Well this will be the final blog post on this voyage and will include a trip report on our final port call in Ensenada as well as overall thoughts about the cruise. I'll apologize beforehand for grammatical issues, its late and I'm trying to finish this up before going back to work tomorrow, so bear with me. But first, wanted to show this picture of the USS Midway lit up at night in a beautiful ensemble of red, white and blue, with "41" brightly lit up. Simply a stunning display of this historic vessel that we got some really great views of while riding on the Coronado Island ferry. We wished we had time to tour her but didn't on this visit. We'll be back in San Diego in May and will try then, more on that voyage at the end of this post.
After departing San Diego around 11pm, we were enroute to Ensenada with seas that were rough enough to rattle loose hangers in the closet. I slept through it no problem, but my wife woke up a few times - mostly concerned that the kids would wake up, which they didnt. The approach to the pier in Enesenada is actually somewhat tricky in seas with a strong south-easterly current, which the Ruby was facing. While I didn't exactly wake up, the thrusts were definitely being used quite a bit that morning which caused minor vibration in our cabin, E731. Eventually we were along side and after having breakfast we strolled around the Promenade deck to check things out. We had a nice view of the Carnival Imagination as well as Ensenada's very own sea lion show. These characters were on the rocks fore and aft of the Ruby Princess and were certainly loud. While you can get off the ship and get quite close to them, its not recommended.
I had sailed on the Imagination's younger sister, the Paradise, back in 2010 and seeing her brought back a lot of memories. These ships along with the Monarch class from RCL really defined much of what we know about modern mega-ships. Although small by today's standards, and still utilizing a "topside" lifeboat design, the Fantasy class ships (of which the Imagination was 1 of 8) set the trend for isolating public venues to a few key decks, making stunning multi-deck atriums (the fantasy class ships do have stunning atriums) and copious amounts of top deck room. They were also some of the first ships to get away from fantail pools and go primarily to top deck pool areas with slides and the like. While the Imagination has the "Waterworks" water park enhancement aft of the funnel which was added much later on in her life and the fan tail adults only retreat area, much of the ship is very similar in design to when she debuted. While mostly relegated to the 3/4day LA to Ensenada booze cruise at this point in her life, she still does it efficiently, with large staterooms (albeit very few balconies), and several bars and entertainment venues.
Ok, that was a bit of a sidebar. Back to the Ruby. We had very little intention to go into Ensenada. I had found a brewery or two I wanted to stop by but both opened after 4pm and since our departure time was 5pm, those were out of the question. We've been here many times and while Ensenada has some impressive geography which provide great views from the ship, we've been underwhelmed by the experience ashore. The winery tours from the ship are quite good, but we didn't sign up for any so we just spent the day onboard walking around the Ruby, and enjoying the sunny, but windy weather.
Last time we were on a "Super Grand" class veseel (Crown Princess) we never made it to the forward viewing area on Lido deck. Fortunately it was open in Ensenada so we took the opportunity to check it out and view the fabled 6th pool of the Ruby. Yes, that's right theres a 6th pool but passengers aren't allowed in the area known as "Anchor Beach."
There was also a nice view of the L106 and L107 suite balconies. While I'd take a suite any day, I wouldn't be too jazzed about this balcony, it looked cramped, exposed, and is probably closed when sailing, so of limited use. It also sits about 3 feet lower than the Lido deck forward viewing area (which is really just the roof of the bridge). For those that would are interested in how to access this area, we took a video and uploaded it HERE.
After an all call for 2 passengers that were in a cabin down the hall from us at about 4:50 we were off shortly after 5pm, bound for San Pedro.
Panoramic photo of Ensenada Cruise Pier Complex.
Given that it was the last night of the cruise, I wanted to get a few photos of some things I've seen people ask about on CruiseCritic and other forums. So I grabbed a few screen captures of the laundry token interface. It's pretty straight forward, you swipe your card and select the services you want and it dispenses a token that are about the size of a quarter. I was really tempted to see if a quarter could "fool" the laundry machines into activating, but alas, I didn't have one.
As a service to my friend over at PrincessCruisesFAQ and a thanks for the great recommendations, I took some photos of some of the supplies that he has links to that are very useful, especially when traveling with kids. One of the items are these super strong magnetic hooks. They are strongest when hanging vertically, but can also hang a lot of weight from the wall. That stroller is about 10 pounds and that backpack is full of a lot of books that we foolishly brought, but never actually read. Maybe it helped us actually lose weight on the cruise?!
We also used this little gizmo. It's not a surge protector (they aren't allowed on ships) but has 2 USB ports and 3 outlets which is really useful given that all the outlets in Princess cabins are mostly hard to get at and right next to a light switch or something else. It's about an inch wide at its maximum and maybe 5" high and 2.5" long. One of the USB ports is for tablets and other items requiring faster charging.
Finally, but not shown, we used a small bluetooth speaker for white noise to help the kids get to sleep at night and music when we were playing cards. For keeping phones charged when we were on the go, I live and die by this 15000mAh solar charger with flashlight for keeping devices going. It trickle charges with a bit of light and can be plugged in also to ensure full recharging capacity for mobile devices. Other nice features are a little clip on the side and a compass on the back and the dual beam flashlight could be useful in a pinch as well. It's a bit thicker than my phone but a bit smaller in the other dimensions so it fits in a backpack with ease.
Last but not least, we did manage to get a crib in the closet thanks to the suggestions here.
After an uneventful night where we felt like we "had to get our money's worth" binge eating and drinking, we awoke the next morning to a sunny San Pedro - which was the polar opposite of the rainy and blustery San Pedro where we started out journey. The World Cruise center, for being over 50 years old (b 1963) still handles passengers from mega ships with ease and aplomb. It's impressive to think that this structure still maintains nearly the exact same from the day it was constructed and still functions well when compared to Canada Place and other more modern facilities which struggle dealing with ships with over 2000 passengers. Although the disembarkation dance was a bit delayed, we made it to our shuttle bus and were off to LAX to catch our flight home.
Final Thoughts
This was a good cruise but perhaps not a great cruise. The ship was in good shape, even moreso considering shes going into drydock this fall (2018). The crew was excellent; we had superb service from dining staff and cabin steward staff. They even cycled out our steward in San Diego as he was heading home for his parent's wedding anniversary in Mexico and the new steward barely missed a beat and was on the ground running at 11am.
Other than a bit of rainy weather, I have to complain a bit about the entertainment. On many voyages I know by the second or third day who the cruise director is. I couldn't tell you who he was on this voyage. Maybe I just missed some of the announcements, but it just never really seemed like things were going on. We didn't see the Voice on the Ocean which my wife was hoping for and the comedian didn't do his main set until Wednesday. He was funny and had 3 shows. The head scratching part was his 3 shows were in the Explorers lounge, which as many of you might know, is the 3rd tier lounge on the ship. It was standing room only at the 10pm show. To our knowledge, nothing major was going on in the Princess Theater or Club Fusion at that time.
My wife was a bit upset when she went for a pre-booked massage that they couldn't find her as being in our cabin, and then the price of the massage went up. Important lesson, ALWAYS TAKE THE CRUISE DOCS WITH YOU IN PRINTED FORM. We were able to get about $20 back from the spa after they were forced to honor the quoted prices. I know the spas are run by another company so I don't totally fault Princess for that issue, but it was annoying to spend 30 minutes dealing with.
I have to imagine that this cruise is a money maker for Princess even given the high cost to sail in California with more expensive fuel and waste management requirements. Sailing only 1192 nautical miles at an average speed of about 12.5 knots, we certainly weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. I think if Princess could squeeze in a stop in Catalina Island or Santa Barbara on the mid week sea day and arrive in San Diego a bit later, it might be an even better itinerary. Given that we had been to all these places many times, and we were traveling with kids, it was nice to have a relaxing week. I managed to jog in all the ports except Ensenada and very much enjoyed that aspect of it.
Well that's it, all in all, a good cruise with a lot of high points, and a few low ones.
The next trip report will be in May as we embark on the Disney Wonder for a 5 day repositioning cruise from San Diego to Vancouver. We'll have kids and grandparents in tow and I'll be providing a live blog on that one as well. Unfortunately we have no status on Disney (I guess they don't really have a past passenger program anyway) so we might be able to post once in SF and once in Victoria. And later on in October I'll have a live blog from the Eurodam.
I managed to have a heck of a cribbage hand vs my phone...
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