Our expectation for this cruise was for some quiet downtime combined with the high level of service we have experienced on our three previous Princess cruises. While many parts of the cruise met these expectations, the food and some service areas appear to have gone downhill. We are in our early 60s, generally prefer to do our own thing and are not particularly fussy. Both my wife and I have some dietary considerations, especially for my wife and her low-salt diet which resulted in a number of issues.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale a day before sailing and stayed at the Cambria Suites (highly recommended). As we both love Cuban food, we took a short walk to the Las Vegas 8 restaurant and had a great dinner during the evening prior to our cruise. The Cambria Suites provides free shuttle service to the port and we arrived about 11:00 AM. The line for the embarkation process was slightly longer than normal due to the earlier time the ship left port (4:00 PM), but the entire process was easy and we were able to board and be in our cabin (C428) by noon.

With the Ruby being a newer ship, both the cabin and the public spaces showed very little wear-and-tear. We had a balcony cabin with the expected amount of space and layout. (For those using a CPAP, I would suggest bringing an extension cord as the outlet is far from the bed.) There are only two outlets in the cabin, so charging two iPads, a camera, and two cell phones was more of a matter of scheduling than anything else. Our cabin steward was efficient and he provided an eggshell foam mattress top when we requested. Read more