Live: Harmony of the Seas Western Caribbean Aug 25

[princess76021]

got here early on page 2  yay!!

thanks for taking us along!!
hugs from texas!!

[TNVolnteerCruiser]

Here for the fun.  Let the shenanigans begin!

[ceilidh1]

16 minutes ago, dragontrainer said:

We'll be sailing along with you.  Our kids are a bit younger than yours.  Our younger son adores sloths (I'm sure we'll be taking pictures around the ship with one of his stuffed sloths). 

 

We booked a 3rd party sloth excursion in Roatan.  I have not told him about it yet, and probably won't until we get off the shuttle at the sanctuary; I don't want to get his hopes up for getting to see/hold a sloth and then something out of our control goes wrong.

 

Have a safe trip down to Houston/Galveston!

I mean...who doesn't love sloths! Last time we were in Roatan, we took a ship (Princess) excursion to what I THOUGHT was the sloths. I obviously didn't pay attention, as this particular excursion went only to the park that had monkeys and macaws. I was so sad. This time I hope to see TWO of my favourite things - sloths and iguanas!

 

[PhillyFan33579]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

August 25. By tail end of hurricane season I meant tail end of peak hurricane season for this area (per the national weather service). 

Understand. I live in the Tampa, Florida area so we are just starting peak hurricane season where I live (mid August to mid October). 

[ceilidh1]

The Website, The App, The Reservations:

 

I'm not sure if I just got lucky with the RC website and app, or if it really is a decent piece of technology but I (so far) have had zero issues with it. I must admit, the majority of things I've done on the website, simply because I prefer the larger monitor (these eyes aren't getting any younger) over the small phone screen. The few things I have done on the app have worked seamlessly. 

 

Booking for shows opened on June 20th. Someone on our group gave us the heads up, so we were able to book into everything we wanted to see. Some of the times did clash with the dining that we had already reserved, so there was some shuffling around but it all worked out!

Check-In opened on July 11th - our group chat was kind enough to let me know that this was midnight ship time (CST) so I set an alarm and checked in as soon as it opened up. I wanted to get an early arrival time in case I had to scramble to get reservations on the ship. Having no status or priority sucks - I feel like a brand new cruiser all over again. Right on the dot, check in opened and I breezed through it, getting a 10:30am arrival time. Woot. 

 

As I mentioned, I had toyed with the all-inclusive dining package but I decided against it when I found out I couldn't reserve restaurants ahead of time. These are the current prices for specialty dining - to say I'm experiencing sticker shock is an understatement. We would need to multiply this by 3 since both my kids are "adults" on this sailing.

[Hogladyrider]

@ceilidh1..ready for the shenanigans as well.  Though I suspect since this is a family cruise and you and @MeganGC1983 have similar styles.  Family time is one cruise while VV cruise is a whole different style.

 

Enjoy....sure looks like you have done a lot of precruise planning and sounds like a great time for both you and DD & DS.

[gambler]

Following along, enjoy your cruise!

[ceilidh1]

6 minutes ago, Hogladyrider said:

@ceilidh1..ready for the shenanigans as well.  Though I suspect since this is a family cruise and you and @MeganGC1983 have similar styles.  Family time is one cruise while VV cruise is a whole different style.

 

Enjoy....sure looks like you have done a lot of precruise planning and sounds like a great time for both you and DD & DS.

The next FIVE cruises are without kiddos...so I will behave on this one!

[Hogladyrider]

Just now, ceilidh1 said:

The next FIVE cruises are without kiddos...so I will behave on this one!

That sounds like a more than fair trade!  I know you will have fun even behaving!

[MeganGC1983]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

I mean...who doesn't love sloths! Last time we were in Roatan, we took a ship (Princess) excursion to what I THOUGHT was the sloths. I obviously didn't pay attention, as this particular excursion went only to the park that had monkeys and macaws. I was so sad. This time I hope to see TWO of my favourite things - sloths and iguanas!

 

You had me at iguanas!

[dragontrainer]

53 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

...

Check-In opened on July 11th - our group chat was kind enough to let me know that this was midnight ship time (CST) so I set an alarm and checked in as soon as it opened up. I wanted to get an early arrival time in case I had to scramble to get reservations on the ship. Having no status or priority sucks - I feel like a brand new cruiser all over again. Right on the dot, check in opened and I breezed through it, getting a 10:30am arrival time. Woot. 

 

Did they have 10:30?  We were also on as it opened and had 11:00 as the earliest choice.  

 

Could be a good thing, I'm told the hotel we had booked in Galveston has recently had people posting pictures of mold, so we're now staying by Hobby and will be driven down Sunday morning.

[MeganGC1983]

33 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

The next FIVE cruises are without kiddos...so I will behave on this one!

Yikes! The kids snuck in the Tribe cruise 2 with Mr. Megan. I only have 4 cruises booked currently but they are only getting that 1...with the rest being on Virgin, I get lucky that way! Aren't you taking DD on VV in 2025?

[ceilidh1]

22 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

Yikes! The kids snuck in the Tribe cruise 2 with Mr. Megan. I only have 4 cruises booked currently but they are only getting that 1...with the rest being on Virgin, I get lucky that way! Aren't you taking DD on VV in 2025?

Planning on it but that one isn't booked yet - gotta wait to find out school schedule! My next booked VV is solo on Feb 22nd. My traditional shenanigan cruise.

[AmyJA]

Here for fun!

 

I liked Harmony back in 2017.   Loved,  loved, loved the adult area.  And I don’t know how much we rode and drank in the Riding Tide bar.

 

Really looking forward to you guys’ sail.

[fethiyeden]

Here for the family shenanigans. Have a fabulous time. Looking forward to hearing about Galveston,as we are looking at a cruise from there in 2026.

[odie1024]

Following along, miss you on the tribe. Have fun!

 

We are cruising into Galveston in January on the NCL Prima, spending a night and then trying our first Carnival cruise on the Jubilee as we were not ready to head back to Massachusetts.

[ceilidh1]

Galveston Plans:

 

We land at IAH at 4pm, which means we likely won't get to the hotel in Galveston until the evening (remember, we are stopping at Buccee's en route). I plan on grabbing food, snacks, and adult beverages at Buccee's and hunkering down in the hotel for the night.

 

We have a full day on Saturday so I set DS the task of planning what we should do. I gave him the location of our hotel and told him to find activities either within walking distance, or a maximum of one uber to get there and one to get back. I fully expected him to come up with the Pier and stuff over on the seawall/beach. However, he is obviously my child...as all of his "activities" revolved around bars, bakeries, and ice cream stores. He actually found some great looking places to eat/drink so I think we are going to roll with it and spend the day just pottering around the strand!

 

These are on our shortlist, if anyone has any experience with them!

https://www.playgroundgalveston.com/

https://galveston.stuttgardentavern.com/

https://www.hubcapgrillgalveston.com/

https://lakingsconfectionery.com/

https://thesunflowerbakeryandcafe.com/

 

If not, happy to take recommendations!

[spethstation]

3 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

As I mentioned, I had toyed with the all-inclusive dining package but I decided against it when I found out I couldn't reserve restaurants ahead of time. These are the current prices for specialty dining - to say I'm experiencing sticker shock is an understatement. We would need to multiply this by 3 since both my kids are "adults" on this sailing.

 

Just pulled up my old bill from 2017 and Wonderland was only $24.78 CAD at the time... 😪

[Shaded Lady]

@ceilidh1 here on page 2- that's better than I've been doing on most recent lives!

 

We sail mostly out of Galveston- go figure, living in Florida with 5 ports within a reasonably short drive, so we have to drive to Texas! We do that 'cause DD and DGS watch the furbabies for us while we're cruising. 

 

The big advantage to that is we have our car and can drive wherever, whenever... I love the Spot! and we always stop at Buccees on the way to the island...

 

Looking forward to your review!

[TravelGirlinDallas]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

These are on our shortlist, if anyone has any experience with them!

https://thesunflowerbakeryandcafe.com/

Sunflower Bakery is my favorite - it's so good!

[jcc1025]

22 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

@ceilidh1 here on page 2- that's better than I've been doing on most recent lives!

 

We sail mostly out of Galveston- go figure, living in Florida with 5 ports within a reasonably short drive, so we have to drive to Texas! We do that 'cause DD and DGS watch the furbabies for us while we're cruising. 

 

The big advantage to that is we have our car and can drive wherever, whenever... I love the Spot! and we always stop at Buccees on the way to the island...

 

Looking forward to your review!

We live in Long Beach and sail out of Galveston a lot as well. For a long time Royal didn't sail out of LA so Galveston was the closest and I hated flying all the way to FL. We got use to the drive from Hobby and love the gulf coast seafood. We now also sail the west coast a lot but love the carribean and the Royal ships, which are a destination in itself for us. We are on Harmoney on 8/14. 

[gambler]

Visitgalveston.com has a lot of good info. The Baywatch dolphin tour is good. There is a trolley that runs if you want to go to the Seawall. Fisherman,s Wharf is a good place to eat also. These are right there at pier 21 next to where you are staying. 

[ceilidh1]

33 minutes ago, gambler said:

Visitgalveston.com has a lot of good info. The Baywatch dolphin tour is good. There is a trolley that runs if you want to go to the Seawall. Fisherman,s Wharf is a good place to eat also. These are right there at pier 21 next to where you are staying. 

Last time we were there we tried to take the free trolley. We waited. And waited. And waited. Then called an Uber.

[PrincessPatti]

Page 2 and I’m along for the ride!  I found the Royal terminal in Galveston very easy.  We never stopped moving from drop off to getting on the ship.  It literally took less than 15 minites from drop off to first drink in hand.

[ceilidh1]

10 minutes ago, PrincessPatti said:

Page 2 and I’m along for the ride!  I found the Royal terminal in Galveston very easy.  We never stopped moving from drop off to getting on the ship.  It literally took less than 15 minites from drop off to first drink in hand.

I'm looking forward to that first drink...