Thoenix

This might be enough to get my dog-loving wife to let me book for Icon at some point!

How did you find him?

Am I reading correctly that there may be infrastructure being set aside at the shipyard for Project Discovery? My German is rusty and google translate is iffy.

Brisket is one of the cheaper cuts of meat from the front half of the cow (the back half is not generally kosher--though it can be made kosher with special training and hard work--only one or two kosher butchers in the entire US can do this), so it's incredibly popular for Jewish holidays since you're feeding a crowd.

Are knitting supplies such as knitting needles, darning needles, yarn, and thread snips allowed on Royal Caribbean ships?

Again, we don't know the insurance situation, but the insurance companies involved may legitimately require a lawsuit to be filed before they'll pay out. In my job, I work with a lot of families who've just lost a child and the legal framework for handling these sorts of things is really complex and messy and upsetting on every front. It doesn't matter how responsible you want to be, very few families can handle the expenses of an unexpected death without tapping into insurance or other resources. These things are very, very expensive.

The chipotle tabasco is amazing, assuming it's the same stuff I buy on the shore. A little shake shake of that on some mac and cheese and holy tastebuds batman.

This is great info! Do you know if there will be taxis at the zoo to get back or do we need to have the zoo call a cab?

Do we need to pre-book a taxi or are there safe taxis at the port proper?

Belize Zoo has a couple of species on my evolutionary biologist wife's bucket list (species that only a couple of zoos in the US/Canada have and every time we've gone to see them, they haven't been on display). We'd really like to go, but there aren't many tour operators taking people to Belize Zoo. Has anyone contracted a group to take you there from the Belize City cruise port? Good bad and ugly reviews requested! There would be three adults to go to the zoo.

The ship can be at capacity before every berth is sold out. This has to do with space on lifeboats and at muster stations. It's a safety issue. If it's sold out, it's sold out. I think you're past final payment, so I don't think there's any option to change sailings, so unfortunately I think you're going to have to tell the child thta he cannot go.

An hour only sounds far if you're not used to rural areas. For context, it's about the same amount of time as taking the subway and one bus from Yonge street to Scarborough. Very doable and I used to do it every morning for work. Another way to look at it is that it's about the same as driving from Toronto to Hamilton, depending on traffic. If you want to break that hour up, rent a car for it and stop at the Texas City Buccees. It's a truck stop/convenience store but it's an institution in Texas. Speaking as a Canadian, Buccees is wonderful and should be seen at least once if you're in Texas. It has slushies, barbecue brisket, souvenirs and the cleanest bathrooms you'll ever find. It'll make the hour drive worth it, I promise. Get a photo with the beaver statue.

I can't speak to the cruise portion, but when I was first married, my wife lived in Austin and I lived in Toronto so depending on flight costs, I flew through Houston or into Houston often. This is the airport you'll use for Galveston. Houston is my least favourite airport if I have a connecting flight, but it's not bad as your final destination. Depending on everyone's physical abilities, if anyone has walking difficulties, you might want to book assistance because there are some very long corridors. Outside of that, it's fine. There are good hotels nearby. Galveston isn't far, only like an hour via car. I think you can get Amtrak to Galveston from Houston, too.

I hadn't thought of photo storage, to be honest, but that's a great point and one I should consider that might tip me over to a larger portable hard drive. We're trying to strike a balance on our media consumption during the cruise, but all three of us are autistic and sometimes autistic people in new and strange environments struggle, so we're also trying to be prepared that we might be overwhelmed and need television or films to re-regulate.

Ours are largely hardwired into our home network, and we don't travel that often. I have my small 1TB drive, but I'm trying to pack light if possible and my electronics get pretty heavy to lug around during boarding. I have the key so I understand that I can leave my carry on to be brought to my room, but my electronics will probably be going in my backpack because I don't really trust anyone else with them. I can't really live without them.