LIVE! Jubilee Jaunt 3/2-3/9 Big Family Fun—Let’s Cruise!

[TravelBluebird]

The plane is an Embrarer ERJ-145XR. Holds like 50 people.  No entertainment or food service; maybe coffee or water and a stroopwaffle or something.

[TravelBluebird]

My son and my niece have very delayed flights—won’t get to Galveston until tonight now!

[TravelBluebird]

We are landed early in Houston!  Plane was found for kids so won’t be in as late.

 

United now gives MINI stroopwaffles instead of normal sized one.  😂

 

Flight was freezing.  Can’t tell if it’s overcast or smoky in Houston 

 

Edited March 1 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

We are in the van on the way to Galveston!  Took the train from Terminal A to C to meet up with some of our group.  We had time to kill—very few food choices pre-gate at IAH   We  used Galveston Shuttle.
 

5 people not 7 —the kids missed their connections so will barely make it to a late dinner.

 

Massive  traffic.  Welcome to Houston!  

 

 

Edited March 1 by TravelBluebird

[zencruisers]

I was hoping to find a "live" to follow this week. I will be along for the ride.

 

[TravelBluebird]

Bad accident huge traffic—van driver is taking us the “back way” due to big delays.

[TravelBluebird]

Just now, zencruisers said:

I was hoping to find a "live" to follow this week. I will be along for the ride.

 

Welcome!

[dallasdan]

1 hour ago, TravelBluebird said:

Bad accident huge traffic—van driver is taking us the “back way” due to big delays.

I live 5 hours away from Galveston and I always drive down the night before because of the traffic.

Have a great cruise.

[TravelBluebird]

Took about 1.45 hours to get to the hotel.  
 

Just - 1 of 4 rooms was ready.  We piled our luggage ( and my Goddaughter for a nap) into the room, and walked 1/2 mile to Viet Cajun for lunch.

 

Texas is BYOB so a Modelo has been had by some.  I ordered the small fried oyster basket with fried rice—some people got the Pho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by TravelBluebird

[TravelBluebird]

Hotel seems nice— VERY freshly renovated.

 

Great view!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by TravelBluebird

[Frank12]

Also happy for another "Live". We love Mardi Gras. Cant wait for your thought on Jubilee.

[TN Roz]

Following. Getting ready to book and can't decide on 6 day Horizon or 7 day Jubilee. We have been on both the Mardi Gras and Celebration and love them, but love the Havana Cabana on the Vista class.

[kwbrad]

Excited to see this, we are on her the next week (3/9-16) so this is a great preview. Have fun and thanks for sharing!

[TheLargeFamily]

Glad u made it safely!  I'm low key nervous about traffic for our Jubilee cruise bc we are staying in Houston... I had Hyatt points about to expire. 

 

The food looks great and the hotel looks fantastic! 

[TheLargeFamily]

Also, what's your arrival time and boarding group? 

[msunrullieone]

Thanks for doing this live. We'll be on the Jubilee on the 9th. Can't wait!

 

[mamiamjo]

8 hours ago, TravelBluebird said:

We are in the van on the way to Galveston!  Took the train from Terminal A to C to meet up with some of our group.  We had time to kill—very few food choices pre-gate at IAH   We  used Galveston Shuttle.
 

5 people not 7 —the kids missed their connections so will barely make it to a late dinner.

 

Massive  traffic.  Welcome to Houston!  
 

IAH-Galveston can be a bit of a drive especially on a weekday, but even without traffic it’s probably 1 1/2 hour drive.

Looking forward to following your report. Have a great trip 😎

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, TheLargeFamily said:

Also, what's your arrival time and boarding group?

 

Boarding group A06; arrival time is 10am. We are leaving hotel in a pre-ordered Ubert at 9:30; don’t care if we get there a little “late” since we don’t really want to get in line before it starts moving around 10.

 

3 Ubers; ours cost $37 (would be $24 today at a non-peak time) but not bad per person,

[TravelBluebird]

1 hour ago, msunrullieone said:

Thanks for doing this live. We'll be on the Jubilee on the 9th. Can't wait!

 @msunrullieone We’ll try to hand the ship off to you in good condition—but we’re not promising  anything 😂

[TravelBluebird]

3 hours ago, TN Roz said:

Following. Getting ready to book and can't decide on 6 day Horizon or 7 day Jubilee. We have been on both the Mardi Gras and Celebration and love them, but love the Havana Cabana on the Vista class.

 

@TN Roz That’s a tough one, since the Vista class Havana Cabana rooms are the best. However, the Excel class ships can’t be beat for variety and bells and whistles. I’ll do my best to let you know how our Jubilee experience is!

[TravelBluebird]

So hotel had a bit of room shenanigans going on that I caught today. I booked a 2 Queen Suite. Ocean View room, mostly since I wanted extra room since our son was staying with us.  My husband dropped our luggage off quickly while I ran off somewhere else; by the time I got to the room, I was surprised that it was just one room—nothing “suite” about it (did have a nice balcony with furniture and a partial ocean view).

 

So I went to the front desk, and they said they made a mistake; hotel was full so they refunded me the difference in price for the room ($60).  Good thing I remembered what I had booked so many months ago!

 

[TravelBluebird]

We have really enjoyed the hotel overall.  Very nice sitting area downstairs; we sat around and talked and made some new friends (shout out to Ken going on the Carnival Breeze tomorrow—happy 45th birthday!). The food at the little Bistro at the hotel was quite good…we all were crazy about the fries, and they had things like avocado toast (for our Vegan friend),  chicken sandwiches, tomato soup and grilled cheese, and a full bar

 

We wanted to wait for our 2 stragglers that had the cancelled plane, and they didn’t get in till 7:30, so we just snacked at the hotel while chatting

 

Hotel has a nice fire pit outside and a great pool area. Photos tomorrow as I have them on my little DJI video camera that is charging for tomorrow.

 

Was a good start to our trip!

[TravelBluebird]

36 minutes ago, mamiamjo said:

IAH-Galveston can be a bit of a drive especially on a weekday, but even without traffic it’s probably 1 1/2 hour drive.

Looking forward to following your report. Have a great trip 😎

 

Thanks @mamiamjo!   Yes, the late/delayed kids had exactly a 1.5 hour trip. Surge pricing on the Uber was ridiculous—$170!  If they had got in on time they would have been in the shuttle with us.

[karriec]

Happy cruise day Dee🛳️

[travelinjess85]

Excited to follow along! Have Mardi Gras booked for next year and been looking at the Jubilee for the following year too.