Ruby Princess LIVE blog - Ensenada and Final Trip Report

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...

Ruby Princess LIVE blog - day 5, San Diego

First, I just wanted to share a few photos from our day at see as well as show the upper bed configuration in a mini suite.

Day 5, San Diego

The day started out with mostly cloudy skies and a constant westerly wind.  We made our way off the ship as one of the first groups.  We were so early in fact much of the port was not set up yet.  The pier B building is quite old yet has a newish "jetway" style gangway.  This odd juxtaposition led to walking on the gangway only to end at a stairway and elevator to go down.  We found out later on that there is a sole escalator thats direction is adjusted based on crowd demands.  Regardless, this probably is a difficult port for passengers with mobility issues or during peak disembarking hours.

Our goal today was to head to Coronado Island to see some interesting homes and attempt to get to the Hotel del Coronado.  The ferry to the island picks up just south of the pier where we docked and for $9.50 roundtrip took us in a short ride to Coronado Island.  It was about 9:15am when we docked so not much was open in the little shopping center near the ferry dock.  We set off (again with strollers) heading toward the Hotel del Cornado.  It's about a 20-25 minute walk along Orange Ave which is a main thoroughfare in Coronado.

After passing many lovely shops and restaurants as well as taking a playground break at a park halfway down Orange Ave, we made it to the hotel and went to the beach area to let the kids play.  It's an impressive and iconic structure from the outside, but we found the inside to be dark and ambiguous; the cheery California beach town style of the hotel on the outside is replaced by a dark wood clad motif in the interior.

We finally headed back around 11am to catch the ferry back to downtown San Diego and reboard the ship.  My wife and I went out on a run later in the day once the kids were at kids club and enjoyed the historic train station and the vibe in San Diego.  Once back onboard we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch by the Terrace Pool.

At dinner tonight I had an interesting stuffed trout entree that included shredded seafood and potatoes.  It was nicely presented but fair at best.  

The entertainment, which is always subjective, has been lacking on this cruise.  The comedian last night, Robbie Printze was good but we haven't seen anything else that has impressed us.  The cruise staff is marginal and not very visible.  

Oh well, one day left, on to Ensenada!

Panoramic view of the Midway and the SD skyline at night

Live Blogging from the Ruby - Day 4, At Sea

Today was a sea day that started out with some terrific sunshine and mild temperatures.  As we sailed south of Point Conception, we encountered a heck of a rain squall that cleared everyone from the upper decks very quickly.  Within 5 minutes it passed and most folks indoors we're suprised to see people walking around semi- drenched.

At breakfast we were given a notice about the galley tour which I hadn't seen before.  The notice provided several quick facts about the volume of food consumed on a daily basis.  Perhaps most interesting was that there are 57 crew members solely tasked with dish washing!

While on the topic of food I'll address a comment on CruiseCritic regarding hot water odor.  We haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary so perhaps whatever has caused it in the past has been fixed/replaced.  Tonight was the second formal night which entailed lobster and beef Wellington as main courses on the menu.  I am not a huge lobster fan but anything with garlic butter tastes amazing.  This cruise was different from past voyages and didn't include the garlic butter.  Instead there was a glaze of sorts and a special version of risotto.  All in all, the main course was marginal and the lobster nothing special without the garlic butter sauce.  To add insult to injury, tonight was also Bavarian night in the Horizon court which I always try to eat at.  I was disappointed in the limited food assortment and complete lack of any form of sauerkraut compared with previous voyages.

A few other small issues that we've noticed include an occasional garbage smell near some of the lower deck stairwells.  It's not common but a tad off-putting.  Also, the putting green has 3 holes in it which is down right lazy.  Princess Links has always been an after thought but it's quite disappointing.  I would love to see Princess out just a bit of effort into this area on their ships and come up with some sort of passive game that incorporates putting and shuffle board (because we haven't found those courts either)

Tomorrow we will be in San Diego and have planned to go over to Coronado island to walk through the neighborhoods and hopefully the namesake hotel.  Supposedly there is a foot ferry to the island a few piers south of our pier.

For those keeping score, we have done all our excursions on our own on this trip and had memorable encounters in SF and Monterey.

With the slow upload speed of the ships wifi, there are no pictures in this post.  Thanks for reading along.

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

A Stormy Afternoon

Incoming rain squalls

A tough to frame shot from Coit Tower plaza

"The City" at night

Sailing beneath an eerily illuminated Golden Gate Bridge

Monterey Bay Coastal Trail

Ruby Princess - anchored in Monterey Bay

Ruby Princess on a rainy afternoon

Monterey, CA

A view of the double door between connecting cabins

Dinner tonight was excellent - I forget the italian name, but it was a seabass cooked in a cream sauce

Live blogging from the Ruby Princess - Day 2

Monday, March 12th - San Francisco, CA - day 2 of a 7 day California Coastal Cruise

We made it aboard Saturday after a long drive through uncharacteristically rainy Los Angeles.  We dropped our bags at the World Cruise Center around 11:40am, returned our rental car at the San Pedro Enterprise location and were through security and onboard the Ruby Princess by 12:10 am.

The Ruby, being the last of the Grand class ships and derivatives seems to have set to correct, as best as possible within her footprint, all the shortcomings of the previous Grand class ships.  While the Emerald can take this claim also, as both ships are perhaps the closest of all the sibling ships in the fleet, the Ruby has a few less cabins and some very minor adjustments in decor. At first glance the Ruby is in good shape, in fact perhaps excellent shape given that she turns 10 this year!

With the notable exception of the horizon court seating layout, the ship has nearly all the updates that many of her siblings have received (in hodge podge fashion) over the last few years.

Additionally, for being 10 years old, she is in very good shape.  I like to evaluate bathroom conditions as a good barometer of overall ship condition, and one again considering her age, shes has only minor staining, 1 shower brushing that is coming slightly loose around a spigot, and no missing tiles.  The pools all look pristine, and the furniture throughout is in good shape. I only have gripes about the old Horizon Court chairs being awkward to get in and out of. I really haven’t noticed a single rust spot that has grabbed my attention - compared to my last voyage on the Star, the Ruby is in much better shape in that regard.  And that’s not to say the star is in poor shape at all.

Bathroom in very good condition

Carpeting work

A few things I’ve noticed

• There seems to be a prevalent leak in the Horizon Court on the port side which seems to have an area of 2 or 3 tables completely curtained off.  It may not be a leak at all, but there seemed to be some pulled up carpet and buckets in the area.
• There are more than a handful of folks wearing “Carnival LLC” polo shirts on board - one speaking Italian - not sure what that would seem to indicate.
• While there appears to be new new carpeting and matresses in our mini-suite, we aren’t sure if this is shipwide.  We did notice that the forward stairtower was being recarpeted floor by floor.  Note that it looks awkward becuase the adjacent elevator landing areas are not the upgraded carpet and the brown patterned stair carpet looks awkward compared to the older blue carpet near the elevators.
• The foghorn being regularly blown since about 2pm yesterday until early this morning probably made MUTS hard to listen to last night.
• The deck 16 aft area around Share and Adagio is unfortunately wasted.  The terrace area is such a calm and relaxing location it really could have had a nice “open air” feel added to it when it was transformed from Sabattinis.  Something similar to what NCL and Carnival have done on their promenade decks. Even just having large windows that could be opened would have been a really nice touch in warm climates.
• No shuffleboard to be found, and no matter how many arrows Princess has painted on the walking/jogging track around the Princess Links, people still tend to walk the wrong way.  Also, there are only about 3 actual holes on those links.
• The library is severly lacking - I don’t think its unreasonable to expect at least 200 books on a ship of this size, but several of the cases are empty or actually blocked out.
• The Horizon Court layout on this ship and the other Super Grand class ships handles crowds exceedingly well compared to the original Grand class.  While the grand class ships can all feel crowded from time to time, the Horizon Court has been a nice calm venue every single time we’ve eaten there, even on embarkation day.

We’ll continue to provide more thoughts in the coming days.  Please post questions!