My first ever cruise and I absolutely loved it. The Ruby was a beautiful ship. I spent a lot of my time in the International cafe and piazza area relaxing with my books and coffees. The staff were excellent, the food was fantastic, I really loved the Terrace Pool for adults only, thought it was great to have a quiet pool! Shops were nice and I REALLY loved the art gallery area, walked through it every morning! Everything was great, the little bad thing in my opinion is that I thought the entertainment shows in the theatre could have been better, I found them quite boring. But the timings of the entertainment at night was great, especially loved that they repeated shows from the theatre or explorers lounge the next day so didn't have to cram in at night time. The ship was so clean and tidy all the time so I never felt that I needed to keep putting gel in my hands 24/7! Everything is in easy access, (once you get to know the ship!) and well, I can't wait to sail on the Ruby again ! I'd recommend this to other first time cruisers. The captain was really really nice and spoke to us on a few occasions. Cruise director Lisa Ball was a bit 'QVC' for me, I felt she was quite patronising but she was very informative and I recognise that she works very hard at what she does.

I would like to add that I think I'd have been very lost if I hadn't been glued to cruise critic forums before I went!