A Christmas Cruise Adventure 11 months in the making

So I've been lurking on these forums for about 11 months now which corresponds to when we booked our first cruise ever. Since reading reviews and detailed trip reports on this forum taught me a lot of what to expect, I figured I'd try to return the favor with trip report myself.

I'll start off by saying we are geeks/gamers. My husband and I actually met while playing World of Warcraft. This cruise came about when a couple of our friends, who we also met in WoW, told us they had book the Valor for December 11, 2017 and encouraged us to go along. This conversation happened in January of 2017. Since we had yet to take a honeymoon after we eloped the previous August, we decided to call the cruise a honeymoon, anniversary celebration, and Christmas presents. About a month after our friends talked us into booking, another friend we play WoW with decided to join us with is wife and child. For simplicity sake I'll use our gaming nicknames when referring to people. My husband - Elcarth, our friends Anwyl and Antibus with their son Teramaku, and our friend Kardinal and his wife Mrs. Kard and his son Kard Jr.

Our friends Anwyl and Antibus had been on this exact same ship/itinerary in the past, Kardinal and family had been of several cruises before, and this was a first cruise for my husband and I. The plan was my husband and I would drive to New Mexico and meet up with the A's and caravan the rest of the way to Galveston and the K's would fly to Houston and meet up with us there. While I know the cruise stuff is the important parts, I will touch on the road trip there and back a bit as well just so you get as complete as I can make it picture of our adventure.

Day one - Friday December 8th

My husband and I set out from Phoenix, Arizona to head to Las Cruces, New Mexico to meet up with the A's. We hit the road a little before 10am after a quick stop at Starbucks to caffeinate for the road ahead. The drive took about 6 hours and other then gas and bathroom breaks we didn't do any sightseeing stuff along the way. Not that there was much to see. For the most part all of AZ is flat and a bit boring scenery wise.

We reached our hotel in Las Cruces, a Holiday Inn Express and checked in about 4pm. The room was clean and the hotel seemed well maintained. We relaxed for a bit and discovered the first hiccup of the trip. My husband forgot to grab the power cord for his laptop. Now remember we are gamers/geeks so this was not a great start. Shortly after the A's met us at our hotel and we followed them to the restaurant they chose for dinner. The restaurant has two sides, The Double Eagle and Peppers Café. It is inside an old homestead building that was constructed in the 1840 and is rumored to be haunted. The food was really good and I really loved the historical feel of the place.

After dinner we went to Best Buy to try to find a power cable for Elcarth's laptop. No luck sadly, but I did get talked into buying a copy of Mario Kart 8 for the Nintendo Switch to play in the car with

. After we got back to our hotel, we all hung out in our room for a bit messing around on the Nintendo Switch and playing Cribbage.

After the A's and Teramaku headed home, we discovered hiccup number two. We had forgot to pack Elcarth's Melatonin pills. He uses them for sleeping and has horrible insomnia if he doesn't take them. He did try to sleep without them that night since it was to late to go to a store and managed to get about 4 hours or so of sleep.

That's it for day one of the road trip. I'll be back to post day two after I grab some lunch.

I love all y'alls gaming names. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Nice start, following.

Will be following along.

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So I got distracted after lunch and am just now getting back to this. I have time for one post before heading to bed I think.

Day two - Road trip from

So we did discover one slight problem with the hotel we booked. The train tracks right across the street and the train that woke us up at 4 am. I managed to go back to sleep until the alarm went off at 630 am. We wanted to get an early start so we would have time to do a little sight seeing in San Antonio when we got there. We met up with the A's at the nearest Starbucks to the hotel and I went inside to get our morning caffeine and breakfast loaf while Elcarth went to the Wal-mart across the street to get his sleeping meds. Our little caravan was on the road by 730 am.

First stop was El Paso for gas and breakfast tacos. While the cars were getting filled up, we moved

Thank you all for reading along.

Enjoying your posts.

Keith

Great start! Following along.

Following:):):)

And I'm back. Real life and holiday prep keep interrupting my posting time.

Day 3 - Road trip from San Antonio to Galveston.

So we had decided the night before to split up or little caravan a bit. The A's wanted to hit the road as soon as they could so they would have some beach time when they got to Galveston before we got there. Since I'm not really a morning person, it's only about a four hour drive, and Elcarth had a crappy night sleep the night before, we decided to sleep in a bit and set our alarm for 9am. We were up, checked out, and headed to Starbucks by 10 am and it turned out we were only about an hour behind the A's. The drive was pretty uneventful. I watched the scenery pass as Elcarth drove and every now and then I'd play a game on the Nintendo Switch by myself since Teramaku was with his parents.

We got to the hotel a little before 3pm and they were nice enough to let us check in early. We stayed at the Springhill Suites Galveston Island. The hotel was clean, appeared well maintained, and had a nice view of the water.

We let the A's know we were there and then we headed out to explore Galveston a bit. This exploration also involved a stop at a drug store for yet another item we realized we forgot. Sunscreen. You'd figure being desert dwellers we'd know to have some, but we spend so much time indoors we rarely use it. After our shopping trip we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the A's.

Now our original plan was to head to Houston about 8pm to pick up the K's from the airport and have a late dinner in Houston before we headed back to Galveston. Well this didn't work out so well. They ended up having to change their flight at the last minute to one that would arrive in Houston at 7:55 am the following morning. Due to our concerns with getting there to get them the following morning, and getting back to the port on time with Houston rush-hour traffic, it was decided they would take an Uber from the airport to the port and meet us on the ship or in the terminal depending on when they arrived.

Since our original dinner plans were out, we did some Yelp searching and came across The Gumbo Diner. It was a small place, and not what I would call 5 star in the looks department, but the food was really good. Antibus enjoyed the oysters and the shrimp po-boy, Anwyl had shrimp and grits, I don't recall what Teramaku had, and Elcarth and I shared an order of chicken-fried steak. The food was great, the prices were very reasonable, and the service was good.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, played a cut-throat game of UNO and called it a night. We wanted to be on our way to the pier by 9am so we could have the cars parked and be ready when they let the FTTF people into the terminal.

Next installment - Day one of the cruise.

following

Enjoying this! Following along...

I hope our reviewer comes back when she recovers from the Christmas excitement!!!

Great review so far. As a fellow World of Warcraft player I want to welcome you to your new addiction.

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Following.

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Following and enjoying!!

Posting photos works better from the app via our IPad. I can’t post from our desktop at all either but it’s a breeze on the app which apparently does all the adjustments for you.

Thank you all for the kind comments and for following along. I appreciate it.

I hope our reviewer comes back when she recovers from the Christmas excitement!!!

Yep I'm back. The holidays were a bit hectic around here.

Great review so far. As a fellow World of Warcraft player I want to welcome you to your new addiction.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks. You are right it was addicting. I'm already thinking about our next one which sadly won't be until 2019.

Posting photos works better from the app via our IPad. I can’t post from our desktop at all either but it’s a breeze on the app which apparently does all the adjustments for you.

Thanks for that info. I'll have to give it a shot.

Day 4 of the trip and the first day on board the ship.

So Monday morning we were up bright and early to check out of the hotel and head to the port. Our plan was to leave the hotel by 9am. We had heard from the K's that they had made their morning flight and were grabbing an Uber to head to meet us there.

We had arranged indoor parking for our cars at Galveston Park and Cruise located right across the street from the port. The facilities were basically like warehouse buildings with parking for about 20 cars in each building. They meet us right outside and showed us where to park the car. While they do not offer transportation to the port since it is right across the street, they did offer to transport us to the cross walk since it was a bit of a walk to get this. This was unexpected and very appreciated by us since between the two families we had 8 suitcases and 3 backpacks.

We dropped off the bags we wanted to be checked and were in the FTTF line by 9:30 am. About 9:55 am the line started moving just as the K's showed up. They decided to jump in line with us instead of taking the time to check their bags first which actually worked out fine. We were through the check in process in in the waiting room by about 10:20 am. The process was very smooth and well organized in my opinion. I know this was my first cruise, but I do travel by plane a lot and this seemed to be run a lot better then several of the airports I've been to over the years. We were on board, and thanks to FTTF, dropping our carry-on bags off in our stateroom by about 11:30 am.

We were in room 6202 which is an obstructed window cabin at the very front of the ship. Through reading these forums I knew to expect the room to be small, and it was but it didn't feel overly cramped. The beds were pushed together like I had requested and there was more storage then we actually needed since we tend to be light packers. We ended up using one of the closets that had hangers for our dressy clothes, and one of the closets with shelves for the stuff we normally would have put in drawers. We slid our largest suitcase under the bed and planned to use it for our dirty clothes throughout the week to help keep the room clean and organized. The counter space in the bathroom and the shelves along the sides of the mirror was more then adequate for our toiletries and we never felt like we didn't have enough space for everything.

After we dropped off our bags we quickly paid the $5.00 per person to enable the chat feature on the HUB app so we could keep in touch with our group. We had all linked our reservations together through Carnival so when the app was active we could message each other. We found this well worth the cost and it helped up arrange when and where to meet up throughout the week. It was also nice to have the menus and daily activities available on our phones so we could tag the ones we were interested in receive reminders shortly before they started.

We headed to the Lido to check out the food situation. Elcarth, Kardinal, and I settled on the Mongolian Grill and after telling Elcarth what I wanted, I headed off to find a table big enough for the 8 of us. Shortly after I sat down Kard Jr. and Mrs. Kard joined me so I could return to the line with Elcarth so he wasn't juggling both of our lunches. Shortly after we got back to the table, the A's joined us and we discussed our plans for the rest of the day. I will say I wasn't overly impressed with the Mongolian Grill. It was ok, and the chicken and noodles were well cooked, but the black bean sauce didn't have much flavor at all. After the fact I realized they had soy sauce I could have added to improve the flavor a bit.

After we finished eating we discussed our plans for the remainder of the day. We had all emailed the Maitre D' of the steakhouse back in February to reserve the Chef's table and while we had received email confirmations, we had been told to check with the staff at the Lincoln dining room that night to ensure we were all scheduled to be doing that event together. So it was decided that Elcarth, Kard, Anywl, and myself would head there and Mrs. Kard and Antibus would take Kard Jr (age 10) and Teramaku (age 11) to the kids club. We headed down to the Lincoln dining room and confirmed our reservations. They stated they didn't know yet what date it would be, but it wouldn't be on the formal night which was good. They also double checked to make sure they had any food allergies/aversions noted. In my case I don't eat seafood so I was really glad they asked. I had mentioned it when we first booked, but wanted to ensure they knew.

Day 4 of the trip and the first day on the ship continued....

After that we all went our separate ways until after muster. We explored the ship a bit and then heading back to our room to double check where our muster location was. I knew from reading the threads here that muster was mandatory and could be a bit dull. I believe muster took place around 330 if I remember correctly and it was outside. Now while many people find weather in the 60's rather comfortable in December, I'm a desert dweller and I was freezing. It only lasted about 20 minutes or so and then we were free to enjoy our cruise. We all had been invited to join the A's on the balcony on their aft cabin for sail away which sounded great to Elcarth and I since deck parties with a ton of people really isn't our thing. The K's decided to rest for a bit due to the very early morning they had had. We stood on the balcony and watched was we slowly left the dock. We could see dolphins in the water along side the ship as we sailed out into the Gulf. According to Elcarth, I was practically vibrating with excitement at finally being underway. We hung out there for about an hour just watching the wake and chatting.

We headed back to our room where Elcarth signed into the really, really slow premium internet planned we singed up for and I grabbed the battery pack to charge my phone and went to explore a bit. I did go to the spa tour where they try to sell you on every treatment known to man, but resisted booking anything due to cost. I will say they facilities were impressive for being on a cruise ship. I did like the fact that the treadmills and bikes faced out so you could see the water through the windows while you exercised. I briefly considered making use of the equipment during the week, but never managed to do so. I blame being lazy and on vacation.

Shortly after I got back to our cabin, our room steward, Rodney, showed up to introduce himself. He did ask if we wanted morning, night, or both and we selected the night time service since I like to sleep in a bit while on vacation. He asked if we needed anything and we asked for an extra blanket for the bed since I get cold and an extra towel since I have long hair so I use two towels after my shower. He was back a few minutes later with both items and told us to let him know if we needed anything.

We got ready and headed to the Washington dinning room for late dinner with our friends. Mrs. Kard decided not to join us and ordered room services since Kard Jr passed out early due to the long day. The rest of us settled in for our first MDR meal of the cruise. Now I don't remember what everyone had each day, but I'll try my best to remember what Elcarth and I had. We both passed on the appetizers tonight since we wanted to save room for dessert. I had the Flat Iron Steak and Elcarth had the Pork Chop. We both agreed the meat was cooked perfectly, but the steak wasn't the greatest. For desert we both got the Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake which was just as good as I had expected based on reading these forums. It was rich, melty goodness and with the icecream made a perfect dessert to end the day.

After dinner we managed to get to the Alchemy bar for the Martini tasting before 10pm when they no longer offered it. Antibus, Anwyl, Kardinal, and myself selected three of the drinks from the list that sounded appealing and had the bartender make one up as well. Elcarth doesn't drink alcohol and of course neither does Teramaku so they settled in with soda's from the bubbles package and the cribbage board we had brought along while the rest of us tasted a total of 16 drinks and settled on which ones were our favorites. I will say Atilla, the bartender at Alchemy was fantastic. He spent time talking to us and tailored drinks to our specific tastes. He also provided Teramaku with strawberries and cherries to munch on every time he refilled the soda glasses.

After the drinks we called it a night and made our way back to our rooms. It was a great first day at sea and we excited to see what Tuesday would bring.

Ok that's enough of my rambling for now. I'll be back to recap our first full sea day either later tonight or tomorrow. Thank you all for reading.

Thanks for the report.

Day 5 of our adventure - Day 2 of the cruise- 1st full day at sea.

We didn't really have much at all planned for today. We were awake around 8am and decided to meet up with the K's for the Sea Day Brunch. The A's tend to be early risers so by the time we headed to the dining room, they were already finished. I'm not much of a breakfast person, so I just ordered a side of hash browns, a side of grilled tomatoes, and coffee to feed my caffeine addiction. They hash browns were ok but I was a bit surprised about the tomatoes. Usually when I order grilled tomatoes they are sliced before they are grilled so you get that grilled taste in every bite, this was not the case here. They grilled a the ends of a whole tomato so it really didn't have much of the grilled flavor at all. The coffee was just ok. Not great, but drinkable. My husband had the pasta and wasn't really impressed. The sauce was really bland and it was way over sauced.

After brunch we separated to explore the ship some more. We ran into the A's on the Lido deck by the pool. They were enjoying the beautiful sunny weather and a few adult beverages. Anwyl, Elcarth and I decided to head to the steakhouse for the cooking demonstration to see what that was all about. Now, due to fact I don't eat seafood or mushrooms the only thing I could really try was the desert and man was it good. Anwyl and Elcarth said the other tasting options were good as well. It was a fun thing to do, but not something I'd feel the desire to repeat in the future.

About 3 or so Elcarth and I decided to share a burger from Guys as a snack since we wouldn't be eating dinner until 8pm. I will say it was really good. Not the best burger ever, but tasty and we made it a point to have lunch here almost every day. Afterwards, we headed to the Red Frog Pub to meet up with the A's and K's for some fun board/card game action. We settled in at a large table in the back of the pub and played a card game called 5-Minute dungeon. None of us had played it before, so after a deep discussion of the rules we started the game. Now it's made for 5 people and we had 8 so we rotated who was playing each match so everyone got a turn. One thing we discovered was the pace was so frantic it helped if we had one person basically be the "raid leader" who would call out what was needed to beat each boss and keep track of when the next obstacle was in play. So since I am the leader of our weekly WoW raid team, I got that job in this game as well which worked out well for me. I got to be in charge, and everyone else did all the work. ;-)

It was elegant night tonight so about 7 we all headed back to our cabins to get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. We got to the dinning room right at 8pm and a few minutes later were seated at our table with our menus. I ordered the chilled strawberry bisque, the prime rib, and the malted hazelnut cake. The bisque reminded me of a strawberry milkshake and I would definitely order it again on a future cruise. My prime rib was cooked perfectly and I asked to have some of the peppercorn sauce with it. It was good, but my only complaint was the fact that they didn't provide steak knives. Just butter knives with made cutting the meat a really chore. Sadly, I was disappointed in the malted hazelnut cake, but that was ok because they brought Elcarth and I a dark chocolate cake and wished us happy honeymoon.

After dinner we looked around until we found a photo station that could fit all 8 of use for a group picture and then split up to change into more comfy clothes. We then met up in the library to play a card game called Munchkin for a few hours.

Overall, it was a great day at sea and I was really looking forward to the following in Cozumel.

Really enjoying your review! It looks like you took to cruising like a "duck to water".

Looking forward to the rest of your review!

Is there a charge for the steakhouse demonstration?