Ruby Princess Review

Ruby Princess – March 30/10 – The way I travel - long review

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Ruby Princess
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notentirelynormal
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Apr 2010
Traveled with children

There were 18 in our group - 15 adults and 3 kids, 1-1/2, 2-1/2 and 5. We had grandma along for the flight, so 14 of us flew out of LAX Saturday for Miami. We arrived in Miami and walked forever to get to our baggage. I now know why people hate MIA. It seemed like we walked forever and the luggage carts were hidden. While the group was waiting for the luggage the 3 drivers headed over to Avis to get the mini vans we had pre-reserved. We were told that it would be at least an hour before they would be able to get us our vans, could they put me in something different. I said, "sure, I've got 18 people at the airport, what would you suggest". Somehow the lady found them. Just as she completed the rental papers the manager announced to the large amount of people in line that they would not be able to honor any other mini van rentals, that they were completely out of them. I told my son and son in law to run, run like the wind before anyone discovered we had three. We headed back to the airport to pick up the gang now waiting on the curb.

Grandma, 4 adults and a baby head to a relative's house until Tuesday when the cruise leaves. The rest of us head over to the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale. Our first concern once we got there was not getting there in time for the manager's reception. We had a long day and wanted that free bottle of beer. We made it with half an hour to spare. The hotel put our three rooms together. Great pizza place across the street for the kids and then to bed. We woke Sunday to thunderstorms with the coolest lightning ever. I hear a tornado touched down. We spent a leisurely two days in Ft Lauderdale eating and shopping. We hit Walmart for snacks for the hotel and liquor for the cruise. Across the street from the hotel was a dollar store where we had a blast buying school supplies to donate on St Lucia (much more on this later).

We have now been joined by my son from Houston and Tuesday morning by friends. In order to get to the ship with all the additional people and the 2 big boxes of supplies there is NO way luggage and people are fitting into the two vans so we do a luggage run. Fortunately the pier is very close. It takes less than half an hour to go to the ship, drop off the luggage and head back for people and carry ons. The third van has now joined us and we head out to the pier with people and one more van of people and luggage. We leave everyone at the pier and head back to FLL to drop off the vans. Except for the 2 people who didn't have their passports (oops) everyone else boarded the ship while we were doing the airport run. We turned in the vans and took a taxi back to the ship ($12). Being Elite we walked right up to the front of the line and were inside and checking in within minutes. We were on the ship in less than 30 minutes.

Cabin Review

We had 5 mini suites aft on the port side, all in a row. We liked the location. Near the elevator for dinner and not as busy for getting to the rest of the ship. Across from the laundry. Open balcony so could see others above (but we're fine with this).

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