Ruby Princess – On Board Activities
Before I get into the myriad of activities that were available on board the Ruby Princess, I want to acknowledge a crew member who always seemed happy to run activities. He was Jovi Ca$h (stage name?) and always wore a custom suit made from a fabric with bills printed everywhere. He had a funny way of weaving his patter into each activity while maintaining his focus on the activity.
Read the daily Patter and keep it with you, or use the Princess@Sea app, to remember what you want to do each day. I liked circling the times on the Patter to keep track of what I wanted to do. You can’t draw circles on your phone. It is really easy to overlook something you wanted to do.
There is no lack of activities to enjoy while on board. In fact, I found several cases where I had to make of decision between activities because there was so much going on simultaneously. If you find there are too few things happening on board, you might want to talk with your doctor about a change in your medications.
GAMBLING
Apparently if you win $1600 or more while gambling, the ship is required to report it to customs upon your return. The problem is that I don’t think that is net winnings which would allow you to deduct your losses against your winnings. So if you lost or spent $1600 on bingo cards/machines, and then won $1600, the customs people would only be told you won $1600. Taxes? In America, you can only deduct gambling losses if you file a Schedule A form and a lot less people are filing those since the recent tax law changes.
Gambling includes, but is not necessarily limited to:
- The main Gatsby casino’s machines
- Scratcher cards sold in the Casino
- A slot tournament in the casino ($20 each person)
- Bingo games (lots of them) in Club Fusion on deck 7. Paying $15 for a single card is the cheapest buy-in.
As was typical every time we played Bingo, the Casino desk outside Club Fusion tried to sell me more bingo cards than the two single cards at $15 each that I wanted. These people are pushy and obnoxious in their sales attempts. Stick to your guns and buy what you want. For us, it was just an optional way to spend some time when cruising between ports. I almost walked away one day, because the person was so pushy.
WINE TASTING
The Grapevine Wine Tasting ($25 pp) was as much an activity as a food event. Led by the Maitre de Hotel (Federico Arcos Cantos), the wine pairing with small bites was extremely educational. Federico is very knowledgeable in wine varietals and regions. Whether you want to learn more about wine or just enjoy some well designed pairings, this will be time and money well spent. It is a very large gathering of people, though, in case that would matter to you. There is a less expensive wine tasting option available on another night, but this is the one we attended and thoroughly enjoyed.
PLATINUM PHOTO STUDIO
Mr. T was the photographer and an excellent one he was. The daily Patter will have information regarding where you can reserve a free sitting. Mr. T really knows how to work his models (you) so your photos will be the most professional looking you have ever seen. Let him have his way and you will end up with incredible photos.
You will need to return to see the digitized images. There is no obligation to purchase anything and Mr. T was very flexible in what we wanted to see. We did end up buying 4 of the 8”x10” photos from the 50+ photos he shot (the 4th one gave a big discount). They were shipped to our house with foam packing sheets between to protect them and a pair of acid-free gloves on top to safely handle them without causing fingerprints. These photos may not have been cheap, but the quality was exceptional.
OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY
There will be many opportunities to have photographs taken on formal nights and when you arrive at the Ports of Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. These photos are posted for all to see and, of course, you can buy one if you like it. We were never impressed by the luau-like photos of us.
ATRIUM GAMES
Many games and events were held on deck 5 in the Piazza area which is adjacent to the mid-ship elevators and International Café. Look for the elevators in the photo. You will be in this area very often during the cruise.
Examples of the games in which you can compete for free include things like:
- Bean Bag Toss Challenge
- Giant Jenga Challenge
- Champagne Ring Toss Challenge
- Goofy Golf Putting Challenge
- Watercolors in the Piazza (musical chairs-like as 6-8 artists add something new for a few minutes to the previous artists’ additions) is a lot of fun to watch for non-artists.
- Egg Drop Challenge (not making egg drop soup, either)
- Paper Plane Challenge (make a plane and fly it straight … through a hoop)
ATRIUM ENTERTAINMENT
- Puppies in the Piazza (sled dog puppies brought on board for you)
- Daily/Nightly Piano Music
- Dixieland Jazz Orchestra
- And all kinds of other stuff you might encounter
NIGHTLY MOVIES UNDER THE STARS
The very first Patter distributed listed Movies Under the Stars titles under “This Week’s Entertainment Highlights”. It turned out to be Princess Cruises first failure to meet expectations they set during the cruise. The Patter is printed daily and the people in charge of the newsletter should know better. I personally think this is indicative of poor communication and a top-down failure to develop a culture of providing consistent world class quality.
In Juneau and Skagway, no movies were shown outdoors because of noise restrictions (in a working port?). The movie was, instead, shown in the Princess Theater.
The movies listed on the first night’s Patter newsletter were:
- Aquaman (but NOT shown … Arrrrgh!)
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Mama Mia! Here we go again. (NOT shown)
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Christopher Robin (NOT shown)
- Spider-Man: Into the spider-verse (NOT shown)
- The Greatest Showman (NOT shown)
- The Upside (NOT shown)
Movies shown, but not on the list were:
- Crazy Rich Asians
- A Star is Born
- The Favorite (In the Princess Theater on same night as Mary Poppins was shown outside)
- Hotel Transylvania 3
- Welcome to Marwen (the box office FLOP version … sigh) AND SHOWN 2 NIGHTS!!!!
The movies shown are available on your cabin TV the day after they are shown at large.
PRINCESS THEATER
This venue had everything from a comedian and a magician to stage productions with an orchestra. Again, the daily Patter or Princess@Sea will let you know what’s on stage. Libby Riddles, who won the Iditerod, was also in the theater talking about her race experiences and memories and signing her book.
LOTUS SPA
An open house on the first cruise day will get you a raffle ticket to possibly win a $500 spa voucher. There are also special treatment prices on certain days and announced in the Patter. The spa has an outdoor pool restricted to people under the age of 21 years old. And you can buy a 7 day pass for a couple to use the Thermal Suite at the price of $199.
Be forewarned that the Thermal Suite is coed and rather small with 5 heated lounge chairs, an inhalation room that accommodates 4-5 people, and a much larger steam room which can accommodate about 15-20 people from my estimate. Use of the Thermal Suite is complimentary when you book a suite cabin, but we found it to be crowded and loud so we only used it once. My biggest complaint is that this spa does not educate guests in the use of “spa voices” which is irritating to anyone who is a frequent visitor of luxury spas. But while it may seem to be such a seemingly minor complaint to some people; noise will keep me away as a spa customer forever. There is a reason the nearby area on the bow is called the Serenity deck and charges $20pp for its use. But it certainly didn’t seem serene as much as exclusive and without children.
