Hello, I joined the Facebook group and sent an e-mail to join the fish extender group. We are very excited! This is our second
Disney cruise but first time to be a part of the fish extender group!
Hello and welcome!!
Glad that you have managed to find the fish extender group info etc. It's good to see some activity here recently, even though we have quite a while to try and be patient before our cruise.
Hello, what is different about sailing out of Galveston? Since this is only our second cruise and first time out of Galveston, I was curious. Thank you!
Yes we drove from Oklahoma to Florida for our first cruise, we will drive to Galveston for this one as well but we will take the 8 hours compared to the 24 hours
is there any difference from porting out of Galveston compared to Florida?
We sailed on
DCL 5 times while they were here before leaving in January this year. We've sailed 4 times out of Port Canaveral. Here's my take on Galveston FWIW.
1. Transportation if you are flying in. DCL has the transportation from MCO down to a science. The options changed during the middle of their sailings in Galveston and they switched to only offering transportation from Houston Intercontinental (IAH). For those either wanting to get a rental car, or flying in to Houston Hobby (HOU) there is not a rental car facility on Galveston, so the choices for getting to the port were not as easily arranged, or as cost competitive as travelling from MCO to Port Canaveral. The DCL transporation from IAH seemed to work well though.
2. Cruise Parking - There are several options in Galveston but only one (possibly two if one that was closed reopens) is within walking distance to the terminal, the rest require a shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal. We drop our luggage off at the cruise terminal and then go and park. We find it easier than hauling our luggage with us on the shuttle bus, but they have plenty of room for luggage. You can drop your luggage without having to enter the building and check in the port.
3. Galveston - The Galveston port and water is nowhere near as pretty as Port Canaveral, and the terminal building is used by other cruise lines, so the DCL touches are minimal (and temporary, as in they take them down when the ship leaves port). That said, Galveston is a great place to spend some time before or after the cruise. It's such a small town beach feel - we just love it down there.
4. Check in & security - The check in and security process is very similar to MCO. Stand in line and have your bags scanned, then check in at the desks/fill out your medical questionnaire and get your boarding number. The seating is basic, and they have a check in area for the kids club.
5. Boarding - We found boarding to be similar, if not a little faster, in Galveston. The line for embarkation photos can be a little confusing, but we found it to be the same in PC.
6. Debarkation - We found it to be fairly smooth. The lines can be a little long. You have two options, either pick up your own bags, or have a porter help you. In Galveston it always seems that the line for the porters is a little long, but then we have found that their line through immigration and customs is shorter. Bags are in character designated areas the same as Port Canaveral. Lost and Found is directly as you walk into the baggage hall and is on the left hand side.
7. Weather - There is no doubt that Galveston in November-January can be cooler than Port Canaveral. We sailed on 12/31/13 and it was really, really cold out of Galveston. Coats and blankets weather and they did the NYE celebration inside.
I have a couple of trip reports out of Galveston that are linked in my signature. You are welcome to take a look through those, I have pics of the port etc. We love sailing out of Galveston. It would be similar to sailing out of any other port that is NOT PC, obviously there are differences between a terminal that Disney owns and operates, and one that they are sailing out of for short periods.
This also reminds me that we had a thread going about All Things Galveston that locals had compiled a bunch of information and so I am linking it here. It's full of good stuff.
ALL THINGS GALVESTON
I also look forward to chatting, i know our cruise is SO far out, but I hope our thread and my other thread picks up soon. 
. We are also doing a quick 3 night in November on the Dream that will get us to Platinum. 
What a great family gathering you have going on this cruise! What was your other cruise with Disney, did you go out of Galveston, FL,CA or some other itinerary?
We did one of the 8 nights that stopped at WDW from Galveston too - it was one of my favorite itineraries ever! 
