So my wife and I decided to take a 7 day cruise to Belize, Roatan and Cozumel for a delayed honeymoon for the summer of 2014 (I can't recall the exact date but it was before June of last year). I heard Royal Caribbean was a more upscale cruise line as compared to Carnival so we went with the Mariner with the Seas. It was recently renovated and it showed. Arrival and embarkation was a breeze. Our room steward was excellent, on board entertainment was well done, and the food was pretty good, even the buffet line. The shore excursions were well organized and left plenty of time to explore the ports of call. Everything went quite well. My wife loved it. I was a happy camper.

Then we disembarked. I had read reviews that the disembarkation was a show, but chalked it up to sour grapes. Trust me, it is not. As a Canadian national married to a US national, it was weird to think we would have to be separated to go through customs but so be it. The problem came when the non US national line literally DID NOT MOVE in the 3 hours we got off the boat. There was a British man who was going to miss his connecting flight. I was absolutely livid. I don't ind if we took a little longer or if US citizens get priority, it is your home port after all, but to not move in 3 hours while waiting with your luggage is amateurish at best. I have not sailed out of Galveston since (I live in Katy, close to Houston), despite my wife loving the cruise. Unless and until I can be confident that the Port of Galveston can get their stuff together to disembark us in a manner that isn't reminiscent of grade school, I will not sail from that port. Piss poor performance that ruined an otherwise great cruise.

Good job Royal Caribbean, but the Port of Galveston has steered this paying customer well away from you.