Please note that we are giving a review on back to back cruises. We were lucky enough to be on the Ruby for both the Christmas and New Year Cruises. Unfortunately, when we did our booking we could only get a Mini-suite for the New Year cruise and had to "settle" for a Balcony cabin for the Christmas Cruise. We are me, DH and our 14 year-old son (well-behaved). We flew in from the UK via the very rare torrential floods in Ft Lauderdale. We spent 3 nights at the Crown Plaza Hollywood Beach, which although perfectly acceptable was not within accessible reach of restaurants and shops if you don't have a car.

Due to our determined desire to get two spaces in "The Sanctuary" on the Ruby we got a taxi to drop us at the terminal at 9am! Yup, we were number 1 in the queue! Unfortunately there were 130 odd Elites and VIPs who were able to board before us. Oh the "plans of mice and men"!

Embarkation: Considering that FL is the largest cruise port in the world today the embarkation was extremely slick and well organised and we were the first onboard (of the "plebs" that is). At this point "Operation Sanctuary" kicked into gear and I and our son went to the cabin while DH, elbowing his way, went directly to the Sanctuary (having studied the most direct route over the last 3 months!). DH was 4th in line and the Sanctuary was already full. DH left our name on a waiting list with the much pressured Luigi (Sanctuary Supervisor), whose unenviable job is to tell everyone that there are no places left. This is because, usually the Elites generally get the very few places that there are available when the Sanctuary is popular on the busier cruises. What was very tough for Luigi were all the people giving him hell for the lack of places. We found that just being nice and understanding gave us a better chance than those who ranted and raved. The great news is we had a call the following morning - WE WERE IN!! Read more