We drove the six hour trip to Galveston the Saturday before the ship was to leave. Spent the night at Gaido's Seaside Inn, it is a nice family run hotel with a restaurant attached. We left the car in their parking lot and taxied over to the ship, there were 14 people cruising from there so they called two van type cabs and we shared the fair.

Embarkation did not take long, porters took our luggage at the sidewalk and we made it past security, even with a cooler that was maybe a little bigger than the 12 inches they would have liked. Tip: tell them you are keeping your meds in it, it ended the conversation about the cooler quickly.

First thing we do is explore the ship. Went to the theater, found the dinner seating, walked around the promenade deck and looked at the casino, so we could see what machines we wanted to play once it opened. Read more