Monday, July 22, 2019

Dreams Do Come True- Debarkation

The Debarkation Paradigm Shift 
Galveston, TX 
Thursday, July 4, 2019 

Morning
We woke up to Gary making announcements that we had arrived at Galveston and disembarkation would be happening shortly. We opted to do the “RELAXED” Debarkation and set our luggage out the night before. We woke up and got ready and then went to Breakfast on the Lido Deck. Once again, the lines were long and about ¾ of the ship had their luggage with them as they were doing the self-assist option so the buffet was almost unbearable. TIP- I highly recommend either getting to the buffett EARLY or going to the Dining Room on disembarking day! The buffet is ALWAYS a nightmare, no matter the cruise line. 

We ate our breakfast casually before getting too hot in the sun. We then went to check out the open decks and see how many people were self-assist. Again, at least 3,500 of the 4,000+ passengers were hauling their own bags off the ship. Gary was calling people to get off the ship based on their decks starting with Deck 12. He started calling decks around 8:10AM and called a single deck about every 20 minutes, so it was taking a while. Again, that is because SO MANY were doing this type of debarkation process. 

While going back to our cabin we saw crewmembers replacing mattresses. They said they will be replacing all mattresses (a deck per embarkation day) and the entire ship will have new mattresses by September.


About 4-5 years ago, hardly ANYONE did self-assist and that group of passengers (all of the ones doing self-assist) could get off a ship within 30 minutes. Nowadays, we have seen a shift in the debarkation process and are seeing the roles reversed, which is why we opted to do the check luggage RELAXED process. Boy am I glad we did… The self-assist looked like a nightmare. 

The self assist line getting off at Deck 0 and going into the terminal. We watched them wait in that sun for 10-15 minutes at a time!

The Relaxed Checked Luggage group was finally called around 9:45AM and we were off the ship by 9:50AM and we even had elevators to go down to Deck 0. That is UNHEARD of with Self-Assist! Now once off the ship, we experienced a little bit of chaos. SO MANY people had their own luggage that the remaining luggage for the relaxed group was so small and unmarked. Also, the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing so we got in one line after we found our luggage and was told it was only if you needed a porter, which we did not. We turned around and looked at the massive line of people NOT needing  porter and decided to just spend $10 and get a porter. That was the best decision of the day. We actually split it with another family who was in the same predicament and was just as irritated as I was. TIP- Just get a porter. It is totally worth the $5 tip! Share with another family if you have to! We got through customs within 10 minutes and in our car headed north by 10:15AM. 

Where ALL of the checked luggage USUALLY is. There were so little bags that were checked the terminal workers moved the bags! Be forewarned! 

It was a great trip and we enjoyed sailing on a ship for the 2nd time all while trying out a new place for the first time. Overall, we think the Dream is a GREAT ship and is very family friendly. The service was not as spectacular as recently on Royal Caribbean but it was still great. The food seemed to be lacking just a little bit but that did not bother us as much. We would sail on the Dream yet again and hopefully will without kids in the near future. As I’ve said before, we will cruise where the deals and destinations are. While we would LOVE to be loyal to a certain cruise line… that is not always feasible for us as teachers. We just LOVE CRUISING! 

Goodbye Carnival Dream! It's been FUN! 

With both Chris and I changing jobs we have a new school calendar to follow. With that being said, we have had to cancel our 2020 Spring Break cruise in March as we will be teaching then. We do get a week off in February AND a week in April so we are currently looking to replace our annual anniversary cruise with a cruise with the kids! I think our whole cruising game is about to blow wide open. 3 extra weeks off during the school year… YES PLEASE! 

Once again, thank you for following along! I hope this has helped some fellow cruisers in their planning! Up Next… LAS VEGAS- July 2019!

TBD Family Cruise- Spring 2020 
Baltic Cruise- July 2021

Until Next Time… Keep Calm and CRUISE ON!
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