4-night Merrytime cruise out of Galveston - Day 5 - Final Thoughts

Disembarkation and Final Thoughts

I don’t have too much to say about our last day on board. We has asked our head server if we could possibly attend second breakfast (if you don’t say that in your hobbit voice, I’ll be a little disappointed) and he said he would squeeze us in. When I woke up, we were still coming into Galveston. Eventually everyone had to get up. We all got ready, packed the last of our things into our backpacks and went to Triton’s at 8:10. The atrium was a complete mess. People were everywhere. Triton’s wasn’t ready and people were waiting for their luggage tag to be called. What a crazy mess! Eventually we were directed to the side door of Triton’s and our head server got us a table with another serving team. They were fabulous and breakfast was hot and tasty. We finished up, said goodbye to our usual serving team and wished them well.

By then the atrium had cleared out and our luggage tag had already been called so we disembarked. We got our suitcases easily and there was no line at customs/immigration and they checked our passports and we went right on through. A shuttle back to the parking place was waiting for us so we hopped in. We had to wait about 10 minutes for them to fill it up, but that wasn’t too bad. We grabbed the car and made the drive back to Austin without incident. Upon arriving home, I ordered a new phone.

All in all, this wasn’t our best Disney cruise but we still had an enjoyable time, overall and I’m glad we got away. Cozumel was, obviously, a disaster, and we did feel like the variety of activities was a little limited. We really felt the loss of some of the more hands-on activities (stuff like the vegetable racing) and the variety entertainers. I forgot to write in my report that at one point we went and listened to a performer who played Sherman Brother’s songs in French Quarter Lounge. I can’t remember what night that was - it was between dinner and the showtime. I’m not sure if he was a third party contract entertainer or a Crew Member. He played piano in Tiana’s with that band as well so possibly the latter. He was quite good and we enjoyed his performance a lot.

The food was a mixed bag. Cabanas was not great. It’s never amazing, but with everything being cold all the time, it was really pretty awful. The crew was fabulous and very happy to be there. It sounds like their time away was tough. Our server said that he went home and worked on his family’s farm, but said that with some disdain. He said, while it was nice to be with his wife and daughter, he did not enjoy the work. The main dining rooms were good, though the menus could use a little updating, honestly. It would have been nice if they could have used the time away to do some reimagining there. I guess since we sail a lot we’re sort of ready for something new. Of course, then people would complain if their favorites were taken away.

In terms of safety, the masks were fine and most people adhered to the mask wearing. We felt relatively safe and we were glad for the reduced number of people on board. It didn’t feel empty or anything so those worried about that aspect, need not be concerned. I did have several moments of “what in the world are we doing, this is nuts!” We came away unscathed (It’s been a week so I would imagine we would know something by now) and I haven’t heard anyone on our cruise meet group on social media indicate anyone was sick.

Will we sail out of Galveston again? Probably not. It was close and that was nice, but we had to go so fast to get to Cozumel and the gulf was rough. The ship had a lot of motion and the wind was intense. The weather was mostly cold and we had rain multiple times. The interior of the ship was also colder than usual and it was super uncomfortable. The other itineraries out of Galveston are equally boring so we’ll probably stick with the more unique sailings. That said, our next cruise is on the Wish to Nassau and Castaway Cay! Well, that one’s not about the itinerary, it’s about the ship! After that, we return the Southern Caribbean on the Fantasy. Fingers crossed!