Cruising Ruby Princess

This was my second time cruising Princess’ Mexican Rivera. It’s a total of 7 days with 3 stops: Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. I took a Spanish lesson on board, competed in a charades contest, played basketball, relaxed in the Jacuzzi multiple nights, danced, solved a theft mystery, and ate my heart out. Keep in mind, I wasn’t too involved with the activities on board. I was very lenient with what I wanted to do and spent a good portion of my time in my room relaxing and watching movies.

The safety drill at the beginning of the cruise was super easy. All we had to do was go to our designated muster drill area, scan our key card, and sit down. We no longer have to bring our life jackets.

I took this cruise in early January (5th-12th) and the weather on the ship was a bit cold (hello, moving ship in the Winter!) but at port in Mexico, it was HOT! I was walking around in Puerto Vallarta convinced it was actually Summer. I saw almost no kids. The groups on Princess were adults of all ages and mostly couples.

In comparison when I took this cruise for the first time in of March 2017, it was more packed with kids. So keep this in mind when booking your next cruise, obviously, when you travel during Spring-Summer, more kids will be on the ship because they’re out of school.

The Breakdown

Pros:

Food! My first time attending this cruise back in 2017, I honestly couldn’t find anything I liked in the main dining room (“MDR”). But I can confidently say, I loved every dish I ate this time around. Since I have a huge sweet tooth, my favorite dessert to eat was creme brulee and their pistachio pudding (and I normally hate pistachio pudding). My favorite main dish to eat in the MDR and the buffet was the fish kebab.

The buffet was a safe guarantee to have good service.

The entertainment staff were talented, outgoing, and fun.

I loved playing charades on the ship (well, you can speak but you can’t say what the the noun is). Everyone who came participated it in and the time management was perfect. It never got boring.
The interior cabin was clean and spacious. I was very surprised by the movie selection on the cabin’s tv. I watched so many great shows and movies. They even had live channels available. The room included a mini fridge so you can save your pistachio puddings for later.

Cons:

(Side note: Although my cons list does look like it outweighs the pros but that’s not true. They were just little annoying things while cruising. I would book this exact same cruise in a heart beat.)

The complimentary princess cup was not included when we purchased the drink package. We had to ask for it and there were countless amount of people on the cruise who didn’t receive their cup either.

Some of the menu options in the main dining area were misleading (saying something was buttered when it had a light sauce that wasn’t butter, describing the featured soup as having fish but it was actually fish flavored)

In the main dining area, even when I tipped the server’s assistant in cash before hand, trying to get refills was difficult with the exception of one section I sat in. I would keep in mind the service can be a hit or miss in the main dining room.

I had a server lift up my chair in the main dining room to get around me instead of asking me to scoot in a bit. (I didn’t mention anything in the moment because I thought the person in my party did that or else I would have said something).

The theft “mystery” on board was not intellectually stimulating so I am disappointed in the useless facts that was presented and how obvious the “mystery” was.

Towards the end of the cruise, the announcements were excessive, annoying, and unnecessary. I personally don’t think an announcement needs to be made unless its important. I don’t need to know the seniors are having a dance competition at 4pm on deck 6.

The Shore Excursions

Cabo San Lucas

In Cabo we took a water taxi around Cabo and visited Lover’s Beach thanks to “Six Finger Tony”. They have tons of water taxis available to purchase once you get off the ship. I relaxed at Lover’s Beach (on the other side is Divorce Beach).

If you want to book “Six Fingers Man Tony” you can contact him at (011 if dialing from USA) 52-624-135-6107. He was a fantastic host and does fishing tours and different water activities.

Mazatlan

Walked to Devil’s date, saw the cliff divers, visited the cathedral, and tasted the most amazing chocolate shake I have ever had (from Kuka Monga). We walked to these locations and the church was free of entry. They accept donations. They have a beautiful Jesus statue right outside of the Cathedral. One thing that surprised me about this port is while we were walking there were American volunteers on every block guiding the cruise ship passengers on where to go.

Puerto Vallarta

This was the port that was the most important to me, where I wanted to specifically go somewhere/ do something. I wanted to visit the Puerto Vallarta Zoo.

After reading some of the negative reviews on TripAdvisor, I was a bit concerned. Being a big animal lover, I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I would be very sad for the conditions these animals were put in.

For ~$10 via Uber from the cruise port, I was able to make it to the Puerto Vallarta zoo, which is about a 45 minute drive. Our driver took us right to the entry of the zoo. For $85 USD, I was able to gain entry to the zoo, get a bag of food to feed the animals, hold a variety of felines, get a drink, and a souvenir.

I had such an UNBELIEVABLE time at The Puerto Vallarta Zoo. I was able to get so close to the animals and feed them. They had pigs, a giraffe, ducks, all kinds of felines, parrots, twos wolves, rabbits, goats, a bear, a very sassy hippo & ostrich (to name a FEW). Such a dream come true. I also very surprised how HUGE the zoo was & how happy, friendly, and playful the animals were. I am dying to visit Puerto Vallarta again just to come back to this zoo. The staff was very friendly.