Our second cruise on this itinerary. 15 Day round trip from Los Angeles. November, 2015 on Ruby Princess. Our first time on Ruby. No Cuz, but Paul and Jody decided to join us.

Another “Princess Plus”. Princess offers a program they call the “Bon Voyage Experience”. This is available on select itineraries and allows guests to board the ship with you. It’s $39.00 per person and includes a photo, lunch in either the Main Dining Room or Buffet, and an optional tour of the ship with the Future Cruise Director. (the $39 dollars will be credited to a future cruise if booked within a certain time frame. BVE guests get to hang out until about an hour prior to setting sail.

Since we were going out of our home port, we asked Suzi’s BFF to drive us to the ship. In return, we would pay for her BVE. The best part of BVE is… As soon as In-Transit passengers board (Back to Back passengers are last to leave the ship but first to board), the BVE people get to board. So even if our designated boarding time is, say 1:00 PM, we get to board at 11:00 AM. SCORE!

After a nice lunch and tour of the ship BFF departed and we unpacked and prepared for the lifeboat drill! BTW, we had booked our favorite balcony stateroom, Lido 214.

We set sail at about 5:00 PM and at about 6:00 PM, the Captain made the following announcement. “We are expecting some rough seas ahead, so if you brought anything to help with seasickness, I would suggest using them now”. Comforting.

Fortunately, Suzi and I haven’t been affected by seasickness. I was a little queasy the first two cruises but never sick. Since then, we have encountered some pretty rough seas without issues. Well, it did get rough. During the night, the ship was making groaning noises like we’ve never heard. We were on a good roller coaster. The next morning, when we headed to the Buffet, we saw that the crew had taped seasickness bags all along the hallways. We didn’t think it was that rough. At least not now. Then we got to Horizon Court and there weren’t a lot of people there. The rough seas lasted 2 1/2 days…

First port, Hilo. Suzi and I took the tour to the Botanical Gardens. This truly was a photographers paradise.

The next port was Honolulu. All four of us booked the Scenic Drive of Pali Coast. We drove around Diamond Head, then up to the Pali Coast Lookout before heading back to the ship and downtown Honolulu.

Next stop was Kauai. Of all the port locations in Hawaii, Nawiliwili is my favorite because of the warehouse on top of the hill.

Suzi and I booked the Wailua River and Fern Grotto excursion.

Next port was Lahaina, Maui. Suzi, Paul and I did a walking tour that I found online. They offered 28 points of interest. We didn’t get to all but did get to quite a few including the old jail. This old jalopy was sitting in front.

And we’re on our way back for 5 relaxing days to Ensenada. Never got off the ship. Next day, home (after a stop at the Future Cruise Desk where we made our next deposit…)

In closing, the Ruby Princess became our favorite class of ship. Although we liked the separate desert areas in Horizon Court on Star Princess, the Main Dining Room on Ruby had restrooms and four elevators. Oh, it also had a Gelato Bar!!!!! 3 scoops for $1.50!