This morning I woke up and did the health questionnaire for the cruise
Unfortunately, mother nature was not going to cooperate today and it was a cool, rainy overcast, miserable no good day. Luckily I was going to get on a cruise ship this afternoon so that made the day much better.
I drove down to Galveston. It was raining in some spots. There was some significant traffic and also some significant accidents closing multiple lanes of I-45. However I managed to arrive in Galveston around 12:30 PM..
I took a picture of the Disney magic ship from the parking lot as you can see the clouds were kind of like a gray blanket.
I parked in the economy lot A for the Galveston port,. and there were a few shuttles already waiting for passengers, so I didn’t have to wait to get on the shuttle, which was good because it was drizzling at the time. The shuttle ride was super quick, and I arrived at the Cruise terminal.
I dropped off my bag and almost immediately went into the cruise terminal, and my check-in time had been updated to 1 PM so I got in the queue for 1 PM and almost immediately went in to get through security and check-in.
The check-in process was super quick as well. I had no wait time at all to go to the desk to check-in. They looked at my passport said “okay” and then they zapped my MagicBand+ to register it and then I was good to go.
Once upstairs in the cruise terminal there is a small waiting area, but open boarding is already ready, so I took a couple of pictures inside the Cruise terminal with the Disney Cruise line logos and boarded the ship.
When you board the ship, they ask your name and they announce your entrance as you go through the main atrium.
One of the first things I took a picture of on the ship was a picture of Mickey and the wheel of the ship statue
I took a picture of how bad the visibility was. You could hardly see anything in the harbor. There’s a lot of rain, clouds and fog.
Now I made my way up to Cabanas because I was hungry and had some lunch. They had a huge selection of some very nice food. I took a picture of the steamship of beef, which was really tender and tasty. I had to go back for seconds.
On my first plate I basically took a small piece of salmon, the steam ship of beef and some prosciutto.
Unlike most cruise lines the soft drinks are included, so I got myself a Coke Zero, and as you can see in the picture of the glass there are even Mickey’s on the plastic glass, which is very nice little touch
. Well, dessert cannot be avoided. They had an apple crumble with vanilla sauce so it’s kind of hard to pass that up.
Walking around the ship, I saw some chipmunks and goofy. It was nice to see some characters walking around the ship.
I went to the registration desk for the program and got my lanyard with my name and the schedule for the cruise.
They also provided me with a MagicBand+ and charger, which is extra for normal guests. So be sure to bring yours with you.
My state room was available so I went up to my state room. I was assigned cabin 6090. They have the key to the world, which is your key to enter your state room at the door inside of a nice envelope.
The cabin is quite spacious and has a nice balcony. The bed is actually super comfortable and also quite a bit higher than most of the beds, so you can easily get your luggage underneath the bed so you don’t need to put the luggage in the closet, only your clothes.
One touch I didn’t notice earlier, but you can see in the pictures of the state room, there is actually a privacy curtain that goes between the bed and the sofa, so when you’re sleeping with your children at night, you can close the curtain, and it’s like having a separate bedroom except for so you can hear everything everything still.
The bathroom is split so there is one section with a shower and a sink, and then a completely separate section which has the toilet and a sink. This is nice that way families can kind of get ready quicker because you can use two sinks, and also one person can use the toilet while the other person is using the shower.
Can’t forget the TV… they had real channels and on demand Disney videos.
I also took pictures of the key to the world and the little envelope that comes in.
One more picture from the balcony…. Battleship Texas is almost visible.
I set off and wondered about the children’s areas because they had an open house where you can go and tour them.
I started in the Oceaneer Lab. It was a pirate theme. On most Disney Cruise Line cruises there is a pirate night. An of course one of their more popular movies is Pirates of the Caribbean.
There were a lot of tables and stools for children to play games. And a Disney Jr TV.
I took the secret walkway between the Oceaneer Lab and Oceaneer Club.
In the Oceaneer Club they had a Toy Story theme, including the slinky dog as a slide.
And a couple of other themed areas for the kids.
And even an Iron Man suit and Captain America shield….
I walked by the movie theater on the way to Edge (11-14 year olds) I snapped a photo of the schedule of the movies. They were plaing some very recent releases, including Zootopia 2 which has yet to hit the Disney+ streaming service.
Edge was a really cool place. Despite it being on Deck 9 they had it themed as a submarine…. Some of us remember back when there was still a 20,000 leauges under the sea ride at Disney. The screens make the coral and fish seem so realistic.
I went outside to the adult pool area which you can see in the pictures which has a pool, bar and two hot tubs. They also have the concierge area lounges up above. They have open air lounge on one side on the starboard side and enclosed area lounge with a bar on the port side.
That’s a good picture of the battleship Texas, which is being refurbished in Galveston still… now that the rain stopped…. at least temporarily.
I also went to the older Teen area (14-17 year old) where they have a lounge and some retro video games TV and foosball.
I took a tour of the spa and salon. They have a barbershop and a fitness area.
The rainforest thermal area on the ship is pretty small and there’s no windows so it just wasn’t for me, but they had two steam rooms and a couple of automatic showers..
But the highlight of the spa tour was the couples villa which they have two massage beds and a balcony with a hot tub which was really nice. I would’ve been tempted to splurge on the money for that.
I started to get hungry, so I decided to try some pizza at Pinocchio‘s. It was OK. The crust is obviously premade and the cheese good enough but yeah the crust was definitely not fresh and is good enough but gosh they could make it so much better..
Here’s a picture of the larger waterslide (minimum 48″ height) and the big screen outdoor movie theater. This is in a family pool area.
While I was outside I managed to capture a tugboat in the harbour with a dolphin jumping up in front of it. Unfortunately, I had the phone on HD and not 4K, but you can still see the dolphin quite clearly jumping in front of the boat, so that’s pretty cool.
I took a picture of the Disney Cruise Line logo on the ship’s funnel
Back in the stateroom, I opened the drawer of the desk and found a couple of postcards, some paper envelopes, and the door hanger for the in-room breakfast.
After the muster drill, we had the sailaway and party. Unfortunately because of the weather the Sailway party was indoors so after a few minutes of the party, I went outside to enjoy the view and take some pictures and some short videos of the attractions in Galveston as we left. As you can see is still not a beautiful day outside, but the last time I sailed from Galveston it was pitch dark so it’s better than that.
We had a nice welcome reception in Fathoms and I had a couple Bahama Mamas which were the drink of the day.
I really like the lighting. The lights reminded me of a jellyfish or jelly. A bunch of jellyfish is really nice I like it..
I want to see the musical Tangled in the evening. The musical was very well produced the highlight for me was there was a man that was inside a horse puppet, and the rear legs of the horse moved very realistically, and the horse made facial expressions. It was really well done. The music was good. It was a good show – don’t miss it.
The theater itself is a art deco theme. Very reminiscent of old Hollywood.
We had dinner at Animator’s Palate.
Luckily we were sitting nearby a screen. It doesn’t look like a screen most times, but if you pay close attention you can see the pencil makrs being sketched and the art animating. The characters change, one of them was Thumper.
I took a picture of the menu it changes, the front had a hologram of sorcerer Mickey that moves as you move the menu.
Mmmm bread.
I decided to go with the sliced serrano ham and the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup.
I chose the herb crusted pork chop for my main.
The pork was really good. In fact, the herb crusting was very thick and crunchy and dry. Sometimes when you get these pork chops from other places it is soggy, but this was really well done.
And of course I can’t leave without dessert or two desserts in my case.
So I had to try the warm sticky date pudding. It was OK. I also tried the cookies and cream sundae, which was very good. I was also tempted by the crunchy walnut cake but, two desserts was enough
While we got our dessert the colorful show started where all the screens animated into classic movies. Sorcerer Mickey also danced around the dining room.
The light effects in the dining room were really nice. I also enjoyed that the columns were shaped like paintbrushes.
I came back to my room briefly and I had myself a new pet, well a towel dog anyways and a couple of chocolates.
I took a picture of the funnel at night with the lights on it.
I went down to fathoms where they had the quest scavenger hunt. I played with a few others in a team. It was not too difficult and it had some funny moments, but it was not as crazy as the quest is on Royal Caribbean… It was still a very family friendly activity despite being an adult only activity whereas on Royal Caribbean it is much more risque..
I have to wake up early in the morning tomorrow so it’s time to call it a day and enjoy the comfy bed.