Cruising Rob's Blog: Ruby Princess Live Blog, day 3, Monterey

We’ll start with a recap of our day in San Francisco on Monday and Monterey today.

San Francisco
On Monday, since we are traveling with two little ones, we decided to see some of the more notable sights of San Francisco that are walkable from the cruise terminal. Armed with 2 trusty strollers, we left the ship around 9am with the intended destinations of Coit Tower, Lombard St, and Pier 39 (Fisherman’s Wharf). Given that we were travelling with small children, our first bathroom break was about 2 blocks from the ship. Public restrooms are limited in San Francisco, and thats really putting it lightly, so we had a heck of a challenge finding one for our oldest. Fortunately, someone informed us there is a public restroom in the lobby of the Levi Straus Corporate Offices.

After we resolved that issue, we set off to climb the steps to Coit Tower from Greenwich Street. We climbed several flights and had a look at some very interesting homes along the way and the finally reached the base of Coit Tower. This climb is not for the faint of heart - we arent but we were lugging children and strollers up it which made it more challenging. The views from the plaza at the base of the tower were impressive and provided some interesting photographic angles from which to photo the Ruby Princess. We elected not to go up to the top of Coit tower as we were trying to stick to a nap schedule. Note that there are public restrooms in Coit Tower.

We then began the trek to Lombard Street which requires traversing the North Beach neighborhood. Although this neighborhood has a colorful past with some crime issues in the past, its fairly cleaned up now and is enjoyable to walk through. The North Beach community center and playground near Lombard St and Columbus Ave offered a nice respite for our smaller companions to stretch their legs. After about 20 minutes of total walking time down Telegraph Hill (where Coit Tower is) and back up hill to the most famous segment of Lombard St, we finally arrived. This attraction doesn’t need much futher embellishment; its a curvy, downhill street, that provides limited comedy for vehicles traversing. Onward.

Heading down to Pier 39, we stumbled upon the San Francisco Art Institute which had the facade of an old mission. Inside was several courtyards, one with a fountain with turtles and fish, and another with spectacular views of North Beach and the bay. There are also public restrooms here. Moving along, we ended up at Pier 39 to see the typical attractions including a hodge podge of souvenier stores and the sea lions who bellow incessantly and attract a large audience while doing so. Finally we made the final push back to the ship in an uneventful 10-15 minute stroll along the Embarcadero right as the first raindrops began to fall. I did later go out for a jog back up to Coit tower and around town, most of which was in the rain.

We were not scheduled to leave until 11pm which provided for some stunning cityscape photography of San Francisco. While I’ve sailed under the Golden Gate bridge before, I’ve never done it during evening hours and it was a real treat to see the bridge lit up with the soft orange glow of the bridge lighting system before we sailed into the fog.

Monterey

On Tuesday we arrived in Monterey. Our plan was to make it to the aquarium that is so well known. The ship dropped anchor around 7am in Monterey Bay and commenced tender service. Given that we were not in a tour I expected a wait to go ashore, not so, we went down at 8am and had no wait at all. After a 10 minute ride we arrived at a pier that was about a 20 minute walk from Cannery Row. Monterey has the exquisite Monterey Bay Coastal Trail that runs from the tender pier all the way to the Aquarium which is at the far western end of the Cannery Row tourist district. The trail is paved and about 20’ wide with markings for bikes and pedestrians. The aquarium was enjoyable and a nice place to dry off after basically being sprinkled on by rain the whole way there. However the price for the aquarium as of this writing was about 50 bucks per adult - there is a lot to see however and it is a first class venue. After the kids had enough, we walked back and returned to the Ruby Princess via tender. It was italian night in the dining room which required the consumption of the nearly famous fettucine alfredo item on the menu. Also was a seabass cooked with some saffron potatos which was delicious.

During dinner the captain informed us of an issue with the starboard motor which had delayed our departure. After about 2 hours, the captain reported that the “small issue” was resolved and we set off toward San Diego. With a sea day scheduled for Wednesday, top speed is not needed to reach San Diego so its uncertain whether this issue wil cause problems for the Ruby when top speeds are required for her to make port.

Ship Remarks

A word about the food. The food on this cruise in the Horizon Court and dinng room have been excellent. While the Ruby’s actual food service area is more limited in the Horizon Court due to the lack of the “desert island” found on the Grand, Golden, and Star, the food that has been available has been either very good or excellent. While expectations for buffet food are usually pretty marginal, we’ve been pleased with both the options and quantity. While its a regular sight to see “last night’s dinner is today’s lunch” I can appreciate the creativity that goes into multipurposing leftover food in the Horizon Court. And I’ll say it again, the Horizon Court just doesn’t feel crowded. Maybe it’s the demographics on this cruise but I have yet to see a line to get into the buffet.

More in the coming days. Pictures below - I apologize that they aren't in perfect order.

View from SF Art Instiute