Galveston Pleasure Pier the night before our cruise

I’m quite literally on my way since I’m typing this on my iPad, on a United flight heading to Houston. I’m blogging off line though because United wanted $9.99 for two hours of WiFi, which I refuse to pay. I’d pay $2 an hour or even $2.99 an hour (as I’ve been able to do on some flights) but $5 an hour? Nope, I’ll pass on the WiFi and type off-line and read on my lovely, lightweight Kindle Paperwhite instead. Blog shall be posted from hotel WiFi.

I am heading to Galveston, Texas (with Mr. Travelholic and theater friends) where tomorrow morning we’ll board the Carnival Breeze for an 8 night cruise to the Western Caribbean!  Technically we could have tried to fly in early tomorrow morning and boarded the boat in the late afternoon, but we didn’t want the stress of possibly missing the boat if there was a plane delay or cancellation. Or massive traffic. Or a meteor strike.  

I have never cruised out of Galveston, Texas before but the port has many appealing aspects.  The location is ideal for cruisers coming from the West Coast.  We (6 theater friends) have cruised out of Long Beach before, which basically means Mexican Riviera. Been there, done that.  San Francisco and ports North generally means colder waters (think Alaska; we were thinking sun and beaches)  and if possible we wanted to avoid the longer, generally two-plane flights out to Florida and the East Coast. So, Galveston won…one direct quick 3-hour flight from Sacramento.  Then, there was the cruise itinerary.  Western Carribbean was extremely appealing…although several of us have been to Cozumel before, no one on the trip has been to Belize and Honduras.   Finally we chose Carnival because of the value (my past Guest offer was just under $700 per person for a Balcony cabin) and the fun we had on Carnival last time we cruised.

We are renting a car in Houston and driving down to Galveston where we’ll stay at the Four Points, Sheraton.  The hotel was chosen because one of my friends is in their frequent guest program (which friend, ironically, isn’t staying at the hotel) and the convenience (1 mile from terminal and cheap parking during cruise).  For me in any event, pre-cruise hotels are always a blur since you stay in them for less than 24 hours (about 13 hours for this trip) and you are focused on the cruise.

I’ll let you know how our pre-trip plan works out, and what I think of the Galveston Port after we are on the boat!