I love Bingo so I may consider this with upcoming cruise in June with 5 sea days.