5 Days on a Luxury Cruise: Voyager of the Seas
This week, I go on a big boat, marvel at the elaborate way they change light bulbs in Mexico, and dress like a penguin as we take our first ever trip on a cruise. Welcome to Galveston in Texas where there isn't an airport, or, well, there is an airport, but we're not going on a plane today 'cause we're going on a big boat. I don't do boats. Let's see how this goes.
Now, none of us have ever been on a cruise in our life, so we have absolutely no idea what to expect. The first surprise was the scale of Royal Caribbean's Cruise Terminal at Galveston. It's just like an airport. Before we got inside there were member of staff that took our luggage of us. They take it at the curbside and it gets delivered to your room later in the day. Yeah, it's got maybe its own tag.
Not yet. Pretty soon though, we were good to go and we entered the massive terminal building in Galveston. Going on a cruise, going on a cruise, going on a cruise, Going on a cruise with the water slide. Once you get upstairs, it's quite straightforward. There's a bit of a passport check, and then you're sent to get on onboard the boat.
All Aboard The Cruise Line Of Water Slides
Once that was done, you're supposed to wait for your boarding time to be called, but in the end, they just waved us straight onto the ship, which was pretty cool. All aboard. You excited. Yep, all aboard the cruise line of water slides. That's all there is to this boat, dad. It's just made of water slides. I've heard you go down a water slide to get your breakfast.
And you go down another one to go back up to your room. How. With a Big Mac in your hand, your McMuffin. What, you're just like upside down. It's like the advert that used to be on TV where the guy goes home from work on a massive water slide. Hi there. Good morning. So we've got four. Who's Noel. That's me. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome in, guys. Thank you. Welcome in.
All right, time to get on board the boat. Sam, you excited. Yep. Six days on a boat. A big one. In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. In the Gulf of Mexico. Yep. Let's go. Right, so we're all on board the ship Yay. You excited. Yeah, I am actually. it's worth pointing out that none of us have ever been on a boat like this before. Neither of us particular do boats. Do we.
My First Time On A Cruise
No, I might not be very well. It's gonna be smooth. Like, you can't even feel when we're at the harbor thing now, aren't we. The harbor thing. Yeah, but it's not even moving at the minute. Sorry, I'm getting distracted with the dolphins. There's dolphins outside. We're literally in Galveston port, and there's dolphins jumping around the boat. So yeah, we've come here because we can't get into the rooms for another couple of hours yet.
So we've come to this buffet thing, and we're gonna have some lunch, and then wait here a bit and chill out, and then I think the boat won't go for another few hours, but we're sort of all on board waiting to just enjoy ourselves, aren't we? Have a nice time. Yep, absolutely. So I know this is your first time on a cruise. It's my first time on a cruise. You've been quite nervous, haven't you?
What are your first thoughts. This place is enormous. It's big, isn't it? it's bigger than I thought. Yeah. I just hope the scooter battery's gonna last. I mean, it only does 10 miles. We could probably do that and go around the ship. One block of the ship would do 10 miles. It's massive. Yeah. It's huge.
The Best Rooms To Visit In America
I mean, so far, it feels smooth, but obviously we're still in the harbor so we've just gotta wait and see, but I'm trying to stay open-minded so that, you know, I don't prejudice my experience. But I'm excited to give it a try, and then we'll know either we like it or we don't. Exactly, we'll give it a go. It's only a short one. Say hi, kids. Hi. Say hi to the camera. Hi to the camera.
I see you backers. They've lived in America too long, haven't they? All right, it's 1:30. It's time to head down to our rooms, so we're gonna go down and have a look at what the room's like. Yeah. Are you enjoying it. Yeah, there's just a lot of people everywhere. It's very busy. All right, it's time to head to our room. You excited. Yay. Yeah. On deck eight. Can I get the key cards please.
Oh wait, 83. Oh, that's 27. Remind us . Right. Sam, move, go. All right, so we've got two rooms. This is our first room, and then we've got the one next door as well. We've got a balcony out there. We'll have a little bit of room tour in a bit, won't we. Yes.
The Seas - A Cruise From Royal Caribbean
So while we're at the dock in Galveston and before things get too bouncy on the open ocean, let's have a quick walk around the Voyager Of. The Seas. This is owned by Royal Caribbean, and it's taking us on a five day cruise. We're going down the western Caribbean all the way down the coast of Mexico. We're gonna end wind up in Cozumel, and somewhere else on the coast of Mexico as well. Not entirely sure where.
I can't remember what it was, but we're going somewhere in Mexico anyway on this trip. They've just moved the dock thing, the jet bridge things back from the boat. It looks like we should be getting underway soon.
We've been on board a little bit now and you sort of board it first, and then once you're on board, everyone's on board for a little bit for a few hours and eventually we've pushed back from the dock and go. I think it's gonna be about another hour before we actually leave. This is the Royal Caribbean terminal by the way, here in Galveston, Texas. It's massive. I didn't know that boats had terminals like that.
I thought you just sort of went on a gangplank or something. But no, you've got actual terminal building and everything just like an airport. So this is deck number 13 that we're on at the minute. There is a running track all the way around this deck. So if you wanted to run, you could too, but we got a good view from here out over the pool deck, which is down underneath.
There you see there's swimming pools and everything there. The back of the ship over there, there's like water slides and stuff so we're gonna check those out and stuff. There's bars up here and everything. So much to do. It does not feel like you're on a ship at all. This is crazy. Can you just look how far down this is? You can look all the way down there. That's crazy.
This is also on deck 13. There's like a spa section here. I might send Rach here later. So deck 13, there's a basketball court just here. There's like a water park and everything up here too, so the kids are gonna love this. Look at these flumes here though. These water slides for the kids to go down in a bit. They go right off the edge to the ship as well.
I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with that. I'd like to try and stay on the ship, but they're pretty cool, aren't they? They go right over there you can slide all the way down. Wicked. So you've got crazy golf up here as well. You can do crazy golf. There's like a surfing thing here that you can do. How cool is that?
And then you've got the waterpark just over there so you can go down the water slides and stuff too. It's so cool. This all the boom. What the heck? Also on this deck is a rock climbing wall, and it's not for the faint of heart because it goes right up the ship's chimney. Imagine climbing up that thing in a really bad storm in the open ocean. I don't think so.
Okay, so this is deck 11. It's the Wind Jammer buffet there. That's where we went to have some lunch earlier on while we were waiting, and it's open for dinner as well I think. But that's not where we, our reservation's kind of somewhere else. Okay, so this is deck eight.
This is where our room is, but from here we had a great view down over the center of the ship, and there's like all shops and restaurants and stuff down there. So we're gonna go and have a wander around there as well. It's pretty cool, isn't it? So this is the main dining room.
This is where we have to come later for our dinner, but it also gives us access to all the shops on the main promenade so that's gonna have what we've got here. The promenade's got loads of shops and restaurants, and it seems to be the busiest part of the ship. It really doesn't feel like you're on a boat at all though. This place is just immense.
At the other end of the promenade is the royal theater and the casino, as well as this place here, Studio B. So this is Studio B, and this is where they do ice skating and stuff. So this is Studio B. This is where they do ice skating. So the kids can go ice skating, we can go ice skating, but they do like shows and stuff here as well, and do the displays.
So actual ice skating rink on a boat Crazy. This boat is absolutely massive. I've never seen anything like it. The biggest boat I've been on is a cross channel ferry from Dover to Cali. This thing is just immense, and it just doesn't feel like you're on the water. It's like you're in a hotel like, in a massive like, Las Vegas casino hotel or something like that. It's absolutely insane.
So with the big boat tour done, it's time to have a look around the room. All right, so I've managed to get back to the room. I'm sharing with Sam. Say hi, Sam. Hi, Sam. Knew you were gonna say that. And then Rachel's next door, she's sharing with Anna 'cause we don't feel like leaving the kids alone in their room together.
But they have only given us double beds so we're waiting for them to come and swap the bed, or at least separate them into two singles. But this is our bedroom, this is a ocean view room spacious open view room it's called. We've got a little sofa there. The Sam is optional, it doesn't come with it.
Telephone little unit there, we've got the bed, and that's actually split into two separate beds, and then out of here a balcony. So we can come out here and see the sea, and the wonderful views of Galveston, Texas. Are we moving yet? No, we're not moving yet. But that's our little balcony area just here, which is quite nice. Nice to sit and have a coffee there in the morning I think.
Over here we've got a TV. Sam's watching the live view from the bridge at the minute. There's a helipad on the front looks, Sam. Yeah. We've got like a safe and things in here. Little storage cupboard. There's a mini bar but it's empty, I think. Sam, you've emptied the mini bar, mate. That's no good, dude. You've emptied the mini bar. We haven't even left port yet. Who would do that?
We've got like power outlets and stuff here. Controller for the temperature here to make it cooler and warmer, and we've got some more what's in here? Just a big closet, the life rafts, and things in there. The bathroom, and it's a bit like a caravan toilet. We've got like a shower here with like a clothes dry and rack and things above it. There's a toilet, a sink, a couple of glasses there, and that's it.
It's quite nice, quite smart really. Quite a smart room, and I'm loving the fact that we've got that balcony, which is quite nice, isn't it? Off the side of the ship so we can sit and have a morning coffee, and read the newspaper like you do when you're riding on a posh boat like this. We'll be like, what was that film about the boat?-"Titanic". "Titanic", it'll be like the "Titanic".
So there with our monocles reading our newspapers. Anyway, we're gonna be pushing back from the gate soon to get on our way for our ride to. You said pushing back from the gate. Yeah, that's what it is. It's the thing on the boat that's. You were drunk last time so you can't remember what it's called. I'm the king of the world! That's very true, Sam.
Last time I rode on a boat, I had a few drinks, but I've not had any drinks today because they're $15 each, and I'm not paying that. As we waited at the dock, the carnival boat sailed past, and it seemed a little bit more lively than the one that we were on.
But pretty soon, it was our turn to go, and we pushed back from the docks, spun around, and got on our way out into the Gulf of Mexico. Oh, we're moving, Sam. Sam, look, look up from your phone. Yeah, I know. We're moving. We're moving. We're underway. We're underway.
Are you enjoying it so far, Rach. Yeah, when we left port I could definitely feel it, but it's not that bad. I just kinda feel like I'm a bit drunk, and I've not had any alcohol. No, every now and then it just rumbles a bit, doesn't it? It's like when you work in one of them cheap office buildings, and somebody walks across the floor and you feel the floor bounce. That's like in my school.
Like, on the second floor people walk past and the floor shakes. Exactly, and you feel that. Anyway, they have like theme nights here, and it's white night tonight like the washing machine. So we're all dressed as washing machines. I'm wearing white, Ann is wearing purple, you're wearing green. I'm wearing off white. And Sam's just in cash. We don't care, anything goes.
So we're gonna enjoy our dinner on the first night, and you come into this like main dining place. Yes. Which is where we are. So we've got a reservation every night at this table. Every night it's ours. 5:30, so we're gonna have our dinner, and see what it's like. The next morning, we woke up in the middle of the ocean. Good morning, it is day two onboard the Voyager of the Sea.
A beautiful day out here in the middle, somewhere in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and we all slept pretty good. Rach is struggling a little bit. It's pretty calm for me. I can barely feel the boat moving, which is crazy. It feels slightly we're just gliding even though the waves are quite big down there, but Rach is struggling a little bit.
I think her sense of balance is a little bit different to mine 'cause she's been feeling a little bit queasy so she's had to go back to bed for now, unfortunately. But fingers crossed, you'll be all right this afternoon 'cause we've got a spa session booked for this afternoon. So that's gonna be good. We are gonna go off, me and the kids we're gonna go off to have some fun this afternoon.
They've been on the water slides all morning, which has been pretty cool, and now we're gonna go and watch the International Belly Flop competition. I'm not gonna be taking part because I have no desire to end up injured for the rest of the holiday, but we're gonna go and watch that now, and just have a bit of fun this afternoon.
We've got a day at sea all day today so we'll see what we can get up to. I have to admit, the belly flop competition was pretty entertaining as we watched several slightly overweight Americans throw themselves into a swimming pool. Once the entertainment was over, we headed down to Studio B to take the kids ice skating. Excited to be ice skating. Yes. Yes what? Yes. Queen. Yes, queen. Excited for ice skating, Sam. No.
Are you gonna fall on your bum. Yes, I will. Cool. This will be recording all the time. Yes. Okay. The Voyager of the Seas was the first ship in the world to feature an ice skating rink. Aside from skating, they do ice skating shows as well. Skates tied up properly. We could go and watch one, but sadly filming is not allowed at those so the most graceful displays we could film with the kids.
All right then, so dinner tonight is formal night, which means we have to wear silly outfits. Yay. I haven't worn a suit since my last job interview, Sam. That was a long time ago, but you're looking good though. Yeah. Let's go see what the ladies look like. Hello. Hello. Hi. How are you. I'm okay. How are you, Anna. Are you taking your cups so that we can get some more juice on the way back.
Yeah, good idea. Yeah, bring you cups. Bring you cups, Sam. Four more nights when everyone gets to dress up in their best. To mark the occasion, I decided to start my dinner with something I've never tried before. Escargots or snails. Anna's eating snails for the first time ever, as will I in a minute. Let's see what Anna thinks.come on, Anna. What does it taste of. Snails. Have you ever eaten a snail before?
How'd you know what it tastes like? That's what you imagine they taste like. Try some. Yeah. No, you can't pick them out the garden and eat them. So go then, Noel. Tell us what the snails are like. Ooh. They don't taste slimy, do they? It tastes like mushrooms almost. Quite nice. Ooh, they're lovely. Try one, Rach. No, thanks. The next morning, we woke up, and it appeared land was ahoy. Hey, bozo. Well, good morning.
Today is day three, and it's an exciting day today because today we arrive into Mexico, and we can actually see Mexico over on the horizon there. We've been cruising down the coast all night. We made landfall just near to Cancun at about two o'clock this morning, and I know that because I got a load of phone messages saying that we'd arrived in Mexico, and I was getting all my text messages through.
We must have been close enough to start getting internet data because we've been disconnected since we left Galveston. You can buy wifi on the ship, but it's ridiculously expensive. So I'm using this as an opportunity to actually disconnect for a few days, which is amazing.
But we did obviously get a phone signal at some point 'cause I've got loads of messages come through, but now we don't again, but we're off the coast about 10 miles off the coast of Mexico in the minute. We're due to be arriving soon into Costa Maya in Mexico, which is sort of down the coast from Cancun. It's sort of down that way a bit.
But we can see Mexico over there, and very soon, we'll be landing into the port in Costa Maya. All right then, we're about to arrive in Porto de Mayo. Mayo. Mayo. Porto de Mayo. There's a pilot boat just down there. A man's just got off the boat, and he's driving this one into port. We should be arriving in the Costa Maya very soon, and we've got internet. Whoo. Yay.
Admittedly, it didn't look like there was a lot here at Costa Maya. Just a jetty to let us get on and off. But thankfully, they planted these helpful sombreros in the harbor so we knew we'd arrived in Mexico. All right, welcome to Mexico. Costa Maya. We're gonna go and do some shopping in the port. Everyone on the ships buggered off to go and do some excursions.
We're gonna have a quick walk around the port, have a bite to eat, and then come back to the boat. It's nice and quiet 'cause everybody's got off. So that's what our plan, isn't it. Yeah. The port at Costa Maya is essentially a tourist trap in the middle of the jungle. There's a bit of a shopping center selling knockoff jewelry at ripoff prices, and lots of, quote, authentic Mexican experiences to part you with your money.
I did admire the ingenuity of these guys who managed to turn changing a light bulb into a theatrical event. After spending $15 on a bottle of Axe in the farmacia, we decided to head back to the boat for some piece and quiet. We headed to the deserted pool deck for the afternoon showing of "Top Gun Maverick", which was pretty cool.
As the sun started to set, we pushed back to get on our way to the next stop in our route that we'd reach by morning. Here we go. Say bye-bye to Costa Maya. I wish I was a Costa maya wiener. One thing I did enjoy was the comradery between the cruise ships.
Every time a ship sets sail from a dock, the passengers on both boats all wave and shout at each other, which was pretty cool and quite funny. We went to bed and when we woke up, we were just pulling into the port at Cozumel. Good morning from Cozumel in Mexico. We arrived in here about six o'clock this morning just as we were waking up.
We felt a bit of a shudder, and we were pulling onto the dock here in Cozumel, Mexico, where we are now the whole day. There's all sorts of bars and things down there. Margaritaville, Tequila Agogo. I get the impression that this is a somewhere you come when you want to have a bit of party time.
We're actually gonna stay on the boat I think today because while everyone's off exploring Cozumel, we're gonna stay here on the boat and have it to ourselves again 'cause that seemed to work quite well yesterday. They're doing some sort of drill at the minute as well, which is a bit unnerving.
They've just called like, Bravo, Bravo codes, and things, and effectively they're doing, the captain came on and said they're doing some sort of emergency drill for the crew. So interesting to listen to the announcements and stuff that they're making for that. That's the abandoned ship emergency warning. It's people abandoning ship down there. So they can go and abandon the ship into Margaritaville. At least we're conveniently located for bars, I suppose, if anything did happen.
And so as first time cruisers ourselves, and with most of the boat off spending their money in Cozumel, it's time for a new segment that I call Noel's Tips for Intrepid Trainee Sailors. Tip number one, this boat is absolutely lovely, but it is also really, really busy. There's over 3,000 people on this boat at any given time except for days like today. You see, today is a port day.
We're here in Cozumel, Mexico, and most people on the boat have gone off to explore the bars and restaurants of Cozumel, have a few tequilas, and sit on the beach.
So one of the biggest tricks that we've learnt since we've been on board this ship is to use the days where people are out doing the shore excursions, all the days where we're docked into a port to stay on the ship because you've pretty much got the ship to yourselves, which means all of a sudden, there's not 3,000 people on this boat all fighting for the same sunbeds. There's like a few hundred at most.
Everybody else is off there getting drunk in Margaritaville, while we're on the boat enjoying a relaxing day in the Mexican sunshine. Tip number two, there are many options to eat on the ship, and most of them are included in your fare. So make sure you enjoy different dining options to figure out which one you like the most. You can come here to the Wind Jammer, which is the buffet that they've got going on. Buffet.
Jimmy Buffet. Buffet. Jimmy Buffet that we've got going on here upstairs. Yes, it's very nice. So the back of the boat, it's usually absolutely cram packed full. So it's like a meat market. They're open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
We tend to avoid it for dinner if we come because it's absolutely rump, but they do have a really cool selection of food when you eventually get to it through all the queues, but today it's a port day so everybody's off the boat, and it's nice and quiet. Yes, it is. We could come here, which has been I think, our favorite place since we've been here actually. It absolutely has.
Stunning food, fabulous waitstaff, and just a really good atmosphere. You can see everyone getting dressed up and joining in. Yeah, this is the main dining that they have. It's on three floors here, across three floors here on the Voyager. And you basically you have a reservation, which you do on the first night when you get here. You get the same table every night, the same staff, same time, everything, and we've got this table every night.
We're getting to know the waitstaff really well. They're all amazing, aren't they? Really good. They are, they're so friendly and helpful-And we get a different menu every night. Tonight it's a Taste of Mexico. Dinner menu changes every night. They do breakfast and lunch here as well if you really want it, but we've just been having dinner here every night. We had breakfast here once.
The menu wasn't quite as extensive as on the buffet for breakfast, but it was nice not to fight everybody, and being able to actually sit down at a table and get table service, wasn't it. It was, it was, but it wasn't the same experience as being able to try different things and having that freedom. Right, exactly, but it's nice though and everybody gets dressed up, and it's really, really, really nice. We like this place.
This is the Promenade Cafe on the promenade deck where they do like pizza and sandwiches and stuff. It's like a little cafe. I'm not gonna rush to come back. Usually they're queuing out the door, and I wanted to know why, and today with it being a port day and it's relatively quiet, I still don't quite understand why they're usually queuing out the door. It's not brilliant.
I prefer the buffet, I have to say, even though it's busy. Tip number three, plan your drinks packages properly. When it comes to drinks on board, you've got a few different options. We've gone for a drinks package. We weren't actually gonna do that, were we. We weren't. Originally. Because it's so ridiculously expensive, but then you realize the drinks on board are even more ridiculously expensive.
We've gone for a soda package, so we basically get unlimited soda, Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, you name it, you get it throughout the day. They do an alcohol package, which didn't seem worth it to us 'cause it's like a hundred dollars each per day, and. We don't drink anywhere near that much. Well, you'd have to drink like 10 drinks a day minimum to make that worthwhile because they're like. I'd be pickled. I would as well.
They're like 10, $15 a drink. So unless you're drinking 10 drinks a day, the alcohol one we've not really found worthwhile, but this is worthwhile. You can also do a water package. You can, and that's a bit of a Swiss as well. Really expensive. If we'd have thought about it, we could have brought so many bottles of water, or soda, or things like that on board with us, and that probably would've helped.
So top tip, actually read through the pack that they send you, and check out what you can and can't bring. Yes, and bring what you can because you are gonna get ripped off when you onboard this boat. One thing that was free of charge though was the entertainment of watching the peer runners leg it to the ship as the ship was about to leave.
And after a day of drinking tequilas in Margaritaville, well today, there were many. What can I do? They're drunk. There we go. Running. Yay. Eventually, about 30 minutes late, everyone was on board, and we pushed off to say goodbye to Mexico. The following morning, we woke up to some stormy seas. Well, good morning. It's now day five, I think. It's Wednesday.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, yeah, we are halfway across the Gulf of Mexico, and the weather has closed in today. We've got a sea day today, which means we are at sea the entire day. There's no port stops. We are in the middle of a thunderstorm that's really brewing out here at sea. There's a hurricane on its way in apparently coming across Mexico.
We are after all in October right now, which is at the tail end of the hurricane season, and you can see it's pretty choppy out there. But even though the seas have massive waves, and it's windy, and rainy, and there's thunder and lightning and everything going on, you barely feel it on this ship. It's really, it's crazy.
My only experience of boats, big boats like this, is going across the channel on like, cross channel ferries and things where you feel all the bumps. This is just ridiculously smooth. We're just plowing on through. Looking at the weather outside, it is crazy. I never thought it would be this smooth.
You do feel it a little bit from time to time, and every now and then it feels like you're going through some turbulence on a plane. It's just like a bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, but it's surprisingly smooth. We've got sort of eight to 12 foot waves, I think they said outside today, and we're just cruising on through.
As the day went on though, the weather got worse so we made our way down to the lowest point of the ship, which just so happened to contain a bar. All right, it's our last night of the cruise. Homeward bound. Homeward bound, our first ever cruise. Oh, that's nice actually. First actual alcoholic drink we had since we've been on onboard 'cause we're not wanting to pay the prices.
But anyway, it's the last night of our first ever cruise. What did you think. There's definitely been some high points and some low points. What's your favorite thing about the cruise. The fact that we've been able to spend time together. Yeah, that's been nice, hasn't it. Detoxing from gadgets. Yeah, that's pretty good. For the most part. For the most part. What's been your least favorite thing then. The waves. Okay.
And the prices 'cause, you know, you're a captive audience. True. So what thing has surprised you the most about cruises. That the kids, to the most part, have been able to handle it. That they've been areas that they can go to to get peace and quiet if they wanted to. You know, they're relatively safe as long as they stay away from the sides. Yeah, that's true. What you enjoyed.
I think my favorite thing about the cruise has been just being able to unwind and not having any connectivity. That's been really nice. Just to be able to just sit, and chill, and just relax. And your low point. I think the least favorite point is the people and the crowds 'cause you're sort of all in one place with thousands of other people. Queuing up for everything, pushing you out of the way.
It's a little bit intense. But there've been places we can go that's quiet to get away from all that as well. Yeah, so what's been the thing that's surprised you. I think for me, the thing that surprised me the most is how smooth this boat has been for the most part. No, it's not. I mean, okay, we're on rough seas at the minute.
We've been on rough seas for good chunks of it, and you've been sat there going, "Oh, it's smooth, Rach. It is. No, it's not. Like for me, I'm used to cross channel ferries and they just try bounce up and down and like, this has been really nice. I've spent days feeling ill. I dunno, I think it's not been too bad for me.
Okay, the surprising thing is that I've coped with it better than I thought I would because I didn't think I'd cope with it. All right, so dude, what's been your favorite thing about the cruise. Spending time with the family, and the buffet food. And the buffet food. What's been your favorite thing at the buffet. Probably the burgers. The burgers. They're pretty good, aren't they. Yeah. What's been your least favorite thing about the cruise.
Probably the amount of people there are. There's been a lot of people, hasn't there. Yeah. And what surprised you. How nice the cruise is, and how big the ship is. There's a lot to do, isn't there. There's a lot of activities to do. Yeah, that's awesome. And would you go on another cruise. Yes. Absolutely. All right then, time for bed on our last night. It's really, really bad now, this weather.
You know what I said earlier, it was quite smooth? It was, it's not anymore. Even the crew are struggling tonight. We've got gale force winds out here, the sea's getting really, really, really heavy. Lool at that. Wow. It's gonna be a fun night as we rock. Skirt the edges of Hurricane Lydia as it is up to Galveston. By the morning, hopefully, hopefully we'll wake up in the morning and we'll be back in Galveston.
Hopefully, we'll get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning. Good night. Well, good morning. We have arrived back into Galveston, and woken up by a load of beeping outside, and we are here at the port. It's 6:30 in the morning on the last day, and there's a hive of activity outside of this Royal Caribbean terminal here. So I think soon we should be getting off the boat.
So let's gonna try and figure out how they get 3,000 passengers off a boat through those two little jet bridge things that you could see over there. While we waited to get off the ship, I was amazed watching them load all the supplies on for the next cruise. There were literally truckloads of provisions lined up to load onto the ship.
But soon it was our time to disembark, and because we chose to keep our bags overnight, we didn't have to wait for a slot to get off the boat. We did, however, have to join a massive queue of over 3,000 people to wind our way around the boat, and off the ship. Now there isn't really passport control as such when you get off the boat. It's all done based on your photo.
Okay, look up here, darling. Got it. She knows what to do. American citizens don't need to take a passport with them at all when the cruise starts and ends at the same place, but because we're British, we had to take them, and it was all recorded as a reentry into the country. Thank you. Good morning, welcome back. Morning. Which way to the beach. See, this one looks sunny. We're back out. Are you Brad Paisley.
I wish. Wish I had his money anyway. All right, and welcome back to Galveston, Texas. Our first cruise ever is complete. Lemme know what you thought of this video down in the comments, but hopefully, it's been useful to you. If you've not been on a cruise before, hopefully it's been quite helpful.
If you have been on a cruise before, well let us know down in the comments what you thought to it, and whether you'd do it again. For me, I'm not sure. I think we'll do one again at some point. I'm not entirely sure when. Let's just focus on getting home first. We've got about an hour and a half drive across Houston back home. Thanks ever so much for watching. As always, take care, and I'll see you on the next one. Bye for now. Date: 2024-01-28
CallieMasters5000 I live down the street from the port. You really should come down to tour the city and airport (which is big enough to land a 757 although it's all private aviation; it flooded to about 10 feet in Hurricane Ike 2008. This is the new RC cruise terminal, located further east than the terminals for Carnival and Disney ships. The tall buildings right opposite it are the level one trauma center UTMB hospitals, and then the historic Strand street entertainment district (home of Dickens on the Strand in Dec. and Mardi Gras. Galveston offers a port right off the Gulf, rather than spending hours going up the bay to Houston. Your room was facing north towards the nearby rural Pelican Island, home to shipyards and a branch of Texas A&M university, rather than the city side. The beaches, Seawall and Pleasure Pier are on the Gulf side. There's also a Schlitterbahn water park and Moody Gardens, which is the most visited tourist attraction in Houston-Galveston area. We're getting ready for Mardi Gras parades soon, as there are many over a 2 week period followed by lots of pancake eating! I live on the main parade route, so let me know if you want me to save you a free parking spot to catch some beads! Good to see you enjoyed your cruise, but come visit the city too! You can always take a free cruise: the state ferry over to the Bolivar peninsula, and see the same dolphins!
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helenraynor1519 Loved this video and chuckled every time at your aviation speak for the maritime terms! Lolwe’ve done over 40 cruises, 20odd of which on Royal and as someone else said this is one of their smaller ships. Try an Oasis class next, despite more people it will feel roomier and the kids will love it I’m sure. Some hints if you do another. if you can try and book an accessible cabin, they book up quickly so you might not have had that option, seabands for sea sickness they really do work and the worst thing you can do is lay down in your room! Glad you enjoyed it tho, keep up the good work!
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lisakastl1908 I’ve been on quite a few cruises, most out of Galveston, most on Royal. We were on Allure of the Seas last summer. It’s huge, but they have the high diving show, which is very entertaining. We did on-ship excursions that involved eating. Lol. One was a kitchen tour, then unlimited champagne brunch, and the other was a fancy dining experience for lunch that showcased food from all the fine dining restaurants. They were fun, and not too terribly expensive. We love the getaway, unplug, relax aspect of cruising.
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tavita8699 Noel that was a fantastic vlog especially for those wondering should they spend their next vacation aboard a cruise liner Poor Rachel I hope she was not too sick on the last night of the cruise The kids seem to have a great time but snails. Ah no thanks The rooms looked gtreat. The food looked amazing the ship looked sublime. Thanks for such an enjoyable vlog Noel & Family
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michaelb3764 Great video. Cruises Are great. I personally love them. Glad you did your first cruise with family. Next time you can come to Miami do a flight and cruise review, and take some seriously massive ships. I am also going on a 14 night transatlantic cruise on royal from fort Lauderdale called odyssey of the seas to Europe and flying back home with tap business class
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jacksonbritton4436 The pilot doesn't drive to cruise ship into port mate he's only there because she knows the water and he supports the bridge crew that are doing the arrival which normally is the captain as he does 50% off the arrivals and departures and then he split did departures and arrivals with his Bridge crew the pilot doesn't drive to ship
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Thecrazyisstrong First cruise for you and fam! Congratulations and hope you do more cruise vlogs. Book your next cabin midship and on a low deck for less rock and roll. We love to cruise just to relax and disconnect and have been to the same ports in the Bahamas often, so staying on ship while in port is what we do too. So nice without the crowds.
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therustypilot3452 Noel, what you learned on that trip is a 7 day 4 people cruise all in with airfare is 10k plus to herded around for cafeteria food and over priced drinks (i know you did 5 and drove. Figuring that SR20 you rent at 200 an hour, that is 50 hours of rental time. you can go a lot of places and stay on 10k in the SR20 in 50 hours.
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DannyA3579 Royal Caribbean will always hold a special place in my heart. I worked for them from 2010-2016 as a member of their Youth Staff team. Somehow, I never worked on Voyager but I worked on a few of her sister ships, Explorer and Navigator. In total I worked 10 contracts on 11 different ships. Still the best times of my life.
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DannyA3579 You went to some of my favorite ports in Mexico. Cozumel is my absolute favorite but that’s because I have some dear friends there. They own a restaurant about 7-10 minutes from the port and we became friends while I worked for Royal. If you ever go back, please go to Rock N Java for some great food and friendly staff.
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noel_philips I'm surprised (and happy) to see you on a cruise with your family I'm sorry Rachel got sick, but she still managed to make the best of it. The kids certainly seemed to enjoy it. Me and my Besties are going to take a Royal Caribbean cruise down the west coast of Mexico in May. I'm looking forward to it!
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khausere7 Enjoyed the video, but you reinforced the reasons I don't want to go on a cruise like this - the crowds, the drunks, the over-commercialism and ridiculous prices. Even with a ship that large, I would probably get bored and stay in my room more than anything, Glad you had the experience with your family, though.
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mikeorr7567 My family recently went on a 7-night cruise over Thanksgiving on RC (Oasis of the Seas) and we loved it. There are many other family-friendly activities not pictured here Trivia competitions, Name that Tune (themed, and live music were some of our favorites. We’ll be going cruising again for sure.
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goodfella00100 Fair play to you Noel for going on a cruise and documenting it. It's an enjoyable and insightful video into something I wouldn't like to experience myself. To me cruise liners look like floating prisons. I can't describe the claustrophobic feeling I get just from watching cruise ships.
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kaysimpson3326 You should try the boat to Tasmania from Melbourne worst room to have is front of that ship/boat in the middle with bad weather rofl The next worst room to have is the hostel type room when the truck drivers and cheap accommodation is it’s below the water and you hear a lot lol
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chrissavory9959 And that's a small ship by royalcaribbean standards look up the oasis class ships they are huge. Not been on the big oasis ships yet but I am going on that's exact ship next year from Southampton (England) to Norway and back. Hope you had a enjoyable time onboard.
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Jammer2001 I've been on that Carnival ship twice. Compared to RC Carnival is more geared to families. Also, if you enjoyed the skating try it on land would probably easier on real ice and I also noticed that the ship provided figure skates for some reason.
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lucascalma605 The first cruise ship review since 2020 Noel! It's a really a change from the usual airplane reviews since there's not much running around involved and is just a more relaxed pace sailing throughout the seas in this travel video!
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noel_philips We love cruises! We usually go out of Cape Canaveral in FL. Our kids absolutely love them. Loads of food, I love relaxing; kids can stay busy. I usually get a bottle of wine to have at dinner they will keep it for you!
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DannyA3579 I loved Galveston. I don’t know if it’s still there but a few blocks from the port was a Fuddruckers AND a Nestle Toll House Cafe. We experienced dolphins in port too, but we also experienced a lot of fog. reply
