Semi-Live on Allure: Everything is New Again with Toddler Cruising

[silentbob007]

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. 
 


 

 

[ocean sounds]

9 minutes ago, silentbob007 said:

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. 
 


 

 

That must have been so painful for the little guy!  Glad you are all home and he’s healing well.  🙏🏻

[silentbob007]

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. 
 

 

 

 

[silentbob007]

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. 

[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.