Onboard the Ruby Princess

After a nice trip to the Florida Keys, Mike and I woke up ready to board our ship and start our 10 day cruise to the Caribbean.  We boarded the ship at about 1 p.m, and went to the Cafe Caribe for a little lunch.

Our cabin was on the Baja deck, B754.  It was located at the very back of the ship, an aft "fantail" cabin.  We liked it because we could look out over the wake, and see out over both sides of the ship.  What a great view!

The Ruby Princess is the newest ship in the Princess fleet.  She has over 900 staterooms, 5 restaurants, a beautiful atrium, shops, 5 swimming pools,a library, internet cafe, a theater for production shows, "Movies Under The Stars", and lots of gorgeous lounges.  She held over 3000 passengers!

Our ship was set to sail at 5 p.m., but first we had to have our lifeboat drill.  We all had to report to our muster stations and put on our lifejackets. 

There were six other ships at Port Everglades the day were left.  When it was time to set sail, there were already three ships ahead of us.

Mike and I went to the Outrigger Bar for the sailaway, and met a few friends we had met on the internet.  I am part of an online group of people who discuss cruising, on a website called "Cruise Critic".  It is a nice group of people, and we have made several good friends.  We enjoyed watching the skyline of Fort Lauderdale fade away as we sailed toward the Caribbean.  Princess Cays is next!

Our Cruise to the Southern Caribbean -- Chapter 1, Key West

Mike and I took a cruise in March!  We have discovered that we love cruising...and contrary to some people's idea of cruising, we do not just sit around in lounge chairs, sip margaritas, and eat all day.  We may or may not do SOME of that :-), but we tend to be very active on the ship and do very little actual laying around. We also take lots and lots of off ship expeditions.  The pictures and posts that follow this one will attest to the fact that we keep very busy!

We took a red eye flight from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale and arrived at 6:00 a.m.  We rented a car and stopped at a nearby Denny's for some breakfast.  Our cruise didn't leave until the next day, so we had a whole day to spend in southern Florida.  After some debate, we decided to drive to Key West!  I have always wanted to drive on the Overseas Highway, it stretches 190 miles from Miami, across the Gulf of Mexico through the Keys, and on to Key West.  We were tired, but figured, "How often are we able to drive to Key West?"  So, away we went.

Along the way we had to stop for an obligatory pose (below) next to Seven Mile Bridge.  This is the longest span of highway that is over open ocean.

After we arrived in Key West ( a really l-o-n-g drive!) we visited several of the tourist spots on the island. 

Here we are at the buoy that marks the southernmost spot of the continental United States.  In 2008 we visited Barrow, Alaska, which is the northernmost spot.  It is kind of fun to have been to both.  Now we need to do the easternmost and the westernmost!  Hawaii, maybe?

We visited the Ernest Hemingway home, although it was closed.  We still got to take a picture of the outside, though!  The funny wire fence is there to keep the six toed cats inside.  Apparently Hemingway had some, and the cats that live there now are descendants.

Another item on my so-called bucket list was to have Key Lime Pie in Key West, so we stopped at Kermit's (THE place for key lime in Key West!) and had a yummy piece!

Here we are after eating our pie...

Another famous landmark is the southernmost beach, at which we also had to have the obligatory picture:

So far we have seen the southernmost marker, the southernmost author's home, the southernmost beach, the southernmost key lime pie, and now we must see the...(drum roll, please)...southernmost sunset! 

It WAS beautiful!

The next day we boarded the Ruby Princess! 

More about that, next post!