Leaving Ireland and Boarding The Ruby Princess

    We were up very early this morning. Breakfast was scheduled for 5 am which meant that we had to be up and out by that time. Really who can eat a very nice buffet breakfast at 5 am! The tour ended yesterday and all that was left was to go to the airport here in Cork and fly to Heathrow and then bus to Southampton, summer home of the Ruby Princess.

    The reason for the early breakfast was that we were scheduled on a 7:20 flight out of Cork and needed to get to the airport in plenty of time. Most of the 41 people on this pre cruise were punctual and generally we left within a few minutes of scheduled departure. All went well with Julian out tour director doing a fine job of making sure everyone got through the gate. I should not that this Princess tour was actually conducted by Globus Tours. They have an excellent reputation for land tours and this one was certainly up to their standards.

   Arrived in London, no customs or immigration to navigate no bags to collect as we had sent all our luggage on the nigh before last. Now the fun began. The agent that was suppose to meet us was a bit late in holding up her sign. There were plenty of other Princess people there to guide us to the right agent. Of course the bus was not there for who knows. We heard about 10 different stories from a delayed bus from the ship, a new driver, airport security, etc. We waited about 2 hours after landing before the driver found us or whatever. 90 minutes later we were at the ship.

   

Dinner Companions

We were in Southampton a few years ago but the facility they use now is brand new and the check in procedure was quite slick. The longest line for us was the one we were in to take our picture. This was because we have reached “Elite” in the Captain's Circle. Our luggage was waiting for us at our room when we arrived. Sending it along beforehand was a great idea. It meant that we had all our things stored within minutes of arrival. We cancelled the Cork tour and then had lunch. The sailaway party started at 5 pm and we were on deck for a nice sunny departure. It was different from others that we have attended. The cruise staff was about and simply walked around, unlike other parties where they gathered and encouraged dancing.

Ruby Princess At Anchor

    Dinner was a bit chaotic as is usual on the first night. We have a new assistant waiter who was “overwhelmed” by it all. Dinner was very tasty as usual. We are seated at a table for 8 but we think only 6 are assigned to it. There is a family of 4 from California; mother father and 2 collage age boys. This is rather different than the companions that we have had in the past. However since this is the first night after people have travelled, we think that a couple did not make it to dinner.

   We did get to the first night entertainment but were late arriving due to the first night dinning delays. We did hear that there are 3200 passengers aboard 1800 Americans, and about 300 Canadians. So far we have only met about 10! Sailing to Guernsey overnight.