Ruby Princess was our home and the Caribbean Sea was Ruby Princess’s home for the final two days of this cruise that had us travelling from the west coast to the east coast of America via the Panama Canal.
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.