Sunday (01/04): A Marriage Proposal...Live!

I wanted to post this before I forget. Hubby and I watched the end of the Dallas/Detroit football game on Movies Under the Stars (MUTS) on the Lido deck #15. Basically, MUTS is a huge/gigantic LED screen where we can watch football, concerts, and movies here. There was a short intermission between the end of the football game and the start of the movie. A Princess rep came on and mentioned an important announcement was about to be made. Camera switches over to a guy who is talking about his girlfriend. After 5 minutes of talking to the camera, the LED screen goes blank. An intercom turns on and the guy continues to talk and proposes to his girlfriend...live! We are sitting a few feet away.  How cool is that?!!! The Princess photographers and camera guy continues to film and take pictures of their happy event. What a treat to be a part of this wonderful surprise and a first for us to experience on the ship.

Saturday (01/03): Onboard!

Ruby Princess
Temperature:  Warm and Delightful!

Cruise Life:  After getting our cruise card scanned, we headed up to the Dolphin deck #9 to check out our cabin. Again, we are in a mini-suite all the way forward on the ship. I was looking at the cabin map and we are the 14th cabin balcony from the front on the port side. Here's a hint...being this close to the front of the ship we're hoping to feel a lot more movement.

We left our cabin around 1pm to grab some lunch up in the Horizon buffet on Lido deck #15. For some reason the ship doesn't feel crowded. We decided to eat healthy on this cruise and watch our portions. Salads, veggies, fish, and watch the carbs. I made sure I left my plate exposed meaning not fill my plate that I couldn't see it anymore.

After lunch, we headed back to our cabin. We found our luggage waiting outside our door. Yes, all three made it onto the ship! I dropped Hubby off and went about the ship to take care of a few items. First stop was the Internet Cafe to sign on for free Internet minutes. Hubby and I get 150 minutes each for free since we are Platinum members. That may sound like a lot of minutes, but when you take into account how slow the Internet is on the ship...well, the minutes go by fast.

Next on my list was to get a Future Cruise Credit (FCC) form so we can purchase more FCCs for future cruises. We can use an FCC as a downpayment towards another cruise. Along with that Princess provides us with an certain amount for OnBoard Credit (OBC) depending on the length of cruise. I also picked up a brochure for future Caribbean cruise in 2016. Might as well start planning for the next trip.

I also picked up two glasses to keep in our room so we can enjoy our Chardonnay on our balcony.
I got back to our room around 2pm and found Hubby had started to unpack. Sweet! After an hour of unpacking and hanging out on our balcony we waited for the muster to start. Promptly at 3:30pm, we heard seven short blast and one long blast to signal it was time to head down to the Princess Theater with our life vest. Each cabin has two to three life vests. We are required on the Ruby Princess to take one the muster. We head down two decks to deck #7 and have our cruise card scanned before taking our seats. The muster takes about 30 minutes. We wait for everyone to file in and take their seats and then we listen to cruise director or captain to explain the muster signal and process. We watch the crewmen/crewomen demonstrate how to put on the life vest. Then we proceed to do the same with our own life vest.

Once the muster is finished Hubby and I head back to our cabin to watch the sail away. We've had gorgeous weather in Fort Lauderdale and I can believe how clear the day is with white puffy clouds in the sky. We watch as the Caribbean Princess is the first to leave. We listen to her horn blow. I always enjoy that sound from the Princess ship. As she enters the channel, I notice we are moving as well. I quickly take pictures and try to post pictures/status on Facebook (FB) as I know many of you are following our adventure.

Cruise ships docked in Port Everyglades:

Beautiful homes located along the port:

Sail-a-way:

We follow the Caribbean Princess out of Fort Lauderdale. Behind us is the Coral Princess who will be heading down to the Panama Canal. I had mentioned the weather was clear. It really was. This was the first time we could see the Florida coast as we sail away.


The Caribbean Princess is the first to leave:

Here's a nice perspective picture. The buildings on the left are condos:

Here we see beautiful homes along the way out of the channel:

Yes, that is Flow Rider on the right side of the house:

The USCG escorting us out the channel. You won't believe how many small boats/vessels try to come close to the cruise ships. The USCG does a great job moving them out of the way:

The coast of Florida:

There's not much on the agenda for this evening. Meaning...we're pretty tired and thinking about getting to bed early. I'm hoping to get all these posts published along with some pictures. It will either happen at 3am when everyone should be sleeping or sometime during the day when I can get a decent connection somewhere on this ship. Thanks for being patient!

Tonight's movie at MUTS (Movies Under the Stars-large outdoor screen):  NFL Football-Baltimore versus Pittsburgh

Saturday (01/03): Embarkation Day!

Ft Lauderdale:  Embarkation
Temperature:  75 degrees

Side note: I hope these blog entries are being posted in the correct order. I decided to put in the day of the week in my blog titles to help you along.

We wake up to find the Ruby Princess docked at Port Everglades.  I look out our balcony and see both the Ruby and Coral Princess in the distance.

Hubby has been keeping an eye on me and well, carbs that just want to leap onto my plate for breakfast. The breakfast I'm talking about is the Embassy Suites breakfast buffet. I've been doing really well with just eating some protein and veggies. My fave at this hotel is the tomato and spinach omelet. Next, is the hot oatmeal. Wished they had blueberries instead of raisins. Yum!

After our 7am breakfast, we headed back to the room to clean up and to do a final pack and tag with the luggage.

Before we left for our trip, I printed out our Princess luggage tags. There are really two ways to attach the luggage tags to the luggage handle. I normally staple the ends of the tag together. That meant I had to pack a tiny staple gun. Late last year, I found a tag holder on Amazon. I thought I would give it a try. Not really trusting the new tag holder, I ended up using the stapled tag on the side handle and the new tag holder on the top handle of the suitcase. This became a test to see if the new tag holder would get ripped off the handle during it's travel from the hotel to the pier and then onto the ship.

All three pieces of luggage were placed inside our room door at 8:45am. We waited in the room until 10:15am when the bellman appeared and picked them up. Hubby was anxious to leave and head over to the dive shop. I did a time check with hubby as we had 45 minutes to look/shop and be back at the hotel to meet with the Princess rep.

We got back to the hotel in time to check in with our Princess rep and proceeded to one of the ballrooms to validate our luggage was there. A few minutes later I see two of our luggage wheeled to the 1st tour bus. We board the first bus at 12noon and I see our third luggage which has our formalwear and my all my rechargers for my gadgets sitting with some other luggage on the curb. The Princess rep assures us the luggage will be put on the second bus (along with the other luggage going to the Coral Princess and the Caribbean Princess). Hmmmm....

We were less than 1/4 mile from the hotel when we run into a huge traffic jam. It appeared that everyone else was using the 17th Street Causeway to get to the beach or get to the port. It was amazing! Our bus driver dropped us off at the entrance of Terminal 2 and drove around the corner to drop off our luggage with the porters. That was one of the nicest and easiest "drop-off" we've ever experienced with Princess. It appears Princess does read our comments/suggestions we submit at the end of each cruise. Kudos!

We find and join the Preferred line for Platinum, Elite, and Suites. Our papers are checked and we head into security. At this point I forgot that Hubby had the bottle of wine in his backpack. We are told to head to another short line with a Princess rep. He looks over our papers, looks at our bottle and jots down some information. We are free to go along with our Chardonnay.

The next line we get into is for checking in and to receive our cruise card. We hear "welcome back" and we know we are home again.

The next two quick stops are for cruise embarkation photo op and then onto the ship to get a quick card scan and picture taken.

Friday (01/02): Fort Lauderdale Area

Today turned out to be a beautiful day! Hubby and I headed out in the late morning to do some last minute cruise shopping. We walked to the shopping center behind the hotel to pick up the Sun Trolley. This particular trolley's route took us along the beach front and ended up at the Galleria Mall. Perfect! We paid for an all day pass ($3/pp) and got stamped on our arm.

It took us a good 40 minutes with all the pick-ups and drop-offs to get to the mall. Wow! We were dropped off in front of PF Changes and Seasons 52 restaurants. Now, this is one beautiful mall.

Within an hour, we were able to find what we needed and decided to head back towards the 17th Street Causeway for lunch. We were bummed out yesterday that our favorite sushi place was closed for the New Year's. That was all hubby could think about as we were approaching the lunch hour. We arrived at Tokyo Sushi after 1pm. The last time we were here, two years ago, the restaurant was only open for dinner and it was busy. The restaurant was quiet with a few customers. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal of sashimi tuna, fried rice, asian salad, and an order of tuna rolls wrapped in cucumber. Yum!

After lunch we went back to Lauderdale Dive shop to find them closed for the second day. Hubby mentioned we could stop in before we leave for our cruise on Saturday morning. Hmmmm...that will require some thought and planning.

Next on our list was to visit Nature's Remedy shop. There, I was able to find a natural/organic bug spray to help deter any mosquitos we might encounter in the Caribbean. Better to be safe.

After all this shopping, a nap was in order. So, I thought. The weather was just doggone too beautiful to stay inside. We headed back out thinking we'd go back to the beach area. We waited at the trolley stop. We waited and waited. No trolley. We took off and walked along the 17th Street Causeway towards the draw bridge.

We spent some time watching all the yachts and small boats passing underneath the bridge. At one point, we were luck enough to see the draw bridge open to allow the tall sails to pass through.

We stayed out as long as we could and then headed back to the hotel. I had to do some repacking of the three suitcases as well as pack our winter travel clothes. From here on out, it's t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.

Friday: I know I'm Tired....

This morning, I hear a knock at our door and didn't think of anything.  The I heard our door open and shut.  Strange!  I ran to the the front of our suite to peek out the window and saw a bellman.  I answered the door to find him collecting luggage.  I almost panicked...now, thinking that today we're suppose to be leaving for the ship.  He apologized and mentioned there was a mistake.  Still....

I pulled out our travel documents and gave them to hubby to verify/validate when we're suppose to be on the ship.  Saturday.  Whew!  Hmmmm...now I wonder if the front desk thinks we're suppose to be checking out today.  I better make a quick phone call.

I think we're still recuperating from the holidays, the frantic packing, and lack of sleep.  It's all good.

Please be patient with me as I continue to post and work out my blogging issues.

Thursday: Fort Lauderdale

Hubby and I spent a lot of time walking around yesterday afternoon.  We visited our favorite shops only to find them closed for New Year's.  A minor setback as we'd have to spend our Friday running around Fort Lauderdale to get our last minute items.

We were able to shop at Publix grocery store located behind the hotel.  I whipped out my iPhone and started to the collect the items from the list I had started on my iPhone while on the plane.  Woolite, contact lens solution, extra large bottle of water, toothpaste, batteries, hair bands.  Just the basics.  The rest of the items we'll get on Friday.

I wanted to add that a TJ Maxx is now located in the same shopping center.  Some of the smaller shops have closed permanently and some have moved to a new location.  Our biggest disappointment was our favorite restaurant Fort Lauderdale Grill had closed.  I will miss their ahi tuna meals.

We had a late lunch at Gilbert's which consisted of Ahi Tuna with Asian Slaw.  Can I say awesome?!  It was delish!  Presentation was beautiful!  Ate everything with my chopsticks.  Practice, practice, practice.  Due to technical difficulties, I will back later to post a picture.

Our internal clocks were messed up by the lack of sleep and traveling before the crack of dawn.  One would have thought that we traveled across several time zones yet we only traveled two hours by plane.  To coincide with a late lunch, we ended up having an early dinner.  Geeeeeez!  We went to Carlos & Pepe's and had lots of chips and salsa and fish tacos.

I spent much of the evening redistributing/reorganizing the three suitcases to accommodate our additional purchases.  At this point the suitcase weight doesn't matter when it gets loaded onto the ship.  I also pulled out items we needed for the next day and a half.

By 9am, we were exhausted.  Lights out!

Traveling to Fort Lauderdale

We brought in the New Year by staying at a hotel near the airport.  I set the alarm for 3:30am.  I really didn't need to as I could not sleep.

We checked out of the hotel by 4:10am and sat and waited and sat some more and waited for our cab.  Our cab was 30 minutes late.  Yes, I was a bit agitated as I knew the JetBlue counter opened at 4:30am.

Now, I'm the type of person who does not mind getting to the airport two hours before boarding time. I don't do well with rushing and worrying.

Our cab arrived at 4:40am and we were off to the airport.  We reached the JetBlue counter to find two very long lines, snaking back and forth.  By that time, my head had sprouted two more white hairs.  It was a good thing I checked in the night before, but I couldn't pay for the extra luggage online.  So hubby and I waited.  After 5:10am, the lines were moving at an extraordinary pace.  Ten minutes later, we were going through security.

We decided to eat a very early breakfast at 5:30am:  egg and cheese on a bagel.

We boarded the plane at 5:40am.  While I don't like the rushed feeling of this morning, it turned out to be a blessing as I was soooo tired and just wanted to get on the plane and catch a few ZZZZZs.

Hubby and I landed in Ft Lauderdale two hours later.  We met our Princess rep near baggage claim.  Always a beautiful sight to see unlike our bad experience in Houston last year.  Once we gathered our luggage, she directed us outside to wait for transportation.  Now, at this point we never know what we'll get.  We've been in several limos and buses and about 90% of the time we have it to ourselves.

This morning was no different.  A tour bus stopped to pick us up.  We were the only ones on the bus.  Sweet!

So, we are now in the Embassy Suites.  We could not check in right away.  I grabbed one of the luggage and went to the ladies room to change into a short sleeved top.  We stored our luggage and the bellman suggested we enjoy the complementary breakfast. Second breakfast here we come!

We decided to stretch our legs and do some walking.  We didn't get too far and ended up Starbuck's for most of the morning.  I took the opportunity to recharge all of our gadgets.

Around 11am, I received a call from the Embassy Suites that our room was available to check in.  Sweet!  I was getting tired of carry my heavy camera/gadget backpack.  We packed our stuff and headed back to the hotel.

We have a beautiful suite with a decent size balcony that looks out towards the Port Everglades.  Saturday morning we should be able to see the Ruby Princess in port.

Hubby is now napping a bit.  In a few minutes, we're heading out to do some shopping for necessities.  Behind our hotel is a Publix grocery store, a Total Wines shop, a Nature's Remedy Shop and a Trolley stop (which will takes us to the beach later).

Be back soon....

Test Post with Picture

Okay, I'm still working with the blogging application. I now want to post a picture and see what happens and how the post looks.

Here's a picture taken in Cozumel 2014 of the Ruby Princess (yes, we knew we would be on this ship for 2015):

Don't mind me while I keep editing this picture post. :)

Note to self: captions under picture is not working....

Test Post for Today

This is a test post from a blogging application that I'm using for my Mac. As most know, the Internet connection on the cruise ship is sloooooow. Especially during peak hours in the morning and then throughout the day into the evening. Also, it can be hit or miss in the cabins and depends on the location of their Access Points or APs.

Instead of burning through precious minutes, I'm using a blogging tool/application. I've used this application on last year's cruise, but on a trial basis. My trial has now expired and I've decided to go ahead and purchase it. This application allows me to write my blog posts and add pictures offline. When I make a connection to the ship's Internet, I can tell the application to publish my post(s). It takes a few minutes to automatically login and push the data to my blog. Really cool!

So this blog post entry is my test to make sure there are no issues.

We'll see....

Results: looks like the application by default does not put in paragraphs. My sentences are just one long paragraph. For now, I'll have to add HTML codes to help with the formatting until I learn to configure the application....

Getting Ready for Our Next Cruise!

It's that time again!  Our next cruise starts in a few days.  This is a first for us to be cruising at the beginning of January.  Right after the holidays.

I'm just starting to gather our things.  Tech gadgets first of course.  Clothes next and then toiletries.

We will be heading down to Fort Lauderdale to start our vacation a few days before boarding the ship and to get acclimated to the warmer weather.

We will be sailing on the Ruby Princess.  Our first time on this particular ship.  I've heard wonderful things about the Ruby and I'm thinking this ship will more than likely come close to becoming our favorite ship. Right now, that honor belongs to the Caribbean Princess.

The Ruby Princess will be our home for two weeks.  Yes, we'll be doing a B2B.  Our first cruising week will cover the Eastern Caribbean and include Princess Cays, St Maarten, St Thomas and Grand Turk.  We get to stay on the ship and cruise into the second week which will cover the Western Caribbean.  We will be visiting Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel, and Princess Cays (again).

We are so looking forward to our cruising adventure.  For now, I need to pack and do some paperwork.  Be back soon!