rlindholm

30 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

They do have the paper straws onboard. Those are the gooey candy straws the OP is talking about. Different names for the same thing. Paper wrapped and gets sticky and gooey after a while but they did have them at bars and the coffee place.

 

Luckily I brought 2 new plastic straws with me I washed out in my cabin to reuse.

Yeah pretty much straight sugar with maybe a little bit of starch to keep them from dissolving too quickly.  I took a few bites at first when I thought they were cute and fun. They have lime and chocolate for sure.  Maybe one other flavor.    

Maybe I missed this in my hours and hours of sitting on this forum before I cruised.  But carnival no longer provides straws except "candy straws".  Not a huge deal and the candy straw was cute and fun the first couple of times.  But they get gooey and gross after a while.  So if you like your frozen or fruity drinks you would normally drink with a straw, take one of your own to avoid face freeze when your frozen drink all sloshes forward and hits you in the face when you are trying to drink out of the cup.  😄

Just off the Vista and someone who went to the first morning show said that they said we were sailing with 39 ish % capacity.  I kind of find that hard to believe but I guess that could be right.  On sea days, only about 50% of the chairs by the pool were taken.  So whatever the capacity was, it was obviously low.  It was really nice.  

4 minutes ago, mondello said:

Most likely true but of course pilots union head denies it and says they're doing their best to function under poor management.

Oh its true.  I know someone who's husband is a southwest pilot.  We are currently stuck in Houston because a ton of the Southwest flights yesterday were cancelled.  It was pure chaos.  They wouldn't give you your bags back (even though they were still in the airport), airline tickets spiked on other airlines, there are no rental cars to be had, hotels near hobby were in short supply.  

I'm not sure what some people did.  We took a $100 Uber to Bush international and got a hotel near there,  and I managed to get us flights out tonight at 8 pm.  ABC news came to our hotel to interview us.  I'm telling you, its a hot mess.  Originally Southwest rebooked us for Monday night.  48 hours later, with no bags and no concern for what in the world we were supposed to do between now and then.  Uh yeah, no thanks.  Its very inconvenient for us, but not life  changing.  But for some people, with small kids, their meds in their checked bags etc and no money in the bank, it was really really stressful.  

And I know that people are going to get on here and say, well you should have backed your essentials in your carryon, and that's true.  But It was a direct flight, i wasn't super worried about losing my bag, I could just go home and get whatever I needed.  Never expected for them to cancel a flight and keep my bag.  Like I said, its inconvenient but not life altering.  I feel bad for the southwest employees who have to listen to pissed off customers for hours on end and no end in sight.  I probably won't fly SW again simply because of the way they have handled this.  They lied and told people it was air traffic control issues and weather.  Everyone at that point knew it was walk offs because of the COVID vaccine mandates and just because they started in traffic control in FL doesn't mean that's the cause of all of the 1400 cancelled flights.  Just be upfront.  People respect that. 

I don't think they actually use the facial recognition for getting on and off the boat at ports.  They still scan your card, it pulls up a picture of you and they ask you to pull down your mask and they make sure you look like the picture. But as far as the actual facial recognition, its used when you get on and off for the first time.  You look at a screen where you can see your own face, once it recognizes you, it gives you the green light.  But the only time we did that was before entering the ramp for embarkation and in customs after debarkation.

On 10/9/2021 at 10:56 AM, Bevv said:

In the past in Galveston there was an "on time" line and an "early or late" line. When you got there determined what line you got in. Once you get in the building you board by your boarding group.

My last cruise (Sept 13th on the Breeze)  we had a noon check in time. It was pouring down rain. When we got to the port they were allowing everyone in the building with no regard to check in time.
 

we just got off of the Vista on Saturday.  It was pouring when we got on, streets flooded etc.  They still have people going to the on time line or early/late line.  We got there at 1045 for the 10:30-11 check in time.  Everything went very smoothly and we only sat down for about 15 minutes before they called our A04 boarding zone.  

Just a few pics.  The food is from sea day brunch. The guys said the 24/12 hour French toast was awesome.  Not sure why it switched from 24 hour one day to 12 the next. 😂

I’ve had a little bit of trouble posting on here in the past day.  Replies would not go through.  Anyway sea day brunches were delicious both days.  All of the food has been good actually. We went to JiJis last night and it was great.  Just so much food. I’m not used to eating like this so I have to remind myself I don’t have to eat it ALL.  
 

mommy son got a tray full of hot food dumped on him in the MDR the night before last. They gave him complementary laundry to get the stains out and wanted to send him to the medical center.  Besides sone red skin no on his chest and side he was fine. They called the next day to follow up too.  Our main concern was that someone might get in trouble.  But it wasn’t anyone’s fault, their system is set up for accidents like that to happen.  It’s crowded, busy, and everyone is trying to be as quick as possible.  A guy was carrying a tray loaded with plates.  Another server reached over and took off a couple of plates before he could set it down on the already full counter.  That set the whole tray off balance and…. TIMBER!!!!

We played a little roulette, won about $28, which is good in my book since we rarely gamble.  We are sitting at Mahogany Bay now. I don’t think anyone is allowed off yet but I have door closed and can’t hear announcements.  We will just chill, get some breakfast, wait for the grounds to get off, and then get off and walk around, maybe walk down to the beach.  
 

Oh, we met some people in the hot tub who had gone to the first morning show and they had said we are sailing at less than 50% capacity which I was surprised by.  I’ll have to confirm that. 

4 hours ago, groundloop said:

 

You'll be paying full price.  Also, the drink menu will be limited because Texas law only allows the sale of alcohol purchased from Texas distributors.

 

Here's an article that explains it:  

 

https://www.cruzely.com/answered-first-day-drink-packages-and-alcohol-on-galveston-cruises/

Also we noticed on the first day out of Galveston they automatically included gratuity.  Not sure what that was about but on day 2 after we got cheers gratuity was not included. 

3 minutes ago, richfret said:

If I remember right, there were always separate coffee machines on the ship and I could get coffee 24 hours a day.  There was also hot chocolate.

Found it! And it’s nice and strong!

What’s the best way to get early morning coffee? Unfortunately I’m an early riser even on vacation and I like having coffee first thing. The sun is not up yet and I’ve been laying in bed for an hour wishing I had coffee.  The lido buffet isn’t open for a while yet but will they have coffee out? Should I just do room service every morning and ask them to leave it outside? 

Well I got my water from the atrium bar. I think I forgot to sashay on the way though. And it’s actually really hard to look “hoity poity “ fanning yourself with a tiny gold card.  Whoever said I needed a gaudier fan was right.  

Here is the circle c agenda for the day 

my son is in club O2.  I’m not sure what they did last night because he got back after midnight and I was too tired to talk.  But I know he had a ton of fun and at least 12 of them have plans to meet at the IMAX at 11.  I’ll get more of the scoop at brunch. 

first towel animal of the cruise.  It looks like it’s been a disappointing day for this octopus. 

We always love going to the piano bar.  It was not quite as fun as it usually is and this guy lost his crowd at about 11 pm.  But he did do “piano man” playing both the harmonica and piano at the same time.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done.  Not a great picture but there he is.  I’m not sure he had ever heard some of the songs requested but it was amazing how he could play and sing just off of the music without previously knowing the song. That’s some talent! 

6 hours ago, princess76021 said:

love, love, love this!!

thank you sooooo much!!!

cucina is usually our first stop to!

 

much love for this!!

We didn’t know exactly how to get to it so we walked around the deck in the rain.  I don’t think my family believed there was an open restaurant up there. But we made it. 
 

first night in the dining room.  Food was good. The breeze zoomed past us while we were eating.  

44 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

My advice is to end all the stress!!! Fork out the $100-$150 fit the BinaxNow tests. 2 days before the cruise, wake up, login, follow the proctors instructions, fingers crossed for negatives, then sail with free. It eliminated all with for me and we cruise Thanksgiving also. Chi-workers took "24-hour" result test locally. They got them 3-days later. I am not even going to play that game.

What boozin said.  It’s going to be stressful. I matter what until you get the negative results but as far as testing, the EMED tests couldn’t be easier. And although I haven’t done it yet, I’ve heard you can get refunded for the tests if you submit to the insurance company. Also there used to be long waits for the test but 3 family members did our tests Thursday at different times and none of us had to wait more than a minute. 
 

Order the tests and you can let go of some of the stress. 

On 10/1/2021 at 9:12 AM, stellarose said:

I would print as much as you can. I am. I want no questions at check in.

During our check in today in Galveston the lady just held up her screen with our online health assessment and asked anything had changed.  
 

she was very thorough with checking the tests and vaccine cards through.  I was a little nervous because my husbands name is Robert but his vaccine card said Rob.  You would THINK that would be no big deal since everyone knows Rob is short for Robert.  But…. I was still nervous.  It was all fine though.   There were no lines yet so maybe that was why she was more thorough than people have been reporting. 

I just boarded the Vista and our first stop after the muster station was the cucina del capitano.  The people in front of us walked up and asked they could order to-go and the staff was super accommodating.  I know it’s not the same as sea day brunch but just saying some restaurants do t seem like it’s a big deal. 

5 weeks and we did expedited mid July.  They had just changed the expected time to 12 weeks for expedited.  I’m thankful it was much quicker than that. 

first glimpse of the ship.  The Breeze is here too.  

The view from deck 11 on the search for Cucina del Capitano.  It’s been very strange, we had A04 boarding but even with that in mind it just feels empty.  

uber ride into Galveston. 

On 10/1/2021 at 6:38 AM, princess76021 said:

i will live my cruise vicariously through everyone until i can get on a ship!!!

thanks all for posting their experiences!!

hugs to all

Well I doubt your cruise would have started quite like today’s cruise. It’s raining and lots of streets around the port area flooded.  So we have wet shoes but that’s not keeping anyone down.  Check in was a breeze and just waiting for A4 to be called.  

2 hours ago, dude_hdt said:

Vista.  I'm about 30 minutes from Galveston so too convenient to frequent whichever ships ports here.

We will be on that one too. 🙂

We fly out today but don't leave home til after 1PM.  I was hoping to sleep in to make the time go a little quicker, but nope.  I'm like a kid on Christmas.  

50 minutes ago, princess76021 said:

i did have the cruise for september 25 to october 2,  i had to cancel 🤕 that is why i was hoping someone was on now and tell me what i am missing!!! 

 

i'm hoping to be able to cruise in march, after all our medical crap is hopefully over!!

 

thanks for this

hugs

I can give you a one week delay idea of what you are missing if that helps?  I'm sorry you guys had to cancel.  Hoping the chemo does the trick and you will be cruising again soon.

1 hour ago, dude_hdt said:

Sailing Saturday.  Scheduled the first test at Walgreen this morning at 9:30a.  Got email 3 hrs later about Rx ready to pick up...whatever that means.  Around 5p, my Walgreen account showed Rx picked up which I took to mean they are finally processing my test sample.  At 6p, got NEGATIVE result!!!  Now I can finish packing.

 

Compared to early August test at same location when I got result in about 1.5 hrs...just don't expect waiting time to be the same every time.  To be fair, their webpage does say IdNOW takes 24 hrs but we're just spoiled getting it earlier.

Which ship?