Well I think I need to start this soon before I completely forget what I want to report...So without further ado here is the story of our cruise, or some of it anyway...
Our family consists of myself, my handy husband whom we will call HH, my 10year old daughter "S" and my 5year old son "W." My HH is not too comfortable with this whole trip report thing so he asked that I not show many pictures of him or the kids. I can work within those parameters...
Anyway, for months we were planning a camping trip on the Oregon Coast for spring break, I had requested March 27th-April 7th off of work and been approved. In early January the "kids sail free" on The Magic out of Galveston offer came across my email. I of course went to the Disney Cruise Line website and checked the dates. There was one 8 night Bahamian cruise that left March 29th and returned April 6th...! I cautiously emailed everyone's favorite Kingdom Konsultant @Disneyfalcon and got some price quotes. It was obviously meant to be because we could afford it! So without giving it too much consideration, lest I talk myself out of it... I just decided to go for it and we reserved a category 10 gty room. Then I found super cheap airfare from Spokane to Houston on Southwest. Then my HH and I decided to not tell the kids...
It was a ridiculously hard secret to keep, especially as we got closer to departure day. I had to pack the suitcases while they were at school and then put them back in the closet to hide them. Finally the morning of March 27th arrived. We had originally planned on not revealing anything until the morning of the cruise...but I just couldn't handle it anymore. So as we got ready to leave for our 5 hour drive to Spokane, my daughter finally asked why we weren't taking the camping trailer camping. I responded, "We don't need it, dad and I decided we would sleep in tents instead." Her face just fell, I guess the idea of 10 nights in a tent during the rainy season in Oregon wasn't too appealing.
I asked the kids to sit down for a minute as I retrieved their Mickey Ears. I looked at them and said in a serious tone, "Dad and I have been keeping something from you for the last couple of months." That got my daughters attention, I think she thought it was going to be some kind of life changing bad news. So I handed them their Mickey "horns" as my son calls them and said, "We aren't going camping, but where we are going you are going to need these, we are going on a Disney Cruise and we are leaving right now!!
"
Cue the stunned silence.
After about ten seconds, my daughter said, "What? What?! WHAAAT!!!!!!
" Then she started jumping up and down and screaming. I almost started to cry...I loved surprising them with that.
We loaded up for what would be a very long but thankfully uneventful travel day. I took no pictures. We landed at 1am at Houston's Hobby airport and were met by the Supershuttle driver Mohammed (thank you @sweetpee_1993 for recommending I call them) And by 2:30am we were tucked into our beds at the adorable Harbor House Hotel in Galveston Texas.
First real vacation day March 28th in Galveston Texas
This was the view from our hotel room that we woke up to. The Magic would be parked out there to whisk us off on our vacation the next day. We had a whole day to kill so we explored everything within walking distance of our hotel.
First stop the Museum of Offshore Oil Drilling, no trip to the gulf coast of Texas would be complete without it.
All jokes aside, it was actually very interesting. They had an actual oil rig that you could explore.
It was directly next to our hotel. Here is a view of the hotel from The Ocean Star.
On the opposite side of our hotel you can see the sailboat mast sticking up, that was the tall ship Elissa and the Seaport Museum. Our next stop.
You can see all the oil rigs in the bay in the background. And this is the back of our hotel. What an awesome location!
We loved the Harbor House, the building was a renovated old warehouse on the pier. I wish I had taken more photos of the room. They had two queen beds, a couch, a fridge and a microwave. The folks at the desk were super friendly. The continental breakfast was pretty sparse, but it was free so I can't complain.
Directly behind the Oil rig museum was Joe's Crab Shack, we have never eaten at one before and since it was so close, we went over for lunch.
Lunch was good. I don't know if I would go out of my way to eat there again, but it was fun. Our server wrote on everyone's bibs to personalize them. My HH was "The king of all crabs." S's said, "Too cute to be crabby." And W got, "Mommy's little shrimp." I didn't get a bib, because I ordered coconut shrimp and I guess he just thought I was a neat and tidy eater...
After lunch we did a walk around The Strand, which is the older business section of Galveston.
This place was awesome, we bought a bunch of truffles to eat...
Later on we got dinner at Fuddruckers which has really good burgers, we have one where we live...so not very adventurous of us. But we just wanted a good burger...Then my husband and I sampled the local microbrew on the steps of the hotel while our kids ran around and played with rocks...simple minds as they say...
Everyone was excited to get to bed so we could wake up and walk here...
Our family consists of myself, my handy husband whom we will call HH, my 10year old daughter "S" and my 5year old son "W." My HH is not too comfortable with this whole trip report thing so he asked that I not show many pictures of him or the kids. I can work within those parameters...
Anyway, for months we were planning a camping trip on the Oregon Coast for spring break, I had requested March 27th-April 7th off of work and been approved. In early January the "kids sail free" on The Magic out of Galveston offer came across my email. I of course went to the Disney Cruise Line website and checked the dates. There was one 8 night Bahamian cruise that left March 29th and returned April 6th...! I cautiously emailed everyone's favorite Kingdom Konsultant @Disneyfalcon and got some price quotes. It was obviously meant to be because we could afford it! So without giving it too much consideration, lest I talk myself out of it... I just decided to go for it and we reserved a category 10 gty room. Then I found super cheap airfare from Spokane to Houston on Southwest. Then my HH and I decided to not tell the kids...
It was a ridiculously hard secret to keep, especially as we got closer to departure day. I had to pack the suitcases while they were at school and then put them back in the closet to hide them. Finally the morning of March 27th arrived. We had originally planned on not revealing anything until the morning of the cruise...but I just couldn't handle it anymore. So as we got ready to leave for our 5 hour drive to Spokane, my daughter finally asked why we weren't taking the camping trailer camping. I responded, "We don't need it, dad and I decided we would sleep in tents instead." Her face just fell, I guess the idea of 10 nights in a tent during the rainy season in Oregon wasn't too appealing.
I asked the kids to sit down for a minute as I retrieved their Mickey Ears. I looked at them and said in a serious tone, "Dad and I have been keeping something from you for the last couple of months." That got my daughters attention, I think she thought it was going to be some kind of life changing bad news. So I handed them their Mickey "horns" as my son calls them and said, "We aren't going camping, but where we are going you are going to need these, we are going on a Disney Cruise and we are leaving right now!!
"Cue the stunned silence.
After about ten seconds, my daughter said, "What? What?! WHAAAT!!!!!!
" Then she started jumping up and down and screaming. I almost started to cry...I loved surprising them with that. We loaded up for what would be a very long but thankfully uneventful travel day. I took no pictures. We landed at 1am at Houston's Hobby airport and were met by the Supershuttle driver Mohammed (thank you @sweetpee_1993 for recommending I call them) And by 2:30am we were tucked into our beds at the adorable Harbor House Hotel in Galveston Texas.
First real vacation day March 28th in Galveston Texas
This was the view from our hotel room that we woke up to. The Magic would be parked out there to whisk us off on our vacation the next day. We had a whole day to kill so we explored everything within walking distance of our hotel.
First stop the Museum of Offshore Oil Drilling, no trip to the gulf coast of Texas would be complete without it.
All jokes aside, it was actually very interesting. They had an actual oil rig that you could explore.
It was directly next to our hotel. Here is a view of the hotel from The Ocean Star.
On the opposite side of our hotel you can see the sailboat mast sticking up, that was the tall ship Elissa and the Seaport Museum. Our next stop.
You can see all the oil rigs in the bay in the background. And this is the back of our hotel. What an awesome location!
We loved the Harbor House, the building was a renovated old warehouse on the pier. I wish I had taken more photos of the room. They had two queen beds, a couch, a fridge and a microwave. The folks at the desk were super friendly. The continental breakfast was pretty sparse, but it was free so I can't complain.
Directly behind the Oil rig museum was Joe's Crab Shack, we have never eaten at one before and since it was so close, we went over for lunch.
Lunch was good. I don't know if I would go out of my way to eat there again, but it was fun. Our server wrote on everyone's bibs to personalize them. My HH was "The king of all crabs." S's said, "Too cute to be crabby." And W got, "Mommy's little shrimp." I didn't get a bib, because I ordered coconut shrimp and I guess he just thought I was a neat and tidy eater...
After lunch we did a walk around The Strand, which is the older business section of Galveston.
This place was awesome, we bought a bunch of truffles to eat...
Later on we got dinner at Fuddruckers which has really good burgers, we have one where we live...so not very adventurous of us. But we just wanted a good burger...Then my husband and I sampled the local microbrew on the steps of the hotel while our kids ran around and played with rocks...simple minds as they say...
Everyone was excited to get to bed so we could wake up and walk here...
. I guess they don't want any pictures of what goes on in there for some reason. I showed her that I only had the back of a bunch of kids and Donald. Anywaaay, now I know. "There is no picture taking in the children's activity centers during secure programming."
. 
. When I finally got to the red buoy, I realized I was the only person out that far and I began to feel a little uncomfortable. I was also getting tired, I had been battling a head wind the whole way. If my HH had been with me, I would've had no problem continuing my search for the submarine and the Mickey statue, but I was alone so I decided to turn around. On the way back I saw more fish and a barracuda! Super cool. 
