Year 2 Day 357 – “Living the Dream”. Friday, 4/21/2023. Day 7 (Galveston, Texas) of 21-night Radiance of the Seas Galveston TX to Los Angeles, CA. Last night and in the early morning we saw many oil platforms lit up around us.
Today we are back in the Port of Galveston departing our six-night cruise and embarking our 15-night cruise to Los Angeles. The lightning is wicked at 6am as we sit in the Windjammer eating breakfast. The temperature is in the high 60’s. We have had an issue with morning coffee in the Windjammer this cruise. Please don’t f×××× with my coffee. It was cold one day, had grounds in it one day, and today a glob of food inside Steve’s cup after he drank the coffee. OMG, that is my only real complaint about the ship so far. The cowboy hats are back on a lot of passengers. I really love cowboy hats.
There are 90 passengers staying on for the next cruise. We are meeting in the dining room at 9am. Immigration will either come on board or we will be walked off through immigrations and back on. We are switching rooms so we packed our luggage, and the room attendant will move it to our new room. The clothes hanging in the closet can stay hanging. He will move them also. I walked down the hall to get a quick view of some other rooms. Here’s a room with a pull out of the ceiling bunk.
We are going to either uber or walk to Walgreens while we are in Port. We have to be back on the ship at the latest 2:30pm. We will be provided an in-transit slip so we can bypass everyone else getting on board. Immigration came on board at 9:30 and they looked at everyone’s documentation that were doing back to backs. We then checked out of the ship and walked out on deck 5. After everyone checked out, we all checked back in with our new room keys.
By 9:45am we were back in the ship walking around. The ship is very quiet between cruises. All passengers have disembarked from the six-night cruise and the new passengers have not embarked for the 15-night Panama Canal cruise. I love this time on a cruise ship. It is cool to walk around now.
At 10am we left the ship and walked two miles to the closest Walgreens. The walk took us through the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine campus. The school and assorted hospitals and nursing school looked really nice.
We took an uber back for $7.77 plus a tip to go 1.94 miles and we were in the dining room eating the back-to-back lunch at 11:30am. While eating lunch we watched them refuel the ship.
The Port of Galveston is an 840-acre port situated at the entrance to Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. This port has been a thriving maritime commercial center since 1825. It is 45 minutes from open seas.
This is the fourth most popular U.S. cruise port and only home port in Texas.
At 4pm we sat on our new Balcony on deck ten while Dolphins played alongside the ship. The Pilot boat was cruising right along besides us as we sailed away.
Our new balcony room is a starboard forward cabin, and we are close to the bridge.
This is a much nicer cabin (1510) than our last one (8664). We passed the Galveston – Port Bolivar Ferry pier. The Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry takes travelers on SH 87 between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. The service is free. There is at least one vessel in operation 24 hours per day.
Today’s product recommendations are for traveling by car. 1) We always carry this Igloo Playmate cooler in our back seat. She is always belted in. We carry water, lunch and snacks. We never go anywhere without it. https://amzn.to/41rWJNa 2) A first aid kit is also a necessity when you could be on the road far from a town. This is a great one. https://amzn.to/3Uyo2Ty 3) We also keep wet ones in all our vehicles. Using rest areas or eating snacks require the use of good antibacterial wipes. https://amzn.to/3UCWhJS 4) I also always keep these toilet seat paper covers in our vehicles. I hate those interstate rest area seats. Men have it so easy. Not us ladies we have to sit on those seats. Sometimes they are really wet from other people’s bodily fluids. How gross is that. These work great. Keep them in your vehicle or purse. https://amzn.to/41qjz7J
To see more about Radiance of the Seas, click here: Radiance of the Seas – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count
To view the complete daily diary, click here: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count