May 20, 2023 – Dayspring Disciples

I had planned this cruise to go out of Galveston because we had hoped to couple a shorter cruise with some TX road tripping. As it is, we will not be doing that post-cruise. There are a few activities going on with our homeschool co-op that Tabitha and I would like to attend, so we essentially drove two days for a five day cruise, and then will drive two days back home.

Breakfast was as good as yesterday’s.

We had to stop for a hole punch, bc I had noticed this morning that mine was missing from my cruise bag. We use it to punch a hole in our cruise card so we could put it on our lanyard.

I sincerely enjoyed the drive down the Bolivar Peninsula on the eastern coast of TX on our way to Galveston. It is a beautiful area, and yet you can see how it would have been devastated by Hurricane Harvey. So much of the area is newly built up. We had to take a Ferry to Galveston Island.

As soon as we exited the Ferry we could see our ship just a few miles away.

The parking was a bit hectic compared to most of our other cruise experiences, but everyone had an awesome attitude and we hoofed it to the port authority.

It wasn’t long before we were almost to the gangway.

And next thing you know, we were at the buffet followed by a trip to the ice cream.

We looked around the ship a bit.

And when we made it to our room I just about died. This was absolutely a terrible error on my part. The room did NOT have a couch/bunk bed set up. This tiny space was for four of us. (Nigel, Marie, and Tab had a similar set up, but with twin beds.)

I panicked for a moment, and then realized there was nothing we could do but suck it up.

We all went our different ways. Johanna, Katriel and I went for sodas.

And to look around the sports court.

We ran into John and hung on the deck for a while.

Some opted to try water attractions.

And we went to the art gallery.

Prior to dinner, we went back to our stateroom to get dressed up. This is how the room would remain for the rest of the voyage.

It was cramped, but we did what we could to maximize space.

The main dining room was gorgeous – I took photos another night.

Crab cake

Escargot

Artichoke dip

Pan-roasted fish filet

Prime rib

Stuffed portobello

Fried chicken

NY Strip

ahem

Key lime

Boston creme pie

Royal cheese cake

Dinner BEGAN at 8PM and was done around 9:40PM. We were all tired, and we headed back to our rooms for the night.

And the view from my bottom bunk.

Nigel, Marie, and Tab had one room, and John, Johanna, Katriel, and I had another. We were all up early and headed down for our breakfast.

We were on track for packing up and getting out and it didn’t take long to get moving.

Believe it or not, there was only ONE Buc-ee’s on our route, so we made sure not to miss it.

The overall drive from Greenville to Galveston is about 15 hours. I broke our days up into nicely sized chunks to let us do some sight seeing mid-day. Today’s overall driving was for 10 hours, but we were driving west and therefore gained an hour.

We stopped at The Cheese Cottage for lunch in Mobile, AL.

Because neither of us are big eaters, Katriel and I split a turkey and cheese club. Everyone else had the same sandwich, but a full one.

It was a cute little stop and a beautiful day.

We wanted a little something to do mid-day and I had read about Fort Conde in Mobile.

Access to the Fort included the Museum of Mobile, which we had not anticipated.

It was something to do, and it was amazing to read about the centuries of natural disasters that have plagued that region.

We saw the Port of Mobile where the Carnival cruise ships dock. It was right across the street from the fort (which is a recreation).

This fort is build right above the expressway!

No sooner did we get back to our van and start on our way than the sky opened up and it started to pour. AND – our wiper was dilapidated. We stopped by the FANCIEST Walmart I’ve ever seen, and John replaced the wiper and on we went.