Yellow Fish cruises: Day 1: Embarkation on the Ruby Princess

Today was a typically long and busy embarkation day, so this will be fairly short tonight. But, as I lie typing this on a firm mattress in our favorite cabin, it is a great feeling to be safely on the Ruby Princess, to be marginally unpacked (we’ll fine tune tomorrow), to have had a great dinner and seen a good comedy show (Rollin J Moore), to have already seen friends Paul and Marlene (remember them from our cruises on the Pacific Princess in the Med?), to have been greeted with a bear hug by waiter Ricky (Pacific Princess in French Polynesia) and headwaiter Mehai (ditto), and, most of all, to know that this is just the first good day of many good days to come. I am tired, but so very content tonight. I’m also over the hump of the leaving-home transition and it’s all good from here.

We changed our alarm this morning to 2:30am. A continental breakfast was being served starting at 3am and our shuttle was leaving at 3:30am, and we didn’t want to feel rushed. G actually squeezed in a hot tub visit while I was showering, because it was open all night.

5am flight, 4 hours of sleep, no makeup,

And still he wants a selfie with me.

What a keeper. 😊

Getting through the airport with four big suitcases and two roll aboards and me on crutches was not fast, nor easy, but at least we had no runaway carts today. We arrived at the gate just as passengers needing extra time started boarding and we had comfortable bulkhead seats with lots of legroom. Once at LAX, we went to a Super Shuttle pick up area and were on a shuttle almost immediately (we had not pre-reserved) for $45 total. It was sunny, very hot and kind of humid and hazy today in LA, a great day for a sail away.

I think we arrived at the World Cruise Terminal in San Pedro just after the Ruby Princess did. The arrivals and departures of all cruise ships using the port have been delayed because speeds have been slowed in the area to protect marine life. However, we were able to check our large bags (which immediately made life easier) and had a seat in the terminal for a couple of hours. We managed to avoid the long Elite line (there must be a huge number of Elites on board) by using the check in line for mobility challenged guests, and were in the Elite lounge in the terminal by 11:30am. At 12:30pm, we were walking on the ship.

Happy happy joy joy!

I immediately went to the DaVinci Dining Room for lunch; G dropped the roll aboards in the cabin and then joined me. The salmon I loved so much is no longer on the embarkation day lunch menu (replaced by seared tuna), but the beef tenderloin G loves is, so he was very happy. I just had a starter and a salad and called it done.

When we returned to our cabin after lunch, all of our suitcases had already been delivered. We met our steward Noel from the Philippines, walked out on the Terrace Deck for a few minutes to take in the view, and went back to the cabin to start to unpack. It took until muster drill, which was held about 5pm, to get to the point where we could store the suitcases and move around the cabin. Like I said, we are flush with stuff this season.

We had requested a table for 2 in early fixed dining when I booked these cruises in May 2018. We were assigned a table for 8 instead. That would not do at all. G briefly left our lunch table to meet with the Maitre d’ during his dining consultation hours and came back to tell me we had our favorite table for two by a window for the duration of our season. After the muster drill, we went immediately to the DaVinci Dining Room and had a wonderful dinner ordered off a menu that was new to us. We sailed about 6:30pm and we watched from our dining room table.

Day 1 dinner menu, page 1

Day 1 dinner menu, page 2

Cuban Garlic Shrimp

Asian noodles and veggie stir fry

We were waiting in the Princess Theater for the show to start at 7:30pm when Paul and Marlene suddenly appeared in front of us. It was so wonderful to see them! They had texted us in May to ask about our winter plans, and a month later told us they had booked. Such excitement! We were all wiped out tonight, and immediately returned to our cabins after the show. They are onboard for 38 days; we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.

The alarm is turned OFF tomorrow. We are both going to sleep as long as we want. And those must be some of the nicest words in the English language.