We were on the 5 day Thanksgiving sailing on the Ecstasy out of Galveston. There were 6 of us (me, DH, DD-13, DS-11, DS-19 & DS-22). All but the 2 oldest sons have sailed 5+ times before.

I do a lot of homework and planning prior to cruising so I usually know what to expect and am not easily "surprised". Such was the case with this cruise. Our last 2 cruise experiences were on the Conquest, a much larger and newer ship. I made sure that everyone was aware of this so that they didn't "expect" the Ecstasy to be as fancy as the Conquest. Also, we've been to both Cozumel and Progresso many times so we also knew what to expect on shore. Acknowledging these things ahead of time helped shape our cruise experience as our expectations were reasonable.

Embarkation: Usually, we spend the night in Galveston prior to the cruise, but this time we just drove in from our home town (60 miles SE of Dallas) the morning of the cruise. We arrived at the EZ Cruise parking lot around 11:30. We were eating lunch on the Lido Deck by 1pm. Needless to say, embarkation was a breeze! Read more