Day 1 Part 1
I guess I should start off by saying that we kept this cruise a secret from Kira until the morning we left. I don't know why but I LOVE surprising people, especially my kid. It's weird because I LOATHE being surprised
But, I knew I would have to tell her something because I needed to pack and make arrangements, etc., and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. We told her we were going to Saskatchewan to see Rob's parents for Christmas. This would help mask a few things but it ended up being a less than spectacular idea
I won't go into the details but I will say that this will probably be the very last time we surprise her with a trip
We filmed this just before we hopped in the car that morning....
Okay, so now that she was THRILLED to be going to Galveston, let's start the story of this trip.
Here in Calgary, we were lucky enough to have a really nice Fall/Winter so far. We had a cold spell in November for a week but all of December had been amazing!
We had some snow in November but it had all melted so there was no snow on the ground until the night before we left. The forecast called for two feet of snow in the next few days with cold temps so we couldn't have left at a more perfect time, really. Well, it would have been nice if the snow had held off one more day but we knew we were going to miss most of it so lucky us
Our flight left at 7am for Houston and we need to go through security and customs first and we knew the roads would be bad, so the goal was to leave the house by 4am.
Last year, we took the 10:30am flight but it got us driving in rush hour traffic in Houston so although I knew the 7am flight would make it an early morning for us, I am SO glad I booked it! Not only did we miss rush hour in Houston, we also missed the early morning Calgary rush hour, which would have been stupid crazy with the snowfall!
So while the roads were bad, at 4am, there were only a few of us on them.
This meant that I was up at 2am, showering, getting last minute stuff packed up and the car loaded.
I don't mind getting up early when we're going on vacation
With our dog Boo safely at her uncle's house already, we said good-bye to our house and braved the slick roads to the airport just before 4am.
Look how deep our tracks are! And the snow continued to fall all day that day
It took a little longer to get to the airport but we made it safely!
Rob dropped Kira and I off, as usual. Kira nearly froze with just a light jacket. We left her winter jacket in the car for the return trip because we didn't want to drag it all the way to Houston.
A quick pic before Rob headed to Park2Go. It was windy as well as cold but that didn't stop me from wearing my spring jacket, capris and skechers
Where we're going, we don't need....r̶o̶a̶d̶s̶ socks.
Sorry, I make a lot of weird movie references, it's all part of my...ummm, charm.
Kira and I headed into the terminal (well, she ran!) and got ourselves checked-in.
The new terminal is all techie so we checked ourselves in, got our luggage tags printed and then did the whole automatic bag drop thing. It's pretty cool actually, it takes a pic of your bag, weighs it and then sends it off to (hopefully) your plane!
Just as we were wrapping up, Rob showed up and we headed for security.
Made it through security, Rob got stopped as usual and then we headed for the Nexus machines at US Customs.
Once again, Rob got the big old X on his paper so we took a few extra minutes getting through. It's all because he was once rejected at the US border (he shouldn't have been!) The Customs agent we spoke to said that if he had time he would fix it in the system so that it shouldn't give him an issue going forward. Gosh, I really hope he did it!
Now in the terminal, we headed for our favourite spot, The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck!
We were all starved so we grabbed a booth and ordered some food. Kira and Rob were sad that they didn't have any french toast left but we were all happy with what we ordered.
While we were waiting, I handed out a little gift for Kira. Previously I have bought her a stuffed animal for each trip but I told her that I am DONE with stuffies!!!
But, I did get her something even better.
There it is, still wrapped...oh by the way, both Rob and I put
DCL shirts on that morning, walking around the house, sending subliminal messages to Kira before we told her about the cruise
And here she is opening it...
In case you haven't read previous reports, Kira is a HUGE Stitch fan, well Lilo and Stitch but mostly Stitch and we had all just gotten new phones a month before so this phone case was perfect for her!!! Relatively cheap too!
I bought it at Hot Topic for $20, which is amazing since everything else I buy in there is ridiculously expensive! When I saw it, I was so happy because I knew she would love it and the case has a place for cards, which would be perfect for hotel and cruise keys
She was over the moon about it and still uses it now and loves it!
We ate our food...
Which was delicious, as always and then we bought some waters, hit the washrooms and headed down to our gate.
Nice to see that they are listening to their passengers and have installed more seats down near the new gates.
We didn't wait long before we boarded our plane and took our traditional selfie..
I watched the plane next to us get de-iced...
And then it was our turn!
I watched the sun rise shortly after we took off.
I always pack snacks for the flight as my kid is still like a toddler and likes to nibble on food every couple of hours
This would be Kira's first trip with braces. We had delayed them a bit in order for her to be braces free during our summer cruise on the Fantasy so she got them as soon as we got back from that trip.
They watched a movie together and I think I snoozed for a bit. I watched a little bit of a movie and then it was time for our descent into Houston!
We grabbed our luggage, hopped on the rental car shuttle and then made our way to the Alamo section of the garage to pick out our car.
I cannot tell you enough how much I LOVE the online check-in and choosing your own vehicle and the whole skipping the counter thing!
We were hoping for another Murano since we loved it the last two trips but they didn't have any left so we opted for a Rogue. It was fate because it had Florida license plates
Rob did his usual amazing packing thing and then we were off!
Since we just did this last year, it was easy for me to navigate!
I also freaking love that Houston has the highway numbers on the lane that you will need, what freaking genius is responsible for this???
While there was a small amount of traffic as we approached the core, it didn't last long.
I love highways in big cities in the USA, they have highways on top of highways on top of highways
We had a bit of traffic about half-way to Galveston once we turned onto the 45 but nothing bad and we still got to Galveston in an hour.
PALM TREEEEEEES!!!!!!
and welcome to my latest Trippie 
2011 DCL Second sailing of the Dream
2016 Christmas on the Wonder
2021 Christmas on the Wonder
2022 Alaska Wonder Cruise
I think I`ve read through all your other trip reports, you really rock at this trip report thingy!! I`ve been snooping through them again recently because in early March we are going on our very first 
