Ok, let me see how much I can get to tonight.
Background:
We are a family of 5---- we have 2 girls ( 11 &9 ) and a boy (6yrs). This was our 4th cruise. We've previously sailed the Wonder ( verandah room) out of LA to Puerto Vallarta & Cabo, The Dream( Family ocean view) to Nassau & CC and last October we were on the Magic ( 2 connecting ocean view) to Cozumel & CC.
While on the Magic, I tried to book another sailing and the prices even with rhe on board booking discount, credits etc were literally double the price. We loved everything
DCL had offered us but I simply could not justify the price. After shopping around and reading on this site that someone booked a panoramic oceanview on RC, I was intrigued. I looked into it and managed to get this amazing room on Liberty which was in dry dock at the time. The price for our 7 night on Liberty was pricing out to be less than a 3 or 4 night on DCL or half the price of a 7 night on DCL so I took it.
Precruise:
we sailed into Bush, rented a car one way, had lunch at Rudy's BBQ, went to the NASA Johnson Space Center, attended a Saturday night church service ( yay since we were sailing on a sunday and i try not not miss church) and then headed to Texas City. We stopped at the Walmart for bottled water and a few essentials and headed to dinner at Gringo's Mexican restaurant ( AWESOME!) then checked into the Fairfield Inn. The next morning my husband returned the rental car. The rental office is in the same parking lot as the hotel. We gathered our things and called a cab company recommended by the hotel.
The cab was a flat $40 fee plus tip. it was an old cab but it did its job. I wasn't expecting a limo. We headed to Galveston around 11am.
Embarkation: The terminal is no Port Canaveral, I will tell you that. It seems a bit more disorganized. We did encounter lines but they went quickly and I would say we were onboard by a little past noon.
I made a quick stop to guest services then we headed to Windjammer for lunch. Embarkation lunch was good. The servers were attentive and friendly.
After lunch we headed to our room.
Stateroom:
OMG. I LOVE the family panoramic room. Every room should have these windows. it is so spacious and much bigger than the oceanview family rooms on DCL. There is a small room with the bunkbeds and closet which my girls took. Our son got the couch which became a twin bed. there is one bathroom with a shower, toilet , sink and another half bath with a toilet and sink. This room is on Deck 12 in the front of the ship.
We had pretty calm seas but yes, we did feel movement. However, we have always felt movement in our other staterooms so I can't really say if this room's location was more or less than the others.
On our last night, there was a lot of movement, almost like coninuos aftershocks but we were all on Dramamine so it was fine. The movement would not deter me at all from booking this room again.
Drinks:
Our
travel agency gave us 1 free soda package which my husband took. I bought the new coffee card which was $36.80 i believe after tax and grats. I love this card!! I got frappes and lattes for under $3 each and I always ordered the large. Frappes were just offered in 1 size I believe. I also found the free coffee to be fine. I always bring my own flavored creamer anyway.
The Windjammer had flavored water and lemonade. OJ during breakfast which was more like Sunny D than fresh.
I put a 12 pack of water and some Cran-Mango juice in a bag and checked it in. I did get a call from the naughty room saying they had my bag. Once I showed them it wasn't alcohol, they sent me and my bag on my way, no problem. I also brought drink mix powder tubes but I found the options onboard to be fine and did not use the tubes. If you aren't a big soda drinker like me, you will not need the soda package.
I wanted to leave you all with some pics but i guess the files are too big. If someone would like to tell me how i can get around this, id appreciate it.
If you decide you want to persevere with photos, I use photobucket also. 
