Ruby Princess Review
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B2B Barcelona / Venice Grand Med 12 days Sep 25, 2009 Venice / FLL Transatlantic 18 Days Oct 7, 2009
Princess Air: Routing - All Flights NWA + KLM. SFO / Detroit / Amsterdam / Barcelona. There was 2-hour layover in DTT and 90 min layover in AMS. Luggage was booked SFO / BCN and boarding pass with all seat numbers were given at SFO. All flights were on-time. AMS: There were self-serve kiosks for transfer (if one did not have seats for AMS / BCN). Longish walk from arrival gate to Immigration / Security. Be sure to stand in non-EU Lines! Took about 20 minutes. The nice attractive security lady asked me to open the carry-on, took out the travel umbrella and opened it. Took out the electronic luggage scale asked what it was. Then these 2 items went through the scanner again. At boarding a check-in lady went through the boarding line and took away many (including mine) carry-ons and tagged them and checked them. We got it at the regular carousel in BCN. BCN: We knew we would need carts because DW has an injured shoulder. We had between us 4 pieces of regular luggage (3 bottles of wine and chargers etc. take up space), and 2 carry-ons. We saw 2 small carts and were thinking of taking them downstairs to the carousel when a nice person tells us "Baja"and pointed and we see tons of regular luggage carts. We got 2 carts and exited. Princess Staff were right there and we gave our luggage to be loaded into the luggage bus and were led to the pax bus. At the port, there was security check first (20 minutes) and then check-in. We got our cabin cards and went next door to the Duty Free Shop that had good Spanish wines - bought 3 bottles and a simple corkscrew and charged them.
Inside the Ship: We went to our cabin (JJ Inside for first leg then BA for TA). The cabin steward Cerry came over as we are opening the door, greeted us by name, and opened the cabin door. Luckily, he was to be our steward for the full 30 days because the BA cabin was on the same deck 5 or 6 cabins away. We went to the Cafe Caribe for light lunch and then to the Sanctuary. We were disappointed that the Sanctuary is open only till 4:30pm so we did not make a reservation.