First I better introduce us--husband, myself. We moved to Houston three years ago from Minnesota. Our kids still live in MN. We have cruised 8 times before Carnival-Royal Caribbean-Princess. We love the fact that we can now drive to a port and get on a ship!! We cruised Carnival Conquest last year-happen to love the ship!! We booked this cruise only two weeks before departure, we were going to go to Disney World this vacation but decided the prices were too high so my husband said DO IT!!

Day 1-the first thing that I did when I woke up on Sunday was check the web cam to make sure that the Conquest was in port and waiting for us (the cruise before us was delayed due to fog) There it was! Start packing. We left our house in Spring, TX at 9 a.m. Once over the bridge in Galveston we saw the tail---knew it was not too long until we were on board. We parked at E-Z cruise which we love--not too many people were there yet and we rode to the terminal on the bus by ourselves. Handed the bags to the porter at the terminal and away we go. Made it through security with no problems-had two bottles of wine in carry on-never a question. The terminal line was about a 15 minute wait-after getting sign and sail cards we were ushered to a waiting area for about 15 more minutes and then on the ship after the welcome aboard picture. Our cabins were not ready until 1:30 p.m. so off to the Lido for the first of many buffets.

Since the USA Canada Hockey game was on we stayed in our cabin and watched it in between watching went out on the balcony to look at the sites, not much to look at yet as we had not sailed. The muster took place around 3:30 and it is a breeze now that you do not have to bring your life jackets. Our luggage arrived right as it was time for dinner--hurried and unpacked. Went out on the balcony just as leaving Galveston---did not see any dolphins this time but was excited to be on our way. Read more