Embarkation

All around easy -- We had a late embarkation time since we drove that morning. We picked 1:00-1:30pm boarding. We parked in Pier 12. We first entered, it looked full, and we were unsure what to do. Then getting further in, we found gentleman working there. He told us where to park and to back in (good thing Travis was driving at this point) and to stop by on our way out. So, we were not rushed and had plenty time to unload our stuff and set up our full van sunshades. Travis made these for our future road trip camping for light blocking, privacy, and keeping the van cooler. We tested them on this trip. One fell, so he has made adjustments.

The parking attendant gave us instructions and said that he will see us in 5 day. We walked to the fancy, new Royal terminal; it was very close. We arrived at 12:20pm, so a little early, but it was not mentioned or checked. Other documentation noted that late check-in was less busy, so maybe they would have checked our time if it was during the early check-in slots. We had completed all the check-in (earlier), health questionnaire, and the safety video (the day before). We first showed boarding passes (they want both on one phone here and to initially board) and passports with no line. Then we got through security quickly and directed to board with one more boarding pass scan. I tried to quickly look at the terminal since we did not need to spend any time waiting in it. It looked to have nice seating for waiting. That is all that I had time to see. Onboard, we found our muster station, which was noted on the boarding pass, after finding our way around. The Captain did maybe two announcements reminding people to do the muster, but overall, it seems like people got it done fairly promptly.

Cabin

It did look dated, but functioned well. It had good storage. Royal sent a form and let you make special requests, like ice, extra towel, extra hangers, medical equipment needs like water and cords, etc., before the cruise. This was a good way to handle requests and made the experience feel more personalized. The special requests where delivered after the initial room ready to focus on getting all the rooms ready. Our room steward, Wayan, did a great job. There is once a day cleaning; I picked 6pm, thinking that this was when any time dining started. I learned later that it started at 6:45 pm instead, so we needed to get ready for dining and be out by 6pm. I believe that their day or hours ended at 7pm, so I felt like we should keep the 6pm to give him time and not make him get off late. I loved that they still did towel animals.

The closet had a light that came on as you walked towards it. It was nice for finding your way at night, but I also felt bad lighting the room while Travis was sleeping -- though we wore our eye masks the full time.

The bathroom shelves were only in a closed, mirrored like medicine cabinet; however, I though it was a little gloss inside. The shower was too small, but that is normal. No shower curtain, which is good, but you could not let the water warm with the doors open or it would stray out. You had to get in, hold the wand away from you, and let it warm up. Travis said that he could not get it cool enough, but I was fine most days since I like it warmer.

The TV was pretty sad -- small with no on demand or interactive functionality. The sofa was nice to have; we are used to no sofa NCL rooms. I enjoyed the port hole window.

Ship

The ship was a good size with a fully walkable promenade deck when using both decks 4 and 5, a good amount of seating, and several shuffleboard courts and equipment. The theater size and layout was nice. Lot of good family friendly and sports activities offered. The putt-putt and water slides were fun. We knew that we could not surf, we did not sign up for the laser tag, and Travis did not climb the rock wall with a hurt rib.

Our room was on deck 3, forward, which had the ice skating rink, so we had to go up to deck 4 to walk across. This was the casino; I did not like having to walk through the smoky casino so much. Other than that; it was a good location -- right by the theater, close to Cafe Promenade, and convenient for coming and going to the ports.

The crew across the ship was good.

I did a web chat before the cruise about transferrable loyalty because Travis had Gold status on his boarding pass from our previous Celebrity cruise that I did not have. She fixed that. At first, the Royal app and web site did not show the Celebrity points and vice versa, but I now see both on both. We have two long Celebrity cruises booked, so may want our 5 Royal points at some point :) . Travis used his gold status for 2 drink discount on beer/wine. The first was at the pub, and it did not automatically apply the discount. We asked later at the loyalty desk on deck 2. They fixed it on the spot. At the MDR, he asked with a wine purchase, and they said they could do it no problem. We had asked a previous night to a different waiter, and she did not know how to apply it.

Buffet

We never had dinner in the buffet, just breakfast and lunch. I was not super impressed with the food, but it was not bad either (our previous cruise was on their sister brand, Celebrity, which had an amazing buffet, so a lot to live up to). It was a good size, but had many repeated stations, which reduced variety. It was also very hard for Travis to get hot water for tea at breakfast or lunch.

The buffet hours also seemed crazy too me, compared to other lines. Breakfast did flow into lunch, but lunch closed at 3pm, so reducing afternoon snacks and afternoon tea. Then did not open until 5:30 pm for dinner, closing again at 8:30 pm -- no late night snacks there. They did have hot dogs and sausage dogs on the pool deck until 6pm.

Main Dining Room (MDR)

We had amazing table mates, and waiters who spoiled us. He got us the same table every night at 7pm and even went out looking for us until we got the routine down. Though the app did not help, showing us different dining times from each other and from what we agreed.

The food was good, though hehe, not Celebrity good, which was also amazing.

Entertainment

My favorite entertainment, from this and any previous cruise, was the ice show. They were awesome.

The 2nd production show was good (we did not go to the first one), the comedian was pretty good (we only went to the PG show), and the magician-comedian was okay. The Love and Marriage show was fun.

Cruise director staff games were fun -- mainly trivia, but we also played Scattergories and the ABC game.

We went to the balloon drop for the Birthday Bash, but I did not like pushing past people much, so could not see too much. They danced on the stair bridge that crosses the Royal Promenade; I think that this is all it is used for. They had party theme nights, which I found the theme in the app before we went. However, we did not pack the themes; Travis had a Hawaii shirt to pass for Caribbean night. But a fun thing to do if you like participating and fun to see.

Disembarkation

Fast and easy. We carried our luggage off so could disembark after they announced cleared by customs. We got off quickly, directed to passport facial scan, and quickly out of the terminal. However, do note that the exit is on a different side of the terminal than the entrance, so we got out and did not recognize where we were to find the parking lot. We needed to go right to get back to the front of the terminal where we came in. I was saying that there was supposed to be a parking garage here.

Exiting parking and leaving Galveston Island was quick, traffic was not bad.

It was a good cruise; we would do Royal again for the right price and itinerary. In the past, I have always found Royal more expensive, but I found a reasonable price to try it and with a drive to Galveston instead of flight. We also do not have kids anymore, that Royal is really good for.