There were six ships and almost 20,000 passengers docked here at the same time. This is as bad as it gets and was just way too many. We rented a car but there was just a tremendous amount of traffic and it was impossible to park to do anything. We rode around the entire island and stopped a couple of times. If you do this, go counter-clockwise, as for some reason the traffic backs up terribly the other way. Take my word on this. I'm guessing it would take two hours to circle the island counter-clockwise and four or five to do it clockwise. I will say this port didn't do anything for me, but perhaps we are to blame for not planning better.

St. Maarten

I was not feeling very well here, but we all decided to go to Coral World. This isn't the greatest place in the world, but there are a lot of activities and a beach, so what more do you want? And of course there is the little slot casino at the port, which is worth a look to check out the progressives.

St. Thomas

Grand Turk: We expected this to be our worst port call, but I thought it was the best. We took a cab to Pillory Beach which is north of town. There is relatively secluded beach here that is very nice. You can scuba here or snorkel. The snorkeling is supposed to be better than elsewhere, but my brother said it was only fair as there is not much reef. This is supposed to be a good place for scuba divers to see the "wall" when the ocean goes from being 20 feet deep to a mile deep. The bar here served a drink with ice cream that was the prettiest drink I've every seen. I already had a gin and tonic and couldn't order one, but there's always next time (I really only wanted one to make other people jealous, anyway).

We returned to port with about two hours to spare, so we went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. My brother took a cruise once with people whose only port activity in each port was to go to Margaritaville, and I must say we had a great two hours. There is a large swimming pool for the kids and a swim-up bar. Next time we would probably allow for a little more time with ol' Jimmy Buffet.

Grand Turk

Totally obstructed view, but could see a bit of ocean and scenery.

I've often wondered about people who were particular to just one ship, but given the chance to cruise on the Ruby again, I would certainly choose it over most of the other Princess ships.Drivers included: My brother and his son the college student; my wife and our two children, son, just turned 13 and daughter, 11.

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