I had every intention of having my first blog post completed and ready for your viewing pleasure, but was having some technical difficulties all day yesterday and this morning.  I don’t know what the problem was, but it seems to be resolved now and I’m happy to begin sharing pictures and details about our 7-Night cruise adventure.

Let me begin by saying, our cruise was nice.  I can’t say it was fantastic, although there were certainly some fantastic moments.  Hubby and I did spend the week comparing our cruise from last year, to this year and I’ll share some of those thoughts with you along the way.

We had driven from our home in the DFW area to Houston where we picked up a friend and her daughter who were joining us on the cruise.  After a night in a hotel, we drove into Galveston and parked at Discount Cruise Parking.

It was very reasonably priced for the week and the staff were very friendly and helpful.  They helped unload our luggage onto a cart while we waited for the shuttle to arrive.

We only waited a few minutes for the shuttle to arrive and it was a short drive from there to our cruise port.

And there she is . . . . . Liberty of the Seas!!

It was a little cooler than I would have liked and although you can’t see it here, it did get a bit cloudy by sail time.  Overall, I would say it was a pretty good day weather-wise.

A friend and her daughter joined us on this cruise.  I was so happy and excited they were able to take a vacation with us.  They are still in Illinois and with us now in Texas, we don’t get to see each other very often.  Now we had the chance to spend a week together sailing the ocean blue.  But first we had to board the ship.

Our first stop at port was security.  We were hoping for a much better experience from last year in Ft. Lauderdale, where there was virtually no organization and everyone was unsuccessfully trying to figure out where the lines were.  Instead, we all followed the people in front of us,  but with so many different lines of people, everyone was jockeying for position.  It was not fun at all.  In Galveston, everything was very well-organized and we moved along smoothly and pretty quickly considering there hundreds of people in front of us.  In all, it took maybe 30 minutes.

After security, we moved on to check-in where we had to present our passports (I.D.) and get our Sea Pass cards.  The Sea Pass cards become our identification, room key and credit card while on board.  It is also mandatory that security scans all Sea Pass cards when getting off and back on the ship at each port of call.  No need to carry anything but the Sea Pass card while on the ship.  It’s really quite nice.

By noon, we were on board and in the Windjammer for lunch.  The Windjammer is Royal Caribbean’s buffet dining.  Like all the other cruises, it was packed full of hungry and excited cruisers, so finding a place to sit was a bit challenging.  Thankfully, we found a group who was just getting ready to leave, so hubby and one of the staff stalked the table for us while we headed off to fill our plates.

We were just finishing lunch when they announced that all staterooms were ready, so we headed out to find our rooms.

Ours was on Deck 10 and in a really good location.  Just a short walk down the hallway and one flight of stairs up to the Windjammer and the pool deck.  It was only two flights of stairs up to Adventure Ocean, which was our next stop.

Adventure Ocean, which we commonly refer to as the “Kid’s Club” is Royal Caribbean’s program for kids.  It is broken down by age group, however, since we tend to sail during the school year (thanks to homeschooling), they typically combine the 6 – 8 yr olds with the 9 – 11 yr olds.  They work hard to make it a fun-filled place for kids to enjoy their own cruise experience, away from their parents and the girls were looking forward to spending some time in Adventure Ocean.

After filling out the necessary paperwork for Adventure Ocean, we went to check out the pool area and wait for the ship to sail.

Liberty of the Seas is an older ship that recently went thru renovations.  Part of those renovations were adding in water slides and a splash park for the kids.

We were really impressed and looking forward to spending many hours over the upcoming week enjoying our time in and around the pool.

Before we knew it, we were leaving port and heading out to sea.

The girls didn’t spend much time watching us sail off before they were ready to start the real fun of their cruise.

 

By 6:00, we were dried off, dressed and heading to the Main Dining Room for dinner.  Last year, hubby and I weren’t pleased with our dining room experience.  Primarily, we weren’t impressed with our server, but it didn’t take us long to realize that this time around we would be enjoying a scrumptious dinner in the dining room every evening.

The girls were anxious to go to Adventure Ocean, so we dropped them off after dinner and enjoyed a little kid-free time on the ship before we all turned in for the night.

Our cruise day was done, we were tired, happy and looking forward to a good night’s sleep before our first full day at sea.