Jubilee: Embarkation

Good Morning. I am driving in from my hotel in Webster. Normally this is a 30-minute drive but we have poor weather conditions this morning so it’s going to be closer to 40 minutes.

Be prepared for potential flooding and alternate routes to your location in Galveston. That is my parking facility up ahead on the left. I’m driving a Camaro. This little drive here messed up the shield for the fuel line under my car and cost me $400 to replace.

As soon as I parked and got out of my car, a shuttle was here.

We did not wait for the shuttle to fill up. I was on the shuttle at 9:16 and we pulled out at 9:17. It’s just five of us on our way to the port.

There was quite a bit of traffic getting into the port. We pulled in at 9:32.

The porter had a full cart. He looked at me and said “I’ll be back for you.” I don’t think so. I know exactly where to go.

The line is long. But not as long as Princess. And it’s moving 20 minutes before the first arrival time.

It’s the priority that’s moving. The original guy sent me to the regular line when I showed him my boarding pass. Go down to the end and you see the signs for the priority line.

Now the regular line is cleared out and priority isn’t moving.  It’s 9:45.

They got us in the building at 9:47.

9:50. They have three separate lines inside. Priority, on-time, and early. Priority was full. They sent me to on-time. I’m basically at the front of that line. Then the early arrival is huge. The way this is going to work is they’re going to let the priority line go first, then on-time, then early arrivals.

They started moving the lines at 10.

Security had priority and regular lines but both were empty when I got there. I was through at 10:08. They have a drug dog on this ramp. You have to hold your bags down for him.

Here is the photo op.

Now you get a plaque with a letter. Diamonds have the lowest letters, then suites, then platinum.

I ended up with Priority L.

Platinums sit to the right. Diamonds are down on the left. I think the regular Joes will be on the other side of that glass.

I arrived in the waiting area at 10:13.

Boarding began at 10:55 with group A. By 11am they had called all diamonds which were letters A-G and moved on to Suites H. They got to my L at 11:03 so 8 minutes into the boarding process.