I needed 2 solo cruises so I would be Elite. The 5 day cruise to Cabo & the 4 day to Santa Barbara s& Enesenda both interested me. Since I have never been on the Ruby I was interested in experiencing a ship new to me. I was surprised that the layout was similar to the Grand Princess. I choose an upgrade to an obstructed Ocean View, Emerald 415 for the 5 day & afterwards to an inside for the 4 day. There was nothing large that really obstructed the view. Everything in the cabin was great. I decided to try 2 single beds. It worked out great as I could plug in my IPad to a socket & use it as a night clock. I had traditional dinning which was great. The problem with a 5:30pm dinning time is that when some shows in the Princess Theatre started at 7 pm you had to rush through your dinner to make it to the show & get a seat. There were a variety of activities to choose from, all excellent.

Since I had been to Cabo many times before I decided to take the San Jose/Los Cabo's tour. We visited a glass blowing factory, stopped for a drink & then off to San Jose. A small town with a Mission & many shops. It was interesting to see. The only downside was a couple that had not returned to the bus on time. The guide went all over town looking for them and after about 15 minutes they appeared. They didn't seem to be very concerned that they held up the bus. If the guide & bus had left without them it would have been around a $50 taxi fare back to the ship & when we arrived we were on one of the last tenders to the ship. They would have had to make there own way back to LA if they missed the ship.

My 4 day included Santa Barbara which I had never cruised to & Enesanda. I booked through Princess the Trolly Tour which took us around town & explained many things. A excellent tour plus time to do things in town if you wanted. A good way to get a layout of the city. I also took a photo/food tour. Princess had a tour listed that I was going to take through Princess & then after doing some research found a company that sounded like the same tour except it was $50 less. Yes it was the same tour through Princess only less $. My only mistake was to not keeping my booking with Princess since they have a 110% guarentee that if you find a tour for less they will give you 110% back as a credit. I was the only one on the tour that did not book through Princess. Read more