The journey begins! DW and I flew into Houston a day early so there wouldn't be any problems or stress getting to the Voyager on the day of the cruise. We flew from Charlotte and changed planes to Houston since USAir did away with the non-stop I originally booked. All went well since there wasn't a very long wait between connections. Since a vacation is a once a year thing, I decided to hire a limo to take us to our hotel on Galveston Island. I used Karr Limousine Service and can't say enough good things about them. Upon arrival at Houston, the driver was waiting at the baggage claim area holding up a sign with my name on it. He loaded our luggage in the trunk of the Lincoln Town car and away we went. The route to Galveston was jammed with traffic due to road construction so it took a lot longer than usual for the journey. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort on Seawall Blvd. and were quite satisfied with the accommodations. The staff was helpful and very friendly. The room was clean, everything worked perfectly, and was quite comfortable. The hotel provided shuttle service to the pier and we arrived at the cruise terminal at about 1PM.

Embarkation: Once dropping off the luggage and waiting in a very short line for a bit, we were processed rapidly and were aboard ship in about 15 minutes. Having your Set Sail Pass really expedites the whole process. After dropping off our carry on bags we headed to the Windjammer for lunch. When finished eating, the next order of business was to check out our dinner table and found it satisfactory. We like sitting next to a window to enjoy the view as we eat and had such a table. We had a table for ten and our dinner mates were great people and we all had things to share and laugh about each night. Our table mates were from Texas, Canada, and New Hampshire. Our waiter was Vincent from Jamaica (I think) who was very efficient in his duties. A small detail, but Vincent never took the time to learn our names which is always a nice touch and adds to the dining experience.

The port of Galveston isn't a very pretty place and is a very industrial area. There wasn't anything of interest to see as the ship set sail so there was no real excitement during sail away. This was our fifth cruise and the prettiest place to depart from is Miami, hands down. Since we've never sailed this particular itinerary, it didn't particularly bother me that the port wasn't more picturesque. Read more