Seasoned cruisers, we brought two other couples with us for a warm getaway to the Caribbean. The Ruby Princess is a beautiful ship and we all thoroughly enjoyed our cruise. Here are some highlights:

Embarkation: I dropped the other couple off at Port Everglades before I returned our rental car, so they could board and enjoy the ship. At 1:00 there was quite a line waiting to check in; it took them about 45 minutes before reaching the ship. I returned the Thrifty rental car and took their free shuttle to the ship, arriving at about 2:15. There was no line at all, and we were onboard within about 5 minutes.

Sailaway: Reading the various boards about this ship, I knew about the "secret" door at the front of the Lido deck leading to the deck just above the bridge, where we watched sailaway with about 20 other passengers. People on the deck above kept asking us "How did you get there?" It was uncrowded and very easy to go from one side of the ship to the other as we sailed out of the port. Read more