Friday, March 22, 2019

Crown Royal and Anchor Society- Galveston

Not Our First Rodeo
Galveston, TX
Sunday, March 10, 2019

Disclaimer
In March 2019 Chris and I took a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise aboard the
Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas sailing out of Galveston, TX.
This gorgeous floating hotel took us to the following destinations:

Cozumel, Mexico
Grand Cayman Island Falmouth, Jamaica
The Liberty of the Seas... Our home away from home for the next 7 days!

I have been on 15 other cruises prior to this one and Chris has been on 14 (thanks to the Girls Cruise);
9 with Carnival, 3 with Royal Caribbean, 2 with Norwegian and 1 with Princess.  This blog will include an overall
review of the Liberty of the Seas, daily entries of our 7 days aboard, a "Foodies" blog highlighting all of the
food options available on the Liberty of the Seas, a post linking all of the Cruise Compass as well as an extensive
photo review of the ship. Thank you SO MUCH to all my followers... without you the blog would not be as
popular as it is today! Be sure to stay tuned as the posts come through over the next few days and weeks.
(I am a teacher and it is a busy time of year so bear with me, please).
Morning
The day we had waited for over 15 months was finally here. This embarkation day was a little unusual for our cruising style as Luke had a baseball tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Usually, we drop the kids off with my parents the day before the cruise but this tournament did not allow that. Luckily, my amazing parents came to the tournament and then my mom stayed with Luke for his game on Sunday.


Good Luck LUKE THE DUKE! Mommy LOVES you! 

Getting Luke ready for his game and my emotional “mama heart” (even after all these cruises, I still don't like leaving them) meant we left the house a little later than usual but we were still sitting at CRUISE PARK by 9:15AM, even after stopping at Kolache Factory and Buc-cee’s in Texas City. TIP- Cruise Park is located at 2815 Harborside Drive in Galveston, literally across the street from Terminal 2. It is only $59 for the entire week and they will take you close to the terminal via golf cart (not really a “shuttle” but similar). This is a family owned and operated company and our favorite place to park in Galveston, especially if cruising from Terminal 2.

I absolutely love this parking location! 
CRUISE PARK (Reservations)

Once we got parked, we were in the terminal and checked in for our cruise aboard the Liberty of the Seas by 9:45AM. During check-in we were told that Royal Caribbean needed to reprint our SeaPass cards. This seemed odd but we didn’t think too much about it. However, we did notice that we did not have the DRINK PACKAGE sticker or imprint on our cards. More on that later…

Once in the terminal we waited for close to an hour with our friends, Nate and Julie, before we were called to board the ship around 11:15AM. This was a little late for Royal Caribbean but we noticed people were still disembarking the ship even at 10:45AM so this was a longer than usual disembarkation for the 03/03/2019 cruise.  We were on the ship and heard the first DING at 11:21AM. This was not our fastest embarkation time (Liberty of the Seas #1- 10:40AM) but definitely not our slowest either (Carnival Valor #1- 11:58AM).

Cruising with Friends! We are so excited! 

Afternoon
Once we got on board we immediately went to the Drink Package table on Deck 4 near Boleros to see about our SeaPass cards and get the Drink Package figured out. TIP- We had pre-purchased the Ultimate Drink Package for a GREAT price of $43 per person, per day plus 18% gratuity. This meant $379/ per person, which compared to on-board prices was a GREAT Bargain. Royal Caribbean did offer a BOGO Half Drink Package offer at the beginning of the cruise but even this was more expensive than what we purchased. (Person #1 was $66 and person #2 was $36 plus gratuity). I would HIGHLY recommend you keep an eye out for sales BEFORE you cruise with Royal Caribbean. They OFTEN have the drink and dining packages on sale prior to embarkation and often shore excursions too. Check your CRUISE PLANNER often!




Cruise #16... LET'S GO! 

Unfortunately, we had to go to Guest Services to get it all straightened out but before too long we were enjoying cocktails at R Bar and time with our friends, Nate and Julie.  We found our stateroom around 12:45PM and put our carry-on luggage in the room. TRICK- This cruise was a very cheap cruise and we scored this entire cruise (taxes, fees and port fees included) for only $1250 TOTAL. This, however, meant we were on the very lowest deck of the ship, Deck 2. We had an Inside Stateroom, Category 4V and it was on deck 2 at the very aft of the ship. We were nervous about this location but it proved to be a fairly decent stateroom and overall good location.

Our Stateroom- 2673! 
A look through stateroom 2673!

After dropping off our carry-on we decided to roam around the ship some more. We spent the majority of the afternoon prior to the Muster Drill with our friends enjoying drinks and food on the Royal Promenade, Deck 5.

We LOVED this area of the ship! 

Another view of the Royal Promenade! (Deck 5) 

Cafe Promenade.... OPEN 24 hours and serves sandwiches, breakfast pastries (including donuts), coffee and warm fresh cookies! 

Around 3:30PM, Royal Caribbean started calling for the Muster Drill and food and beverage services were shut down. We slowly made our way to our Muster Station (D24) which happened to be in the Dining Room, which is ALWAYS better than being packed in like cattle on the outside decks. TIP- Do not get over excited and arrive to your Muster Station early! You will be at the back, crowded and if you are like me you will be claustrophobic. We always stall a little bit when they call for the Muster Drill.


Royal Caribbean never disappoints with all of the details they add to their ships! 

We have arrived and are ready to set sail to Cozumel! 


#CruiseLikeaDavis
We noticed a pod of dolphins right near the ship on the port side after the Muster Drill. This was especially unique as the ship had not even left port yet. We Facetime the kids and said our goodbyes before going to the Schooner Bar to get a few “sail away drinks”. We then watched our foggy sail away from the Helicopter Pad on Deck 5 Forward. TIP- You can access this neat location via the Deck 4 outside Promenade on most days. They will occasionally close the Helicopter Pad for high winds but this only happened once on our cruise.


These dolphins were so friendly! 


The Carnival Vista! 
We do not have her booked but we want to sail on her before she leaves Galveston!


Happy Anniversary cruise to us! We deserve it!
It was WINDY! 

Goodbye Vista... We will see you in a week! 

Evening
Once we watched the sail away from the port of Galveston, we went back to the room and found our luggage outside our cabin door. We quickly unpacked and got our room organized before going to dinner in the Main Dining Room. TRICK- We had Pre-purchased a Dining Package (at a discount as mentioned above) but quickly learned that it would be hard to have a Drink AND Dining Package so we cancelled the dining package.


I absolutely LOVE Royal Caribbean Main Dining Rooms! 
They are multi level and absolutely STUNNING! 

Dinner in the Main Dining Room was exceptionally well, especially for Royal Caribbean. We had the MY TIME DINING which meant we could go to dinner at any time we chose during the duration of the cruise. This was very simple and easy and we were usually in and out of the Main Dining Room within 1 hour 15 minutes, which is UNHEARD of on Royal Caribbean especially. TIP- We have found Norwegian to be the fastest service times in the MDR, with Carnival coming in a close second. This cruise proved that theory wrong. We had the same waiter each night and he was PHENOMENAL. Roy Nyathi from South Africa provided us the absolute best service we have experienced in our 16 cruises. Thank you Roy for making our week so special. More on him and his service later!

After dinner we met Julie in the Schooner Bar for Classic Rock Trivia. We love trivia on-board a cruise ship and this one was a great way to start our cruise. Unfortunately, we did not win this one but it was a lot of fun!

We walked around the upper decks for a while before settling in at the Solarium. We were very tired from the weekend of baseball and just being 2 teachers in March meant we were already exhausted. We have learned this Spring Break cruise is all about REST and RELAXATION more than anything. We laid out in the Solarium area for about an hour before going back to the Royal Promenade.

Once in Vintages, the Wine Bar, the waiter noticed the system was charging us for drinks... But we had pre-purchased the drink package. He contacted his supervisor who eventually got the entire situation straightened out but this was a little frustrating. Since they had to reprint our SeaPass cards, our folio number (how they charge you on board) changed and the drink package was not registering. It got all fixed thanks to the bar tender in Vintages but it was a little annoying. We roamed from venue to venue until just after midnight when we called it a night and retired to our stateroom.

The hallways were SMALL! Chris is 6'2" and was nearly touching the top!

This day was full from start to stop but we enjoyed every minute. We were ready for more rest and relaxation and could not wait for the next six days on-board the Liberty of the Seas. 

Thanks once again to my parents who not only took care of our kids the entire 7 days but also became “Baseball Mom” for Luke on his baseball tournament! We literally could not have done this without y’all!
Once again, thank you so much for following along!

A RECAP of our DAY 1! 

Next up... Sea Day #1 on the Liberty of the Seas!

God is good… ALL the time!
Click on a link to see our past cruising adventures:
The Norwegian Breakaway- November 2018

 Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas- 2018 



 

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