We went on a cruise 🙂 It was a 7 night cruise that departed from Galveston. It was not as relaxing as I had envisioned, I guess a “vacation” with kids is not really a vacation where you can relax. We went the week after Thanksgiving. I love cruising, it’s a really good way to travel to multiple places. The crew really takes care of you. I’ve cruised 3 times now, all 3 have been with Royal Caribbean.
We drove to Galveston, the kids were great. We left super early, before the sun rose. So we stopped at a McDonalds about an hour and half in. Once we got to the port there was crazy amount of traffic from people leaving from the previous cruise and people arriving to go on the same cruise as us AND a Carnival cruise. We are gold members from cruising previously so we got to go into a shorter line, not much shorter but still shorter. We got our seapass card, which was your lifeline. You pay with this card, gain access to your room, get on and off the boat with it. It’s great because you don’t have to carry your passport around with you. The kids even had one!
So the first thing we did after taking copious amounts of pictures in our room to show how awesome our room was (only 2 or 3 of the pictures were somewhat good…the kids were a bit stir crazy at this point), was to register Ian for the Adventure Ocean program they have for 3-11 year olds. Registering was easy and fast, both the kids got a bracelet that they had to wear the whole time that had our muster station. Just in case we needed to evacuate the boat and our kids aren’t with us the crew members will take your kids to the right place. Not like this mattered because Ian REFUSED to participate in this ‘free’ daycare (this service is included in the cost of your cruise). We took him one night and he practically cried the whole time and even peed his pants :/
If you are wondering our room was at the front of the boat, Deck 6 Room 6502. It was an excellent room. Just make sure you ask the attendant to prepare the couch bed, for the kids to sleep in.
After that we explored the boat and had our first dinner in the dining room. When we arrived there was an elderly couple and they were already arguing about the seating situation, by the time we had the kids settled they were moved to a different table and for the rest of the cruise it was just our little family. Mr. A and I LOVE the dining room experience. There are cruisers out there that don’t like it, but we went every night. The service is amazing, it’s like dining in a 5 star restaurant every night. You get the same wait staff the entire duration of your cruise, our main waiter’s name is Elvis, well that’s what he made us call him anyways 🙂 One night he even sang for us.
There is a kids menu, Ian had macaroni and cheese every night, no joke 😐
We learned after the first night we should bring tablet/phone for entertainment. This is a full service dining experience: bread, apps, main meal and dessert. Also it’s worth mentioning if you like something you can order it multiple times. Mr. A is a soup guy, if there was soup on the menu our waiter learned to bring out two! They are so attentive! On the third night when we arrived at the table the kids’ fruit cups were already waiting for them as well.
Some of the food. I’m not good about remembering to take photos of my food before I devour it. I have kids, I don’t have time to take beautiful photos of my food!
Here are our wonderful waiters and my terrible batmans not wanting to take a photo.
Next up the fun places we stopped at!
