Thanks to all your reviews before travelling, I feel I should post a trip report as well and am happy to answer any questions!
The cast:
Me: 37, sort-of Disney fan, looking for a family vacation that everyone can enjoy
DH: 39, not a Disney fan, but wanted a fun family trip
DD: 4.5, loves Princesses and all things Disney
DS: 2.5, thanks to an older sister, also loves all things princess and Disney, including Cars and SPIDER-MAN
Friends: married couple, in their 30s with no kids
After a four hour flight, we arrived at IAH to meet up with our driver from ALA Limo. He was right there waiting, helped us with our bags and was ready to go. Unfortunately, we didn't get the car seats requested for the kiddos due to a last minute driver switch. ALA took the cost of them off the trip ($15) but I actually expected that they were $15 each given that was the going rate when I had looked at other companies. When I checked our confirmation from ALA they didn't break down the price unfortunately so I have no way of figuring out if that was reasonable or not. At any rate, we were picked up in a nice, clean, Suburban complete with DVD screens for the kids, who ended up falling asleep on the drive to Galveston.
We checked into the Holiday Inn on the beach. It was a cold, rainy night and we were all tired out. The hotel was really average, which was fine for our purposes. We ended up just having dinner at the hotel restaurant and it was really sub-par, they were short-staffed and we waited a long time for service and food. The server was really apologetic and I felt for him but it was a tough wait for the kids, and therefore, for us. One of the reasons I chose the hotel was because of its free shuttle service to the port. However, when we got there, we found out the shuttle only ran once an hour and was completely booked for the two hours before and after our boarding time. I'm not sure if this was normal or not, but we didn't expect it, so just something to pre-book as well if you're looking at shuttle service in Galveston. Other than that, the hotel was clean, and a reasonable breakfast was included.
We arrived for our 11:30 boarding time with our friends who had a later boarding time, but it was no problem to get us all through together. Customs wasn't too bad, DS was melting down with the lines at this point however, he just needed some good sleep to reset him and we knew it would be a bit, so we all did our best to keep him going. Then I did the kids' club line with DD, which was really painful, we had filled everything out online so when we finally got to the front it was quick but with only two cast members manning this part it was a slow process to wait for everyone. We were able to get right on board and skipped any more lines for pictures or characters although Minnie Mouse was there.
Our friends had a later boarding number so we figured we would just use the app online (we're Canadian so we didn't have data on all our phones in the US), however once we were on board we discovered that you can't search for people by name on the app, so until we could start phoning rooms we were unable to meet back with our friends.
We hit a very busy Cabana's for lunch and I think the chaos was just too much for the kiddos, we were happy to get into our rooms by 1:45 (we waited a bit to avoid the mad dash at 1:30). We relaxed and unpacked for a bit and got ready for the Muster Drill, which went pretty smoothly except waiting for some people, all in all, about 20 minutes. DD decided she had to hit the restroom about 5 minutes in and DS was losing it, everyone was really accommodating in letting us run to the restroom and leave first from the drill, thank you!
We had room 7018, verandah room and it was a great set up, clean, Greyson was our host and he was exceptional. We had an air conditioner leak one night and a toilet overflow - seems the plumbing has had some issues since dry dock and both were fixed within minutes. He also ended up bringing us a pack n' play for DS' naps as it was easier for us than having the bed set up and checked in a few times to make sure that was still working okay for us.
Our first dinner was at Tiana's, which turned out to be my least favourite restaurant on the ship. We were seated at a table (11) that meant the one side had their chairs half on the main walkway from the entrance and it made for a constant moving of chairs as we tried to accommodate everyone walking in and out all night. It was also pretty loud and just too much for our tastes. The kids were super excited to see Tiana and Louis though - even though my son went to hug Louis and he kept walking right into him, knocking him down, I guess it's hard to see in that costume but it made him pretty sad! Tiana was lovely, and told DD she would only sign autographs in her green dress, when we saw her later she said she was a woman of her word and signed right away. We had Marvin and Sylvana as our servers, Marvin did a magic trick every night at the end of dinner that both my kids looked forward to and Sylvana searched out Froot Loops for us the last two mornings for breakfast as they were running low, she made a special point to find us each morning at Cabanas and even chatted with the kids so DH and I could get our own food and settle.
Day 1, in the books! The bunk beds were set up for us and I think we all slept really well the entire trip!
The cast:
Me: 37, sort-of Disney fan, looking for a family vacation that everyone can enjoy
DH: 39, not a Disney fan, but wanted a fun family trip
DD: 4.5, loves Princesses and all things Disney
DS: 2.5, thanks to an older sister, also loves all things princess and Disney, including Cars and SPIDER-MAN
Friends: married couple, in their 30s with no kids
After a four hour flight, we arrived at IAH to meet up with our driver from ALA Limo. He was right there waiting, helped us with our bags and was ready to go. Unfortunately, we didn't get the car seats requested for the kiddos due to a last minute driver switch. ALA took the cost of them off the trip ($15) but I actually expected that they were $15 each given that was the going rate when I had looked at other companies. When I checked our confirmation from ALA they didn't break down the price unfortunately so I have no way of figuring out if that was reasonable or not. At any rate, we were picked up in a nice, clean, Suburban complete with DVD screens for the kids, who ended up falling asleep on the drive to Galveston.
We checked into the Holiday Inn on the beach. It was a cold, rainy night and we were all tired out. The hotel was really average, which was fine for our purposes. We ended up just having dinner at the hotel restaurant and it was really sub-par, they were short-staffed and we waited a long time for service and food. The server was really apologetic and I felt for him but it was a tough wait for the kids, and therefore, for us. One of the reasons I chose the hotel was because of its free shuttle service to the port. However, when we got there, we found out the shuttle only ran once an hour and was completely booked for the two hours before and after our boarding time. I'm not sure if this was normal or not, but we didn't expect it, so just something to pre-book as well if you're looking at shuttle service in Galveston. Other than that, the hotel was clean, and a reasonable breakfast was included.
We arrived for our 11:30 boarding time with our friends who had a later boarding time, but it was no problem to get us all through together. Customs wasn't too bad, DS was melting down with the lines at this point however, he just needed some good sleep to reset him and we knew it would be a bit, so we all did our best to keep him going. Then I did the kids' club line with DD, which was really painful, we had filled everything out online so when we finally got to the front it was quick but with only two cast members manning this part it was a slow process to wait for everyone. We were able to get right on board and skipped any more lines for pictures or characters although Minnie Mouse was there.
Our friends had a later boarding number so we figured we would just use the app online (we're Canadian so we didn't have data on all our phones in the US), however once we were on board we discovered that you can't search for people by name on the app, so until we could start phoning rooms we were unable to meet back with our friends.
We hit a very busy Cabana's for lunch and I think the chaos was just too much for the kiddos, we were happy to get into our rooms by 1:45 (we waited a bit to avoid the mad dash at 1:30). We relaxed and unpacked for a bit and got ready for the Muster Drill, which went pretty smoothly except waiting for some people, all in all, about 20 minutes. DD decided she had to hit the restroom about 5 minutes in and DS was losing it, everyone was really accommodating in letting us run to the restroom and leave first from the drill, thank you!
We had room 7018, verandah room and it was a great set up, clean, Greyson was our host and he was exceptional. We had an air conditioner leak one night and a toilet overflow - seems the plumbing has had some issues since dry dock and both were fixed within minutes. He also ended up bringing us a pack n' play for DS' naps as it was easier for us than having the bed set up and checked in a few times to make sure that was still working okay for us.
Our first dinner was at Tiana's, which turned out to be my least favourite restaurant on the ship. We were seated at a table (11) that meant the one side had their chairs half on the main walkway from the entrance and it made for a constant moving of chairs as we tried to accommodate everyone walking in and out all night. It was also pretty loud and just too much for our tastes. The kids were super excited to see Tiana and Louis though - even though my son went to hug Louis and he kept walking right into him, knocking him down, I guess it's hard to see in that costume but it made him pretty sad! Tiana was lovely, and told DD she would only sign autographs in her green dress, when we saw her later she said she was a woman of her word and signed right away. We had Marvin and Sylvana as our servers, Marvin did a magic trick every night at the end of dinner that both my kids looked forward to and Sylvana searched out Froot Loops for us the last two mornings for breakfast as they were running low, she made a special point to find us each morning at Cabanas and even chatted with the kids so DH and I could get our own food and settle.
Day 1, in the books! The bunk beds were set up for us and I think we all slept really well the entire trip!
I appreciate the perspective of non-Disney/sort-of Disney fans, b/c my parents are coming with us and would pretty much fit into those categories. They really like cruising, though, and are happy to try a new line.
