Christmas Vista: Embarkation
Good Morning! I stayed at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Webster last night. I like staying in Webster because there are plenty of food and shopping options in the area, hotel prices are lower than Galveston, and it’s a short drive to the port on embarkation day. This hotel is basically new and it cost me $85 after taxes booking directly through the hotel on a Friday night.
It should be a 30-minute drive to the parking facility. I have an arrival window of 10-10:30am at the port. My plan is to leave here at 9 to get to the parking facility by 9:30 to get to the port by 10.
They do have some hot breakfast options at this hotel. I’m always cautious with the buffets so I’m going safe today. They’re always after me Lucky Charms.
They also have free coffee in the hotel but I have a drink subscription with Circle K called Sip & Save. For $6 a month I get one drink every day. That’s any size coffee, tea, fountain drink or froster. It’s a really good deal. There are two Circle K’s close to this hotel so I’ll stop at one on the way.
Free hotel coffee or Texas Pea can on Sip & Save? Always Texas Pea can.
Now we can head to the port. I’m running 8 minutes behind schedule but Siri tells me I’m only going to arrive 3 minutes behind schedule.
I booked my parking pretty late. Some of the lots were full. I ended up booking with Discount Cruise Parking which is the cheapest lot at $67 for the week. I do know they had some good reviews pre-covid so I always kind of wanted to try them. The downside is they are pretty far from the port so you have to use the shuttle. All of the latest parking prices can be found at Galveston Cruise Parking.
That was pretty easy. They had my name on a clipboard and a guy showed me where to park. Now I’m in the shuttle waiting area at 9:37am.
This is a quick flashback to when I came here during the shutdown and all the cruise lots were empty. It’s the only time I’ve seen these parking lots empty.
Shuttle availability doesn’t seem to be what I had hoped. And more and more people are coming. Everyone is going to be jockeying for position. I hope I don’t get left off the next shuttle.
Apparently I’m a good jockey. They called Vista and I was second getting my luggage on the shuttle.
I heard someone say it was a 45 minute wait. I was here 20 minutes. They are only taking Vista people this trip so anyone who is on Dream is still waiting.
About five people are standing on the shuttle. We’re stacked and packed.
We’re coming up on the port. You can see Dream and Vista.
Traffic was really bad. It took about 20 minutes to get here.
The good thing about Galveston is I know where to drop my bag off without having to wait on a porter.
You just drop it off by your deck number. The guy working here saw my platinum tag and took my suitcase to another area.
It’s 10:30 at this point. I was hoping to be here at 10am.
They have separate lines for diamond, platinum, on-time arrivals, and early arrivals.
I’m in the platinum line. The diamond line is pretty much empty. The on-time line is about twice as long as this one. The early arrivals were taken to another area and I assume as the lines go down, they’ll let some in line.
The couple in front of me has a noon arrival. Technically this is the platinum line and they are platinum.
I think the big holdup was they only had 4 of their 8 security lines in operation. I was through security at 11:05. This was definitely the longest line I’ve had since 2019 Magic which was before I turned platinum.
I may have timed all of this perfectly. As I’m going to the check-in line A01 is boarding. I’m A02.
They called A02. I’m boarding at 11:15am.
This line really got jammed up. It took 10 minutes to get on the ship.
I’m boarding at 11:25am.
Check back next time for Christmas Vista: Day 1.
