ukintheus
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2009
Hello to anyone that would like to follow along with our quick, 4 day trip down to Cozumel and back on the beautiful Disney Wonder. This cruise had been booked on opening day in 2017 and had been in jeopardy of being cancelled a couple of times due to work/vacation conflicts, but, in the end, we managed to just sqeeeeze it in there, due to us disembarking on the Veteran’s Day holiday.
It was just Scott and I going this time around and it was going to be a(nother) laid back cruise with no real plans. If you've read any of our other adventures you will know that lazy is our middle name! I had booked Palo brunch on our first at sea day and also the Whiskey tasting that evening but apart from that we had no plan for anything, including Cozumel. This itinerary has two at sea days with Cozumel sandwiched in between them and it's a great 4 night option, that is sadly only offered occasionally out of Galveston. On the home front, we currently have some major changes going on in our lives, with Scott taking a job overseas starting in December this year, so this trip ended up being perfect timing for a quick break for the two of us before he starts travelling and is gone from home for extended periods of time.
This is us on our last cruise. Always smiling faces when you are on a Disney cruise. Alrighty then! Let's get this trip report going.
Wednesday, January 7th
About two weeks before the cruise I booked us to stay the night before in Galveston. We can drive down in a couple of hours from home, and we often just go down the morning of the cruise, but I decided that an extra night of real vacation is always a good thing! We had to get our last minute things packed on Wednesday morning before heading in to work together in one car but we got it accomplished with no major disaster.
I liked the old countdown better, but we had 00 days left!
I also got to turn off my alarm…..ahhh….such a good feeling. I'm hoping everyone else has weird alarm habits too. I have one that's the one that I have plenty of time and then the second one that's the one where I'm rushing like crazy. Usually I get up on the second one.
Work dragged on by, I texted Scott every hour with the countdown to when I would be picking him up. I thought he would get sick of it, but when I forgot at 1 pm, he sent me one! We were both really looking forward to getting away that's for sure. At 3 pm on the dot, I was sitting outside his work waiting for him. He had a work colleague from Norway in town that wanted to say hello...ugg...doesn't she know she's holding up vacation!!
We started the drive down to Galveston. Going through downtown Houston had a fair amount of traffic but once we got through that it was easy going.
We hit some really bad rain and couldn’t see any blue sky ahead at all. Blahhh....driving in torrential rain is no fun.
Once we got closer to Galveston we finally got through it and saw blue skies once again though. Scott was being a diligent trip report photographer.
We turned onto Harborside Drive, only to see this ahead of us. It was the longest train in the world, and also the slowest! We sat for a while and then Scott found us a way to cut down a back street and work our way around it.
We finally made it to the Harbor House hotel at 4:50 pm. Traffic, rain and train delays tacked about 30 minutes onto that drive, but we were there!
Check in was quick and painless. I had booked a suite for $152.00 as they are located at the very end of each corridor so you have views to one side and also directly onto the ship channel. We were given room 301, which is on the top floor. We’ve stayed at Harbor House a few times and we love the location close to the Strand so you can go and do some walking around, but the hotel itself is fairly basic. They have refurbished since we stayed here last so it is a bit nicer than it used to be. The room rate at the time really dictates whether it's "worth it" or not. The suites have a bedroom and a separate living room area.
These were the views from the windows. Prime viewing location for getting up early and watching the Wonder come in.
After taking a quick nose around, unpacking the few things we needed for the night, and getting trip report worthy photographs of the room done , we were ready to head out in search of beverages. It was a pretty sunset tonight as we walked over to the Strand. We didn’t have any real plans in place and were going to see what was open.
The Strand was absolutely dead, with nobody around at all. We ended up at Stuttgarden Tavern, which is where we had spent a few hours while fog delayed on a previous cruise. The place was fairly quiet, with a few other people in there.
First drinks of the vacation….beer. I know, I couldn’t decide what I wanted and they had a huge beer menu, so I just went with a recommendation off that. It was surprisingly really good! Someone is very ready for me to get the photo taken and get on with drinking his drink!
We had a snack of chips and salsa there and had one more beer each and then decided to find somewhere else. We walked the Strand but didn’t find anything open other than shops that sold beer that you could sit on the sidewalk and drink. I fired up Yelp to see if it could help us find anything, but as we got to a corner and paused to look, there was a building down the side street that was all lit up with German flags flying and we could see a deck up on the 3rd floor with people sitting drinking. It looked very promising and so we decided to give it a try. The first and second floors were empty, it was really weird, but we made it to the third floor and found out we were at….Stuttgarden Tavern. Apparently Stuttgarden moved, and we had actually been at Muchacos at the last place, but weren’t quite clever enough to have figured that out!
New Stuttgarden was a nice location, but the drinks weren’t as good. Scott said the beer tasted watered down. I had a glass of wine which is pretty hard to mess up, but the sight of the waitress wiping the lipstick off the glass at the bar before she set it down in front of me wasn’t too thrilling. Bleckk… It was a one and done at this place.
At just gone 7 pm we decided to make our way back to the hotel and to eat at Olympia Grill, which is located directly underneath it. We’ve always had good luck with the food and drinks there.
There is a semi-submersible rig behind this statue…for those that are interested in all things oilfield – which Scott is.
Time to get a good drink going! We both got froo-froo drinks off their menu, although I don’t remember what they were called, I can tell you that both were really good.
Scott got a fish dish and I got hummus for our meals. The hummus was really good, but really garlicky! I think I managed to burp it up for the entire next day, which you probably didn’t really want to know…but now you do.
And instead of dessert…..yummy drinks. Mine was a mudslide and Scott’s was a scotch of some kind. Mine was really good.
It was just before 9 pm when we left there to go to our room. Galveston definitely rolls up the carpets early in the week, I think there was only one table with people on it when we walked out of the place. Back at the hotel, we both thought the corridor to our room looked really spooky. The lights were just dim enough that it made it kind of creepy in a fun kind of way.
Here we are cracking ourselves up about the spooky corridor. We are the funniest people we know, especially after an evening of drinks.
We wrapped up the day with an early night as we were in bed by 9:30 pm. I should also mention that you get a free bread and butter pudding as dessert at Olympia Grill if you are staying at Harbor House. We took ours to go, but it wasn't very good and we ditched it after a couple of mouthfuls. With the intention of getting up and seeing the Wonder come in in the morning we headed to bed! Excitement awaits in the morning!!
It was just Scott and I going this time around and it was going to be a(nother) laid back cruise with no real plans. If you've read any of our other adventures you will know that lazy is our middle name! I had booked Palo brunch on our first at sea day and also the Whiskey tasting that evening but apart from that we had no plan for anything, including Cozumel. This itinerary has two at sea days with Cozumel sandwiched in between them and it's a great 4 night option, that is sadly only offered occasionally out of Galveston. On the home front, we currently have some major changes going on in our lives, with Scott taking a job overseas starting in December this year, so this trip ended up being perfect timing for a quick break for the two of us before he starts travelling and is gone from home for extended periods of time.
This is us on our last cruise. Always smiling faces when you are on a Disney cruise. Alrighty then! Let's get this trip report going.
Wednesday, January 7th
About two weeks before the cruise I booked us to stay the night before in Galveston. We can drive down in a couple of hours from home, and we often just go down the morning of the cruise, but I decided that an extra night of real vacation is always a good thing! We had to get our last minute things packed on Wednesday morning before heading in to work together in one car but we got it accomplished with no major disaster.
I liked the old countdown better, but we had 00 days left!
I also got to turn off my alarm…..ahhh….such a good feeling. I'm hoping everyone else has weird alarm habits too. I have one that's the one that I have plenty of time and then the second one that's the one where I'm rushing like crazy. Usually I get up on the second one.
Work dragged on by, I texted Scott every hour with the countdown to when I would be picking him up. I thought he would get sick of it, but when I forgot at 1 pm, he sent me one! We were both really looking forward to getting away that's for sure. At 3 pm on the dot, I was sitting outside his work waiting for him. He had a work colleague from Norway in town that wanted to say hello...ugg...doesn't she know she's holding up vacation!!
We started the drive down to Galveston. Going through downtown Houston had a fair amount of traffic but once we got through that it was easy going.
We hit some really bad rain and couldn’t see any blue sky ahead at all. Blahhh....driving in torrential rain is no fun.
Once we got closer to Galveston we finally got through it and saw blue skies once again though. Scott was being a diligent trip report photographer.
We turned onto Harborside Drive, only to see this ahead of us. It was the longest train in the world, and also the slowest! We sat for a while and then Scott found us a way to cut down a back street and work our way around it.
We finally made it to the Harbor House hotel at 4:50 pm. Traffic, rain and train delays tacked about 30 minutes onto that drive, but we were there!
Check in was quick and painless. I had booked a suite for $152.00 as they are located at the very end of each corridor so you have views to one side and also directly onto the ship channel. We were given room 301, which is on the top floor. We’ve stayed at Harbor House a few times and we love the location close to the Strand so you can go and do some walking around, but the hotel itself is fairly basic. They have refurbished since we stayed here last so it is a bit nicer than it used to be. The room rate at the time really dictates whether it's "worth it" or not. The suites have a bedroom and a separate living room area.
These were the views from the windows. Prime viewing location for getting up early and watching the Wonder come in.
After taking a quick nose around, unpacking the few things we needed for the night, and getting trip report worthy photographs of the room done , we were ready to head out in search of beverages. It was a pretty sunset tonight as we walked over to the Strand. We didn’t have any real plans in place and were going to see what was open.
The Strand was absolutely dead, with nobody around at all. We ended up at Stuttgarden Tavern, which is where we had spent a few hours while fog delayed on a previous cruise. The place was fairly quiet, with a few other people in there.
First drinks of the vacation….beer. I know, I couldn’t decide what I wanted and they had a huge beer menu, so I just went with a recommendation off that. It was surprisingly really good! Someone is very ready for me to get the photo taken and get on with drinking his drink!
We had a snack of chips and salsa there and had one more beer each and then decided to find somewhere else. We walked the Strand but didn’t find anything open other than shops that sold beer that you could sit on the sidewalk and drink. I fired up Yelp to see if it could help us find anything, but as we got to a corner and paused to look, there was a building down the side street that was all lit up with German flags flying and we could see a deck up on the 3rd floor with people sitting drinking. It looked very promising and so we decided to give it a try. The first and second floors were empty, it was really weird, but we made it to the third floor and found out we were at….Stuttgarden Tavern. Apparently Stuttgarden moved, and we had actually been at Muchacos at the last place, but weren’t quite clever enough to have figured that out!
New Stuttgarden was a nice location, but the drinks weren’t as good. Scott said the beer tasted watered down. I had a glass of wine which is pretty hard to mess up, but the sight of the waitress wiping the lipstick off the glass at the bar before she set it down in front of me wasn’t too thrilling. Bleckk… It was a one and done at this place.
At just gone 7 pm we decided to make our way back to the hotel and to eat at Olympia Grill, which is located directly underneath it. We’ve always had good luck with the food and drinks there.
There is a semi-submersible rig behind this statue…for those that are interested in all things oilfield – which Scott is.
Time to get a good drink going! We both got froo-froo drinks off their menu, although I don’t remember what they were called, I can tell you that both were really good.
Scott got a fish dish and I got hummus for our meals. The hummus was really good, but really garlicky! I think I managed to burp it up for the entire next day, which you probably didn’t really want to know…but now you do.
And instead of dessert…..yummy drinks. Mine was a mudslide and Scott’s was a scotch of some kind. Mine was really good.
It was just before 9 pm when we left there to go to our room. Galveston definitely rolls up the carpets early in the week, I think there was only one table with people on it when we walked out of the place. Back at the hotel, we both thought the corridor to our room looked really spooky. The lights were just dim enough that it made it kind of creepy in a fun kind of way.
Here we are cracking ourselves up about the spooky corridor. We are the funniest people we know, especially after an evening of drinks.
We wrapped up the day with an early night as we were in bed by 9:30 pm. I should also mention that you get a free bread and butter pudding as dessert at Olympia Grill if you are staying at Harbor House. We took ours to go, but it wasn't very good and we ditched it after a couple of mouthfuls. With the intention of getting up and seeing the Wonder come in in the morning we headed to bed! Excitement awaits in the morning!!