GregD

I did not…..but fear not, I’m watching releases like a hawk. I think @TheBoss518 is really interested in Utopia for NYE

Houston hotel: We called an audible the morning of the cruise for our post cruise stay. After a night of listening to the freeloaders complain about who was touching who, who was taking up too much space etc, we decided we needed a bigger room. The room by the airport was going to be the same arrangement we were just in. We expanded our hotel search space and ended up at a Homewood Suites Houston/clear Lake/NASA. The room was a 1 king, 2 dbl beds 2br, 2 bath suite. This was perfect. Everyone had their own space, and the freeloaders were on the other side of the room from us. The locations was great too. It was just off I45 midway between Houston and Galveston. With a late morning flight we had plenty of time. Here is the main living room Freeloaders room Freeloader Bathroom Kitchenette Master Bed Master bath, my only complaint here was that to get to the shower/toilet you had to come completely out of the bedroom and cross that space. minor gripe. That door to the right of the mirror leads to the master BR. The drive to Hobby the following morning was only 20 minutes, so not bad at all.

The bugs were really creepy. Plenty of roaches, weird stick bugs and spiders.

Back at it! The best part of our day, was after lunch. We stopped at their restaurant and ate at the buffet. It was nothing exciting and not even worth pictures but it was edible if you end up here, it’s a solid choice over the other cafes. We went back to the Aquarium, and got to meet Marley! Marley is a 20 year old rock hopper penguin who really enjoys doing meet and greets with people. She was constantly doing her excited call. While with her we learned all about their exhibit, conservation efforts, how the penguins are cared for, etc etc. While there, Marley made us some art that we got to keep. It was a really fun way to finish our day there. We also got a small peek at their newest king penguin chick, just poking out from behind its parents.

I’m here for the nothing but pictures

Nothing that exciting, just his tongue

Instead of posting pictures of all the creepy bugs we saw, I'll post Orchids and flowers instead.

Certain creatures were in their own enclosure because they could kill you like this guy, a Komodo Dragon Fruit bats and vampire bats

After the aquarium, we went over to the rainforest pyramid. This one was very cool. Inside they had planted a small rainforest. There were trees and plants native to the amazon, and there were multiple animals and birds that had free rein of the building. Everywhere you went random things would cross your path. I understand that for some of you cough cough...you know who you are...that would be terrifying, but we all really enjoyed it. There were two levels of paths that you took, one was up high in the canopy, and then down low along the floor. ' This guy stopped and posed for pictures. There were plenty of staff around to remind guests not to get too close. You will have to take my word for it, but the brown blob in the back is a sloth. HEY IM WALKIN HERE!!!

We spent a little time driving around Galveston looking at nice houses etc. There was a marathon or something going on that day so we didn't really stop anywhere. We eventually hit Starbucks for second coffee. I handed the girl my purple star class card...she wasn't amused. On advice from friends we headed over to Moody Gardens This is a large property with hotel, convention center etc, but what we were after is that they have three pyramids. One holds an aquarium, another a rainforest, and the third is a discovery museum. We first visited the aquarium. This was lots of fun, and done well. They have all sorts of exhibits from penguins, to jellyfish, a touch pool with rays, and all sorts of things in between. This guy looked like I felt They even had the Homo sapiens diver fish!

Our first task once in the car was a rescue mission!! Poor Ashlyn forgot her favorite stuffed animal at the hotel before getting on the ship. Thankfully Kristine called the hotel and they were able to hold onto it for them. Dan had planned on getting off the ship as soon as the gangway opened and walked to the hotel to retrieve it and hopefully return in time to get their shuttle to the airport. I told him that was crazy, and that since we had the car, we would go get it for them. They stayed at the Harbor House, so it would have been doable, but not necessary. Rescue mission completed!! We sent word to Ashlyn and she was a very happy girl!

Departure.... Berty gave us two options for our bags. We would have them out by midnight the last night, or six am on departure day. Looking at the departure sheet they are really pushing for people not to do self assist. There is bold print that self assist is only for people with one bag, as the terminal has minimal elevators, and they don't want people going down the escalators with multiple bags. While I have never been lucky enough to have the earlier star class experience with the genie coming with a porter on the last day, we had ours out by midnight except for the small suitcase for the infamous weighted blanket and makeup etc etc. We have never lost a bag, nor do we put anything valuable in them so it has not been an issue for us yet.... On the last morning, we were up in coastal around 7:30. We weren't necessarily rushing since we didn't have anywhere to be right away, but we did want to be out to give the attendant as much time as possible. At breakfast, I got my last Mediterranean Plate Johnny had one last frosted donut for @Lovetocruise2002 Lydia was done with pictures At 8:30 Berty met us at CK to walk us off the ship. He was also escorting the 4 guests in the villa off at the same time too. He used his magical powers and the elevator went straight to the promenade, where we got a picture of him with he kids We were whisked around the long line of people off the ship. Galveston must do some things a little different because he was able to accompany us all the way past the facial scanners to our waiting luggage. The scanners here were great, and super quick. All of the star class luggage was grouped together in the corner and easy to get to. With our belongings recovered, we too quickly said our final goodbyes and were on our way. Total time from pickup at coastal kitchen to our car was 18 minutes, including the few extra minutes it took to get to the car because we accidentally walked the wrong way

One final treat for the kids after the ice show, we stopped up at Wonderland bar. We used some more diamond vouchers and treated the girls to the Cheshire Cat cosmos. They thought it was so fun to pour the drink onto the cotton candy. Once they were sufficiently hopped up on sugar...plus the bar was closing we went down to the dance party. Johnny really liked sharing his experiences with Livi. She could easily become homesick, and Johnny could usually break her out of it quickly. The dance party wasn't really my thing, or Johnnys thing so we ended up doing a couple of last minute laps, then headed back to the room.

After dinner, we went down to Studio B to watch 1887: A Journey in Time ice show. Berty again went above and beyond and also had seats held for Dan and his family. This show was really good too. I think their ice shows are all well done on the ships. There was a guess star in the show, who did some really neat tricks with a giant metal ring. As this is our first time seeing the show, I don't know if this is normally part, or if this changes week to week. Photography wasn't allowed, so you will have to take my word for it.

Those guys never stood a chance...they were gone in a flash!

After the final Aqua show, we all got ready for our last dinner on the ship. We were all eating together in CK at the big table for a final celebration of good food and friends and memories. It was white night, and only Lydia got the memo in our family….. We all had a great time. Drinks were flowing, lots of laughs. Soon, our waiter Ravi who was been taking care of us when we were there was piling food on the table! the camera never got bites of our appetizers, but they were things everyone has seen before, escargot, salads and French onion soup. I ordered the lamb shank, which was super tender. The boss ordered the veal chop Dan and Kristine both got the saffron linguini. The boss and were also tossing that one around as a possibility, so Ravi brought us one to share. He also brought out a seared tuna for all of us to share which prompted the “push the tuna, it’s about to turn” jokes. When it came to desserts, most of us ordered the dulche de leche crème brûlée. This one actually tasted good. there was also some Chocolate cake and fruit. With happy hearts and full bellies, it was eventually time to say goodbye to CK for the night. We thanked Ravi for all of his hard work and great service and wished him well and headed out for a few more drinks.

Following our little shopping adventure, we headed back to the room. We had Big Daddy's Hideaway Heist Aqua show to watch from the balcony. Dan and his family were coming as well. Spinny guy is back more slack line Enthralled kids food porn for @OCSC Mike

So I think we are now up to the special treat for the wife. I know I have been hinting at sparkly things that we have been looking for, and not having any luck. But..... But............ We went another route. I really did want to treat her, to something special. She recently got a big promotion at work that she worked so hard for, and it was really a wonderful thing for this position to become available in her company, and in this location so that we wouldn't have to relocate....plus she deserves it from putting up with me right @TheBoss518 So may I present to you Luis.... She is beyond excited....and can't wait for work on Wednesday to show it off a little bit. For all of you that were hoping on sparkly things...FEAR NOT!!!! I have found the exact thing that she was looking for on the Effy site and I have ordered it!

Okay!! Correct Preaching to the choir here.....I will be talking about that in the survey... Thank you, but wait there is more to finish!! As @asquared17 said, I was busy making memories!

Well folks, we are home. Our travel day was super easy. I don’t have to go to work tomorrow so I will be able to finish this out then.

I’ve been looking at other ships tonight too, some have headliners for the next two weeks, then nothing. Symphony doesn’t have anything listed for any sailings including this week. Definitely something to follow up on. Maybe @Matt has someone he could reach out to. Could be a good article for the main site. I’m curious to see the justification they use, though we all know it’s to save $$

The jugglers, magicians etc are the headliners. Those are going away. For instance there was none of that on our cruise. There was no welcome aboard show on the first night, no singers, nothing… This is all VERY recent, as in the last week or two they are being phased out. I believe Berty said fleet wide, so as contracts run out, they are not being replaced.

We have a few restaurants at home, one of which has a lunch buffet that I probably go to 2-3 times a month. Their food is very good but their mains seem more for "civilian use." Their masala is very mild, and their spicy things are mild at best. This lunch was full of flavor and amazing.

Bridge tour: I have to make one correction, it was Berty who contacted Dan, not the concierge... Anyway we all met at the front of the ship with the other Star Class guests. We were chatting with Berty and thanking him profusely for all the things that he was able to include Dan and his family on. He said he was happy to, and that ultimately is was actually pretty easy. This sailing, he was responsible for our deck 8 ATS, he had the deck 9 ATS above us and the villa. For this cruise, there were only 2 passengers in the ATS above us, and the villa only had 4 guests in it!!. Ten total guests. He was surprised that they were able to book with 4. They said that they originally had more but they had all canceled. With so few guests he was able to be more flexible and inclusive. Usually when a genie has the villa its VERY stressful for them because its almost like managing three or more cabins. Many times he will have some guests want to eat at one place, while others want this or that and it's a lot of moving parts and coordinating can be difficult. He was very happy for the low guest count and relatively easy bunch. Berty led the tour today, and he did a good job. The kids were in awe of all the things on the bridge and had a good time. Here we were discussing all sorts of things from helicopter off loads to the changes since the shutdown. We returned to our cabin to do some packing before more activities. Our towel animal collection has grown

After the galley tour we picked our free photos, had a few drinks made by robots, and then headed back to the room. Lunch was some more genie magic. Earlier in the week we were chatting with Berty and talking about the blogs. That's when he brought up @Matt being one of his guests. Berty mentioned that he didn't know about the blogs too much and was confused why all these random people were asking for photos with him. He also couldn't say enough nice things about him and his family. The topic of food came up, and how we really like Indian cuisine, and how Matt had asked for some. Berty asked if we would like an Indian lunch on our balcony and we happily said yes. So at noon, our lunch was delivered. From Top to bottom, there was Basmati rice, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken 65, a lentil dish, papadum, and roti. The small bowls were a sweet dessert made with carrots and almonds. I have to say, this was my favorite meal that I have ever had on any of the ships. Everything tasted amazing. Berty said it was all made fresh, and not just grabbed from the crew mess. Going forward we will probably be talking to our genies about doing this again. While it doesn't look like a lot of food, it was too much for us, so we messaged Dan to see if they would like some, and they came down too to share. With full and happy bellies, we got ready for the bridge tour.