Eastern Caribbean - Ruby Princess (December 5-12, 2010)
Princess Fan: This was our 5th cruise on Princess but the first on Ruby Princess. We did a similar cruise on the Crown last December and had done a Crown (back to back) in 2008. The Dawn (Mexico) and Coral (Panama) were our other two Princess ships and we are looking forward to the Star in the Med next June. We booked on the web in August and were accompanied by friends who had also taken the Crown cruise with us last December.
Leave one day early if possible: We left Halifax on Saturday morning on a US Airways flight through Philadelphia. We mostly always travel Air Canada and have had terrific luck with connections over the years. We never want to relive our 2008 journey when we had a Continental flight through Newark cancel hours before we were to leave which unleashed an amazing race to our ship that included 8 airports in 42 hours to make our cruise in Puerto Rico The Crown actually waited an hour for the unforgettable back-to-back 14 day cruise. Returning home had us storm stayed in New York for three and a half days as well. We now avoid New York/Newark at all possible costs. Having never been in Philadelphia, we found the airport very friendly and relaxing during our four hour break between connections. We arrived in Lauderdale at 2:00 p.m. Picked up our rental car and were in our Sheraton Suites room in Plantation by 3:30 p.m. We were minutes away from the Broward Mall and decided to do some last minute Christmas shopping for a few hours. The facility was a very nice 'Starwood' suites facility, we didn't have much time to enjoy the hotel. After shopping we were off to a local Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was Saturday evening at 7:00 so there was a line. While we were waiting for our table (45 minutes) we had time to find the ABC Liquor location to purchase our wine and spirits for the cruise. This terrific store is near Sawgrass Mall. It actually had its' opening last December and we were some of its' first customers. We got back to Outback just in time to be called to our table. I've been to Outback Steakhouse on many occasions and this was the first time I was disappointed with my steak. Apps were fine, service good but steak was overdone and returned. It was replaced with a much better steak but it really takes away from the dining experience.