4-night Merrytime cruise out of Galveston - Day 1 - Embarkation Day
Embarkation Day
We finally get back to the thing we love - cruising with the mouse! Our last cruise was on the Wonder in January 2020 so we were excited to be back on board.
Despite living in Austin, TX this was our first sailing out of Galveston. We always looked at the itineraries before but just weren’t that excited by any of them. When DCL resumed sailing and things were looking a little better in terms of the virus and once our whole family was fully vaccinated, we decided to take a look at just about anything that would GET US BACK ON A SHIP. The itinerary was definitely not that exciting, but we were ready for a vacation and we have a lot of cruise credit from cancelled cruises so we booked it. Four nights with two sea days and one day in Cozumel.
We woke up, got ourselves ready and finished packing and hit the road about 7:45 AM. There was only a small amount of traffic and one wrong turn that cost us a little time (I’m so terrible at all those highway interchanges in Houston) and one pit stop at Starbucks to use the facilities and have a snack, we arrived at the parking place where I had made a reservation at around 12:00. We had a Port Arrival Time of 12:15-12:30 so it worked out pretty well. We had to wait for a shuttle, but arrived at around 12:20 and dropped off our bags.
There were a lot of personelle around to direct folks and they had the people with later PATs lined up outside on the right and asked us our PAT as we approached the line and took us to a smaller line on the left side for folks that had a PAT eligible for entry. We only waited a few minutes outside to keep the line inside to a minimum. We went right in to the Covid testing area and had to wait outside a small tent for our turn. We completed our tests and then went to the security area. We had to dump our waters, which was a first. We’ve embarked from Port Canaveral, Miami, Vancouver, Barcelona, and San Juan, Puerto Rico and never had to dump water so that was strange. After security we entered a large waiting area where an employee directed us to a group of seats where we waited.
We waited about 40 minutes for our test results and once we were cleared we went to the check in. I asked about a possible room change and was told it wouldn’t be possible as no rooms were available but I could ask Guest Services once on board. We had originally booked a room on deck 2 midship - our favorite category, but were given an “upgrade” to a deck 6 forward room (that we didn’t really want). So we boarded and Captains Minnie and Mickey were greeting passengers. Once about five groups got into the atrium, they had a quick little show (super quick - like a couple minutes) to welcome us on board. The atrium looked beautiful with the holiday decorations. (This was our first Merrytime sailing.)
I asked at Guest Services about a room change and they said that they didn’t think so but that they would get back to me in the app once everyone was on board (okaaaay). We went up to Cabanas and enjoyed an embarkation lunch. The way Cabanas was set up was that they had two stations on each side (so four total) with the same items at each station. The pickings were definitely less than we were used to, but not a problem and I found things I could eat. The main problem was that even with four stations, it was still way too many and the turnover of the items just wasn’t high enough to make sure the food was hot and fresh and everything was pretty much cold. This was our experience at Cabanas both breakfast and lunch throughout the cruise.
After this we went to our muster station and checked in with the Crew Member there and then went to see if the room was ready. They told us 3 PM, but they were ready much earlier (it was maybe 2 PM when we went). We had a piece of luggage already too! At 3:45 they sounded the ship’s whistle and we watched the safety drill on the stateroom TV. After that, I contacted Guest Services in the app via chat because I hadn’t heard back and I thought certainly everyone was on board because I think 4 PM was all aboard time. They said that not everyone was on board yet and they would get back to me.
So we went up to deck 9 to find some snacks. After snacking, Emmaline went to see what was going on at Edge and Roger and I returned to the room. Upon returning, the phone rang and it was Guest Services informing me that no other rooms were available. Given that the ship was at half capacity, that seemed odd. But it must have had to do with how the stateroom hosts were assigned or lifeboat distribution/capacity. In the end, it was fine that we didn't upgrade because the wind was pretty insane our whole trip and I wouldn’t have hung out on a verandah anyway.
So we spent some time unpacking before heading down to the French Quarter Lounge (I keep trying to say “Promenade Lounge”) for some origami. It was hard to find a seat as half the tables were blocked off for distancing. Which was silly because they were spaced further apart than the tables in the the dining room and some tables that were closed off were further away than some tables that were open. It didn’t make any sense and every time we attended an activity in French Quarter Lounge, it was an issue. Our flapping cranes complete, it was time for dinner, which was in Animator’s Palate. We had a really nice meal and our servers were fabulous.
After dinner we decided to go to Disney Tunes Trivia, hoping they had changed it up since our last sailing. They hadn’t. It’s the same songs we’ve had the last few years. How hard would that be to switch it up a bit? Sheesh. After that, we returned to the room to finish organizing our belongings, watch some on demand on the stateroom TV and relax a bit. I felt a little tired from the drive and was ready for an early night. We were losing an hour anyway for the time change.
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