silentbob007

Final thoughts: Cruising out of Galveston I have mixed feelings about cruising out of Galveston. In terms of efficiency, I have absolutely no complaints about the port. It was fairly painless getting on the ship and off and for the most part, all of the ground staff were friendly. It feels to me like a harder cruise port to use for non-locals (or those not within reasonable driving distance). Booking late, most of the better hotels in Galveston were already reserved. Transportation to/from the port really seems to be an issue, especially when compared to cruise ports like Miami or Fort Lauderdale that people might be used to. There are several different bus options either independently or from the cruiseline and there are private car services. There does not seem to be many cabs or Lyft/Uber available in the Galveston area however which means you probably do have to think ahead about transportation (and in my experience, reserving a Lyft ahead of time is not all that reliable). The car rental options don't seem to be an option on Sundays in Galveston which is bad timing for Allure turnaround days. If I were to book this trip again, I would probably do the same thing of booking a Lyft in the Houston area to get to Galveston and using the cruiseline shuttle to get back to the airport. The wrinkle in that plan would be if I were traveling with my son who in a normal car needs a carseat. There is a "waiver" for taxis but not for rideshare according to our driver going to the port as he talked about turning down rides when a seat was not available. I thought very hard about the risk-benefit of bringing the car seat for my son and the fact that my family were able to take him from Houston to the port in a car seat swayed me to not take it. Taking them out of the equation, we probably would have stayed in an airport hotel and then gone back to the airport to grab one of the bigger busses to the port. This is definitely something to consider when booking a cruise from Galveston, especially if it is perhaps the lower price of the cruise that makes it enticing. Take a look at how much the flights/transfers are going to cost you and factor that into the decision as well. Also keep in mind that Houston Hobby is still like 40 minutes from the port while Bush International is something like 90 minutes. Be careful with your flight times.

Random Rant #2 The Diamond drinks were very nice. In a few instances at restaurants we were not given slips for the drinks but we know they were rung up because our count was lower later. However, be wary of not receiving a slip at other times. I took my BIL for a drink on the last day at the Sand Bar and the bartender returned my card and said we were good. Turns out the guy fully charged me for the drinks and was trying to be cute about it … so there was a few minutes of my life wasted to talk to the Diamond concierge about it. It was taken care of, but they wouldn’t budge on the spa not giving my wife a free add-on (listed in the perks in the room letter) but instead taking the 20% off the treatment and add on and calling it good. Sure it’s “only” $20 but it greatly decreases the odds of us using the spa in the future and I’d prefer they actually give me what they advertise. Not yet best impression for the last full day of our cruise because it’s stupid little things like this that I will remember when making future plans.

Debarkation Since we were driving back Easter Sunday and also needed transport suitable for our son to IAH, I just booked the ship’s bus. I had to do this through my travel agent since Royal would not let me add it directly at $40/pp (it wasn’t in the excursions list but was instead an airport transfer). Some of the private buses were slightly cheaper, but I figured going with Royal would help in getting the right tags to get off, etc. We received tag 1 (I believe 1-4 were airport transfers) and the expected time listed was 8:15 AM. We got up and were still getting ready when they called tags 1-4 at around 7:30 AM. We finished up and were out of our room by about 8. The elevators were jammed so we ended up riding up to get down to 5. Once there, they had a line going back into the dining room and then filling into the promenade so that those getting off of the elevator were not immediately jumping past those already in line. Maybe 10 minutes later we were off the ship and in the terminal. There were 5 lines for those with passports to use face scanners and a single line for those parties with some or all birth certificates. We waited in that line for about 5 minutes and were quickly waived through. There was a slightly longer wait for the three elevators as we kept getting bypassed by genies and their groups. Once on the ground floor, all of the baggage was placed in sections corresponding to tag numbers. We grabbed our bags and headed outside. Outside it was not really clear where we needed to go but we eventually found a huge queue across the drive on the curb where people were lined up for airport buses. This was very chaotic and the line started doubling on itself since there was not enough room to keep people out of the street. Lots of people kept coming out seeing the line, trying to bypass it, only to be sent to the back and not allowed to just jump on the waiting buses. It took us probably 45 minutes to get boarded on a bus to IAH and we were literally the last ones to board that particular bus. Thankfully there were empty seats grouped in the back so my wife could ride with our son. It took about 90 minutes to get to IAH and at least in the back were unable to hear anything the bus driver said so we got off at the first stop because I verified which terminal we needed on my phone (and our bags had already been unloaded at the proper place). So it was maybe 11 by the time we were completely at the airport and had everything we needed. I don’t know if we would have had a shorter line for the bus if we had gotten off right when the tags were called but our flight wasn’t until 1:20, so we weren’t in a dire hurry.

Sorry I left this thread sit for a bit. Now that we are home and settled, let me give a a little more detail. We woke up on day 6 (Cozumel) with my son having a 105 degree fever. It thankfully went down with Tylenol, but we paid a visit to the ship’s doctor who found he had a severe ear infection and was able to give us antibiotics. So if you are curious, our visit to the medical facilities during their listed hours (not for Covid symptoms or gastric symptoms) cost $150 plus another $30 for the drugs they gave us. I have submitted the bill to our travel insurance, so we’ll see how that goes. The doctor assured us that he would be well enough to fly on debarkation day.

Shows Ice Games - We saw this the first night. As I said before, it’s not my favorite ice production but is still amazing for what they can do. We got there maybe 20 minutes early and most of the prime seats were taken. The “reserved” seats were in the back left as opposed to directly facing the front. As usual that huge section was mostly empty meaning that the standbys ended up getting better seats once that section was released to everyone. The guest act was a dancer with hoops. OceanAria - we went the evening of our first port day. The water was sloshing so much I figured it works get canceled but I guess they managed to squeak it in. There were no high dives from the tower or aerial wire performances. Still a nice show and my son was enthralled. The reserved seats were the first three rows in the middle. Comedy Live - the host joked about it being Royal Caribbean’s smallest venue and that feels true. Reservations went quickly and the standby lines were long with only a few getting in. First comedian was Nora Lynch and she was funny. The second comedian was Phil Palisoul and he was hilarious. Definitely adult oriented but not obnoxiously so.

Well we managed to dock in Cozumel today so there’s a positive though there was still some grumbling about the 7:30 AM arrival time. We didn’t do a whole lot on our extra sea day yesterday. It was our final “date night” with our family taking our son so we had dinner at Chops and then reservations for the comedy show. Service started a little slow at Chops for our 7:15 reservation. I ordered a couple of starters, the crab cake and beef carpaccio, that were fairly meh. The goat cheese salad was very nice. My wife enjoyed her shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare more than my starters. She was very happy with her petite filet. I thought the bone in rib-eye was nicely cooked but fairly under seasoned. Maybe I just want e feeling it last night. Since service took a bit, we got our desserts to go so we would make our 9:30 comedy reservation before they opened it up to standbys. My wife’s red velvet was good but my key lime pie was underwhelming and had almost zero key lime taste … it tasted like a sweetened condensed milk custard on a crust with meringue.

Yes, 11 AM was the first time slot. We were still getting documentation in order so I used the app and was able to skip to the time selection the day it opened (60 days out? I forget now.) and leave the rest blank. I don’t know that anyone actually checked our time at the Galveston terminal, however. Since I coordinated the bookings, I had the reservation numbers and was able to link everyone’s reservations to my app and reserve everyone in my party the same time.

Sea Days and Adventure Ocean The first two days of this itinerary are scheduled seas days. I wish I could say we ran around and did so many things, but we really didn’t. Even before having a child, I did not do a lot on sea days. I don’t really like being on the pool deck when the ship is empty let alone when there are 3,000 people running around. We did grab some chairs by a pool for a little bit on one day, but the wind was so high we were constantly getting water blown on us from the pool splash. On the first day, we took our son to try an hour in Royal Babies and Tots. We had registered the day before and reserved the hour. We had never left him with non-family before so it was a bit hard on him and his momma. They asked if they could feed him, when his nap time was, etc, and we left his bag with diapers and his pacifier. They put a sticker on his back with his name and muster station, handed us a portable phone, and told us he would be fine but that we could call if we needed to. We left with him sobbing and my wife sobbing, and headed down to Cafe Promenade to use his card for a free coffees. An hour later we were reunited and everything was fine and the staff reassured us that he calmed down after a few minutes and watched some TV while having a snack. There is an unattended play room in the middle of AO for smaller kids that our son enjoys. We can take him in there and he can play with the toys, play kitchen, play houses, and the small slide. I'm glad there are some play spaces specifically for him.

Yeah missing a port is always disappointing, especially with only a few ports to begin with. No substitutions for us today … it has just become another sea day. I’ve not caught all of the announcements but I’m assuming we’ll get refunded port fees at some point. We’ve just been chilling today. Plenty of pool chairs open this morning as the savers were caught unawares. I also did see a few of the no saving warnings on some chairs. Random rant #1 Same rant as before Covid … why do people feel the need to be so disgusting? Children get a little bit of a pass here, but I’m taking about adults. I saw someone taste a salad dressing in the windjammer by squirting on his plate, dipping his finger in it and tasting it, then using the same hand to grab the bottle and add more. Then the lady in front of me at Wipe Out Cafe today decided she would just eat chips out of the serving bowl while waiting in line then stink eyed the attendant who kept saying ma’am please no. Bring your personal bottles of hand sanitizer everyone.

Costa Maya I have never booked a tour in Costa Maya. I’ve been on Cruise Critic long enough that in the old days I’d go to town and beach at the Cat’s Meow. This time I figured I’d give Maya Chan a shot based on CC and vloggers. Double whammy. I received an email from Mark yesterday they were canceling because they had too much sea grass and couldn’t get it cleaned and offer the service they wanted to provide. This morning it became moot anyway … The captain announced the port was canceled due to winds and unsafe docking conditions.

Roatan Our just stop was Roatan. I booked a private tour with Victor Bodden for the day. It was very reasonable at $25pp for our whole group plus tour add ons. We really enjoy holding the sloths so we got off early (a little after 9 ship time) to get there before the sloths went to sleep. It was crazy in town but we finally got out and had a great time with our driver Tex. A few of us did a fishing add on that was very much not worth it as it was just the wrong time of day. Our family group got taken back to the ship while the others stayed at the beach for a few more hours. It is very nice to be flexible but have control of the itinerary.

Diamond Drinks This is my first cruise with “drinks on the card” not limited to the old lounge menu. It is nice to have such freedom so I expect it to end in the near future. I’ve been trying drinks I’d never get otherwise and still leaving plenty more on the card. I called before the cruise to have a C&A account made for our son. As a result, his D+ pin was waiting in the cabin when we arrived and he gets free drinks as well. I’m sure he would appreciate buying coffees and mocktails for his family members. He seems pretty happy with his few bottles of apple juice each day. This seems like the most respected perk for our new cruisers. Speaking of apple juice, I had never noticed it completely disappears off of the self serve lines after breakfast. This makes it harder when you have a crying toddler and you did not plan your juice retrieval appropriately. Thankfully several counters sell Minute Maid bottled juice. The Vitality Cafe in front of the spa seems to be an under utilized place to get smoothies, juices, and coffee drinks. I think most don’t realize it exists and it is a nice haven with good drinks and available seating away from the sea day madness of the Royal Promenade or Park Cafe. The Starbucks kiosk of the promenade is always busy and not available on any drink package or for a Diamond freebie.

Dinner and a Show As noted earlier, we had an early dinner at Giovanni’s. It was not super busy. We had great service from our waitress and the food was well recorded. The kids ordered from the kids menu which was free for our child and like $12 each for the other two. It took a little under two hours so we did not make it to our ice show as early as I works have liked and all of the closer seats were filled. I noticed a few changes in the menu from what was posted … notably no veal. The filet was very nice. I was less impressed with the meat and cheese board which was better at Jamie’s. My wife said the bolognese seemed gritty and didn’t hold a candle to mine. One more notch for me … my tiramisu is better too. 😉 The ice show was good as usual though Allure’s show is probably my last favorite because of its weird monopoly and ship location theming. It just always feels randomly self serving. After the show it was time for bed. Our child seemed to be enjoying the show until he fell asleep. Those 9 PM nights are rough.

Good idea. I actually asked him to come empty the trash this morning as there have been some unexpected bathroom issues this morning unfortunately. I have also just been folding up the sofa myself and piling the bedding next to it.

Adventure Ocean There was an open house for AO in the afternoon of day 1. We took our son up to register him and check out the facilities. We decided to try one hour on day 2. It would be our first time leaving him with non-family and my wife was hesitant about it even though everyone was very friendly and the 0-36 month area seemed very nice and secure. I believe costs for that age group is $6 an hour and they will change diapers, feed, play, and do nap time if desired. the ship is full of kids but it did not seem difficult to reserve space in this age group. Cabin We caught a lucky break and were able to book a 3-person GTY ocean view balcony cabin for a decent price. We ended up being almost all of the way aft, but I’m not going to complain considering the GTY saved us about $2000 from the cabin booking we were going to make. We met our cabin attendant and he told us Allure was now on once a day service. Dang it! This one does irritate me because tips have gone up so much (over $16/pp/pd) that I do not appreciate a drop in service, especially for a family room that needs a little more TLC given the tiny trash receptacles and diapers, sofa bed that takes up most of the floor space when open, etc. Even if they skipped the full bathroom cleaning and just reset the room furniture and emptied the trash in the morning, that would be more manageable.

Day 1 continued We boarded and headed straight to Central Park. I wanted a beef sandwich and I also wanted to book our specialty dining that our TA had comped us. Since we had ice show reservations at 8:15, I decided I didn’t even want to deal with the craziness of the MTD standby line and used our D+ BOGO coupons to book early dinner am for everyone at Giovanni’s. With reservations done, we went down to complete muster and grab some pizza. The new muster is definitely a world of improvement. Watch a few videos in the app, go to your station to get scanned, then you are done. It actually felt kind of weird not to have a time in the afternoon blocked off where we’d have to gather and then fight for elevators with every other person on the ship. Cabins opened at 1. By the time we made it there, two of our three bags had arrived. My son kind of cooked with the tablet while we unpacked and lamented his bag had not been the one to arrive which had his full supply of clothes, diapers, etc. A few bad visions danced through our heads while I kept saying it must have just made it on another cart. Sure enough it arrived maybe another hour later.

Reservations Reservations for this cruise have been frustrating to say the least. Part of this is from booking late. Part is from improper assumptions about how things work post Covid. Part is sheer stupidity on the part of Royal Caribbean. We booked late enough that MTD was the only option. Since we were crossing with newbies and my wife prefers specialty dining (or really Coastal Kitchen) over the MDR, I did not immediately make MTD reservations. The shows had also not been released either (and weren’t until right after the start of March) so figuring out timing was hard. To add extra complications, we were also trying to plan some date nights with kids swaps. Long story shorter, the day shows opened up I reserved them trying to keep our family schedule in mind. What I didn’t count on was MTD not ooening until 6:30. This ended up making the shows near impossible with our son. He can’t go to a late show or late dinner and nothing before 8:30 dinner reservations remained. Even if we tried to do standby and were actually seated by 6:45, we would not make an 8:00 show and have at least decent seats. My bad … I didn’t realize how bad MTD had gotten until it was too late, remembering it used to open before early seating on some ships but definitely not an hour after. Another example of scheduling woes works be Mama Mia. On our sailing it is offered on days five and six with a matinee on day six … which would be great but it’s a port day. No shows on Day 7 at all, the last sea day. I’m sure there’s a reason for it, but it strikes me as silly on its face.

Arriving around 10:30 the traffic for us wasn’t too bad. We had to wait a few minutes for drop off spots to clear but that’s it.

The planning piece We’ve flown several times with my son. The first two times I felt more like a pack mule than a person as we tried to juggle the checked bags, the carry on bags, the stroller, the travel crib, and the car seat. Now that my son is two and a half, we ditched the crib and I was trying very hard not to take the unwieldy beast of a car seat. We also now have a Mountain Buggy stroller that folds to fit in the overhead. When my BIL decided to drive, I asked if he could bring an extra seat for the drive to the port. Since we are coming back on Easter, I just booked us on the cruise line bus to the airport (out of IAH instead of HOB on the way home). With the stroller, my wife’s large purse, my son’s small backpack, my backpack, a single roller board, and my CPAP, it was still a lot to handle (in addition to 2 large and one small checked bags). The Holliday Inn Express in Webster was a compromise with the other family members who had already booked it. Otherwise I probably would have stayed at the Doubletree near the airport with a shuttle and then gone back to the airport the next day to catch a shuttle bus to the port since we did not have a car seat.

Galveston Probably my least favorite port to cruise out of in Florida is Port Canaveral. Nothing against the facilities, but the logistics being a bit away from Orlando MCO is more annoying to me than ports like Miami or Fort Lauderdale with fairly easy transport to the ships. Generally with PC, I’m in the fly the day before, get a rental car, stay in Cocoa Beach, drop at the ship, return the car, then go back to the ship crowd. Well … that’s not how it seems to work with Galveston. There are rental car agencies in Galveston, but they all appear to be closed on Sunday (when Allure docks). There are lots of hotels, but many of them were already booked solid by the time we booked the cruise. Add in flying in the weekend of the Final Four in Houston and leaving on Easter … planning has not been fun or cheap. My before mentioned extended family members chose to drive. We, on the other hand, flew into Houston from O’Hare on Southwest with a stop but not plane change in Dallas. Very bad storms made us change our plans from staying in Chicago on Friday night and instead got up at 2 AM to make our flight and arrive at Houston at 3 PM one time zone away. It was a long day. My family chose a Holiday Inn Express about 15 minutes from Houston Hobby. We took a taxi to the hotel and crashed in our room. The next day our son rode in our family’s van (with car seat) to the port while my wife and I grabbed a Lyft. We arrived at the port at about 10:30 (we had the earliest arrival time booked at 11) and there were still quite a few people waiting for rides (evidently taxis and ride shares were in short supply). The bag drop and check in was painless. We had to wait maybe 20 minutes to board since we waited to board with our newbie cruisers rather than jumping up go to when they called D+. We were on by about 11:10 or so I think.

Hi all … it has been years since I’ve contributed much but thought I’d share on our first cruise since the pandemic and our first cruise with a child. The unexpected cruise I had been whispering the word “cruise” in my wife’s ear for a while, but even this time last year, she was still worried about pandemic cruising with our son. Over the Christmas holiday, we had some family members ask us about cruising for spring break. They wanted to look at a Disney and I laughed and said I’d get back to them but that they were going to be surprised about the price, especially for the first week of April and still spring break season. I did research and most cruises on all lines were nutso bonkers expensive with one reasonable option being Allure of the Seas out of Galveston. They were interested and then suddenly my wife was too … right now she is still saying she will only cruise with a Central Park (which are the only ships she’s been on anyway) but that’s a battle for another day. We booked in January (so fairly late) and then I needed to figure out what it meant for midwesterners to cruise out of Galveston. Note: I will be wrong this in fairly short segments since I’m on my phone and it is not as easy for me to manage longer writing.

Sales are not really sales. Higher occupancy cabins are sometimes at a premium for the first two passengers.

I’ve had GS a couple of times on deck 8 and love the proximity to Park Cafe for quick drinks and food, especially in the morning.

I do miss Chicago on Allure. I suppose it’s a less “fun” option but was a great show. I have seen Mana Mia a couple of times (Quantum and Allure) but the rest like Cats were once-was-enough shows for me. I definitely sympathize with trying to find a show with broad appeal and manageable cast.

Most of my Oasis class cruises in the past were in Boardwalk balconies as I’d rather have the cash than the views. There would be some noise leakage but generally nothing to complain too much about. My wife who is new to cruising refuses to even contemplate anything but an ocean view balcony. Hey, we all have priorities. 😁