This was a girls cruise, my 2 best friends (one is a cousin) and I went on Ecstasy 2 years ago. That time was their first cruise, and my 4th. We decided to do it again this February. We drove down to Galveston from Dallas on embarkation day. We left early and made great time until we got past downtown Houston and ran into a complete parking lot on I-45 South to Galveston. It was due to construction. It took us an hour to get through that mess, then we were on our way to Galveston!

We used EZ Cruise parking for the second time, and it really lives up to it's name. We made the reservation and paid online saving $5. If online, for a 5 day it is $35, paid on arrival it is $40. You just show up at the parking lot, give them the reservation printed from online, park your car. They load your luggage onto the van, you hop in and you're off to the terminal. They pull up and unload your luggage to a waiting porter, and you're ready to go.

This time we had a category 11 cabin, so we were VIP! We went up the escalators, bypassed the line for security and into the VIP lounge. We were seated in a nice little waiting room for a whole minute before escorted to a desk to check in. Once checked in with our S&S cards, we were off to the ship. No waiting, just straight on. Once on board it was approximately 1:20, so we went straight to the cabin. The doors were closed to the hallway, but opened shortly after a few minutes. We went to the cabin to drop off any carry on stuff we had and then directly to the Lido deck for lunch. Read more