The day on Sunday was really beautiful; sunny, cold, a little windy...prefect for a drive to Galveston from East Texas. Our plans were to arrive at the ship around noon or a little before. After that, it usually starts getting very crowded at check-in. This was our 7th RCI cruise; 2nd on this ship sailing out of Galveston.

We had already booked our parking at E-Z Cruise parking, and arrived there about 12:30. Rather than wait for the shuttle we decided to just pull our luggage and walk to the cruise terminal. It was about 3 blocks and wasn't a bad walk at all. We checked our big bags at the curb and headed inside the terminal.

Embarkation was as smooth as we've ever experienced. The advantage of going to the Platinum, Diamond, Diamond Plus line made a huge difference!! By the time we got on the ship it was 1:00 and the cabins were ready for occupancy. We put our tote bags in the cabin and headed straight to the dining room to try to "fix" our dinner assignment which was wrong. After a 15 minute wait then about 20 minutes of "conversation", they finally succumbed to our pleas to honor our written confirmation for early dining. We were happy then... and extremely hungry. By this time, it was about 2:00 and we headed to the Windjammer for lunch. Excellent lunch, good selection of various foods; happy campers! Read more