Our family was excited about this vacation, as we had booked it in May of 2008. Originally, it was just our family of four (which included two boys, 15 and 10). At Christmas time my parents were able to join us, and we became a party of six. Both families had cruised before, but this would be the first time with Royal.

We chose this cruise because it fit well with our boys' spring break and we would be able to drive. We left Wisconsin early on Friday, April 3 and arrived in Galveston about 3:00 PM on Saturday (we spent the night down in Arkadelphia, Arkansas choosing not to drive straight through). We stayed on the Seawall, at the Holiday Inn. We had chosen this hotel back in May, and watched the reporters on Sept. 18 reporting from the hotel next door as Ike roared in. We could see the Holiday Inn lighted sign, so we knew the building was still standing.

The room we had was on the ground floor, and was very nice. I am sure it was recently renovated. We had a shuttle to the pier and free parking during our cruise. We could see that Ike had left much damage, and some places (such as the Flagship Hotel) suffered major damage, other places were not open, and it didn't look like they would open anytime soon. Still, there were many places back open, and beautiful Victorian homes that didn't look any worse for wear. Read more