Our journey to the cruise port began early in the morning from Austin. We drove and made great time through Houston, Galveston, and made it to our port parking. After getting parked, my first thought was, wow, there aren’t many cars. We then got in a shuttle and headed for the terminal to get checked in for our cruise.
We quickly made it through the lines and when we were asked for our passports, Brent said all he had was his drivers license! Luckily I got checked in and started thinking, well what would I do if he can’t board the ship?! Luckily after a half hour of vigorously coordinating with friends and roommates someone was able to locate his birth certificate which sufficed for boarding purposes. After we boarded, we went straight to get some food for lunch..
We then got access to our rooms and started unpacking our luggage. It was actually quite cool in Galveston so we had our jeans and everything on..not yet a tropical cruise feel.
We then did a mandatory emergency drill and went through simple training. The boat finally tarted to move and we were on our way. We started to go around the ship to explore everything and it was pretty impressive how big the boat was. Pools, jacuzzis, restaurants, everything was set up so nicely., it was really impressive.
We had our first dinner at parrot cay, which is a tropical theme. They do something pretty smart–they design your seating so you meet other oassengers and your servers, and they stay with you the entire trip as you rotate restaurants. That way you build rapport with several members of the crew as well as oassengers. Our food was really good, and I opted for the prime rib with great desserts.