kadmgs

16 minutes ago, FLTraveler said:

First time I've seen the drink package drop below $70/day on any of the cruises I'm booked for, so I eagerly snatched it up! That's for Oasis in November. For my other cruises the prices seem the same as usual.

Same. I got the DBP for $69.99 for my November Adventure sailing. I haven't seen it below 70 for this sailing at all prior to this sale. The lowest its been has been $73.99 with the Labor Day sale. It was $88.99 prior to this sale. Between it and the UDP, an excursion that was also on sale, and internet for 2 devices, I saved $215 with the sale. I'll take it.  

6 hours ago, TexanTwoStep said:

Greetings!

The wife and I just took our first cruise in July on Grandeur of the Seas and we are now hooked, and have another planned for Voyager of the Seas out of Galveston in June 2023 (this time with the kiddo, and in a ultimate oceanview panoramic suite!).  

My name is Jeremy, and we are from Northeast Texas.  I'm a prior member of the US Coast Guard, and currently work in transportation/logistics management.  I love this blog and message board and have been lurking for about a year, but finally decided to join.  

So, hello!  Hoping to make some new friends here!

Hey Tyler! Baytown here, even though my profile says Houston because no one outside of Texas knows where I really am. I went to SFA & have family in your area. Being able to cruise out of Galveston makes it really easy to feed the addiction. Welcome to the boards!

We sailed last Christmas. Besides extra cash, we asked our stateroom attendant if there was anything we could pick up for her while in port. At the time, she was unable to leave the ship due to COVID protocol. She said chocolate was always a welcome treat, so we bought some of our favorites in St. Thomas to include a candy that is made about 2 hours from our house. We were shocked to see it in the store actually. We got enough for her to share and she was excited about it. I know they are trained to be "happy" about whatever they are given, but she seemed actually excited. They were working ridiculous schedules at the time and I have a feeling they still are due to the staffing shortages, so I know extra cash will be greatly appreciated.

I do not recommend anything that is not consumable because they have very little space to store their belongings, ie don't give them anything they can't eat or spend because they don't have anywhere to put it.  

Playmakers on Oasis makes a good Bloody Mary. I'm a Zing Zang loyalist. They don't use it, but it was good. 

On 10/18/2022 at 3:16 PM, Ryan79 said:

I’ve heard the iced tea on board is horrible and plain iced tea is my go-to beverage. I guess I’ll have to be 21 again and get the Long Island version instead!

The plain iced tea is not good if you are used to freshly brewed tea. I'm not sure what they use, but it tastes like Gold Peak instant tea out of a machine. 

On 10/18/2022 at 8:37 AM, wordell1 said:

No. And I would add that if you know what sweet tea is (you live somewhere in the south), you won't like the plain iced tea either.

Yep, I'm from Texas and it's not the same. 

I have had it on 3 cruises and didn't regret it at all. I love the fact that the food is cooked to order. I'm not a fan of the banquet style food in the MDR. Let me preface this with I have been a catering manager and worked in hotels, so know what can sit in a cooler box or heat box and the quality not be impacted. However, I don't want something that been under a cloche for who knows how long. The food is prepared for the masses and as a result I the quality lacking. Not a fan of the windjammer either for similar reasons. My dietary needs require me to eat smaller meals more frequently than what is available in the MDR. I like that we can go to more than one specialty restaurant a day. Some ships have more options that others, but we are usually on a ship with a Johnny Rockets or a Playmakers that gives us an option for a small meal in the afternoon. I will go to the Windjammer for a quick fruit and cheese snack, but that's really it. I prefer the restaurant setting for main meals rather than the dining room as well. I like the more personalized service we usually get in a specialty. 

22 hours ago, Toby said:

It would be nice if RC offered a hybrid Deluxe Beverage Package for those of us getting Crown and Anchor drink vouchers.  Offer a discount to purchase the DBP in exchange for the C&A drink vouchers.

They do offer an onboard discount if your are Diamond Plus (30%) or Pinnacle (40%). However, that is onboard prices, so the pre-cruise price would probably still be better. A discount code to use for pre-cruise purchase... now, we are talking. Highly unlikely, though.  

I will echo either Uber or Lyft to Little Havana. Last December we were there the night before we sailed. We inadvertently did our own "mojito crawl" as we visited various locations. Amazing food and properly made mojitos made for a great start to our vacation. 

2 hours ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

 In the same way the ships sailing out of Galveston lean FAR more into Texas/country foods, music and entertainment, I wouldn't be surprised to see ships sailing out of China to skew toward Chinese tastes.

I've sailed out of Tampa, Miami, and Galveston. This isn't true. The only thing ships out of Galveston offer that others do not is Dr. Pepper. Otherwise, the menus & entertainment are the same as other ships. There are more people from Texas on board out of Galveston, but Royal doesn't change the menu or entertainment. In fact, Oasis out of Miami has more "Texas" food with Portside BBQ & El Loco Fresh than Liberty does. Sabor is far from Texas style Mexican. 

Thank you, @Rory for posting the video. We sail on Adventure in November and I'm excited to see the new terminal. 

15 hours ago, Adriana said:

Oh my gosh, thank you all sooo much! These are some great tips! I plan on trying some and hope it helps. I usually am okay, but when it hits, it hits! Plus, the possibility of Enchantment makes me really want to find a reliable solution. I def will be getting ginger, having apples, maybe the over the counter pills as back up and look into the bands. Thank you, thank you! And, @kadmgs, I pray all goes well with your treatments. 

Thanks! I really appreciate it. 

18 hours ago, Adriana said:

Also, has anyone used the sea sickness bands? I know I used it, but for the life of me cannot remember the outcome. 

I have not tried it yet for sea sickness, but I recently bought and used a Relief Band for chemo nausea. It was amazing. Its effectiveness definitely justified the cost for me. I plan on taking it with me in November on our Adventure cruise and we bought one for DW since it worked so well for me. 

17 hours ago, USCG Teacher said:

Since we're throwing in dining options in Galveston while we're at it, how's Queen's BBQ?  As soon as I told my older son we were going to TX, he immediately said, "We've got to get BBQ...."  

I will echo @Galveston Steve's statement. I haven't tried Koop's as well, but everyone on the Galveston Eats facebook page rave about it. I'll be down there in October and plan to try it. Depending on the amount of time you have while in Galveston, I recommend taking your boys to LaKing's Confectionery. It is an almost 100 year old candy store in the historic part of the Strand. My brother and I loved going every summer on vacation when we were kids. 

We live an hour from Galveston. I'm IHG and a HIVC owner, so we stay mostly out at one of the timeshares. I would not recommend the Holiday Inn Resort next to the San Luis Hotel. It is old and needs serious updating/remodeling. I haven't stayed at the Holiday Inn Express @ 3228 Seawall, but it is next door to a great option for dinner, The Spot. It is very kid-friendly and has tons of outdoor seating, both covered and not, with great views of the Gulf. It is actually several different restaurant concepts in one area, kinda under one roof, but not really. They are known for their burgers and they are good in my opinion. They also have seafood and other stuff, but it might not all be available in the same area. If you go there, look at the menus before you choose which place to order from. We have the Holiday Inn Express booked for our Thanksgiving cruise because I could use points. I would recommend Uber or Lyft if you want to venture out and for the morning of departure. 

We are IHG rewards members, so we've stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami and the Intercontinental Miami. Both are located on Biscayne Bay Blvd. and are across the street/across the park from Bayside Marketplace. Bayside is a shopping/dining/entertainment area on the edge of Biscayne Bay. You can see the cruise terminal from both hotels. The Holiday Inn is a more affordable location compared to the Intercontinental. We Lyfted from the hotel to the terminal and it took less than ten minutes. We love to spend time in Little Havana when we are in Miami and its about a 10 minute Lyft to there from both hotels. 

57 minutes ago, CrimsonCruiser said:

I'd also probably recommend avoiding formal night as Central Park is a good photo spot in general and probably even more so when people want to get all dressed up.

I agree. Central Park is pretty busy on formal night. The reverse thinking on this is that there will more than likely be a ship photographer near by that you can take pictures with. You could even speak with the photo people to see if they would be in on it with you. There is an option to buy a private photo session with a photographer. You could tell you're girlfriend you won a free session and you thought pictures together in Central Park would be nice. You could do the whole, "Oops, I dropped my seapass card" drop to your knee to it pick up trick, all while the photographer is snapping away. 

24 minutes ago, CruiseMom82 said:

Awesome info! I’m not sure if I have a euro plug adapter but I definitely have one for the UK, if these are the same or if there’s also a UK plug. I know all about the voltage requirements, having fried a blow dryer in the past when traveling abroad! And I already got a nice set of binoculars ready to go. Thanks again you guys! The information about the Internet and phone usage is especially helpful.

The "international" plug fits multiple  plugs. Your UK converter will work just fine. 

1. Yes, only 2 outlets. However, there is also a European outlet as well. Get a travel outlet converter to use. Be aware of the different voltage on Euro plugs. For example, I plugged the hair dryer into my converter on Oasis in December and it got HOT, FAST and then shut off due to overheating... I forgot about the difference in American appliances (110 volts) versus Euro (220 volts). 

2. You will get a flyer with instructions in your cabin when you board about logging in. Basically, the system will recognize your stateroom number and it will know which plan you paid for. If you log in on your phone and your husband is already logged in on his, it will prompt you to log him out. You will then be able to log in on your device and vice versa.

3. You can use wifi calling. We do. Once on board, put your phone in airplane mode and manually turn your wifi back on. You can then use the wifi without using your cell data plan. 

4. yes, we order a light continental breakfast delivered each morning and then later in the morning have a "sit down" breakfast. We follow the "Hobbit" meal plan when cruising. 

5. Yes, it gets pretty dark. I've used hair clips to close the little tiny gaps at times if it shows through.

6. I would be careful to schedule anything within 2 hours of departure from a port unless you are on a Royal excursion. You don't want to get left if there is a complication. The ship will only wait for you if you are on a Royal sponsored excursion aka one you purchased through the cruise planner.

7. I've also never heard of anyone dealing with bedbugs onboard. Hotels, yes, but not on a Royal ship. 

23 minutes ago, Andy & Sheryl Unwin said:

However, we have two reasons for liking the JS is two fold. Firstly, more space. Its a larger cabin with a walk in closet, and the balcony is bigger. Secondly and probably more important, the JS has a proper bath tub. Truly a luxury onboard any ship.

There are other benefits of course, but those are our two top listers

I agree with Andy. The bathroom really is a big upgrade for us compared to non-suite rooms. Not tripping over bags and/or anything else because of the closet is a bonus as well. 

I firmly believe that decrease in interaction with guests is due to staffing shortages. We were on Oasis in December and had a conversation with our stateroom attendant about it. She explained how their schedules were working due to COVID protocols. They were assigned more staterooms that usual and there was a weird week by week rotation that they were on. My guess is that servers in the MDR are being assigned to more tables than usual and that leads to them simply not having time to build a relationship. As a former waiter and front manager in a land based restaurant, I can attest that it is much easier to manage a 4 table section than it is a 6 or 8 table section. 

13 hours ago, BB1 said:

I appreciate your input but it doesn't sound very promising. 

I would stay in the Clear Lake/Webster area. It is much safer and about half way between Hobby and Galveston. Uber/Lyft from Hobby to this area isn't bad at all. 

Hobby airport is in a rough part of town. With that being said, I've at the Holiday Inn just down the street from this La Quinta and I haven't had any issues. However, I'm never by myself and I keep my head on a swivel. I just looked at Google Maps and this location is a newer location, so at least the rooms don't open to the outside. I think you will be ok, just be careful and be aware that crime in that area can be an issue. 

6 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

That sounds familiar, yes 

They only lasted a few months, 

Now that you said that, I think I remember seeing them. Those sailings conflicted with my school schedule if I remember correctly. That or we didn't want to sail on Enchantment. We aren't fans of small ships. 

Matt's assessment of fuel costs makes the most sense. 

8 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

 

In 2019 there were semi regular sailings out of Galveston for Coco Cay for several months 

Were these Enchantment sailings? 

1 hour ago, Ja-sun said:

Any certain food that you recommend?

Conch is the national dish of the Bahamas, so I would say conch salad or conch fritters.