2026 - Cruisin' out of Galveston!
One thing I always wanted to do is go on a cruise out of Galveston so that we could just drive to the port and not have to fly. When we decided we would be moving back to CA, I started to think about it in earnest. I have also heard that you can get great "last minute deals". I mentioned the idea to the Nicely's when we saw them in Dallas in September and Shanda was all over it! When you get us gals going, we GO!!!!
I had been getting emails from Marriott (Cruise with Points) for cruise deals and we decided to go that route so we could earn both Marriott and cruise points, and since the Nicely's have been on a lot of Royal Caribbean cruises we went with them. We scored a deal for interior balcony rooms (including some on board credit as well as a Specialty Dinner night for two). Not bad!
I need to back up for a sec though. Another perk of doing this was that we could deliver some of my dad's artwork to Andrew & Lydia on our way down (along with some gifts from the Lichon's, leftover BBQ from New Years, and the 'ole Air-fryer we never used).
We had two amazing meals with them, both in the Woodlands - Italian dinner at Via Emilia's (best lasagna I've ever had!), and the next day Mimi Garden for Chinese that I think can compete with what we get in Irvine!
Since I forgot to take a selfie of the four of us, I had Lydia send this to me after we left. This is their amazing backyard that overlooks the lake! If you look closely you can see a dusting of snow...there was a MAJOR winter storm that hit Texas and we were driving south "running away" from it! 😂
In the meantime, Luke was having fun at Lawrence's...they got to play in the snow!
THE CRUISE!
This is how cold it was when we were getting ready to board!
Nowadays, the first thing you do is go to the IT Help Desk for assistance on accessing internet (if you paid for it) & their "App" 😂
We went ahead and got ourselves balcony rooms facing the interior of the ship. Never had a balcony before...one could get used to this!
The ship is beautiful! The last cruise we were on was in the Eastern Caribbean on the "Allure of the Seas" in 2013. This ship we are on is slightly newer than that one, but with almost all of the same amenities and restaurants.
Barry got hungry for a snack, and the Nicely's had $10 worth of "free" bucks to burn in the casino. Lucky the guy sitting next to Shanda could walk them through how to play video slots...no coin sounds like the old days...just blinking lights and dings!
After dinner we watched the ice show!
Monday was an at sea day, so we just roamed around the ship, checked out the gym, etc. I am impressed by the artwork they have throughout the ship's stairwells...here are some of my favorites!
Shanda & I signed up for a "free" face consultation, which ended up being with a "licensed" aesthetician who tried to talk us into a $40K surgery free treatment in lieu place of a face lift! No thank you!
In addition to some ship board credit, we also each got a specialty dinner for two - this is us at 150 Central Park, where we had THE BEST BEEF TENDERLOIN I have ever had!
Fredy our cabin steward made us a sweet towel bear!
Day 2 was another at sea day and we splurged on cabana's. The weather was not great, but at least it wasn't freezing like the day before. We literally just stayed in our cabana's all day - on this trip I finished 3 great books total! One of which Shanda lent me (we both finished it in a day, it was that good 😜 ).
Today we docked in Roatan, Honduras. It is a small island off the coast of Honduras that counts on tourists like us for their livelihoods. Barry & I did the wildlife sanctuary tour which included a stop at the "Chocolate Factory" (aka a glorified chocolate shoppe), a "Monkey & Sloth Hangout", and an Iguana Reserve.
Cool durag on Chris...it was required to be able to wear HELMETS for the golf carts! Better safe than sorry!
We returned on board to an adorable bat towel!
...and tonight was Caribbean night 😚
Next stop...Costa Maya!
Today we did a tour together of the Mayan ruins in this area, about an hour's drive from the cruise terminal. It was interesting to drive through the flat terrain of this part of Mexico that is covered in jungle. Apparently, this area was only developed some 50 years ago.
Shanda got us matching Caribbean T-Shirts!
The ruins are quite different than others we have see on other trips to Mexico. They are smaller for one thing. Similar to other excavation sites in the country, there are many restored pyramids and many more that are still under mounds of dirt that just look like hills ready to be unearthed when funding is available.
The jungle foliage was also really great - trees that reminded me of smaller versions of banyan trees, and huge fronds on the palms that reminded me of gigantic versions of what we saw in Abel Tasman!
On our way back to the ship we saw some beautiful flamingos on display!
It's fun traveling with Shanda & Chris - they sure know how to take part in the whole cruise experience...tonight was "Retro" night....GROOVY!
Our servers in the main dining room - Andri & Italio (AKA Francisco) - were great!
Next Stop...COZUMEL!
It's 5 o'clock somewhere, and we find ourselves in Margaritaville!
Since Barry & I have been to Cozumel before, we opted to go to the Lucha Libre show with Margarita's & Taco's! The boys used to LOVE the movie "Nacho Libre" and played it over & over...ever since then we have always wanted to go see one of these - here was our chance!
We take a short drive to a restaurant/arena (that obviously caters to tourists). They pretty much hand you a margarita right away (at 9am)!
We returned to a cute Mouse towel 😚
...and were back so early we got to relax in the Solarium before catching the sunset...
We took some photos of our last formal dress up night, then caught the show "Columbus" after dinner...
Last day at sea!
The nice thing about having an interior balcony is that you can easily check on the weather and during a nice spell you can sit outside for a bit. We spent most of today indoors though, as this last day at sea was quite rocky and cold. We stopped by the last few shops we had not been in and found they sell "Jellycats", which are adorable stuffies that Vanessa & Nancy collect! 😂
Later we went to the Captain's talk, where people in the audience can ask the Captain any questions you want about the ship, etc...then we joined in on the Veteran's tribute in the Promenade, which was very touching.
Since I read all of my books by then I ended up watching a bit of TV...not the greatest selection of entertainment, but they do track the ship's location live on maps (below).
We learned that after leaving Costa Maya, a crew member got very ill. In the middle of the night the Captain made a decision to turn the ship around. A rendezvous with a naval ship was made so the person could get to land and medical attention that shipboard could not provide. The delay, along with wind and rough seas caused a delay for our landing back in Galveston. Not horrible for us since we drove, but we did feel sorry for the crew members who had to turn around rooms very quickly, and feed us extra food while we waited.
Debarkation day...
We had a relaxing breakfast and lunch on board since our check out time wasn't til 1pm. From our perch in the Windjammer Cafe, we watched the Captain bring us into port.
What a treat to be able to cruise with Chris & Shanda! We hope to see one another soon in CA where two of their son's live! This trip was a BLAST!
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