We have just returned from an overall fabulous cruise aboard Ruby Princess, marking the first time aboard this particular ship and now the sixth Grand-class vessel operated by Princess Cruises we’ve cruised on. Of the seven remaining Grand-class ships in the Princess fleet (at time of writing this, November 2023), that just leaves the original, Grand Princess, and the only ship retaining its shopping trolley handle Skywalkers configuration, Caribbean Princess, and while we were on this cruise we went and booked a new one aboard Caribbean Princess for next year. Remember (or learn for the first time), you can always see our upcoming cruising plans on the Future Cruises page.

We flew Virgin Atlantic to and from America, with the flight out far better in terms of comfort but far worse in terms of it had those windows that can lighten or darken with buttons, and which can be controlled by the crew, so the lovely views over Greenland and Canada we’d had on the flight to Vancouver earlier this year were ruined by deep blue tinting. Not all of us want to (or can) sleep on a plane, thanks, and some of us like looking out, thanks. I’m not a fan of the tinted windows on planes.

We stayed one night in San Francisco ahead of the cruise, booked into the Riu Plaza Fisherman’s Wharf because of its walking distance proximity to the cruise pier. Getting to the hotel involved a weaving, slightly worrying, but ultimately fun ride in a taxi from right outside the airport. We weren’t entirely sure the taxi was legal as we stepped out to see a man say “Taxi?” then lead our bags towards his waiting car, but it all worked out, with running commentary of the city and sights along the way. The hotel was perfectly fine with the exception of the bar there which has to rank as the source of the second best cocktails we’ve ever drank (Hive Bar, Crawley, still holds top spot). Superb drinks. We only hit the bar (“for a nightcap”) after we’d had a short walk around the Fisherman’s Wharf area on the Saturday evening and ended up spending over a hundred dollars. We were on holiday. This part of San Francisco was lovely, had chill vibes, pleasant temperature, ridiculous number of sea lions, street entertainment, views towards the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. A nice base to spend a few days should we ever return.

The following morning we waited for a break in the rain (the locals apparently appreciated it as there’d been a bit of a drought) to walk our luggage the ten minutes to the dock. We didn’t quite make it before the heavens opened up again so we looked like drowned rats when we checked in, but arrival time at the dock to stepping into our room couldn’t have been more than another ten minutes.

Let’s mention those dry dock changes. This was Ruby Princess’s first cruise after a three-week dry dock and it had had some fairly hefty changes, plus some general sprucing up. Most of what I say here should be true based on what we were told after talking to some bar staff about what was new since the dry dock, but it’s possible that some of this was already in place. Again, this was our first time aboard Ruby Princess so we didn’t have anything concrete to compare against.

• Accessibility Improvements – People with disabilities were given a little love with the changes to improve accessibility. Most noticeably, a lot of the bars had lowered bar service areas for those in wheelchairs to get close and use. One of the exits onto the Promenade Deck was changed from a heavy, swinging door to one that slid open.
• Casino – By all accounts, all stripped out and replaced. It was certainly more open, clean, fresh-looking, hosting new carpets and new machines. What had previously been the smoking room was turned into a small arcade room (which we forgot to check out), but that meant that smoking was permitted in the casino itself. Only on the port side, and only cigarettes (no pipes or cigars), but the result was what you expect: it smells. Perhaps not as bad as we’ve found on other ships, but that’s possibly down to this being the first cruise after dry dock again. Smoking is vile, but the addictive personality that likes to smoke often likes to gamble away money too, and cruising is a money-making business. We were told that Princess are looking to scrap smoking inside completely but I have my doubts. At the very least, it would be a good move to only permit vaping. Vaping is still awful – I have no wish to breathe in exhaled water vapour from someone’s lungs just as I have no wish to breathe in tobacco smoke – but it could improve the overall feel there and reduce the stench for those wanting or needing to pass through.
• Skywalkers Nightclub – Brand new star-field carpeting and furniture giving it a more modern look. Around the dance floor there are stools and a small bar. Now, on other Princess ships, this bar is flat and ideal for putting your drinks on while you’re dancing or people-watching, but on Ruby this had a rounded top stopping that, and also making the point of the stools pointless. It’s possible this has always been like this on Ruby Princess, but if it’s new then it’s a bad move.
• Carpets and Furniture – Pretty much everywhere, as far as we could tell, the carpets had been replaced, and most venues appeared to have new seating too. The big exception was the Adagio lounge, but it’s likely so underused that it wasn’t worth it.
• Princess Links – This is the mini golf course that on all the other Princess ships we’ve been on has been some green carpet with a couple of holes in it. On Ruby, though, it was a proper miniature golf course. A very nice improvement, even if I’ve never managed to persuade Marie to play a game with me.
• Cabin – Other than the new carpet, the only thing we could see that was decidedly different from other Princess ships in this class was the lighting in the room. Side table lamps had no upgrade so, nope, no USB outlet near the bed. However, under one side table there was a narrow strip light with a motion sensor to switch it on. Mildly irritating, but you can stuff a pillow in there and stop that. Far more annoying, but probably part of the accessibility movement assuming it’s a new thing, was the closet light. It was almost impossible to go to the toilet during the night without triggering the light, and that light is bright. Really, really bright. Like “oh, has a lighthouse crept into my room while I’ve been snoozing” bright. I said “almost impossible” because my top tip here is make sure you’ve got some plasters and cover the sensor on the light for less-interrupted nights.

Onto the cruise from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale via the Panama Canal then, and first, the itinerary.

We’d known at the time of booking that there were a fair few sea days. After we’d booked, that increased by one when a planned stop at Nicaragua was cancelled due to political unrest. On the cruise itself we then lost the stop at Panama too for the same reason. Panama, and the planned visit to see a native tribe, was what I’d most been looking forward to, so this was a big disappointment, but it happens. We still got to visit Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia.

Mexico – Cabo San Lucas was the stop here, and a first time at this particular Mexican port for us. It didn’t look like there was much to do in the port itself if you didn’t want to visit a beach or stroll around shops, so we took an excursion to the town of Todos Santos for a walking tour of it and lunch at the Hotel California. A really pretty town, the hotel was interesting and filled with gorgeous artwork, Marie got a free mini-margarita, we both tested some tequila before buying some. Very, very hot and humid.

Costa Rica – Our second time hitting the port of Puntarenas and this time we opted for a walk in the cloud forest tops. This involved a hike through trails with lots of downs followed by the inevitable ups interspersed with walks over suspension bridges that were supremely wobbly. If you don’t like heights then probably avoid this one. And if you don’t like snakes then avoid it too because we came across a viper curled up by the path at one point. And if you don’t like tarantulas then hope that you’re as lucky as us and that your guide can’t get one of them to crawl out of its hole for you. Actually, though, a great little trip, with lunch included, and despite the dripping, beetroot face of Marie thanks to the exertion of the climbing segments, we both enjoyed it and the re-visit to a souvenir shop we’d hit years before too. Very, very hot and humid.

Colombia – We opted for a highlights tour of Cartagena for our first visit to this country. After some hellish traffic jams partly from localised flooding that had occurred before we arrived, this included a visit to a fortress (some steep slopes brought on the sweating and panting once again), a shopping arcade in old walls, a walking tour of the absolutely beautiful old town, some free time in the town, a visit to the former home of the Inquisition, the cathedral, and a maritime museum, plus a short folklore show. Beautiful, as I’ve mentioned, but brace yourself for all the people trying to sell you tat every few metres, and practice your “No, gracias” before heading here. Great local beers, though, and had the joy of both seeing a drug deal take place and being offered some too. One other wonderful thing about this port is that there was an aviary at the port entrance containing loads of exotic birds, all free to access. Very, very hot and humid.

And, obviously, there was the transit of the Panama Canal too. A good experience to tick off the list, but not much else to say about it. After entering the canal in bright (and ferociously hot) sunshine and moving through the three locks, most of the transit took place in rain, with some parts in fog. Not quite as extreme as when we did the Suez Canal.

One of the best aspects of this cruise on Ruby Princess was that in many ways it felt like a return to the sort of cruising we did when we first fell in love with this form of travel. The ship’s staff were fabulous (with one massive exception (more on him in a bit)), and you could tell this was a happy crew. We had some of the best service we’ve had at sea on any line. We had the best cabin steward we’ve ever had.

On the first night, there’d been a little disappointment when the staff in Skywalkers didn’t pay enough attention to the few of us in there leading to me giving up waiting for someone to come over, refusing to walk to the bar in the nearly empty venue on principle, and ordering a drink on the app that was then delivered from the Lido deck bar. It all annoyed me enough to post a comment to Princess Cruises on an Instagram post of mine. After publishing and reading it, I decided that since it was the first night I was possibly just being tetchy for no reason so deleted it. That comment was visible for all of twenty seconds. But it was seen. A few days later we had a message on the phone from the general bar manager aboard wanting to talk to us. We didn’t know what the reason was and figured something had been left or appeared on a bill or something like that. No, apparently, Princess must have contacted him, worked out who we were based on our Instagram account, and asked him to make us happy. He took us to Crooners and bought us drinks and had a chat about what we’d experienced on the first night. We tried to wave it all off, saying we didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, one of those things, we didn’t want anything, really we didn’t want anything, no we didn’t want to dine at Crown Grill as we’d done it the night before, no we didn’t want to dine at Sabatini’s as we had it booked for the day after, seriously we didn’t want anything. We were then talking about general changes and about how we were sad to see that Belle Glos Pinot Noir was no longer in Vines, although it could be bought elsewhere. “Oh, you like Belle Glos?” he asked. When we got back to our cabin that evening there were two bottles waiting for us.

Seriously, we didn’t want anything. We’re not those sorts of cruise bloggers. But you bet we enjoyed the hell out of them. Thank you, Princess, and thank you, Prishant, who made a point of checking in on us numerous times on the cruise to make sure things were still okay and had improved. They had. Immensely. We never even had to ask for new drinks in Skywalkers after that as they knew what we liked; we even had new drinks arriving before we’d finished the old ones most of the time. Great service.

But, I feel it’s only fair to mention the blot on the landscape of this cruise ship (not counting the debacle of a debark tour that wasn’t really in Princess’s control), and that was that massive exception I mentioned earlier. The DJ. I won’t mention his name as a small courtesy (but when I post Princess Patter imagery in the full write-ups you can find it there if you’re really interested). I cannot think of a less-suitable-for-cruising person working in the cruise industry. He was young, so perhaps he can learn, but he also needs a complete personality overhaul. The music he played was okay, but he played it every night. A different order, maybe mixed a little differently, maybe with a different song every now and then, but ultimately, the same core of songs every single night. Every. Single. Night. There were no themes. You got a mixture of disco, pop, and bloody Latin. The same mixture. Every. Single. Night. So far, not great, but not the worst thing in the world. Ah, but let’s fast forward to about the fourth night of this when it was just me and Marie and maybe a couple of other people seated in the club.

“Hey, mate, as there’s nobody here and nobody dancing, any chance of some rock instead?”

“No.”

“But some other night, maybe, yes?”

Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.

“Do you have any Rob Zombie? Probably not, but thought I’d ask. AC/DC would be good, though. What have you got?”

Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.

“So any classic hip-hop? Late 80s, early 90s. You’ve got to have Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, yeah?”

Ignored me. Played around with mixing software.

Yeah, I was not happy. The impression I got was that this was a DJ who thought he was headlining a massive club in Ibiza and I should be thankful just to be in his presence as he honed his skills, whereas I’d thought he was the DJ on a cruise ship whose purpose was to entertain guests and be an ambassador for the cruise line. I seethed, but said nothing.

A few days later, though, some new people turned up in the club late one night, and just as we were leaving we overheard the guy say to his wife “This music sucks. I wish he’d play some Led Zeppelin.” I couldn’t help myself, so I wandered over and said “We’re right there with you and the Led Zeppelin, but good luck getting this DJ to play it.” “Oh, watch me try,” he said, and wandered across the empty dance floor to the booth.

We didn’t hear what was said, but we stood there with his wife as the guy first talked, then threw his hands up in the air, then started gesticulating to the DJ. The next thing that happens is the music stops, the lights come up, and the DJ starts shouting “No, I will not be told what to do. That is it! It’s over!”

The guy walked past us, gesturing to his wife to come along, and told us “That DJ is a fucking asshole!” as he left. I decided to pop over to the DJ and said “Hey, I don’t know what was said to you by that guy, but if anything was said in anger then let me apologise on his behalf, it’s late, try to let it go, and try not to lose your cool.” I then got an angry explanation along the lines “No, people can’t tell me what to do. Somebody punched me yesterday and they’re getting kicked off the ship, so no, nobody tells me what to do.”

The club’s manager was behind me as I went to leave and asked what the problem was. “A passenger and your DJ had a difference of opinion, I’ve tried to pave over the cracks, but this may be more your job.”

So, yes. Worst cruise ship DJ ever. And while I could never condone violence against a rude, arrogant little shit like this DJ, I can at least guess what led to it.

But, the cruise itself. We loved it. It felt not just like the before-Covid times, but before even the before-Covid times in many ways. Friendly, helpful, professional staff who remembered your name and cabin number and drinks or dining preferences, and no long waits for drinks or food, with decent entertainment from a happy crew on a cruise with interesting sights and new ports of call and experiences. It’s what we wanted.

The evening in Fisherman’s Wharf had been warm and dry and… absolutely nothing like the morning that greeted us. The hotel lobby was busy with people who were clearly looking to board the ship too given the luggage tags on their bags, but they were also all sitting around and waiting for taxis. It was a ten minute walk to the port so we didn’t want to waste money on calling a cab, but we also weren’t keen on getting soaked and the rain was persistent, if not too heavy. Decisions, decisions.

We ended up hanging around for perhaps half an hour, hoping for a break in the rain, and one eventually came so we risked it and started walking. Faster than we’d have liked, but not too fast as we had cases and this was America, where cars are king and pedestrians are an afterthought.

We were getting a little damp but it wasn’t too bad until suddenly it started to tip it down again. At this point we were walking along the waterfront but still a few minutes from the pier we needed. Fortunately, there was an overhang we could scoot under so we did and it was nice to at least take a breather from our quick pace. It wouldn’t do to twist an ankle right at the start of a cruise, after all. We saw that we weren’t the only idiots wheeling luggage around in the San Francisco rain so that made us feel slightly better.

The rain eased off again and we started walking. We’d been able to see the ship for a while – cruise ships are not small things – and now we could make out the pier entrance as there were coaches unloading passengers and taking cases down to be brought aboard.

As we got close to where cases needed to be handed over to the pier workers we saw one of those workers wheel a cart loaded with passengers’ cases from a bus towards the dock area. As it bumped over a bit of paving the top case came loose and dropped into a shallow puddle. I shouted and waved, another guy shouted. The worker stopped, looked back at the case, then turned around and carried on walking with his cart, leaving the bag there in the water. That was utterly shocking to us and it didn’t put us in a good frame of mind with the workers there.

Fortunately, when a worker came to take our bags and held out his hand for a tip only for me to say “Sorry, we aren’t carrying any cash” we got a look of disgust that evened things up a bit. I mean, it’s actually true; we weren’t carrying cash to tip someone just for doing their job because we live in a civilised part of the world that pays its employees properly so it’s simply not something we think of doing.

There was a bit of a queue inside the building which gave us a little bit of time to dry to dry out but we were soon aboard and, because the ship had come straight from dry dock, the rooms were all ready for us already. We unpacked our hand luggage, freshened up a little, then did the first important thing: stepped onto the balcony to post a photo of the view and boast to those back home and on social media. Okay, the view was a bit grey but we were on a cruise ship, and a Grand-class cruise ship at that (the best class), and on the C deck (the one with the double-sized, half-covered balconies), so we were very, very happy.

It was nice to see Alcatraz from our balcony. We’d seen it the night before, but obviously it had been a little darker. That is the nature of night. Were we to do another cruise out of San Francisco in the future we might consider a day or two earlier to include some tourist activities including a visit to the island.

The first important thing had been to post photos from the cabin. The second important thing, after a quick side quest to complete our muster, was to go and get a drink and post another photo. As it was a bit muggy and we were still a little soggy and the ship’s interior was busy with people boarding we decided for a change to go and grab a drink from around the quiet pool area. A 24K Gold Margarita for me – it’s become one of my go-to drinks to start any Princess Cruises cruise – but my wife’s choice of a Dirty Banana would have to wait as they hadn’t loaded the bananas at this point. She suffered with a Prosecco.

Ruby Princess had just come out of dry dock and we were interested in seeing if there was anything obviously new about her, with the understanding that we hadn’t actually been on her before so this would all be a bit of guesswork. Or it would have been if we hadn’t started having a nice chat with the bar steward who told us all the things that had changed: lowered bar areas for wheelchair users was one, big revamp of the casino, new carpets and furnishings around much of the ship, and some other elements. There’s a little more detail on the post-cruise write-up of immediate thoughts I wrote at the conclusion of the cruise (see: Ruby Princess Dry Dock Changes) but we wanted to check out Skywalkers as we knew we’d be spending a lot of time there. The carpet was clearly new, an obvious big change, and markedly different from any other Skywalkers we’d been in.

Heading down we then popped into Adagio, expecting that to have been freshened up too. No would be the answer there. It was quite jarring how old it all looked in contrast with a lot of the rest of the ship. Then again, we would find out it was a very little-used venue. When we’d cruised on Crown Princess and had an aft balcony for our Baltic cruise in 2017 this had been a great spot in a convenient location to get a drink away from the main drag, especially before hitting the nightclub, but it felt very neglected on this cruise and that’s likely why no money was spent on revamping it.

Next door to Adagio was Sabatini’s Italian restaurant, looking very bright and clean. We would be visiting here on the cruise. We always do.

Time for the sail away and the balcony was the place to be for it. We also had our cases waiting for us by now so we could unpack properly and, of course, with the drinks packages that Princess offer and the ability to order drinks directly to our room that’s precisely what we did.

Are you a cruise line that doesn’t provide any way to order drink directly to a room for no additional charge? Sort that out, won’t you?

We were looking forward to passing a little closer to Alcatraz and we were looking forward to cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge – it’s always nice to cruise under a bridge on a cruise – but the most joy we actually had on the sail out was being accompanied by pelicans flying in formation just off our balcony. Whether they had learned that ships provide a handy updraught to make flying easier or whether they just thought that our ship was one giant pelican, who can say? It was, regardless, utterly fascinating to see us at the head of a line of birds sailing out of San Francisco Bay. An avian honour guard.

The evening aboard Ruby Princess was spent eating and drinking. Don’t believe me? Is this your first time here? Well then…

Naturally, we had to hit Skywalkers once it started up.

First nights are always a bit quiet – not that Skywalkers ever gets that busy anyway – so it was easy to see a few people come in and sit down but not get noticed by the bar staff. In fact, because they weren’t noticed they then left after about ten minutes.

I decided to post on Instagram with a little “Hey, Princess, maybe tell your staff to be a bit more alert in the nightclub!” type of rant. If these were first-time cruisers with Princess then it wasn’t setting a good impression. I was being helpful. Sort of.

Now, the thing about posting messages on Instagram in a dark club, at the end of a long day, with a fair bit of drinking, on your phone, and with an app with a terrible single-line input box is that typos are possible. I published the post, read it back, saw a typo immediately, got annoyed with myself, also realised it was perhaps a bit unfair and maybe a smidge too ranty as this was the first night, so deleted it. That post was visible to the public for less than ten seconds, but I had tagged Princess’s media team in it. This is important. And the reasons I’m mentioning all this is that this event will be making a reappearance in a later post in this cruise travelogue series.

In the next post from this Ruby Princess cruise series I’ll cover a couple of sea days as we head south towards Mexico with some speciality dining and sea activities to describe amongst some photos from around the cruise ship too.

Sea days on cruise ships for us follow a fairly standardised pattern now which involves getting up, taking reading material and camera with us, grabbing some breakfast, then making ourselves comfortable somewhere to give our cabin steward enough time to get our room cleaned. I might head off to take some photos and we might take a peek at any activities going on if they’re nearby and sound sufficiently entertaining. We’ll hit all the trivia quizzes if we can, we’ll swim if the conditions are good enough, and we’ll probably start drinking by mid-afternoon.

One thing that Princess Cruises do on sea days is hold an afternoon tea. It’s free – not the more fancy, paid-for event you can get on other ships – but the variety of savoury and sweet snacks is good and the tea itself is a marked improvement on most of the other hot beverage options on the ship. On this sea day aboard Ruby Princess we were seated at a table of eight with a group of American women.

Something we had been looking forward to on this cruise was getting to watch some American Football games on the main deck. This isn’t something we’d been able to do before as all our other cruises prior to this sailed in the wrong time zone or at the wrong time of the year to enjoy this experience. What was even better on this occasion was that my wife’s team, the Vikings, was taking on San Francisco, of whom there were a lot of fans aboard. And what was even better than that was that the Vikings won.

We decided on this first sea day to treat ourselves to a meal at the Salty Dog gastropub. There was nothing wrong with anything we ate or drank but neither of us were blown away with the food.

To the second sea day now and a source of general entertainment was provided by way of the egg drop challenge in the piazza. The goal of this, if you’re unfamiliar with the event, is to construct an apparatus that will allow an egg to survive a drop from the upper tier of the atrium space, and to get as close as possible to a target below. Some people go for cushioning systems and others try to float the egg down by way of a parachute, and you can usually count on a few disasters.

A general rule on Princess ships is that when you reach Elite status (fifteen cruises or one hundred and fifty days at sea) you must mention that you’re Elite at every opportunity. We’re Elite – see – and one of the perks – if it can really be called that – is a free wine-tasting event on one of the sea days. This took place on this second sea day on Ruby and while these things have wines that vary in quality from terrible to just about sippable, they are often fun if you can sit by people similarly criticising the wine, and that was the case here.

It was formal night on Princess – they’re not a cruise line that clamps down on you and shoves you out of venues if you don’t dress formally (cough, P&O, cough) – so that meant an obligatory Vodka Martini for me, and I did actually don the tuxedo for the night. We’d also booked the Crown Grill for dinner and they never disappoint although this meal was memorable for the clouds of smoke that came billowing into the restaurant towards the end necessitating some windows getting opened to let it all escape outside. Something burning somewhere but none of the staff seemed too concerned so we weren’t either.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll arrive at the first port of call and a new one for us, Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, where we head off on an excursion to Todos Santos.

For this first visit to this Mexican port we’d woken to glorious sunshine, vibrant colours, sights of the famous rock formations in the area, and a couple of other ships visiting. Cabo is a tender port – the cruise ships anchor off shore – so the calm, deep blue water was humming with shuttle boat activity.

The excursion we had booked for our day in Cabo San Lucas was one that took us to Todos Santos for a guided tour of some cultural and historical highlights, then to the Hotel California for some lunch and a chance to admire some fabulous local artwork, and if you’ve not already read those travelogue accounts and it sounds of interest then you can do so by clicking on the links above. That’s right: I’m explaining how websites and links work to you, a person using the internet.

I don’t often take photos from buses when we’re on excursions because bumpy roads and tinted glass and reflections annoy me immensely – it doesn’t take a lot to annoy me immensely – but the landscape of Mexico was worthy of a few shots. Mountain ridges and cacti all over the place in the Baja California peninsula!

We arrived back at Cabo to be greeted by a long queue of people waiting for a tender boat back to Ruby Princess; long enough for us to have to trek some way between bars and shops just to find its end. The bars held some appeal (well, we are us, after all) but given the length of the day’s excursion and the fast-approaching point of all aboard time we decided to simply shuffle along and get the first boat back we could. In fairness, the line moved fairly swiftly.

A very fun encounter with a local at Cabo then took place as we neared the boarding area.

“Are you a professional photographer?” came a loud voice from one side. It was a young woman outside a shop a dozen or so metres away, and the comment was directed at me because I had my equipment out. Camera equipment, you filthy-minded person, you. I’m an introvert so I simply smiled, shook my head, and mouthed “No” at her, and that would have been the end of it except that about twenty seconds later I heard “Well, you can take my picture anyway.” She’d crossed through the queue to the other side of us and adopted a pose right next to me. I didn’t need a second invitation, snapped a quick shot, and thanked her. I don’t know who she was but she gave me a fabulous memory to attach to the end of a lovely day in this port in Mexico and it was especially fun to hear a few men in the queue around jealously muttering about what I’d done to deserve that special attention. I have an ineffable quality.

More luck was on our side as we reached the front of the queue for the tender boat as a new one had just arrived. This gave us the chance to sit up top and allow for some great views heading back to the ship plus some fresh air to take the sting out of the heat of the day. The dry, rocky landscape and some sheltered beaches were quite nice to see from the water but we particularly enjoyed watching a fishing boat heading out with an entourage of frigatebirds overhead and a pelican sat on its aft.

You can get some spectacular photos of cruise ships if you’re sat up top on a tender boat. However, the pirate-style vessel to the right in the photo below is far away. Cruise ships are big, but they’re not that big. Feel free to imagine Ted explaining this to Dougal in your head right now.

Back on board we enjoyed a little bit of the early evening sunshine from our balcony and looking at not only the two other cruise ships in the port – Navigator of the Seas and Celebrity Eclipse – but listening to the party music from tour boats taking in close views of El Arco (the famous arch formation) as sunset approached.

And then the second interesting encounter with someone of the day took place.

We’d been out on the balcony so had missed a phone call to the cabin. A message had been left and we could play it back but couldn’t make it out clearly enough. All we knew was that it was a manager on the ship and he wanted to speak to us and could we contact him. We couldn’t because we couldn’t work out which manager he was or how to contact him, and we couldn’t work out how to replay the message either.

We headed down to guest services and explained that a manager had left a call for us but we didn’t know who or how to play the message again. The person helping us checked a few things on the computer then made a phone call. “Yes, they’re here at reception now,” we heard her say on the phone before hanging up. “If you’ll just wait, the manager is on his way to see you now.”

I won’t lie: this was not exactly the most comfortable thing to hear because we still had no idea what this was about. Within seconds we saw a member of staff come quickly down the stairs and head straight to us. A quick handshake and introduction – Prishant – helped put our minds at ease a little and he then looked around and dragged us along to the nearby bar to have a seat. Seeing his manager there, a waiter came scurrying over and orders were taken (with no need to check our medallions, of course) with a little small talk to settle things down. Then…

“Is everything fine with the ship?” he asked.

“Everything’s lovely,” we assured him.

“No problems?” he asked.

“No, we’re having a lovely time.”

“And you do go to Skywalkers in the evening? No problems there?”

“We love Skywalkers.”

“But did you post a message about it online?”

Ah.

Finally, we’d reached the point of this meeting. If you’ve read the account of our first night aboard Ruby Princess then you might know that for rather less than twenty seconds I had posted on Instagram a “Do a better job, Princess Cruises!” mini-rant because while we’d been okay we’d seen some other passengers get overlooked in the nightclub as the staff were clustered around the bar and not circling enough. Less than twenty seconds. I deleted it once I saw a typo and couldn’t remember how to edit the post quickly enough.

What had clearly happened was that someone at Princess – and I’d tagged their main account and media team – had been able to still see the message (or more likely get a copy of it prior to deletion through some forwarding system) and had got in touch with the ship where it had made its way to one of the managers in charge of this area.

What then took place was about fifteen minutes of “I want to make it up to you” from Prishant and lots of “There’s nothing to make up. We weren’t affected. The service has been superb ever since then. It was just a first night thing. It happens. We don’t want anyone to get in trouble over this. You don’t have to do anything for us. There’s nothing we need or want. We’re very happy on Ruby Princess” from us.

“Can I buy you dinner at Crown Grill?”

“We ate there yesterday.

“What about Sabatini’s?”

“We’re eating there tomorrow.”

“And you’re already on the top drinks package?”

“Yes. Please, we’re absolutely fine. If it helps you can just go back to your bosses and say you’re resolved the situation. You don’t need to do anything, we swear.”

He seemed to relent and we had a little more general chat before he said goodbye. It was interesting to see some of the other stewards and staff paying attention to the scene of this manager sitting with us, drinking in a public bar (cocktails for us, he was on water as he was working, just to clarify), then lots of smiles and shaking of hands. That would work in our favour quite a lot for the rest of the cruise too. We would also bump into Prishant numerous times from this point on as we’d walk around the ship with many “Any issues? Everything fine?” from him and more handshakes and more crew members wondering just who we were to be getting this attention. Possibly.

Some photos of food from the main dining room now. We’d eat, listen to some music, and head to Skywalkers as usual to conclude this very enjoyable and very memorable day ashore at Cabo San Lucas and aboard Ruby Princess.

Well, almost conclude the day.

During our general chit-chat with the manager we’d asked about the dry dock changes to Ruby Princess and he’d been happy to tell us about some of it, and he’d also asked if there were any changes we didn’t like.

“Well,” said my wife, “the only disappointment is that you can’t get Belle Glos by the glass in Vines any longer. That was our favourite wine to drink in there. But otherwise, it’s all good.”

A throwaway comment, but one the manager retained because we got back to our room to find two bottles of Belle Glos waiting for us. How good was that service from Prishant and Princess Cruises? You cannot help but be impressed by that.

We hadn’t asked for the wine and hadn’t done anything to deserve it.

“He probably needs to go back and explain what he’s done to make us happy,” said my wife.

“You’re right,” I replied. “We’d be doing him a favour by accepting this and drinking it.”

So we did. Not right there and then, of course. We’re fond of a drink but come on!

In the next post in this Ruby Princess cruise travelogue series I’ll cover some of the highlights (and one lowlight) of four relaxing sea days on the ship as we make our way towards Costa Rica.

If you’ve ever wondered just what there is to do on a cruise ship for four sea days then I hope you’re sitting down and are fully braced for disappointment. What you’ve got to remember is that sea day activities may contain some core elements that you can usually count upon – trivia, dance class, some attempt to persuade you that a good foot massage will reverse the signs of ageing – but they can also spring some surprises so while you could look at what’s presented here and think either “Huh? Is that all?” or “Oh! So that’s what to expect!”, in both cases you’d be wrong. Basically, anything could happen.

Your staff aboard will do their best to entertain the largest amount of people possible, but there’s an added complication in that I’m recounting this cruise on Ruby Princess from my and my wife’s perspectives only. There are things we like to do on relaxing sea days and they don’t often include many scheduled activities. They’re also not that thing if that’s what you’re thinking, you dirty person. We’ve been together way too long now.

We tend to eat, drink, read, take part in quizzes, and swim, although not in that order because our mums always used to warn us about not going swimming after eating and drinking. Photos of books or our blubbery masses floating in the water are not going to appeal to anyone (well, not strictly true, but perverts need to contact me separately for those images), everyone thinks you’re cheating if you use your phone during a quiz, and so that largely just leaves food and drink to make up the bulk of this post; and if you have found this page because you want to see photos of main dining room food on a Princess Cruises ship then you should be adequately satisfied. But we did see and do some things.

On the first day at sea Ruby Princess had angled her course so that our balcony got an awful lot of sunshine on it which we thought would be nice to sit out on, read, and take in the sea views for a while. That wasn’t the case because it was furiously hot there and we’re delicate little flowers. We didn’t last very long before taking ourselves off for an hour in the pool, then after lunch happening upon the end of some artistic fruit-carving that was on display in the Piazza.

In the early part of the evening we watched some more American Football on the movie screen on the top deck, seeing the Bills and Buccaneers compete, with a surprisingly high number of fans of the former team proudly showing their support.

We’d booked Sabatini’s, the Italian speciality restaurant on Princess Cruises ships, and were pleased that despite it being a new menu with all the worry that entails, everything was still very good. We’ve still not forgiven them for getting rid of the superb Grana Padano Fondue, though.

An Italian meal requires a Limoncello shot and so we picked up some of the customary shot glasses that you get to keep when you pay the small charge for this (payable whether you’re on a drinks package or not). We have loads of these glasses already anyway, but we decided it would be nice to see if we could complete the collection of coloured ones we were missing. A great idea if we could have remembered what colours we didn’t already have.

Speciality dining on a Princess ship really fills you up so we made the sensible decision to have a relatively early night for us and spotted some early signs of Halloween decorations appearing outside cabins as we made our way to ours. This cruise took place at the end of October and into the beginning of November.

The outside air temperature was thirty degrees on the second sea day which actually meant it was cooler than the day before and without the direct searing sunshine that had kept us off our balcony then. A chance then for more reading in our own little private sanctuary on the cruise which we also enjoyed with one of the free bottles of wine we’d received (see the previous post about what happened when we got back on board the ship at Cabo if you don’t know why that was) and the sight of some dolphins occasionally keeping the ship company.

During the evening trivia on board Ruby Princess we ended up with a haul of prizes in the form of a bottle of “ship champagne”, Princess-branded notebook, and the much coveted ship-specific coasters. Since this cruise and prior to this write-up the company that manufactured those prizes for Princess went out of business so our quest to get coasters from all the ships has now come to a disappointing end, but we’ve got a few of them and that’s probably more than most people.

The third sea day hit rockier waters, which we like for the feeling but which we don’t like because the ship invariably ends up closing off pools, and particularly the more shallow ones such as the one we tend to use. So no swimming for us on this day.

After a morning trivia win we ended up on fizz for a large part of the day as it was one of the gala nights on the ship. Early in the evening there was the Captain’s Circle event for returning guests, during which one of the bridge officers received a promotion, making it slightly different from usual. More typical, though, was that because we’d become well-known with the bar staff at the nightclub and many of them were on duty for the Captain’s Circle event we got looked after well and ended up with a few of our regular late evening drinks appearing out of nowhere in addition to the general freebies they tend to make up and hand around.

Later in the evening, after dinner, we headed to the top deck for some night views of the largely empty space following a bit of a rain shower. The swimming pools always sparkle at night. Coming back inside we happened upon some music and dancing with many of the entertainments staff in the Piazza.

The evening finished on a bit of a sour note in Skywalkers when I asked the DJ to play some music for us and was simply told “No.” No apology for not having it, no offer of something else, just a no and then he ignored me. And he continued to ignore me when I asked what he had; absolutely blanked me and refused to even acknowledge I was there. And he continued to play his own music which was the same set of tracks he’d played every night to this point, concentrating on mixing tracks and not giving any concern to anyone in the club. This was a shock to be treated like this and it wouldn’t be the last or even worst interaction with this incredibly rude member of staff on this cruise.

The last of the four sea days was the quietest one yet, but there was another NFL game to watch, we caught a movie too, the day featured a swim, there was the usual bit of reading, and another trivia win in the evening. We won quite a few on this cruise.

During dinner we added to our collection of shot glasses, managing to acquire one of each available colour on board through some chatting and swapping with staff members.

In the next post in this Ruby Princess cruise travelogue series we dock at Puntarenas, Costa Rica where we head off on an excursion into the rainforest.

We started by heading east where the maps indicated there was a public park space. In fact this was a very narrow strip of paved areas, the odd sculpture here and there, and some twisting concrete structures that resembled mounted spines of leviathans (assuming leviathans are actually a thing and that they’re vertebrates). Coupled with the flotsam of seaweed and thin tree trunks washed up along the water’s edge and the churned-up dark sand discolouring the sea this gave the area an oddly desolate feel with just enough peace from the gentle cooling of the evening and the white noise of the small rollers breaking nearby to temper the overall bleakness.

We headed back past the pier and the queue of passengers being checked by security before they headed for the ship, making our way westwards along the shore of Puntarenas where there seemed to be more signs of civilisation. There were certainly a few interesting architectural pieces. A large concrete building that was part of the National Technical University had some clear Art Deco styling to it, and while there’s no information online that could be easily found I did see a date on it of 1930 which ties in with the right period. Opposite that, nearer the sea, there was a more modern public space comprising a stage shielded by giant leaves with amphitheatre-style seating opposite it. We like spotting amphitheatres when we travel and while this one isn’t the historic sort we typically go out of our way to look around, we’re still counting it.

Around the outside of the cultural public space there was artwork in a street art style but all themed for the general environment, touching on local people, customs, and the sea. The large open space beside it included one of those popular city signs for the tourists that it’s often impossible to take a clear photo of, although at this time of the day we were very nearly the only people there.

Finally, as we approached the pier we passed by Antigua Capitanía de Puntarenas, a preserved landmark building with some cannons mounted nearby, all dedicated to the maritime history of the city and region. This would be the sort of place we’d very likely visit on a return to Costa Rica but there was no indication that it was open at this particular moment and we were now keen to head back to the ship as we don’t like leaving it to the very last minute.

Our walk along the long pier to where Ruby Princess was docked was interrupted several times for photos out across the water, and near the gangway and security checkpoint for the ship there was some local entertainment provided in the form of carnival characters which, like all carnival characters, felt vaguely threatening.

The all aboard time came and went and we sat out on our balcony with some drinks and snacks waiting for the sail away from Costa Rica. The light faded from the sky, searchlights from the ship danced across the water, and two hours passed before Ruby Princess finally left. We never did find out the reason for the delay but we suspect that an organised excursion returned to the port late and, because it was an organised excursion, the ship waited.

In the next post in this Ruby Princess cruise travelogue series we’ll experience Halloween on a cruise ship before we arrive at Panama for an excursion we were really looking forward to and for which we’d had to get yellow fever vaccinations for ahead of time to do it. Oh boy, I hope nothing happens to spoil those plans!

Halloween: a day for horrors. And the day started with one when the captain announced over the speakers that the following day’s stop at Panama City along with all its excursions had been cancelled as there was political unrest in the country that wasn’t considered to be dangerous to foreigners but would likely cause disruption that could have knock-on effects for our subsequent transit through the canal. This was the port of call we’d most been looking forward to as we’d not only booked a great trip to visit local tribespeople, we’d even had to get Yellow Fever vaccinations beforehand. Gutted, of course, but we understood the decision.

That meant we’d be getting another, unplanned sea day on the following day but for this one right now we got over the disappointment and decided to treat the day as we were going to anyway, only now we could stay up later and make more use of the drinks package. There’s always a small upside to these things.

To start with we headed off for a walk around the ship after breakfast and following is a selection of photos of some of the various Halloween decorations put up by passengers on their doors or by the cruise ship’s staff across the various venues.

At Crooner’s they’d prepared a display of Halloween-themed cocktails. By all accounts we were the first people to try some of them (because we’re nosey, and borderline functional alcoholics (well, we’re British, so the same thing)) because as soon as the first ones were delivered to our table the bar staff asked if they could take some photos of us for their corporate marketing or social media or something. People who know us know that we don’t like our photos being used or our faces shown (we have our reasons) but we said yes because the likelihood of anyone seeing the pictures should they be published anywhere or recognising us especially as we wouldn’t be named was ridiculously low.

As I was waiting for one of the drinks to be made I nipped along the deck from Crooner’s just to grab a few more photos of Halloween decorations we’d missed. At the photo centre the guys there switched on a skeleton with flashing eyes so I could take a shot of it, while in the entrance to Club Fusion a giant spider with motion detectors would rise sharply from the ground and let out a screaming roar much to everyone’s amusement.

To the main Halloween events on the Ruby Princess cruise ship then, and if you’re hoping to see photos of me and my wife in our Halloween costumes then you really, really don’t know us at all. However, I will let you see what we wore. I went with a monk’s robe and hood, adding a plague doctor-style mask to it. My wife wore an Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts costume. I really wish I’d taken up the hem of my outfit and had it altered to give more room to walk as it proved very awkward to do much more than shuffle, but both costumes proved very popular. On three occasions – one in a lift, which was the funniest – women passengers flinched when they saw me, and two crossed themselves afterwards. My wife, on the other hand, added to the day’s earlier unexpected photography session by the bar staff with additional poses between groups of Asian women on the cruise who wanted shots taken with this sort-of-Disney-queen look, I guess. This happened many times. Several Asian women bowed to her too.

There was some music taking place in the piazza as we passed by but our main source of entertainment to start the evening – and it features in most evenings on a cruise ship for us – was some Halloween trivia. It was one where you need to guess the Halloween-related music based on a small clip and we did pretty average on this.

Then it was back to the piazza for the Halloween Costume Parade. We observed but didn’t take part, primarily because my shuffling through the central hub of the ship while being stared at from three levels was too much for my introverted self to contemplate. I’d often take some photos here then look around to find my wife had been cornered by more Asian cruisers wanting a photo taken with her.

From the parade it was along to Club Fusion and the Halloween Disco, first with music from the resident band, then the DJ. As we tend to get along with and get to know the bar staff quite well when we cruise with Princess – it just happens – it was nice to bump into some here who were dressed up too and it was good to see their own reaction to our costumes.

Knowing we didn’t have to get up super-early any longer because of the Panamanian disruption ashore, we headed to Skywalkers for a bit afterwards and it was lovely to see the place with a few more people in it than normal, even if the absolutely bloody awful DJ was there playing the same old songs he always played without any concern for the passengers.

In the next post in this travelogue series we get another quiet, relaxing day aboard Ruby Princess before a deck party in the evening to make up for us not being able to go ashore in Panama.

When we awoke in the morning we had just passed under the Bridge of the Americas (so we missed that) and were on the slow approach to the Cocoli Locks, part of the Panama Canal expansion project undertaken in the 2010s to double transit capacity between the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the Americas. These locks, like those we’d be exiting on the Atlantic side later in the day, comprised three chambers with basins and rolling gates, filled and emptied by gravity, and making use of tugboats to position ships rather than trains (called mules) as used in the older lock systems.

I’d describe the process of passing through the locks and being raised or lowered as technically interesting but not that fascinating overall, and that’s mainly because it just happens so slowly that you don’t really get a sense that anything is really happening. You can look ahead from the balcony (if you’re on one) and spot the gates closing or opening, but it’s mostly a case of simply waiting until you start to move again. It took a little over ninety minutes for us to get through the Cocoli Locks and enter the canal.

We then cruised quietly and slowly along the waterway for about two and half hours passing close to verdant landscapes either side all under close, cloudy skies and in hot, humid conditions.

We’d already cruised under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at the start of this cruise and we got to cruise under another three bridges during this Panama Canal transit. We’d got up just too late to see our passage beneath the Bridge of the Americas at the entrance to the canal locks but we were wide awake as we made our way past the Centennial Bridge. The bridge is named for Panama’s centennial which occurred in 2003 and it was officially opened in August 2004.

Gatun Lake was formed in 1913 by damming the Chagres River and at the time it was the largest artificial lake in the world. It was here that Ruby Princess and several other vessels waited for a time slot to open in which to pass through the second set of locks. During this four-hour period the rain came in and with the small islands and reduced visibility we were reminded a little of our approach to Ha Long Bay a few years earlier.

Eventually, though, the tug boats started coming alongside once more to guide our cruise ship into the Agua Clara Locks. The process here was identical to that of the locks we’d passed through at the start of the day although it took a bit longer than the morning’s transit at around two and a quarter hours.

By the time we completed our Panama Canal full transit the sun had set. This did mean that we had the additional enjoyment of seeing the Atlantic Bridge showing off a light display as we cruised underneath. The Atlantic Bridge is the third permanent crossing over the Panama Canal waterway and was only completed in 2019.

If I were to compare our experiences cruising between the two most famous canals in the world then I’d probably say that our time cruising through the Suez Canal provided us with more interesting sights, and that may simply be because the desert landscape was far more unfamiliar to us. That said, we completely missed any lock activity when doing the Suez transit so this trip through the Panama Canal was technically more interesting.

In the next post in this travelogue series we’ll be visiting the only new country for us on this cruise when we arrive at Cartagena, Colombia.

We would be heading off for a full day’s excursion while in Cartagena but this first post from the cruise ship’s visit to this city will focus on photos of some of the skyline as Ruby Princess came into dock. It’s fairly unusual for us to see a sail-in to any port as we tend to be late night drinkers and occasional dancers, and the ships often are alongside quite early in the mornings. However, on this occasion, because the ship was arriving at a more reasonable hour and we had an excursion booked that we needed to meet in a lounge for, we were up early enough to grab breakfast and step out onto the top deck for a look around at this Colombian port first.

The area with the impressive skyscrapers as you approach Cartagena is called Bocagrande. We would get to admire the views of it as the sun set later in the day too.

We popped back to our room to pick up the essentials for the day: Factor 50 sun lotion and plenty of water because although it was quite cloudy in the morning you could feel the high heat and humidity already and knew without looking at the forecast that the clouds would likely get burned off by the sun in fairly short order. We could see the queue of tour buses all ready to escort us ashore from our balcony.

We headed down to the Explorers Lounge at the time we were due to meet for our excursion. There’s never any point arriving early for a Princess Cruises tour unless you’re a huge fan of sitting in packed, cramped spaces for far longer than ever seems necessary whilst fellow passengers who should know better try to persuade everyone around them that no, they’ve never heard of this “queueing” thing before and that really, since they’re paying then they should be allowed to disregard any instructions that might mean they don’t to get onto the bus first and the prime chairs right at the front where they can hold everyone up as they remember they’re carrying a ton of clothing and bags they absolutely must put above their seats before anyone else boards.

The disembarkation process was running a little behind schedule so we were forced to wait for a while. To entertain everyone during this pause I proceeded to the stage and presented my talk on the eventual heat death of the universe and why nothing anyone does really matters.

Of course that didn’t happen. Are you mental?

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll head ashore in Cartagena and start with a visit to the seventeenth century fortress of Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

Cruises of this sort of duration are all about the port stops and experiences, not about the ship, so for these final two days it was mostly just a chance for us to sit out on the balcony, read our books, have the odd drink or two (maybe more), and enjoy those moments when there’d be not another thing on the horizon in any direction, feeling like you’re the only people on a world of water, rocking from side-to-side and bobbing gently up and down.

Actually, there was far more of that rocking from side-to-side and bobbing up and down than a lot of people aboard liked – not us; we love the motion of the ocean – and that extended to putting the nets across the swimming pools for safety reasons. It’s the only annoyance when the ship hits nice swells like this because we love being in pools when in these conditions but the cruise lines increasingly stop people like us from enjoying it.

For this penultimate post from this Ruby Princess cruise travelogue series I’ll simply post some photos of a couple of events we did actually attend and the meals we had for the final two nights on the ship. People like looking at pictures of cruise ship food.

First up was the ship’s Tug of War competition contested between different teams of crew members aboard the ship. There were deck staff, dining room staff, bridge staff, room stewards, reception staff, bar staff, and others, and due to a little bit of rain and the need to not injure or disadvantage any team members this all took place on an area of the top deck where there was some artificial turf down in place.

It was all good fun and we were pleased to see that the bar staff who’d largely been in Crooner’s throughout this cruise and who we’d got to know very well during this time were ultimately victorious. Even better, a year later on Caribbean Princess we’d run into a lot of the same guys again and it was great to share photos and videos with them and say hello once more.

The second of the events took place on the final night and it was a Flag Parade featuring someone from each of the nations represented on board walking through the piazza to wave their flags and receive applause from the passengers aboard for doing such sterling work. Not the DJ, of course; he was a dick. But everyone else. At the end of the parade everyone was encouraged to come down and have a dance with some of the entertainments staff and no, no we didn’t.

Time to show the dinners we ate across these last two days. As I mentioned, people do like to see pictures of the food and menus on cruise ships and we like taking photos of the food because they add completeness to the cruise memories. People like what they like and those who sneer at these sorts of things are beneath contempt. And just think, if I never took photos of food then I wouldn’t have a picture of oil and vinegar that looks like a Japanese cartoon character.

On the first of the two sea days we dined in Sabatini’s for the second time on this Ruby Princess cruise, having already had a lovely meal on the first of four sea days in a row after our visit to Mexico. We mostly went for different courses this time around and all the food was equally lovely for this return visit to Princess Cruises‘ Italian speciality restaurant. We typically order the same food every time if we hit Crown Grill but there are more options to choose between at Sabatini’s so if we do visit a speciality restaurant on Princess ship twice then it’s most like to be the Italian.

And the final meal on Ruby Princess was the Farewell Dinner. There was nothing particularly special about it but everything was to a high standard as it had generally been throughout the cruise. It’s always sad to know that it’s the last meal aboard the ship, though.

So, a few events to round off this cruise but mostly lazing about for a couple of days, reading and drinking in the sunshine, and catching another American Football game on the Movies Under The Stars big screen out on deck too.

The final post in this series will see us arrive at Fort Lauderdale, Florida – a first visit to this American state for us – where the airboat ride disembarkation tour doesn’t quite go as advertised and there are some not-very-happy passengers around us.