Booked a mere 6 weeks prior to sail date, which is a very short lead up time for us. We had sailed on the Panorama in February 2020, returning 4 weeks before the shutdown, and had no plans to book anything else until things got back to "normal" (whatever normal is going to be now).

We drove down to Galveston the day before embarkation (we live 20 miles south of Dallas, not far from I-45, so the drive was about 3 &1/2 hours) and stayed overnight at a hotel on the island. Houston traffic is still the worst, even on a Sunday, and the torrential downburst rainstorm we drove through on the south side of town was enough to scare the pants off of anyone. Longest 15 miles I've ever driven.

Any Sunday afternoon in July on the island is crazy with vacationers and traffic on the Seawall, and this trip, it was probably worse than usual since people were so happy to be able to actually go on vacation. We found a little local restaurant down on the west end for dinner. Tiny place, we got the last open table, they were busy, food took a while, but the staff was friendly and apologetic about the wait. Hey, we're on vacation, and we don't have anywhere else we have to be. And the food was quite good. bonus! Read more