Disney Cruise Part 1

December 28, Saturday

I had asked everyone to have their suitcases packed and ready by 9 AM so we could start loading the car. Everyone was ready! We parked in East Economy and took the Sky Train. There was basically no line for checking our luggage. It was funny because we walked past the spot where we had to stand in line last year when we went to Disney World on the day after Christmas and there was no line there today. As we were eating, we got the notification that our flight was delayed an hour. We ate and hung out at our table for a bit then we went near our gate and sat and waited. Thankfully, it didn't get delayed again. We flew Southwest. We were able to find great seats for ourselves except I made the mistake of letting some guy sit in the window seat by us instead of taking the window seat for myself because he hogged the arm rest the entire time. When I told Emily she completely understood my frustration because she and I both know that the middle seat is supposed to have both armrests. Then when he finally moved his arm and I put my arm on it, he had to put his arm up there too and I couldn't stand touching his arm so I moved. It made me furious. Anyway, there was also a lot of turbulence but I'm just grateful we made it. I told Michael that was miracle number one. I was referring to Top Gun Maverick but I don't know if everybody got that joke. Thankfully, we were able to get a Toyota Sienna for our Uber, after having to reject a Kia. We were pretty squished but we made it. I told Michael and the kids that miracle number two was getting an Uber that would hold all of us and our luggage. I asked them how the Lord blessed them today and it was pretty easy to come up with the fact that we arrived here safely. We got to the hotel and got checked in. The kids and I went to Fish Tales restaurant and Michael stayed back and watched his game. It was so cool because the restaurant is right across from a really cool pier that's called Galveston Island Pleasure Pier and it looks like California Adventure. The kids were surprised that I wanted to eat outside but they agreed to it so we were able to sit right across from the pier to have our seafood. Jonny got shrimp, Emily got catfish, and Daniel and I got fish and shrimp. We also got an appetizer of fried pickles and onion rings. We brought some food back for Michael.

We took an Uber back. Emily and I said a prayer with Michael and the boys and we came back to our room and got ready for bed. 

December 29, Sunday

It's been a wonderful day and I'm so glad we're on the ship! Jonny woke up with a red eye again. We gave him some Zyrtec and eye drops. Honestly, by the end of today it was actually worse but they never questioned us about it when we boarded the cruise so that was a relief. We went to church this morning in Galveston. We got there plenty early and took a seat in one of the back rows. When the bishop got up, he said there were only about 10 people from their ward and that 90% of them were gone but we saw quite a few people walk in once Sacrament meeting started so maybe they were also local members. We could tell some of the other families were going on a cruise as well. There was a cute little boy a couple rows in front that kept smiling at us. They had two testimonies and then the bishop gave a talk. It was a nice meeting. 

We had to wait about 20 minutes for our Uber afterwards but it worked out fine. The hotel said we could have until 11:30 AM to check out before they would start charging us so that gave us an extra half hour. We went ahead and called an Uber and got to the port at about 12:15 PM.

Here is the Galveston Island Pleasure Pier during the day, on the way to the port 

Our check-in time was 12:30 PM but Emily saw on Facebook that people were able to get on early so I quickly did the health questionnaire and we walked over and they let us right in. You could tell that people don't often bring all their suitcases on because they kept trying to convince us we should check our bags and we got some stares but that's OK. Emily didn't want to be separated from our bags and we knew that the rooms would be open between 1 PM and 2 PM. We got through security and then checked in and then boarded. 

It was kind of fun how they announced our names. So far, I haven't seen a large open area like Royal Caribbean has. It seems smaller. When we got on, there were two women standing there giving directions and we asked if she could direct us to Rapunzel's Royal Table and she told us it was closed. We later found out that that was completely wrong and they were open till 2 PM. I'm not sure why we just believed her but that was literally her whole job to help people when they got on the ship so that was annoying. We tried to go to Cabanas but they wouldn't let us take in our suitcases even though I had read that people take their suitcases to lunch all the time so we went out and got sodas and Michael got a hot chocolate and we lollygagged a bit until it was time to go to our rooms at 1:30 PM. 

The rooms are really nice but of course they're small. We didn't meet our steward until much later today. Somebody's luggage was delivered to our room by mistake. The baggage tags were handwritten and they said our room numbers but we told a couple different people that they weren't ours and they finally got them moved later today. We hung up our clothes and headed to the buffet at Cabana's.

After lunch, we all walked over to the Soul Cat lounge because that's where they were taking requests to change dining rotations. Emily wanted to go to Rapunzel's table twice. We found out that we're going to Animator's Palate twice but the guy said that one of the two nights is the New Year's Eve menu and that's the same at all of the restaurants so it's not like we're missing out on an extra show at Rapunzel's table. He also mentioned that we can have lunch at Rapunzel's Royal Table and Emily liked that idea so we decided not to try to change it. We went back to our rooms a bit and got organized and then we went to the muster drill. Their muster drill is a lot more involved than the Royal Caribbean ones. After that, we went to the sail away party because the ship was starting to move. 

As we walked back in, Andrew called us but it was hard to hear him so we headed to the cabins to talk to him. I needed us all to get on airplane mode and figure out the paid Wi-Fi so I got that done. It took a little time but we got it figured out. We didn't have a lot of time to talk to Andrew because Emily wanted to go to the Tangled musical. While we were talking to Andrew, Jonny fell asleep and he slept through the musical. Dad and Nathaniel were both on so I felt bad that we had to say goodbye but we told them all goodbye and headed to the theater. Emily wanted some pictures so we did that. 

The play was excellent! At first, I was concerned that the girl playing Rapunzel wasn't going to be very good but she was fantastic. All of the characters were wonderful and the singing was amazing. I loved it at the end when they did the floating lanterns. They held them up above the audience and there were also lights on the walls and on the screen at the front. It was very cool. After that, we headed back to our room. By then it was about 7:20 PM. We went to dinner at 8:15 PM at Lumière's. It was delicious and our servers are very nice. Emily and Jonny got the lobster and shrimp appetizer and the châteaubriand steak. I got the duck confit appetizer, potato and leek soup, and the steak. Daniel got the same as me but he couldn't decide between the steak and the rack of lamb and the server said he could have both. Daniel seemed concerned about that but it worked out great. The serving sizes weren't huge so he was able to eat both and he ate almost everything on the plates. Michael got the baked brie, French onion soup, and rack of lamb. For dessert, we all got something different. We tried pretty much everything on the menu. It was funny because Jonny ate almost everything on every plate except for the potatoes and he said he was still hungry. 

So, after dinner, we went straight for the quick service counter and the pizza place. Daniel got a hot dog and fries and Jonny and Emily got pizza. I was freezing so Michael and I came back to the room but the kids finished eating and then came back. Our steward had fixed the beds for the kids. There was one bunk that came out of the ceiling and then the couch turned into a twin size bed. Emily is concerned about getting out in and out of the bed but hopefully it will go well tonight. 

I accidentally left the do not disturb sign on the door so we didn't get the turn down service while we were at dinner but it was no big deal. We had a spiritual thought at dinner and then later we had a family prayer. I'm so grateful to be here! 

December 30, Monday

It was so nice to sleep in today! I had my alarm set for 10 AM just in case but I actually woke up at 9:20 AM. I took my time getting ready for the day. 

Jonny went to meet Black Panther.

We went to lunch at Rapunzel's Royal Table a little bit after noon. It was easy to get a table and they served us pretty quickly. Michael and I got the meatloaf, Daniel got a burger, and Emily and Jonny got the halibut. Jonny wasn't going to order a main entrée but I told him to order the halibut because I wanted to try it and he ended up eating it all. When Emily saw that Daniel had fries, she wanted some and ordered them. Daniel got a side of saffron rice, which is like the normal yellow rice I usually make, and Jonny and Michael both asked for a side of it as well. Daniel didn't like his burger. There were pickles on the bottom and he tried to scrape them off but he still didn't like it. 

The kids all went to the Soul Cat Lounge to play a Disney trivia game. I met up with them at trivia and they were almost halfway done. They did pretty well and got 19 points but the winner got 25. It was pretty hard. Everyone wanted to go to the pool and they found me a good spot in the adult area with a really nice lounge chair so I sat there with everyone's stuff while they played. Daniel watched a little bit of the Incredibles on the big screen by the pool. We went back to the room for a little bit. We read part of the Come Follow Me lesson. There aren't any chapters to read this week but we read the Restoration proclamation. Later, Michael wanted to go watch the sunset but unfortunately it was kind of foggy and we couldn't see it very well. The kids got some food from the Duck-In Diner. I got a chicken caesar wrap and some fruit from Daisy's De-Lite's. 

After we ate, Emily and Jonny went to play shuffleboard and Michael and Daniel got in the adult hot tub. Once again, I sat and relaxed and watched their things. It was almost completely empty in there. It's probably because a lot of people were at the movie or at dinner. 

We ordered room service for tomorrow morning before our excursion.

After the hot tub, we all went upstairs and got cleaned up and dressed up in our pirate clothes. We went down to get some pictures and went to dinner at Animator's Palate. 

Unfortunately, they sat us by a table full of children. I think there were about 14 kids around that table and then all the parents were at the table next to them so we had to endure the screams and loud talking from all those kids throughout our whole dinner. At the end, one of the kids was spinning around and swinging his pirate belt or something and almost hit me right in the face. I kind of jumped because I was so startled and the parents finally noticed their kids were being unruly. The dinner was good. Emily was pretty excited about the focaccia bread. I got the beef tenderloin and so did Michael. Jonny got the sirloin steak, Emily got pasta bolognese, and Daniel got the pork chop. It was still a nice dinner and they had a cool show at the end. They had TVs all around the room and they were showing different animations being drawn but then after the meal, before we got our dessert, all of the screens were playing different scenes from different movies. 

Then Mickey came out and all of our servers lined up and walked around and everybody cheered. 

After dinner, we went to deck 10 to watch the Pirate Night party. The kids stayed for a few minutes and then wanted to go back to the room. Michael and I stayed until the fireworks at 10:30 PM. The server had told us where we should watch them from and I misunderstood. It turns out Michael was right and we were on the wrong side. Anyway, they were very cool but pretty short and we went back to our room to get ready for tomorrow and get ready for bed. I was glad they were short because I was so tired, but Michael was disappointed. 

The excursion was supposed to start at 8:15 AM tomorrow but they told us on Sunday that it was going to be earlier because they were changing the port time to earlier. I was really frustrated because the earliest breakfast we could get is at Cabanas starting at 7 AM and we had to meet the tour at 7:15 AM. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't open it sooner if people have early port adventures. I asked multiple times throughout the day and on the Facebook group and they told me it opens at 7 AM. The other option was to order room service, but they had no protein. They just had juice, fruit, breads, and cereals. It even said continental breakfast so I knew that wasn't going to sustain us. Then finally later in the day, they changed it so the hours were now starting at 6:30 AM so I was relieved about that. It seems harder to get food on this ship than on any other cruise we've been on. The hours aren't nearly as convenient. Having a late dinner time at 8:15 PM has been frustrating, especially when all the quick service food options close at 6 PM. Anyway, it was a nice day at sea but we didn't get to bed until midnight.