There is no feeling like waking up in the morning knowing today you are getting on a ship! We head off for some breakfast and get our latte. We know from experience that when you have a rental car the smart thing to do is drop all your bags off at the pier first and then take your rental car back and then take the shuttle minus all the extra weight back to the pier.
We arrive back at the pier a little later around noonish and we quickly go thru the lines and take our position in the lounge with others while we wait for Princess to clear the ship. Apparently the ship had an issue on the last sailing with Norwalk so the ship is getting a head to toe cleaning and this is delaying our embarkation.
As soon as we arrive we see Mike and Sue, then Karen and Allan, then look there is Jerry and Rose, and oh yeah Cameron, wow what a great welcoming group. We met all of these people on various past cruises and are so excited to sail again with all of them. Later on we meet up with Bill and Cathy too.
We are in a balcony cabin that is one deck up from the Crown cruise, we are located in A714 and Gabriel is our cabin steward. As soon as we come into the room we notice a strong smell of smoke, obviously the previous occupants were smokers. Gabriel says he will take care of it and he does along with our other items that we need.
The cruise director is Lisa Ball, we have had her as a CD before but she is a little over the top and I find she isn't one of my favorites.
Princess last year announced that they will now open up one of the dining rooms for lunch on embarkation day so we and a few others head down to find out if the Ruby is doing this too. It has occurred to us on other ship that some just don't do this, or they don't know anything about it and say it is just for the back to back people. It is sad when you have to actually show them the press release saying that it is open to all. The waiters we find are a little cool like because we are eating there on the first we are actually bothering them.
Definitely going to the sail away today, especially since we missed it 10 days ago on the Crown because of poor weather.
Great friends, make great laughs, make a great time.
We decided tonight we are heading up to the Horizon Court for the Seafood buffett. It is much better than it was on the Crown because there are lobster claws, and also shrimp, crab and lots of other things. I don't know how they can make any money because I sure ate my share of lobster claws.
Because of the Norwalk Alert we notice a few things that are different to limit the spread of the virus. In the buffet you are handed your plate and then if you want something some one from the staff will put it on your plate. When you sit at your table, they bring you utensils, salt and pepper are in little packets (in the dining room the waitstaff will actually shake salt/pepper onto your food). If you want a beverage the staff will get it for you. Around the ship you see cleaning staff wiping down everything constantly like the stair railings.
Because of the Norwalk Alert we notice a few things that are different to limit the spread of the virus. In the buffet you are handed your plate and then if you want something some one from the staff will put it on your plate. When you sit at your table, they bring you utensils, salt and pepper are in little packets (in the dining room the waitstaff will actually shake salt/pepper onto your food). If you want a beverage the staff will get it for you. Around the ship you see cleaning staff wiping down everything constantly like the stair railings. 
We are so excited to be back on board, and the Ruby is lovely and we are with great people, it can only get better.
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