I was traveling with my 4 year old granddaughter and this was her 1st cruise and my 4th. This was my 2nd time on the Ecstasy. I arrived on the island at around 2.45pm Friday, February 18th. I had a room reserved at the Hampton Inn and Suites near the seawall. I have stayed here before and I highly recommend it. I have always had a clean room and very friendly service. It offers a free hot breakfast as well as free internet in the business center. There is a Wal-Mart, a bank and a gas station directly across the street and I know several restaurants in the immediate area. The seawall is within walking distance as well. I did notice that there was dense fog as I crossed over onto the island as I got closer to the seawall, it did get worse.
Due to the dense fog I refused to drive after the sun went down so we walked to the Golden Corral to eat...not the best food in the world, but it was food. By the time I left the restaurant the fog was so thick I hear but not see the ocean. It was directly across the street from the restaurant! I went back to the hotel and checked Carnival.com and Cruise Critic. There were no updates on Carnival and no new threads on CC about the fog. I updated our Roll Call thread to let others know about the fog.
Saturday I got up fairly early it was very foggy still. We had breakfast, went to Wal-Mart, checked Carnival.com, CC and Galveston.com to have a look at the harbor and cruise cam. No ship in port, no alert on Carnival and nothing new on CC. I made the decision to go ahead and check out of the hotel. This turned out to be: Bad decision number 1. I drove to the pier area and went directly to Park and Cruise. I had booked in advance and paid $35 for the 5 days. When I got there I was greeted by a very nice female employee who explained that since the Ecstasy wasn't back yet the lot was full. She did direct me how to park on the street and I was able to park at 25th & Strand. We walked around the Strand and down to Pier 21; we had lunch at the Olympia, visited the Harbor House hotel, the Ocean Star exhibit and took lots of photos (some of this I did after I checked in).
Please see the Cabin information included in my review above.