We traveled from Willis, about 50 miles north of Houston to Galveston so our commute to the terminal was about 1 1/2 hours, mostly unremarkable although since we live in a small town, Houston traffic down I-45 straight through town is a little stressful.

We used Galveston Park-N-Cruise which is right across the street from Terminal 2. Good space and convenient although crossing the street was a little tricky because of the traffic. We drove to the terminal first and dropped off our luggage; a porter appeared immediately to take it from us so no wait there. We then drove to the parking area, they had our reservation from June and we were personally escorted to our parking area. Very nice, efficient and well run service.

The line to go through security was probably about 15 minutes, then we got into the REAL line to go check in and receive our Sea Pass cards. I'm sorry but I don't remember how many clerks they had, probably about 40 windows and the line, which was extremely long moved at a reasonable rate. My husband is a little less patient than me and he really didn't complain too much. After we got our cards, the anticipated time to embark was 2 hours. We were a little bummed about that but it is what it is. There is definitely a shortage of seating in the terminal and we ended up sitting on the floor. I never found any place to buy soda or water but luckily I had my soda unopened and was able to take it through security. We actually started boarding the ship about 3:00 but the rooms weren't ready so we went to the Windjammer and sat around the pool area for awhile then finally we were able to get to our stateroom and really begin our cruise. Read more