Surprise! Instead of going camping we are going on The Disney Magic...Our first cruise trip report.

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...

 

[Zman-ks]

Great pics!

 

[Sumrdog]

T

Great pics!

Thanks!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I love it! You know, I've never been to the Ocean Star which is awful considering my old man works in refineries/within the oil industry. The Harbor House really is a great location and there's so much to do right there. Haven't been to The Strand in...oh...18 years??? Was the months before we conceived our 17 year old son. Craziness!

Loved the surprise!

Can't wait for mooooore!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Yay! I'm so glad you are writing! I love the story of your kids surprise. So sweet!!
And you are working very well in those parameters. It's great so far!

 

[Sumrdog]

I love it! You know, I've never been to the Ocean Star which is awful considering my old man works in refineries/within the oil industry. The Harbor House really is a great location and there's so much to do right there. Haven't been to The Strand in...oh...18 years??? Was the months before we conceived our 17 year old son. Craziness!

Loved the surprise!

Can't wait for mooooore!

We really enjoyed Galveston! There really is so much right there!

Yay! I'm so glad you are writing! I love the story of your kids surprise. So sweet!!
And you are working very well in those parameters. It's great so far!

Thank you! Hopefully more soon...

 

[Sumrdog]

Friday March 29th Embarkation day!

I did not sleep much the night before the cruise. I knew that the ship would pass by our hotel and then do a 180 degree turn before docking sometime between 4 and 7:30am. I awoke every thirty minutes (on my own, no alarm clock just my own neurosis) and checked the window. At 6:30am I fell soundly asleep and when I awoke again at 7:30 this is what we saw! I missed it...Oh well.

Did I mention that this hotel location was awesome! We packed up and went to enjoy our continental breakfast. It was then about 8:30am. So we went downstairs. The coast guard escort for the ship had parked their boats in the little empty marina beside us. My husband took my son down to meet them and they let W go aboard the little gunship they both really enjoyed that. The coastguard guys were really friendly. Then we walked to Starbucks which was directly across the street and got coffee. Then it was probably 9:15 we still had at least one hour to kill. I made the kids pose for a few pictures, this is my favorite...

So much for the aliases....

We sat in our room for a few more minutes and then we just couldn't wait any longer...Around 10:15 we started the 5 block walk to the cruise terminal. My husband had bought a couple of 12 packs of beer the day before so he had to manage those, we had three suitcases as well. So it was slow going. We arrived at the cruise terminal before 11am and we were let right in even though our arrival time wasn't until 11:30am.

We were checked in very quickly and then I went straight to the supervisors desk as Tammy had instructed me. I had asked her to check on upgrading to a balcony a few weeks before our cruise and it was around $3300.00 more, way more than I was able to spend. So she told me to check at the Supervisors desk after check in. I was second in line and a very nice lady informed me that it was $525.00 to upgrade. Since I already had $100 on board credit (thank you kingdom konsultants!) that was $425.00 by my math for a balcony, for 8 nights...Yes please! Did I mention it was my birthday as well! I looked to my husband who had sat down with the boy and gave him a giant thumbs up with a huge grin...which is code for I am spending more money but you are going to love it!!!

We were now going to be in room 7586 boarding group was still 7. She showed us the location on the starboard side a little forward of the aft elevator and directly across from the laundry! I was so excited I had to fire off a few celebratory emails to Tammy and my mom who is a veteran cruiser and really likes the balconies. I took the kids to get their Mickey bands (code for ankle monitor) Then we sat down to wait. We noticed the lines get pretty long for checkin. We never saw any characters but apparently they were at the far side of the room.

By 11:45 we were boarding! So exciting!!

Our first view. We had to go down a long hallway, midway through the hallway the computers went down and we were stuck in limbo. That lasted about 10 long minutes and then finally we were moving again. They swiped our cards and we climbed the escalator...

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

How cool! I've been waiting for your report! Welcome to Texas. I would SO love to do a Disney cruise out of Galveston (oh, Galveston), but since we're headed to WDW in 51 days, there's no way we could swing both.

 

[disneyfan1995]

Loving your report so far!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Sumrdog]

How cool! I've been waiting for your report! Welcome to Texas. I would SO love to do a Disney cruise out of Galveston (oh, Galveston), but since we're headed to WDW in 51 days, there's no way we could swing both.

Thank you! This was our first real visit to The Lone Star State, I am not counting a drive through the panhandle on interstate 40 in 1999...We really enjoyed Galveston and the people were super friendly.

Loving your report so far!! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks!

 

[Sumrdog]

At the top of the escalator we entered a glass gangway, we were getting closer...

Then we reached the doors that opened into the lobby atrium and they announced our family! That was kind of neat, I didn't realize they did that. Then one of the staff members whisked us to the side and told us what our current dining options were and when the rooms would be ready. We opted for Parrot Cay since we were already on that floor. And then we wandered a bit. This is the lobby atrium from the 4th floor. We watched as a few families were announced.

Then it was 1:30 and we couldn't wait to go see our room and drop off our bags. The kids really wanted to go swimming so we did a cursory exploration of our room and then we were off to the Mickey Pool.

My son loved the slide!

And as an aside I just wanted to mention that there always seemed to be at least one cast member watching this pool, you can see her on the left. Even though they don't officially have a lifeguard on duty.

After the Mickey Pool we walked around some more. We found our way to the kids clubs and I snapped a couple of pictures.

It all looks so fun!

Before we knew it, it was time for the sail away deck party. The kids and I found a spot in the front.

I love Minnie!

Then they blew the When You Wish Upon a Star with the horn! It was so exciting...I almost cried again. We were on our way!

Except we didn't actually sail away for another hour. We went up to deck 10 and explored that for a bit.

Then we went back to our room and enjoyed our balcony for the first time.

The Galveston Cruise Terminal is in a pretty industrial area, but lots of interesting things to look at.

We watched the men on the shore remove the many huge ropes holding us in place and then we finally started moving!

There is the Harbor House Hotel again.

Then it was time for us to have dinner our seating was at 5:45pm so we couldn't spend too much time watching the world pass by from our balcony. We found our way to Lumiere's for our first dinner and met our serving team Evandro and Marcus. We were seated at a table with another family that were the same age as us, with kids a boy and a girl the same age as ours, ( I don't think this was a coincidence, and it worked out great!) We all introduced ourselves and then it was time to order.

I love how you can pick whatever you want on the menu and you don't have to worry about what it costs, so naturally I got the tenderloin!

 

[Sumrdog]

My daughter had the lamb, my HH had the seabass which he enjoyed, but after trying all of our dishes he said the lamb was the best. I enjoyed the polenta underneath it the best.

Now for dessert.

Crème brulee. I loved this.

HH had the chocolate mousse.

We returned to our room full from dinner to find this guy waiting for us and the beds all turned down...How fancy!

We watched the Welcome Aboard show, I loved Freddy Fusion, he was super funny. And we enjoyed the drink of the day...some kind of fruity rum drink

Then it was off to bed after a pretty long day...I loved the map channel.

 

[Sumrdog]

Saturday March 30th at sea

We are early risers in our family. My first activity of the morning was a weather check on the balcony...It was gorgeous!

Then I checked the map.

The water was about 4500 feet deep at that point. My HH and I spent some time on the balcony with the binoculars, there is tons of stuff out there in the gulf. Mostly oil rigs, but container ships too. And after our visit to The Ocean Star Museum we knew the different types of oil rigs we were looking at and had a better idea how they all worked.

We headed up to the buffet on deck 9 which would become our routine and had Mickey waffles fruit and bacon. Well that's what the boy and I had. HH and my daughter may have had eggs. Then we dropped W at the Oceaneer's club. S wanted to watch Jack Jacks diaper dash in the lobby atrium so we instructed her on where to find us. HH and I headed to the DVC member gathering.

Where we were pleasantly surprised to receive complimentary Mimosas on our arrival along with some cool DVC goody's like hats and an awesome notebook thing.

It was mostly a presentation on adding on more points, but there was no pressure. They had a special offer. But we aren't in the market for more points right now. There was a sharing section at the end and if you told a story about how or why you have your DVC membership they gave you an additional gift. So people were sharing personal stories. Naturally I raised my hand to share because I am huge fan of freebies...What I am not is a public speaker. The microphone was in front of me with this bubbly blond lady waiting for my story and my husband and daughter (who had found us) were waiting, the whole room was waiting...

The only thing I could think to share is why we became DVC members, which is actually a deeply personal story involving the death of my grandmother whom I adored and us no longer having a place for the family to gather on vacation....Of course as soon as the words "after my grandmother died" were out of my mouth I started to cry . Why do I put myself in these situations! The lady leading the thing was a total mind reader because she actually knew what I was going to say about us needing a way for our family to vacation together etc... and she finished up for me. Apparently I am not the only one with that story. Anyway it all ended happily because I scored the best beach bag!

Upon leaving we were also given a DVC backpack and told if we were spotted wearing our new DVC member hats and the "pin patrol" spotted us, we would be rewarded with special pins! We were also given DVC lanyards and a nice member pin in our room later on that day. So all in all it was worth our time. Although next time I am going to make my HH share.

After that fun we fetched the boy who did not want to leave and got some lunch at the buffet. Then we had a little afternoon quiet time. I went and found the aft overlook on the end of our deck.

After rest time S and I went to master the ancient art of Origami flowers.

Photo bucket hates me right now so I will just have to continue this later...

 

[sam_disney]

I made the kids pose for a few pictures, this is my favorite...

Oh my god, this is sooooo cute!! loving this! Love the cruise reports.. I will do this! One day! x

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

Your dinners look divine!

And after our visit to The Ocean Star Museum we knew the different types of oil rigs we were looking at and had a better idea how they all worked.

Oooooh, a vacation that's fun AND educational. Score!

What I am not is a public speaker. The microphone was in front of me with this bubbly blond lady waiting for my story and my husband and daughter (who had found us) were waiting, the whole room was waiting...

Of course as soon as the words "after my grandmother died" were out of my mouth I started to cry . Why do I put myself in these situations!

What a great story! I can totally empathize with the emotional double punch of talking to a crowd and injecting personal feelings. But you pulled through like a trouper!

 

[farrellbarrel]

I love the picture of your kids and the ears with the boat!!! Love the report so far, sounds like your trip was awesome so far!!

 

[Sumrdog]

Oh my god, this is sooooo cute!! loving this! Love the cruise reports.. I will do this! One day! x

Thank you! You should do it!

 

[Sumrdog]

Your dinners look divine!




Oooooh, a vacation that's fun AND educational. Score!



What a great story! I can totally empathize with the emotional double punch of talking to a crowd and injecting personal feelings. But you pulled through like a trouper!

The food was delicious and no dishes and we could order as much as we wanted. We came home and my son asked if we could have a buffet at home So cute!

Thanks for your comments I am glad to hear someone can empathize, I mean surely I am not the only person who freezes up and turns into a blubbering idiot when they talk about their favorite grandma...But I totally scored the bag!

 

[Sumrdog]

I love the picture of your kids and the ears with the boat!!! Love the report so far, sounds like your trip was awesome so far!!

Thank you! It was awesome!

 

[Sumrdog]

On to the origami flowers...

Isn't it pretty? We got way into it and made a bunch more with many more petals, they kind of look like chrysanthemums. They live in a vase on my dining table now.

Our dining companions happened to be at the table next to us. And my daughter and her new soon to be best friend wanted to go make flubber. I dropped S at the lab. And went to find the boys.

Our hallway.

They were in the room playing Star Wars action figures, turns out the Mickey pool was crazy busy. My son is kind of a gentle soul and another kid knocked into him and didn't apologize so he wanted to leave. This was fine with my HH because he couldn't find anywhere to sit close to the pool. The Goofy pool was not nearly as busy as the Mickey Pool but the water was a little too deep for us to feel comfortable about W being in there without one of us, and until they start heating it... that wasn't happening.

We decided to go for a stroll around The Promenade on deck 4. This turned out to be my favorite deck as I have heard many others say. Its quiet and classic looking.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover the enclosed ends filled with dock lines and giant chains. We are endlessly fascinated with the way things work.

After our stroll we fetched S because it was time for Tea with Alice. I had snagged the tickets right after we had gotten on the ship the day before from Guest Services. The Tea was located in Studio Sea. They checked our tickets at the door and told us to find a table. At each table was a teapot which had apple juice and a few really good chocolate chip cookies.

Tea was cute, Alice and The Mad Hatter brought two kids up to join them. But we were hoping it would be more like a tea party; like the one they do at The Grand Floridian. This was more of a little show. Anyway it was cute for 30 minutes, I would probably skip it next time. Afterward Alice and The Mad Hatter posed for photos but my kids have already met them and they didn't want to wait. So we returned to our room to dress for dinner.

The night before when we were leaving dinner I told our assistant server Marcus that we wouldn't be at dinner the next night because we didn't have any formal clothes. He assured me that it wouldn't be a problem and told me; "You better not miss any of our dinners..." He made this threat with a smile.

So we dressed in our "finest" which for my husband is tucking in his short sleeve plaid shirt and wearing his cleanest khakis, I put on my only sundress, S wore her Easter dress and W tucked in his polo. If you knew us, you would've asked what the occasion was. I wear scrubs to work and then spend most of my afternoons cleaning, tending to my chickens or in my garden. Formal is just not something that comes up very often for us. But once we ventured into the hallway I didn't feel nearly so self conscious, there were families that looked absolutely beautiful and then there were others dressed similarly to us. Nobody seemed to mind .

So it was on to Animators Palette for dinner. It wasn't going to be the "show dinner" that was to be the next night. Sadly the dining room was half empty as many people must have been afraid to show in less than formal wear. I am really glad we went because the food was great!

We were at table 3 in the corner in every dining room. I loved this because my back was against a wall and I could set my giant camera bag out of the way while I ate. Our dinner companions arrived soon after us and the kids all sat next to each other. They drew all over the table cloth, which the head server Neno had started the day prior when he introduced himself by drawing a picture of Nemo the fish on our table cloth.

This is a portrait of our family that my son drew during the meal.

I find his stick people to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen. I am the first brown person, then my HH is the one with the curly hair. S is the other brown person and W is purple. We are "holding hands in the sunshine"...awww.

I love how every dinner had a theme!

My daughter had the lamb, my husband had the turbot. And boring me I had a salad and a roasted tomato appetizer. I don't normally eat steak more than twice a month, I get so full. My son had his usual chicken strips. Everyone really liked what they ordered, I loved the tomato. I could've eaten five...

I also had the Polenta appetizer.

I don't know why I didn't photograph our entrees...Sometimes I just put the camera away so I can better enjoy being in the moment...this might have been one of those times.

I did get pictures of dessert.

Bread pudding! It was wicked good as we say in New England.

Cheese cake!

After dinner my HH and I got Mai Tais, they were great!

And as the drink of the day...The price was right!

HH took my daughter to see Twice Charmed, I was sad I missed it. I didn't realize until the following day that I could've watched it in our room. Anyway W was giving me some not so subtle signs that he was really tired, so we went back so he could get to bed. I also had some unfinished business for the Easter Bunny who was coming the next morning.

This was on our bed after dinner.

I turned the clock back on my iPhone one hour and then set the alarm for 7am. We were having our character breakfast the next morning. Then I locked myself in the bathroom while I filled 30 plastic eggs with jelly beans. I had brought some festive gift bags which I filled with bubbles, pins and a couple of other treats from the gift shop. Then I hid the "Easter Baskets" up behind the life preservers in the closet. W was completely oblivious while he drifted off to sleep watching Rise of the Guardians.

S and my HH came in around 10 and told me I missed a good show. Next time I guess. Then we all tucked in and did a round of goodnight's similar to The Waltons.