Ndfan89

On 1/8/2024 at 9:20 AM, AshleyDillo said:

I know it's a ways off, but I'd be happy to host a meet up in our cabin if anyone is interested. I know it's a short cruise but if anyone wants to catch the aquashow from our balcony on one of the evenings I may be able to arrange that! We are in an aquatheater suite for this sailing

Oh my gosh - this is so sweet of you! Would love to meet up! 

I have read you can’t use the annual prime certificate on the Wonder of the Seas.  We did last year.  By chance do you know if this has changed? I am trying to plan for later this year because we have two certificates.  Thank you for any information.

Well, I have Mariner on 2/8 (Me,  husband and daughter) and then jumping on Allure 2/12 with a party of ten for my sisters 60th Birthday! Majority are not seasoned cruisers so I am hopeful they find some sort of allure on the Allure,  I really talked it up.  It will be their first time on an Oasis class ship. Thank you for your trip report. 

I will be on that cruise too! 

Just now, Jzx1103 said:

866-461-7170

Try calling early in the morning when they first open. The hold times are really long when I called

Thank you so much ! 

Do you have number to call for Celebrity Blue chip?  My husband and I both get multiple offers from royal caribbean.  Would love to try Celebrity.

42 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Thank you Photos are all Hubby!

The voucher thing I don’t know the answer to. I will try to ask around when I go to one of those Central Park restaurants. However, I forgot to mention that while walking down the hall yesterday to the elevators, Hubby did see a case of Evian in someone’s room. So that they do have.

Yes, on my July 9 sailing  on Wonder we did have Evian waiting in our stateroom upon arrival. 

We are in the Hyatt at the airport.  Driver picking us up in the morning.. Whohoo!

I will be on the Wonder! So excited. Finishing up last minute packing and catching a flight tomorrow afternoon.  
Sunday can’t come quick enough for me. 

Great blog.  Looks like you are both having a wonderful trip!

Thanks for the report. I found it very entertaining and did not think you were whining at all.  Call a spade a spade - my type of lady! Thank you for taking us along with you and your family. 

I will be boarding the Wonder on Sunday, July 9.  I will not be in a suite but excited to experience the Wonder of the Seas.   I did buy the UDP to try to avoid 4000 of my closest friends for dinner.  I also ordered the Evian water .  

I do not feel like I would be a very good blogger but I will try to update of any craziness.

Thanks again and I love your writing style and sense of humor.  

Following - I get on the Wonder 7/9.. Soooo excited 

July 9th on Wonder 

We are booked ... B2B for birthday 11/4/2024

Great review.. I will be there July 9 - July 16.  I am so excited 

Any idea if doing a back to back Cruise?

13 hours ago, CanHardlyWait said:

Check every hour on the hour. Especially the last 30 days. People will cancel and availability for one or two will pop back up for an hour till someone buys it again. That's how I got mine. It's work for sure, but it happens.

Thank you so much 

Thank you ..

It is sold out on my sailing that I booked today for July.  Any chance it comes back available?

Hello, 

Considering renting a Chill Island Cabana .  How are the cabanas assigned? Do I pick or do they assign ? 
Looks like some locations are better than others from the pictures.  Thank you for your help.. 

Lynn

I won $2700 on Harmony and my husband won $3500 

1 hour ago, AshleyDillo said:

I didn't have any either when I entered my info at the same link, but starting off fresh from the direct www.clubroyaleoffers.com my offers came back.

I do not have any offers and I don’t understand.  They came to a screeching halt end of August 

3 hours ago, The Fox said:

You can go here and check how many points you have:  https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/

I noticed you do not have any offers.  I do not either which was strange to me.   I emailed club royale thinking they have messed up my account (again). 

Wonderful Blog! Thank you for taking the time to write. 

5 hours ago, teddy said:

I’m still not quite sure about how good I’ll be at this, but I figure I’ll give it a shot.  I’m neither a writer nor especially witty, but I thought our experiences may be of help to someone who is coming to Galveston for a cruise for the first time (like us).  On that note, thank you @Galveston Stevefor your thread about Galveston.

Please forgive any spelling, grammar, tenses, or other mistakes.  I may ramble, too.  I’m more of an in-person communicator, so I have no problems with constructive criticism. My cameras are an iPhone 12 and an iPad Mini.  I’m not a photographer, so my apologies in advance.  

Background:

My wife and I originally booked this cruise in January 2020 while at Next Cruise on Adventure.   We booked it as wedding present for my stepson and his fiancé who were getting married in July 2021 on the 10th anniversary of their first date.  Because of Covid, everything got pushed to 2022.  A huge thank you to @michelle for rescheduling everything for us.  (Edited to add..another thank you to Michelle for helping us upgrade from Interior cabins to Balconies). 
 

On the surface, it may seem weird that parents are going on a honeymoon cruise with their son and new wife.  However, they are both on the autism spectrum.  High functioning to be sure, but a trip from Maine to Galveston, then boarding a cruise ship is more than they feel comfortable navigating on their own.  
 

Our original plan was to fly into Houston’s Hobby Airport the day before and spend one night in Galveston.  After some cancellations and changes of our flights by American, as well as all the uncertainties with flying nowadays, we decided to fly in two days early.  After a few calls to American, we decided to fly into George Bush International rather than Hobby in order to have one layover and arrive in Houston early in the afternoon.   We are still departing for home from Hobby on September 4th.  

Day 1 (Friday 8/26): 

We departed Portland, ME on time at 6 am and arrived in Philadelphia at 730.  Our connecting flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so we had plenty of time to walk from terminal B to terminal C.  On a side note, this was the first time we’ve connected in Philadelphia and not had to run from terminal F to terminal A or B.  It was nice. 
 

Our flight from Philadelphia to IAH left promptly at its rescheduled time.  Interestingly enough, we touched down in Houston one minute earlier than the original arrival time (1218 pm).  
 

We booked a shuttle to our hotel in Galveston through Galveston Express.  The meeting place is right outside Terminal A at IAH….literally a stone’s throw from the baggage claim we were assigned. 
 

The Galveston Express driver (Ernest) texted us to let us know he arrived.  He was driving a Mercedes Sprinter van that was very clean, and the a/c worked fine.  We made a stop at Hobby to pick up another couple then we were dropped off at our hotel.  Obviously we only have this one experience with Galveston Express, but based on it, we’d use them again. I’ll follow up with our experience on the trip from Galveston to Hobby.  The cost for four adults from IAH to Galveston was $140 and the cost from Galveston to Hobby is $120.  Travel time from IAH to our hotel was about an hour and a half.  There was some construction outside of Hobby that snarled up traffic for a bit.  I’m not a good passenger, but I had no issues with Ernest’s driving. We felt safe at all times.  

We are staying at Springhill Suites on Galveston Island.  We booked here because we could pay partially with Marriott points.  It’s located on the right shortly after you come on the island.  
 

The hotel is clean, modern, and the staff is very pleasant.  Our room has the typical sleeping area and sitting area we’ve seen in hotels in the $200-$300 range.  We have a small balcony with a couple chairs, but so far it’s been too hot and humid for our northern New England blood to sit out there.  It was very quiet last night, which is a change from staying in hotels near the Miami and Fort Lauderdale airports.
 

After a dinner of delivery pizza, we fell asleep early.

Day 2 (Saturday 8/27):

Breakfast is included and is what we’ve come to expect from complementary breakfasts.  There are typical offerings…scrambled eggs, sausage, waffles, cereal, fruit, yogurt, muffins, bagels, etc.  

Our plans for today are to run to Target (across the highway from the hotel) then explore Galveston a bit. 

This is the view from our hotel balcony.  We look out to the southwest, so if we wouldn’t have fallen asleep so early, the sunset would have been nice.  

 

 

Great writing! Have a wonderful cruise.