Having visited Space Center yesterday (Mal, Nana, and I; Pappy had to rest his bum knee), this morning we got up, had a very limited continental breakfast at the NASA/Webster Super 8 where we stayed for free with points (yay!) and made our very easy way to the Port of Galveston. We arrived at about 10:15 AM.
Mal and I dropped all of our bags, including Nana and Pappy, off with the porters and then made our way to the parking garage. A brief walk later, we entered the terminal and snaked our way through security pretty quickly.
We were in the “green lane,” meaning we already had our medallions, which Princess uses to track your every move, but not in a creepy way. They verified our passports, took our pictures, and we were clear to board the ship by about 10: 45!
Stopped in the terminal rest area to fill our water bottles, then up up up to the gang plank, and we were on board the Regal Princess for our first ever Princess cruise (Mal and me; not Nana and Pappy).
Our first stop was, of course, FOOD. Mal and I opted for the International Cafe, which is the one food venue on board opened 24/7. I got what was basically a Caprese sandwich, and a slice of pistachio pound cake. Mal, on the other hand, totally understood the vacation mission. He had a slice of strawberry shortcake (green, for some reason) and some chocolate mousse. He was a fan!
Next on the agenda was the muster drill. It’s DIY now, which is convenient and less claustrophobic than packing into small areas with a bunch of strangers. We found our muster station, and then planned to watch the safety video later on our stateroom television.
We walked around to try to start getting our bearings, and found the pools, the kids’ clubs (Camp Discovery), the sports decks, and shoulder aches from lugging around our backpacks! We had our electronics in the, so they were super heavy. Fortunately, our cabin opened up a bit before 1 PM and we were able to free ourselves from our technological burdens.
Our bags arrived in 2 waves over the next half hour, and by 2:15, we were fully unpacked and ready to relax! We ran some stuff over to Nana and Pappy’s stateroom, then went to make sure Mal was fully registered for the Camp Discovery. Also, we had to get him a replacement bracelet because I’d accidentally cut his in half trying to trim the excess plastic.
We walked around a bit and got to see part of the sail-away party. It was too loud for Mal, so I instituted a “carry your headphones around all the time, because I want to go to parties and hear music!” policy. We wandered around on deck a bit more, learning the places you can and cannot go through. It’s still kind of a mystery, but give us a couple more days and we’ll have it figured out.
We returned to the room to freshen up before dinner, and so Mal could experience sail-away from the quiet of our balcony. He ate the last of the granola bars he had in his backpack and was still hungry, so on our way to our first meal in the main dining room, we stopped back at the international cafe for a chocolate-chip cookie.
After a couple of false starts, we found the Concerto dining room and got seated just a couple of moments before Nana and Pappy showed up. Dinner was delicious and luxurious. I had a mojito ceviche, mahi-mahi on a plate of quinoa pilaf and vegetable casserole, and vanilla marscapone with blueberry creameux. Mal had macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders, fries, and a banana sundae. For some reason, his stomach started bothering him a bit.
We pretty much packed it in after that. We returned to the room to chill before the youth club family night, but Mal’s stomach was still pretty icky so he wanter to stay in. I got a shower, and we’ve just been chatting and hanging out.
Now it’s a bit after 9 and I find myself getting drowsy already! That’s fine. I want to see the sunrise in the morning; our dinner time of 5:20 means we’re going to miss most sunsets, so it’ll be my only chance to see the that star on the horizon!
Two sea days before Roatan, and hopefully by then we’ll have the layout more embedded in our brains. We walked 5.3 miles today and climbed 16 flights of stairs (we went down a bunch more than that, but my Apple Watch doesn’t track that).
If you want to see all the pictures (that I uploaded, which is about 1/3 of the pictures I took), click here!
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