ceilidh1

After lunch we walked some more, bought peanut butter at The Peanut Butter Warehouse and ice cream at Hey Mikey’s. Then we decided to hop on the trolley to the Seawall. This was where things went sideways. We waited, and waited, and waited but no trolley ever came. In the end we just ordered Uber and headed back to the hotel. Our Uber driver was a little grouchy and scolded us for not ordering a bigger car - huh? There are four of us and we ordered an Uber XL that fits four? That’s what I always do back home but maybe Texas does things differently? Anyways, I told her that I would cancel and just reorder and I think she realized that she would be the one losing out so she said she would “take us this one time”…hmmm. We are back at the hotel now and exhausted, still full from lunch, and awaiting the arrival of our other friends who got into IAH this evening.

After dropping off our Walgreens purchases at the hotel, we ordered an Uber and headed for the Strand. Such a beautiful area with lovely architecture and cobbled streets. We browsed the shops and picked up some souvenirs. I was outvoted on the lunch stop - I wanted to do Katie’s as so many people had recommended it but no one wanted seafood. Instead the kids insisted on the Shark Shack. I wasn’t expecting much but was pleasantly surprised! I got a really good pineapple margarita, fish tacos, kids each had burgers, and friend had a huge salad. Total bill for all of us was just over $80 and it was all delicious!

Today’s first mission was to walk on the beach. It seemed an easy stroll from the hotel but we didn’t factor in how hard it would be to cross the street! The closest set of lights were not a crosswalk, just lights for traffic, so we walked further down to the actual crosswalk. Unfortunately, while the lights themselves worked, the actual walk sign didn’t so we had to literally guess if/ when we could cross! The beach is sooooo long! It seemed to go on forever. It was pretty windy but very pleasant temperature wise. What we didn’t expect was mosquitoes. My poor teen got eaten alive and has quite a bad reaction, so next stop after braving the road again, was Walgreens to grab bug spray and Cortizone.

A few more room pictures- the sofa bed pulled out and the room a little neater after we put away our junk!

Any recommendations of where we should go or what we should see today? I was thinking of walking the Seawall until I saw how long it was! Lol

Everyone was still sleeping when I woke up so I headed downstairs in search of coffee. We like Homewood Suites as they have the waffle makers at breakfast. This was no different but they had no whipped cream for them 😢 I had one anyways, along with some hash browns, omelette, and sausage patty.

Good Morning from Galveston! It was great to finally get into bed and sleep last night after a long 36 hours of travel! I use the term bed loosely as I ended up on the sofa bed with DS while DD and our friend took the bedroom with the two beds. On pulling out the sofa bed we found we had to rearrange all the furniture first so that was quite the ordeal. Then there was no bedding for it. I called down to the desk and they told me to come down and pick it up. Ugh. I was already sun my PJs and not going to get changed again so I threw on my jacket and traipsed down. Other than that, I slept pretty well - I did hear other guests coming and going a few times but nothing more or less than other hotels. When I woke this morning I got a good look at our ocean view!

We are staying at the Homewood Suites at the very end of the island, near Stewart Beach. First impressions are good - one bedroom suite with a huge bedroom. The sitting room and kitchen is smaller and we don’t appear to have things like dish soap, etc but nothing we can’t deal with. I will get more pictures when it’s not such a mess - we literally dumped all our bags everywhere. This is the bedroom area.

We made it into Houston ahead of schedule. The flight was uneventful other than having the most annoying kid sitting behind us. Definitely old enough to know better but spent the entire flight banging the tray table up and down or drumming loudly on it. After a while I just turned around and politely asked her to stop. Her mom slept the entire time. Sigh Collecting bags was a bit of a cluster as there was only one carousel open for all the flights that had just arrived so there were people everywhere! Thankfully ours came off quickly and we met up with our friend who had flown in from Boston. At that point I texted our ride and she was with us within 10 minutes. I highly recommend her company as the long ride was entertaining and the car was roomy and comfortable. As a bonus she stopped at Buccees and we stocked up on food, wine, and tacky souvenirs! https://highrollersbyshugg.com/

Part one of the.journey is complete! Made it safely and on time to Calgary. Happy to find out we didn’t need to collect our checked bags before proceeding to US CBP. The line was long but moved quickly and we are now enjoying breakfast before boarding our flight to Houston.

Best laid plans…the nap didn’t happen! We found a spot in the empty observation lounge and hunkered down. After a few minutes, a couple came in and decided to sit directly behind us and laugh, talk, listen to music. The entire place was empty and they still chose to sit behind us. The dirty looks I gave them did nothing so we left. West Jet bag drop didn’t open until 4:15am so by the time we were able to drop our bag there was already a line for security. Thankfully we made it through and now at the gate waiting to board the first leg of our flight. At this point I’ve been awake exactly 24 hours…

Vacation has officially begun! We took a nap at home for a few hours and headed out at 12:30am. It’s a 10 minute walk to the train that takes you directly to the airport. First obstacle was finding someone shooting yo in the elevator down to the platform. Rather than subject the kids to this, we hauled our bags down the stairs and made it on to the train. We were at the airport by 1:15am and got bag tags printed. I took the opportunity to weigh my bag - I guess I underestimated my packing skills as I was sure it would be overweight. It came in at an impressive 46 pounds! Unfortunately, we can’t get through security for a couple of hours as it doesn’t open until 4am, so we are looking for a comfortable spot to take a nap - spoiler, there aren’t any!

Someone on the "other" site just posted that John Padgett will be on this sailing for the first cruise back out of Galveston. All I can say is that he better not delay my boarding, cause I'm ready to get this party started. Anyone know if this is true and, if so, what he is going to be doing?

Does Princess even have a juice bar?

I don't know the answer to this but it is similar to what happened when the introduced the new Premiere package. Drinks (specifically wine) that used to be under the $12 limit and included were now over $12 and not included. It could be the same, but we won't know until the first sailings after the new packages kick in.

All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go...well, not really, but definitely getting closer! I checked in for our flight without too many issues - besides the fact that I forgot to add and pre-pay my checked bag so had to go back and do that. DOH. Got my boarding passes and checked bag packed. Carry ons are almost packed, just need to throw in the last few things. We decided to go to the airport this evening rather than at 4am - we will take the last train that gets us there around 1:40am and try to find a quiet spot to nap. I figure that would be preferable to letting the kids go to "bed" only to wake them up a couple of hours later - grouchy teens are no fun. We will see how this plan unfolds... I must say, I'm a little "lost" in the packing department this time around - it's cold here so thinking about warm weather clothes is tricky. Then we are doing the first three days in Galveston, which I assume will be pretty cool and looks rainy/foggy. I feel like I've packed way too much but at the same time not enough - I'm sure our bag will be over weight. I'm also sure I will remember all the stuff I "should" have packed and need to do a mad dash to Walmart!

I WAS green lane. Now I'm blue.

All up to date. Iphone 12, which I got cause the app wasn't compatible with my trusty and perfectly functional 6, newest version of operating system. It truly is the worst.

The App No Princess Live From would be complete without some mention of the app. Once again, what were Princess thinking with this piece of junk? Yet one more reason to love this line a little less - my pre-cruise days should not be frustrating and stressful, trying to input info into a useless app that doesn't function. I started completing all the necessary steps weeks ago and consider myself an "expert" at this point. It took a while and several calls/emails to the medallion help team but I did get into green lane and chose my boarding group. Woot. I then reserved our dining for 8 of us at the same time each night. A few weeks later, those reservations disappeared, so I rebooked them. A few weeks later, the other reservations reappeared and we had two sets of dinner booked each night. Sigh. I ignored it and, sure enough, it eventually went back to only one. As I start to gather all my paperwork today, I opened up the app. Guess what? I'm back to blue lane. Even better, it won't let me enter any info to go from there as it tells me to link my booking. And then tells me it's already linked. I've logged out and back in. I've powered down my phone. I've done everything short of throwing the darned thing through the window. Nada. BUT here's where I've outsmarted Princess and this darned app - as soon as I got to green lane and got my arrival group and barcode, I took a screenshot. I am about to print that out and this will be my ticket to the ship. Tough luck Princess, no more entering info on the app for me.

I'm totally looking forward to Skywalkers - the last few Princess cruises we've done have been on Royal class ships and I really missed Skywalkers. I love just hanging there during the day and enjoying the view, I love the elite get together there, it's a real shame they took this away from the newer builds.

It's definitely not an option in Polar, the Princess booking system - only IAH is available for TAs to pre-book transfers.

A few more things came together tonight and I'm finally beginning to feel just a little less panicked! I had been looking for options for getting from IAH to Galveston and was a little freaked out by what I was seeing. Shared shuttles ran around $35-$50USD per person, so for four of us we were looking at an average of $180USD. I would have paid this BUT the last shuttle the day we were arriving was at 4pm - our flight gets in at 5:30pm. I then put in for some quotes for private transfers and was quoted in the range of $250-$350USD. I looked at pre-booking Uber and minimum I came up with was $240 - and who knows if the flight even makes it on time. My friends that arrive a day later had pre-booked with a private company they found on that "other" site, so I contacted them and was able to secure a private transfer for $180USD. The lady I was chatting with seemed lovely, very responsive, gave me contact info and driver info, so fingers crossed it turns out well. This is the company if anyone has any feedback (I will be sure to let you know how it turns out): Highrollers By Shugg | Transportation Service in Houston , TX I also went ahead and pre-booked an Uber to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the port on Sunday morning. I'm sure that's something I could have done easily and for less on the day, but I want my cruise morning to be stress free. Pre-booking for 4 of us from Homewood Suites in Galveston to the port was $35USD. One thing I really dislike on disembarkation day (other than having to leave the ship) is waiting and hoping to find a cab/uber/shuttle with throngs of other people. On the flip side, I don't like pre-booking as there really isn't any guarantee that you can get off at a specific time, and I don't like the stress of finding my ride (I'm pretty high maintenance in this department). On a whim, I decided to look into Princess transfers for getting back to the airport. I'm fortunate that my "fun" job is a TA, so I have access to the Princess booking engine and was able to easily pull up my booking and look at my options. I was pleasantly surprised (shocked) to find that I could get a transfer from the ship back to IAH for $36CAD per person. NOT USD BUT CAD!!!!! Definitely the cheapest option I have seen and likely the least stressful. I went ahead an booked for myself and the kids - my friend from the US has a late flight so considering a debarkation excursion, and out other friends booked roundtrip transfers with the company above. I will be sure to let you know how all this works out for us!

I definitely see where the confusion lies in this - I assume the pre-pay to keep the current rates is referring to the gratuities, but I absolutely see why you might think it refers to the package in general, since that is what the email is all about....

Sorry - I should have been more clear. My confusion is that new pricing goes into effect December 14th for sailings after Feb 20th. So what if you book after Dec 14th but sail before Feb 20th? Not that I'm planning on it, but someone might!

Yup - the fine print says shipping to US only