Texas_Traveler.

Nice to see this thread about Norwegian Breakaway from New Orleans. I'm sailing solo on Norwegian Breakaway in May (from Miami). I'm sailing from New Orleans in October (on Brilliance of the Seas). If you're willing to answer my questions: Have you seen solo travelers hang out in the studio lounge, or does it stay empty? Have you seen solo travelers make plans to do things together like dinner or shore excursions?

I'm not a fan of itineraries where Costa Maya is the final port of call before returning to Galveston. Galveston-based ships have to leave Costa Maya at 1:00pm in order to make it back to Galveston on time after one sea day. That's way too early for me...

Boleros on Allure served pre-made "margaritas" with zero tequila or liquor in them.

Just off the August 27 sailing yesterday. The Headliner group on this sailing was Oh What A Night! They also performed on my Adventure of the Seas cruise last year. I met George on my previous cruise and ran into him four times this cruise (the one on the right). On my previous cruise, he mentioned they have a land based show that's twice as long. On their website, it looks like they have three upcoming shows that are an hour from where I live. Maybe I'll get to see them perform Beggin' someday. Looking at the pictures on their site, it appears they switch out cast members sometimes. George isn't in every picture; I recognize someone from my previous cruise that wasn't on this one. --------- The Blades ice show was great. One of the participants (Gabriel?) was collecting participation waivers at the ice rink when I went to do ice skating. The OceanAria aqua show was great as well. It's amazing what some of those performers are capable of doing. The Blue Planet production show was meh... not worth the 50 minutes to watch it. The Mamma Mia production show was far more entertaining, with an actual story. It was easily worth the 2.5 hours to watch Mamma Mia on the final sea day.

Unfortunately, Island Express was designed to fail and did. https://www.galvnews.com/news/article_036e6e36-2ad3-5eb6-851b-583f0e221c16.html It required transferring to a different bus half way, took two hours to travel between the downtowns, didn't run on weekends, and only ran 3x a weekday in either direction. It wasn't an option for most people unless the bus schedule happed to line up with their personal schedule. If you want mass transit that's convenient for different people with different schedules, it has to run fairly often (think hourly or half hourly) throughout the day.

Other cities in Texas (and many across the US) fund transit via sales tax. If other cities and travel destinations can fund transit, Galveston can as well.

If Galveston were to build a commercial airport terminal, I can envision American Eagle service between its DFW hub and Galveston... maybe United Express service between its Denver hub and Galveston as well. I'd love to see it. Though, Galveston could never support the number of non-stop destinations that Houston does. So, people looking for non-stop flights would still fly to Houston.

Galveston is a major enough tourist destination that it ought to have transit to/from the nearby big city where the airports are located. I'm sure some mainland residents would use it to commute into Galveston as well (or vice versa). In Florida, there's a bus that runs between MIA airport and Miami Beach (pop. 39k). There's also a bus between Miami Beach and Miami. In California, there's a bus that runs between LAX airport and Santa Monica (pop. 93k). There's also a train between Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Santa Monica may not be an island, but it's a similar enough tourist destination. Galveston is farther away from the main city than the above examples, and has a cruise industry that Miami Beach island and Santa Monica don't have. So, I think mass transit between Houston and Galveston would be even more appreciated than my previous examples.

It's pathetic there's no mass transit at all between Houston and Galveston. No bus, no train, no nothing. There are too many people traveling between the two cities for there to be no mass transit. I don't have Facebook, so it appears Saltwater Moms isn't an option. And, I really don't feel like I should have to pay for shuttle services when many other cities offer cheap mass transit from their airport to their tourist destinations. I'll probably drive from Fort Worth to Galveston like I did last cruise, even though I don't like driving and now have flight benefits I can use to fly from DFW to Hobby.

Oops, I thought Mystery Island was the Pacific equivalent to "Perfect Day at CocoCay," and thought it was already open. I read something about it last year; should've done more research before posting.

With so many Oasis / Icon class ships currently in service or entering service soon, I can envision an Oasis class ship doing seven night sailings from Brisbane to "Mystery Island."

A couple of things I enjoyed on my previous cruise that I've learned have since been eliminated: -Second complimentary lobster on lobster night, -Staff serving food to passengers at the buffet (instead of passengers serving themselves). I don't like the idea of hundreds of other passengers playing with my food before I get to it.

I've heard of Bordeaux, but I'm not sure I'd consider it a major enough destination to the point of warranting questionable marketing. Maybe Bordeaux is a more prominent city than I realize. I understand the practice for places such as Paris, London, Florence, or Rome. The central Bordeaux port is in a great location- walking distance to the main commercial district. It's too bad mainstream ships are too big to dock there.

Allure hasn't been the biggest Oasis Class ship since Harmony, which is why I said "world's biggest class of cruise ship." As far as the width of Central Park and Surfside, renderings make them seem like they're narrower than their counterparts on the Oasis Class. Perhaps the renderings are distorted.

When do we officially classify Icon as the world's biggest cruise ship? Or is it already? I'm sailing Allure in August, and I'm hoping I'll still be able to claim I'm sailing on the world's biggest class of cruise ship! 🌎 Although the Icon class will be bigger, renderings suggest the open-air interior neighborhoods (like Central Park) will be narrower. And, the loss of the Boardwalk is a bummer. It seems like a less impressive class of ship except for the pool deck.