Cruising With Mouse…Galveston to San Juan – Galveston and Embarkation Day

Yesterday, we started our journey by taking the 6 am flight from Wichita to Houston.

During our layover in St. Louis, we had a couple of hours to kill, so we ate breakfast and had our first (of many) drinks for the trip.

Once we arrived in Houston, we picked up our rental car to drive to Galveston for the night, arriving there mid-afternoon. It was not time to check into our rental for the night, so we drove around a little bit and then stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Katie’s Seafood House. We put our name in for a table outside along the water, then found seats at the bar to get a drink and wait. This restaurant is a couple blocks from the cruise port, so once our table was ready, we were seated outside at a great tabe, where we could watch the cruise ships heading out to sea.

Once we finished dinner, it was time to check into our rental for the night. Mom and Dad rented a two-bedroom condo at By The Sea Condominiums, along the seawall, just across the street from Babes Beach, and a little west of the 61st Street Fishing Pier. Once we settled, I took a walk on the beach, down to the Fishing Pier and back, before relaxing for a while.

That evening, we headed to The Spot to meet up with a friend and his wife, who were also in town for the night. After having drinks, we returned to the condo to turn in for the night.

Marc and I were awake early this morning, so we decided to walk along the beach to see the sunrise. We stopped at the pier to get coffee, then went up to the observation deck to enjoy the view and drink our coffee.

When we returned to the condo, Marc returned the rental car, and then we took an Uber to the port to drop off our luggage for our cruise. We still had a little over an hour before our port arrival time, so once we dropped off the luggage, we walked to Brews Brothers, a local pub a couple of blocks away on the Strand, where we ordered beer and appetizers.

Once it was time to return to the port, we returned and got in the line for check-in. The check-in process was super easy, and it took us about 45 minutes to get through security and onto the ship.

Shortly after we boarded, our staterooms were ready, so we dropped off our carry-on luggage and set out to explore the ship. When we arrived, we found a Disney Vacation Club Member magnet on the door of our room, which was a nice touch.

After dropping our bags off, we stopped at Cabanas, the ship’s buffet, for a snack, then returned to our staterooms to unpack and relax.

Around 3:30 pm, we headed to our assigned muster stations for the mandatory pre-cruise drill. During the drill, we learned what to do if there was an emergency on the ship or if we had to evacuate. After the drill, we went to deck 10 to attend the Sail-A-Wave Party and then relaxed in the room before dinner.

We chose the early seating time, so our assigned dinner is at 5:45 each evening. The Disney Cruise Line uses rotational dining, which means you rotate through the three main dining rooms, eating in a different one each night. You also keep the same wait staff throughout the entire cruise. Our dinner tonight was at Rapunzel’s Royal Table, where we enjoyed a delicious four-course meal complete with entertainment from Rapunzel herself.

After dinner, we watched magician Eric Jones in the Walt Disney Theatre. Then, we checked out the shops and grabbed a beer to take back to our room, where we found a cute little towel animal and chocolates left by our room attendant. We were tired, so we called it an early night after relaxing on the balcony with our drinks.