I LOVE Comedians with Guitars......You didn't tell me that part...

[jenseib]

We headed back to the room and I took a few shots out our window. It was not a very pretty area at all.

I noticed this black box.

What the heck could that be?

OOOOOH! It had the coffee fixings in it. Neither of us drink coffee, so it was left intact.

We just laid around from there on. I got on my kindle and checked emails, Lisa surfed the TV stations. I debated on a short nap, but Lisa said we shouldn’t because we may then have issues sleeping later tonight, so it was probably better to be exhausted when we went to bed. Good call.

After a while I got a text from Brook. She had just landed and they were taxing to the gate. I told her we would get ready and head out. We went slowly, as I didn’t want to get there early and then be made to circle around again.

I realized that I must’ve not printed out the directions to the airport from the Marriott. I swore I did, I know I looked at the route, but maybe because it was so easy, I figured I would remember….but I didn’t. So I asked at the desk, and it was very simple and off we went.

As soon as we got close to the airport pick up area we came to a complete stop in traffic. I guess this must be a popular time to get picked up. Brook texted us a few times and I had Lisa text her back that we were on our way and stuck in traffic.

We inched our way there and I just hate traffic like this. I hate when people pass and then try to get in up at the front of the line too and this was happening.

As we got closer though I was able to pull into another lane and got through faster and parked along the furthest curb for pick up. I think I spotted Brook as we drove up and I told Lisa, I think that’s her, so she rolled down the window and yelled Brook. Brook and Lisa have never met, nor seen a picture of each other, and it was kind of funny having Lisa yell for her while Brook took it on blind faith that it was Lisa and headed to our car.

We said our hellos and I introduced them both and we quickly threw her bags in the car.

Brook was starving so we headed off blindly to find something to eat. I went straight out of the airport and as we kept driving I was worried we were getting out of familiar territory. It was mostly residential. I went to turn around and as I did we spotted a lighted area down the road and then a Mexican restaurant, so we turned around once again and pulled in there.

I was a bad trip report writer here. I only took 2 pictures…and those were of food.

I can’t remember the name of the place, but the parking lot was pretty full.

We walked in and it looked like the bar area was having a party…with a bunch of kids….and it was LOUD. Lots of music and they were all doing some sort of dance.

We were seated right away and soon realized this was an authentic Mexican restaurant…we were the only non-Mexican people in there.

Lisa and I were looking for something lighter since we had eaten earlier, but I ended up with my old faithful…chimichonga. Brook got some HUGE meal that looked wonderful. Lisa got some sort of cheese dip with nachos. We also learned we weren’t in Ohio anymore. Lisa asked what kind of pop they had and the girl had no clue what she meant. Finally she said soda, and the girl rattled off some. We did find out from some Texas friends later that usually all pop/soda is referred to as Coke in Texas…so you ask what kind of Coke do you have?

Here are the 2 pictures I took.

The food was very good and filling. I only ate the Chimi and not the sides. Brook just kept having plate after plate brought out and she did some damage to them, but there was no way she could eat it all.

After we paid, we found our way back towards our hotel. Brook was staying with Carolyn and her friends for the night at a hotel just down the road from us, but since the roads are one-way, we had to go by our hotel first.

Just as we pulled into Springhill Suites, we saw Carolyn walking out the doors. They were off to find some food as well. We all said hellos and made introductions. Carolyn had her friends Shelly and Susan with her.

Carolyn and friends are from Canada, though Susan is still a US citizen, and Carolyn said she had only brought her passport and realized it when they went to rent a car. So the car was put in Shelly’s name since she had her license with her. We all laughed about that.

They handed Brook a room key and we all went our separate ways then.

We planned to meet back at their hotel around 7:15 AM. Lisa and I were going to sneak in and eat their “free” breakfast before we took off towards the port. We wanted to head out early and to drive together if possible. Brook was going to ride with us as well so that we could distribute luggage between the 2 cars.

Lisa and I made the circle back to the Marriott and got ready for bed. I think Lisa showered at night, and I was going to in the morning.

We set the alarm on my phone for butt crack of dawn. I had a feeling I would be up by then, but I sure didn’t want to chance being late.

The bed was comfy and soon I was drifted off to dreamland…and believe it or not, I slept halfway decent. It was a very long day…and it even had an extra hour since we gained one with the time difference.

[Rudyard]

Great review so far :) I started following it on the other board, but I always get defaulted back to page one on any thread over there as I can't stay logged in. This is much easier for me to follow.

 

Sorry you didn't have the best experience at your hotel. I wouldn't recommend that anyone stay at the hotels around the airports unless they really have to. Just a few miles south of you is the Clear Lake/Webster area. Much nicer and plenty of nice places to stay and eat in case any other readers are planning to cruise out of Galveston.

[jenseib]

Great review so far :) I started following it on the other board, but I always get defaulted back to page one on any thread over there as I can't stay logged in. This is much easier for me to follow.

 

Sorry you didn't have the best experience at your hotel. I wouldn't recommend that anyone stay at the hotels around the airports unless they really have to. Just a few miles south of you is the Clear Lake/Webster area. Much nicer and plenty of nice places to stay and eat in case any other readers are planning to cruise out of Galveston.

 

 

It has been doing that off and on for me over there too lately.

 

I probably would've ventured futher away or even gavleston if i had gone with a car rental from the start. But in the beginning I was going to use Disney transportation and I wanted a hotel near so I could shuttle back and forth. The hotels Disney offered were twcie as much or more in cost, so I vetoed those and went with Marriott, and then prepaid to get the cheapest rate. That was before I even knew Carolyn and Brook were going to go as well, so I was stuck there or lose the moeny. But it was a nice hotel, just not a nice area.

[Rudyard]

It has been doing that off and on for me over there too lately.

 

I probably would've ventured futher away or even gavleston if i had gone with a car rental from the start. But in the beginning I was going to use Disney transportation and I wanted a hotel near so I could shuttle back and forth. The hotels Disney offered were twcie as much or more in cost, so I vetoed those and went with Marriott, and then prepaid to get the cheapest rate. That was before I even knew Carolyn and Brook were going to go as well, so I was stuck there or lose the moeny. But it was a nice hotel, just not a nice area.

 

I read the part about Disney transportation and for some reason it went right over my head.

 

I got to see the Magic come in the morning you left. It was my first real life experience with a DCL ship and it left me impressed. I'm looking at booking one of the four day cruises in April.

[DisneyKidsDad]

and then...and then...:confused:

[jenseib]

and then...and then...:confused:

 

You're in luck...I am just about to post another update.

[jenseib]

Sept. 22, 2012, Saturday…Day 2

I woke up before the alarm, though not too much earlier.

I was full of excitement and a bit of nervousness. I will admit a little fear I had.

I was on the Dream in 2011. Boy is she a beautiful ship…and HUGE. I knew that the Magic was smaller. Just to show you the size difference, here are some pictures I borrowed from some friends.

The Magic is the “little” one. It looks like the Dream could eat the Magic for a snack. Would I be cramped? Would it seem more crowded on a smaller ship? Would I notice the smallness?

I am pretty sure the NCL cruises I went on many years ago were actually smaller ships, and I was fine on those, but after being on such a behemoth, would I be OK?

I showered and got ready. As you may have noticed, I don’t sport a traditional hair color. I had just “freshened” the color on Thursday, so this was my first wash since the new application of color. I am a licensed hairstylist, so I know how to rinse color out…basically do it forever till the water runs clear, shampoo repeat, shampoo repeat and condition. Well when I took the shower, I had more pink water coming out. Sometimes this will happen after the first wash, but this seemed like a lot coming out and towel drying my hair left the towel with some pink streaks….I have NEVER had that before. So odd. I wondered if this is how my hair reacts to good water versus the well water crap we have at home.

We got ready and rearranged our suitcases. I had packed a rolling duffle inside my suitcase. Well I had a heck of a time trying to get it all zipped back up with it in there, so we just pulled it out and threw a few things in it.

We jammed the trunk full and left the backseat for Brook and her bags.

We hit the road about 7 AM and were off to Springhill Suites to meet up with the other girls.

They were just getting breakfast and we joined them. It was a very simple breakfast with cereals, some fruit and make your own waffles, eggs, sausage and other basics.

Brook was tackling the make your own waffle. Lisa got some cereal.

And this is my plate. I think I got a bagel too.

Brook’s first waffle stuck to the waffle maker and she redid it…for one reason…we needed to take a picture of this baby.

Isn’t that so cute?

We talked about what “special” thing the Magic might have, like when she came to NYC she had a bumper sticker. My suggestion was a 10 gallon hat, though I wasn’t sure how that would work on a ship.

Around 8 or so, Brook noticed that people were posting on facebook that she had arrived finally. No one knew what time she would come into port and it was guessed from 4 to 7 AM. I guess she wanted to make a grand entrance in daylight and waited out at sea a bit to do so…and we later learned that is when they put on her “special” attire for Galveston.

After we ate, we made bathroom stops, and a couple of us bought a pop for the road trip and we loaded their car up with their bags. Brook shoved 1 in there and brought her other one into our car.

I had directions, but I wasn’t sure how good they were. Carolyn seemed to have a better idea of where to go, so she said to follow them. Shelly was the driver…and the funny thing is, Shelly is a nervous driver in areas she is not familiar with, so she was really worried…but she did a perfect job.

We hit the road and followed them all the way down. The 3 of us chatted away. It was just like Brook and Lisa had known each other for years. I am lucky to have both of them as friends. Both are nice and friendly and probably can talk to a wall if they needed to.

As we got closer to Galveston (the ride was probably about an hour, but went by VERY fast), we noticed some beautiful houses, and some really neat houses built on stilts. Being the driver, I couldn’t dig around for a camera and take shots. I wish I would’ve had it out though and then Lisa could’ve taken some.

Lisa kept saying, look at that one, or this one. And then we started driving through town with some old amazing looking homes and buildings and she was pointing constantly. I had to tell her I couldn’t look or I might be in the bumper of Shelly’s car. LOL

It was beautiful though. As we got closer to the port we started zigzagging around as many streets were shut down for some sort of festival…I later read it was a shrimp festival… I just kept following and Shelly later told us that some of the roads we went down were one ways…and we went the wrong way. I never even noticed.

Finally we found the entrance and pulled right up and dropped our bags off. We had arrived around 9 AM. Several porters were waiting to start the day. We said good bye to our bags for a while and pulled forward to find the parking lot…..then we saw her…the Magic. Yep, she was hidden behind the terminal. So EXCITING!

And guess what she had on! A 10 gallon hat! It was placed on one of the Mickey heads on one of the stacks. Now I couldn’t take a picture yet. I was driving still.

Next we headed off to find the parking lot. It is quite a ways away and I was hoping we weren’t getting lost. I didn’t think it was marked very well on how to get there, BUT then we realized that a stupid news van was right in front of the sign showing us the way. Not a great spot to park buddy!

We found the lot and asked where to go to get the free parking ticket we needed and they directed us to the lot across the street. We pulled over there and Brook and Carolyn ran in while the rest of us talked outside and oohed and ahhed at this!

I have to say she still looked pretty darn big to me. I felt a bit of relief.

[jenseib]

When Brook and Carolyn came back we headed back across the street and got parking right up front. The shuttle pulled right up and we hopped on. I took a quick picture of our rental so I could remember it and the license plate too if need be.

And off we went. I took this shot of the Mickey hat as we drove over.

We were dropped off and there were several people already waiting. Many of them were people from our facebook group and we said some hellos. We were told that they would not be opening doors till at least 10:30 but if we needed to use the restroom we would be let in.

A couple of us went in.

I do think these bathrooms were nicer than the Port Canaveral bathrooms. I still think those are not very disneylike.

I shot this really fast as we walked back out.

And then we sat down and waited.

That’s Lisa and Brook sitting and Carolyn standing with the pony tail and Susan with the short hair.

[jenseib]

I think Shelly took these pictures of us.

Brook must’ve been dreaming of corndog nuggets there.

I went around the side of the building and got a few pictures of my new home.

And some of the terminal area.

[jenseib]

Here is what the shuttles look like.

Someone must’ve been eating on the go and left their bowl on top of this sign.

I think about 10:15 people started lining up. We had been told that the doors should open around 10:30.

[jenseib]

By now it was getting pretty hot outside too, so we were anxious to get in and cool off.

Finally they started letting in a few people at a time and then more a little later.

We made our way through security, which was very easy and went to the check in counter line for silver and gold members. I was now officially a silver member and Lisa got to come in that line since she was in my room.

Our girl was VERY slow. I know this was all new to them with Disney being there, so I was patient. I did have to ask for a silver lanyard though. I think she was leery about giving me one, but then looked it up and found that I did indeed get one. It’s not a huge perk…but darn it, I wanted it!

We got done and found the other girls sitting down near glass doors that you could see the stairway that went up towards the ship . This is NOT where you enter though. You actually go in on the complete opposite side of the terminal and then down a long hallway and then back to those stairs to swipe your card and go up.

[jenseib]

We sat next to this, which we assumed would be where the characters would come out for meets.

 

 

We all compared our boarding numbers. Now this was weird. Carolyn, Shelly, Susan, Lisa and I all had port arrival times for 11:30, and this is “supposed” to be what they base your boarding number on. Brook had a 12:30 port arrival time. Brook had a 12, Lisa, Shelly, Susan and I had 8’s and Carolyn had a 2!!!! So weird since Shelly and Susan were her roommates, you would assume they all got the same number.

We sat and talked and we met a few more people from our facebook group….and then we found out from some experienced cruisers that if 1 person in your group has a higher number, you can all board at the same time with them. Jackpot! We now all had a 2!

 

I asked a CM nearby when the characters were coming out and if we could line up…she said soon ,and no, we couldn’t line up quite yet.

So we chatted some more and looked over the navigators and I took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

We noticed a ship tour was scheduled for around 2Pm . It sounded really interesting, but I wasn’t sure if I would have time. I had wanted to get pictures of some areas right away that day while I could. I will tell you I did end up missing it, but Shelly and Susan went on it and they said it was very interesting. They told them that they put the cowboy had on just before they entered the channel and it wasn’t very secure, so they had to go very slow. It was removed already by 2 PM because they didn’t want it to fall off on to people.

 

More pictures.

 

 

[jenseib]

 

These are the glass door I was talking about, where you could see the stairs leading up towards the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

We then saw Donald come out to the character greet spot. You would’ve thought we were crazed kids. We all practically ran to get in line. I think we were about the 3rd group in line. Well some were slower than others and we told them to get a move on for a group shot.

 

The nice CM used all our cameras and took a photo or 2 with each.

 

 

 

From left to right, that is Susan, Carolyn, Brook, Donald, Me, Lisa and Shelly.

 

We sat back down and again chatted and looked over the navigator and I decided it was time to take a picture of my KTTW card.

 

 

Speaking of Navigators, here is the one for the first day.

 

 

 

[jenseib]

 

I have to admit I thought there would be more to it. I swear on the Dream they were at least 6 pages…and I went and looked at some posted online and I am right, they are a few pages bigger. I didn’t look closely, so I am not sure why the longer cruises have less to write about.

[DisneyKidsDad]

WOO HOO you made it on the ship!! Here we go!!

[CC Help Jenn]

So excited to read another of your reviews :)

[FloridaGram]

Subscribing with much anticipation!

[jenseib]

So excited to read another of your reviews :)

 

Thanks.

 

Subscribing with much anticipation!

 

Welcome!

[jenseib]

WOO HOO you made it on the ship!! Here we go!!

 

Almost...here we goooooo!

[jenseib]

I decided it was time to take a potty break and took a few pictures on the way.

This is the kids club registration area.

[jenseib]

Then it was time! They were announcing boarding and we gathered our things. When number 2 was announce, it was a race….the place went crazy. LOTS of people had 2’s. We all walked together to start with, but a lady with her stroller and family decided to step in front of us and fold it up and she got put a stop to Brook, Lisa and I. They started moving too and made it pretty clear they wanted to board before us. Really? She couldn’t see that she just separated a group of people wearing matching shirts? So we walked fast and Brook made a pass…after a bit I did the pass too and she gave me a VERY dirty look. Lisa was stuck behind them and I think the lady took action NOT to be passed again. So I said to her, “My friend got behind you and she is part of our group, will you let her around, and she flat out told me no, I won’t let her.…..what a Witch with a capital B.

We went down the long hallway to get to the ship and they had photographers set up there to take the welcome aboard photos. We made a stop and we all were caught up with each other. Crazy lady and her family on the other hand had bypassed it and kept going.

We had a nice photo taken, but I don’t think any of us actually bought it.

We then headed to have our cards swiped. Carolyn, Susan, and Shelly got through right away. Lisa wasn’t far behind. They stopped Brook as her photo was from her last cruise and she was wearing a hat, so they needed a new one. I then went to another line and got swiped and headed up the stairs to meet with Lisa and we waited for Brook.

As we walked down the gangway I said we needed to think of a name to have announced for us…but we are not good with quick thinking evidently, because none of us could think of anything clever.

A peek of the ship from the gangway.

When we got to the doors, we still hadn’t thought of a name and the CM basically just asked our 1st names and we were announced that way.

We walked in and I looked up and all around and my first thought was WOW……………........................

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This Atrium is sooooo SMALL. It looks big in pictures, but compared to the Dream it is TINY. That was probably my only major disappoint in the ship. Now it isn’t really small and it is beautiful, but it was the very first thing I noticed….smaller ship means smaller atrium. As time wore on, it came to where I never noticed how much smaller it was.

We were stopped by a CM and told we could go eat lunch right away at either Parrot Cay or Topsiders and that all rooms were ready already. YES!!! We had boarded the ship at 11:50 AM and rooms are not supposed to be ready till 1:30 PM. We had hoped that since this was a first sailing coming into port with a pretty much empty ship that this would happen.

Now to find Carolyn and gals.

Aha! There they are….getting interviewed by a local news station.

[jenseib]

This is the footage from the interview. I am not sure how long this link will stay active though.

 

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8820698

 

 

The lady had info wrong too. She said this is a 6 night sailing and it’s an 7 nighter. Carolyn said she was kind of anti-Disney and wanted to know why a group of only adults would ever even consider sailing on Disney.

Oh well…not everyone gets it.

 

I had to get a quick shot of this too.

 

 

And this

 

 

We separated to go to our rooms and said we would meet back up in the atrium and then head off to Parrot Cay for lunch. Our bellies were starting to rumble a bit.

 

Brook and Carolyn’s gang both had ocean view rooms and were down on deck 2 right next to each other. Lisa and I had a veranda room on deck 5 towards the aft.

 

[sjcivilady]

Carolyn said she was kind of anti-Disney and wanted to know why a group of only adults would ever even consider sailing on Disney.

Oh well…not everyone gets it.

 

 

Maybe she's never been to Disney World or Disneyland. I don't even have kids and hope to do a Disney cruise some day. Hi - thanks for the great trip report!!

[jenseib]

Maybe she's never been to Disney World or Disneyland. I don't even have kids and hope to do a Disney cruise some day. Hi - thanks for the great trip report!!

 

Welcome. Thanks for reading.

Yes, some people just aren't into Disney and she was probably not the best reporter to send to the scene.