Our quick 7-day Caribbean Cruise started and ended at the Port Everglades Cruise Port. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale late the evening prior to cruise and stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. This was a great choice as the hotel had a complimentary shuttle from the airport and to the cruise port.

We arrived for embarkation at about 11:30. Since we are Princess Platinum, we moved quickly through the check-in process and were on-board and unpacking by Noon. We always carry our bags on so we don’t have to wait for luggage to be delivered. After grabbing a quick lunch at the buffet we were off to explore the ship.

Staterooms are pretty much the same on all Princess ships and on the Ruby we had a balcony cabin on Baja. I specifically chose this deck because of the balcony configuration. The decks above do not look down on our balcony as opposed to those below, which we over looked. Read more