Ruby Review 4/4 to 4/11

[CPA92]

We (myself and husband, mid forties along with my daughter and her friend, both seniors in high school) just got off the Ruby Princess. Our cruise was April 4th thru April 11th to the western Caribbean.

 

We were scheduled to leave Detroit metro airport on Friday, April 3rd at 4:05pm, with a layover at LaGuardia, and arrive in Ft. Lauderdale at 11:00pm Due to thunderstorms on the east coast, we were delayed until 8:30pm and finally arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at 3:30am.

We stayed at the Renaissance Marriot on 17th street. We checked in at 5am Saturday morning and they were nice enough to give us a late checkout. When I stopped at the front desk to check out, the clerk noticed what time we had checked in and adjusted our bill for the day rate of only $75! That made up for our flight problems.

 

We went shopping along 17th street and bought a case of diet coke, two twelve packs of beer, and some rum. I put a luggage tag on the diet coke and we put the beer and rum in our checked bags. We had no problem at all. Let me note that we did spend plenty of money on board buying drinks and buckets of beer at the pool and in the lounges.

 

We arrived at the pier at 1pm and were onboard and in our rooms by 1:30. We had the last balcony room port side on the baja deck and my daughter and her friend were in an inside room. We loved the baja deck and having the last room on port side near the aft of the ship was wonderful. It was quiet and somewhat private with no neighbors to one side of us.

 

A couple of days into the cruise we were out on our balcony and heard someone saying “Is anyone on the baja deck?” We kept quiet because I thought she was going to give us a hard time about smoking on our balcony. Well she kept calling out “Is anyone on the baja deck?” Finally she said “I’m on the Aloha deck and my son locked my out on my balcony!” Of course, then we all started laughing, my trapped neighbor included. She had been out there for about 20 minutes. When we called the service desk, they said don’t worry…she can get a spare key from the purser’s desk. We had to explain, that no, she did not need a key, she needed someone to come to her room and unlock the balcony door. They rescued her about 10 minutes later.

 

Our room attendant was Cherry, from the Philippines. She was terrific. We tipped her extra at the end of the cruise and also gave her a bottle of wine that we had left over.

 

We had anytime dining and ate dinner in the dining rooms four nights. The other nights we just ate in the buffet. We thought the food was good. Breakfast in the buffet did get old after awhile, but there was more than enough to choose from. Loved the fettuccine in the dining room. Wish they would have it in the buffet. I began a serious love affair with the peanut butter cookies available in the buffetJ

 

Ate lunch one day at the international café, had the chicken salad. Thought it was just ok. Desserts at the café were good.

 

Service in the dining rooms was excellent. Buffet drink service just so -so. Sometimes took awhile to get a diet coke.

 

In Jamaica, we took a shuttle to Dunn’s River Falls. Made the mistake of paying for round trip in advance. Of course the driver did not come back for usL I had to negotiate a fare with a taxi driver back to the ship. Live and learn. The falls were beautiful but way, way too many people there. I would much prefer to see them when it is less crowded. After the falls we went back to the ship and spent the rest of the day at the pool.

 

Speaking of the pool, chair hogs were in full force. One day we were looking for a spot that wasn’t really windy and saw so many chairs with towels thrown over them that we finally picked a couple of chairs, spread out the towels and sat down. Twenty minutes later, some guy comes by with his wife and kids and asks us what happened to his towels. I just responded that there were no towels on these chairs. He tried to insist that he put his towels there but when my husband said that you can’t save chairs, the guy walked away. Got an evil look from his wife, but not my problem.

Next port was Grand Cayman. Had only a few hours there because a storm was coming in and the captain wanted to get back out to sea. We snorkeled at Eden’s Rock and did a little shopping. The snorkeling was great.

 

In Cozumel, we took the ferry over to Playa del Carmen and went shopping on 5th avenue.

We did not do any shore excursions thru the ship.

 

Entertainment on the ship was pretty good. Loved watching the game between Michigan State and North Carolina on MUTS. Too bad Michigan didn’t win as I’m from Michigan. The comedian, Kevin Jordon was hilarious. The juggler/comedian, side show Bert wasn’t very good. Enjoyed the small shows in the piazza(spelling?) One woman did a show with hula hoops, she was fantastic.

 

Sad to say, seven days went awfully quick, disembarkation was very smooth.

 

Overall, we had a great time on our cruise, probably the only negative was the number of middle school age kids on board, but I expected that because it was spring break. Oh, the other small disappointment was sometimes the night life was lacking. Seems people went to bed early. We went up to skywalkers one night around 11pm and we were the only people there.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the review. :)

[Daniel1313]

Great Review !!!!

[rdsqrl]

Thank you for the review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise and congratulations on conquering a couple of chair hogs. Chalk one up to the forces of good over evil!