The beautiful Ruby Princess was our floating hotel for a week--oh how I love cruises! The ship was brand new in November of 2008. It was our 4th cruise, but first on Princess Cruise Lines. The food wasn't as good as we remembered it being on previous trips but the ship was gorgeous and really--who cares where you are when you're away from kids and home and have 7 days with your sweet hubby???
We splurged for a balcony cabin and were upgraded 6 categories so we had a huge balcony with four chairs and a table. I don't think I'll ever be able to cruise again without our own balcony....
That is where you could find us more often than not. I finished a 600+ page book by day 5--we tried to play cards out there one night but a gust of wind took them flying to neighboring balconies so we stuck to reading and enjoying the fresh ocean air and loved sleeping with the sliding door open at night!
The day we stopped in Grand Cayman we woke up to this sight from our balcony...it was like a cruise ship parking lot in the water just off the shore. Some stops don't actually have a real dock--the ships anchor out a ways and use "tender" boats to take passengers ashore. On this ship they used our own lifeboats as the tender boats--it was nice to know everything worked as it should in case we needed them!
This was a tender behind us loading passengers to take ashore.
In Ocho Rios, Jamaica we went horseback riding and actually got to ride in the ocean. About halfway through the ride they unsaddled the horses and put bare-back pads on 10 at a time and we all changed into swimsuits and rode out in this bay in the background. We were so deep at times that the water was up to our waists on horseback--tons of fun!!!
Formal night on the Ruby Princess....
Thanks to My Michael for another awesome vacation! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course many, many thanks to Mike's mom who came to stay with all our kids for the week. We even left on the twins 3rd birthday with a 24-hour stomach flu going through all 5 of the kids, one at a time. Fortunately, Janice didn't get sick. See you in a few weeks, Mom.
We splurged for a balcony cabin and were upgraded 6 categories so we had a huge balcony with four chairs and a table. I don't think I'll ever be able to cruise again without our own balcony....
That is where you could find us more often than not. I finished a 600+ page book by day 5--we tried to play cards out there one night but a gust of wind took them flying to neighboring balconies so we stuck to reading and enjoying the fresh ocean air and loved sleeping with the sliding door open at night!
The day we stopped in Grand Cayman we woke up to this sight from our balcony...it was like a cruise ship parking lot in the water just off the shore. Some stops don't actually have a real dock--the ships anchor out a ways and use "tender" boats to take passengers ashore. On this ship they used our own lifeboats as the tender boats--it was nice to know everything worked as it should in case we needed them!
This was a tender behind us loading passengers to take ashore.
In Ocho Rios, Jamaica we went horseback riding and actually got to ride in the ocean. About halfway through the ride they unsaddled the horses and put bare-back pads on 10 at a time and we all changed into swimsuits and rode out in this bay in the background. We were so deep at times that the water was up to our waists on horseback--tons of fun!!!
Formal night on the Ruby Princess....
Thanks to My Michael for another awesome vacation! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course many, many thanks to Mike's mom who came to stay with all our kids for the week. We even left on the twins 3rd birthday with a 24-hour stomach flu going through all 5 of the kids, one at a time. Fortunately, Janice didn't get sick. See you in a few weeks, Mom.
