We are looking at taking a Royal Caribbean cruise out of Galveston next summer. Any recommendations, suggestions, advice, etc? It will be a 5 night cruise.

Any excursions that are a must, should we do drink package or other add-ons?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Happy to help if needed, my email is in my signature. Sometimes I can save $$ on RC, sometimes not.

Drink packages, wifi and excursions are all bought after you deposit on the cruise. You use their app. Their packages are expensive, thus keep that in mind. They do sometimes run specials, but still probably looking at $100-$115 per person, per day for the drink package. Make sure to do some math to see if you would drink that much, especially since you have port days.

My whole bill was only around $100 but I didn't drink a ton and I brought a bottle of wine and diet cokes.

Just as JMac gave great advice I would also add it's important to look into using a travel advisor as a lot of the time we are able to secure on board credit for your room. Also if you do not want to spend hours figuring out which state room is the best, doing the online check in process, and all the tasks to make a cruise successful this is what a travel advisor does day in and day out. My contact info is in my bio if you want to email me.

You can sometimes catch deals/sales on drink packages and excursions and stuff on the pre-cruise planner. If you know you definitely want to get a package and know you want an excursion it's always going to be less expensive pre-cruise than it will be once you board. If you see a price you like go ahead and lock it in. It's easy to cancel and rebook if you see a lower price.

Also, keep in mind with the drink packages those prices are per person. If one person in a room buys one, every other adult in the room must also buy one. If a person doesn't drink but their partner does, you can call and get one delux package and the other person will be sold a "refreshment package" which includes everything but alcohol at a lower price.

As someone who has done the 5 nighter out of Galveston several times, unless you just need WiFi to stay connected to people at home or work you can easily make the trip without paying for internet. You'll have a sea day on the way out and a sea day on the way back but once you get to Costa Maya and Cozumel you can get free WiFi at bars/restaurants in the port area.

I will say that new terminal in Galveston is amazing. My last trip, I was going up the escalator to check in at 10:45 a.m. and I was on the ship and ordering my first drink at the pool bar on Deck 12 at 11 a.m.

We did the 7 night last summer which adds Roatan, Honduras. Wife just did the 5 day with some friends.

When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

We enjoyed the my time dining and had the same awesome waiters for 6 of the 7 nights. We didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants. Dining room was good enough.

In Costa Maya we just did a beach day through a third party group. It was just chill and relaxing.

In Cozumel we just walked around the port and sat at Señor Frogs for a bit. In hind site we should have done an excursion.

I know it feels safer to book excursions through RC since you have the "guarantee" to make it back to the ship on time, but if you do your homework you can find safe, highly rated third party excursions for less than what RC charges.

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When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

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Remember that the alcohol drink package includes coffees. That usually makes it worth it for me as it takes it down to 4 drinks/day which is a breeze.

Oh, I either forgot or didn't realize that. Good point.

NoahAg said:

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We did the 7 night last summer which adds Roatan, Honduras. Wife just did the 5 day with some friends.

When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

We enjoyed the my time dining and had the same awesome waiters for 6 of the 7 nights. We didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants. Dining room was good enough.

In Costa Maya we just did a beach day through a third party group. It was just chill and relaxing.

In Cozumel we just walked around the port and sat at Señor Frogs for a bit. In hind site we should have done an excursion.

I know it feels safer to book excursions through RC since you have the "guarantee" to make it back to the ship on time, but if you do your homework you can find safe, highly rated third party excursions for less than what RC charges.

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We did the same cruise/itinerary.

I agree on both the drink packages and the coffee package. Also, unless it changed, the coffee "package" was just a stamp card you used to get x number of free coffees. Wasn't limited to x per day or anything like that.

I will disagree on the specialty restaurants. The ones we did were well worth it, IMO. Our favorite meal was at 150 Central Park.

The shows were great, especially the one at the aqua theater.

PlanoAg98 said:

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When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

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Remember that the alcohol drink package includes coffees. That usually makes it worth it for me as it takes it down to 4 drinks/day which is a breeze.

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And bottled water. That can knock off another drink or two if you drink a lot.

Marauder Blue 6 said:

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PlanoAg98 said:

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When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

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Remember that the alcohol drink package includes coffees. That usually makes it worth it for me as it takes it down to 4 drinks/day which is a breeze.

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And bottled water. That can knock off another drink or two if you drink a lot.

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I drink a lot of water, never bought a bottled water. We brought a small case (whatever max allowed was) on the boat, but also just brought our refillable Yeti type cups. They have ice machines and water dispensers all over that boat.

htxag09 said:

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Marauder Blue 6 said:

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PlanoAg98 said:

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When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

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Remember that the alcohol drink package includes coffees. That usually makes it worth it for me as it takes it down to 4 drinks/day which is a breeze.

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And bottled water. That can knock off another drink or two if you drink a lot.

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I drink a lot of water, never bought a bottled water. We brought a small case (whatever max allowed was) on the boat, but also just brought our refillable Yeti type cups. They have ice machines and water dispensers all over that boat.

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I don't care for the taste of cruise ship water so I drink bottled and I'm not lugging a 12 pack of water around until my room is available.

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I'm not lugging a 12 pack of water around until my room is available.

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This is another one of the reasons I like the drink package. I will always pick up a couple of soda and waters when I'm walking past a bar during the day. I'll bring those back and stock the fridges of other rooms in our group. We typically have 3 rooms and only 1 of those rooms gets the drink package.

On our last cruise, sodas were $4 and waters were $3. That's saving ~ $15 for my group each time I do that.

I don't really remember exactly what we did, but definitely don't remember lugging waters around.

Either way, after our cruise I, with 100% certainty, know I spent less than if I had bought the drink package. And, yes, everyone is different so what was true for me isn't necessarily true for everyone else.

htxag09 said:

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I don't really remember exactly what we did, but definitely don't remember lugging waters around.

Either way, after our cruise I, with 100% certainty, know I spent less than if I had bought the drink package. And, yes, everyone is different so what was true for me isn't necessarily true for everyone else.

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We put ours in a carry on suitcase and just rolled them. Soda and wine.

Just got the go ahead for a RC Alaskan cruise on the Anthem of the Seas. Will be taking my 23-yr old daughter and meeting up with family who have already booked. Appreciate the advice here.

Red Fishing Ag93 said:

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Just got the go ahead for a RC Alaskan cruise on the Anthem of the Seas. Will be taking my 23-yr old daughter and meeting up with family who have already booked. Appreciate the advice here.

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what's the port schedule? Unfortunately RC doesn't go to Glacier Bay

Red Fishing Ag93 said:

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Just got the go ahead for a RC Alaskan cruise on the Anthem of the Seas. Will be taking my 23-yr old daughter and meeting up with family who have already booked. Appreciate the advice here.

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Anthem is a great ship for Alaska with the North Star observation pod, the indoor pool in addition to the adults only solarium and my favorite feature, the 270 lounge offering great views of the aft

Mustang1 said:

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Red Fishing Ag93 said:

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Just got the go ahead for a RC Alaskan cruise on the Anthem of the Seas. Will be taking my 23-yr old daughter and meeting up with family who have already booked. Appreciate the advice here.

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what's the port schedule? Unfortunately RC doesn't go to Glacier Bay

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The port schedule looks to include these:

Visiting:

• Seattle, Washington
• Sitka, Alaska
• Skagway, Alaska
• Endicott Arm & Dawes Glacier, Alaska
• Victoria, British Columbia
• Seattle, Washington

htxag09 said:

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NoahAg said:

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We did the 7 night last summer which adds Roatan, Honduras. Wife just did the 5 day with some friends.

When I did the math the drink package didn't make sense to me. Added up to 5 drinks a day including port days when we weren't on the ship. I just don't drink that much.

The coffee package however was good for us.

We enjoyed the my time dining and had the same awesome waiters for 6 of the 7 nights. We didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants. Dining room was good enough.

In Costa Maya we just did a beach day through a third party group. It was just chill and relaxing.

In Cozumel we just walked around the port and sat at Señor Frogs for a bit. In hind site we should have done an excursion.

I know it feels safer to book excursions through RC since you have the "guarantee" to make it back to the ship on time, but if you do your homework you can find safe, highly rated third party excursions for less than what RC charges.

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We did the same cruise/itinerary.

I agree on both the drink packages and the coffee package. Also, unless it changed, the coffee "package" was just a stamp card you used to get x number of free coffees. Wasn't limited to x per day or anything like that.

I will disagree on the specialty restaurants. The ones we did were well worth it, IMO. Our favorite meal was at 150 Central Park.

The shows were great, especially the one at the aqua theater.

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Fair enough. Food just isn't a huge deal for us on vacation. The ship didn't have anything unique/better compared to what we have in the Houston area.

We've done 3 Royal Caribbean cruises, 2 out of Galveston and 1 out of Miami. We always got the drinks package and saved quite a bit over what our drinks would have cost otherwise. We get one Wi-Fi package and share it between us (one device logged in at a time). As for excursions on the Galveston cruises, we did snorkeling in Cozumel on one trip and were disappointed. Second trip we just did a beach day and that was fine. We didn't do any excursion at Costa Maya and might as well have stayed on the ship for as much as we got out of that port. We did My Time dining and were quite happy with that as the staff gets to know you and your preferences. We found the Main Dining food to be quite satisfactory and didn't spend extra on any of the specialty restaurants. We usually ate breakfast in the Main Dining unless we were in a hurry and then went to the Schooner (Golden Corral of the Seas).

How is RC vs. Carvinal for you guys? I've done 2 Carnival and they are OK. Food is ok not great and they are fairly crowded and not to sound mean but there aren't many on the boat in my demographic (older/obese/etc). Wondering how the RC food qualities/amenities/crowdedness and crowd are?

Crnival is the metro bus of the seas.

I've done about 5 Carnival & 5 Royal Caribbean. I cannot even eat the buffet on Carnival. RC is much better but still not great.

lazuras_dc said:

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How is RC vs. Carvinal for you guys? I've done 2 Carnival and they are OK. Food is ok not great and they are fairly crowded and not to sound mean but there aren't many on the boat in my demographic (older/obese/etc). Wondering how the RC food qualities/amenities/crowdedness and crowd are?

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It is going to be a step up, but not a big step up.

Princess would be more boring, but it certainly would be an older, quieter, demographic. And food will be better.

Good to know. yes I didn't eat a single item from buffet on this Carvinal cruise. Mostly hit up the Burger joint for lunch and then the main Dining.

Disney Cruise is for us next but I know what I'm walking into there. But next adult only one Ill try RC

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Disney Cruise is for us next but I know what I'm walking into there

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Disney cruise food is pretty amazing. You get what you pay for. You can get 4 Carnival cruises for the price of 1 Disney.

lazuras_dc said:

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Good to know. yes I didn't eat a single item from buffet on this Carvinal cruise. Mostly hit up the Burger joint for lunch and then the main Dining.

Disney Cruise is for us next but I know what I'm walking into there. But next adult only one Ill try RC

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If you aren't set on going out of Galveston, Virgin Voyages might be a great option, but gotta fly to Florida.

Food will def be better on Disney, but as Plano mentioned, the price is way higher too.

We're doing a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska and wondered about purchasing excursions. Is it best to purchase thru the cruise line, or directly with the excursion?

The price, particularly for a train in Skagway, is a lot less expensive it appears when booking directly.

Red Fishing Ag93 said:

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We're doing a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska and wondered about purchasing excursions. Is it best to purchase thru the cruise line, or directly with the excursion?

The price, particularly for a train in Skagway, is a lot less expensive it appears when booking directly.I've

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I've done it both ways with no issues. If you've booked the excursion through the cruise line, the ship will wait if your excursion is late returning. There are some excurions providers like Shore Excursions Group who guarantee return to ship or they will pay the costs of catching you up to the ship. I wouldn't worry about purchasing outside the cruise line in Skagway. Everyone will be selling tickets on the same train.