Freedom 4 Night from Galveston Review 2/6 Sailing

[Rudyard]

Great review. We're thinking of a four or five day cruise out of Galveston later this year.

 

Have to agree about TABC. The whole thing is a joke. They need to simply rewrite the rulebook to exempt cruise lines from some of their archaic laws. Luckily there are plenty of people that aren't fazed by them or they could have seriously hurt the cruise industry in Texas, especially when they decided to start collecting the tax at the end of the cruise.

 

Has the "new" worn off Common Bond enough that the line is no longer coming out the door on weekends? I'm a frequent visitor next door to Agora and want to try CB, but it usually seems way to crowded.

[cruisintex85]

Great review. We're thinking of a four or five day cruise out of Galveston later this year.

 

Have to agree about TABC. The whole thing is a joke. They need to simply rewrite the rulebook to exempt cruise lines from some of their archaic laws. Luckily there are plenty of people that aren't fazed by them or they could have seriously hurt the cruise industry in Texas, especially when they decided to start collecting the tax at the end of the cruise.

 

Has the "new" worn off Common Bond enough that the line is no longer coming out the door on weekends? I'm a frequent visitor next door to Agora and want to try CB, but it usually seems way to crowded.

 

Thanks! We definitely only go there on weekday mornings which is why it was nice to go before the cruise on a Thursday. Unless you are there right before it opens on the weekend, I think there is often still a line out the door. It is really good though. I like Agora too though!

[cruisintex85]

Nick just reminded me that at some point that day we also played bingo. I am not a big bingo player, but with the weather it was pretty popular. I thought the pricing was pretty confusing and we ended up getting an option that came with some instant win game that I didn't realize was part of the deal. We had also been drinking all day, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Dinner that night was formal night. I had a cocktail dress and nick wore a button down with slacks. I think we were dressed fine for the evening, but there were definitely people all over the spectrum. I think it is a lot like Vegas, no matter what you wear there will always be people who stick out more than you.

 

Here are some pictures of the menu and such.

 

 

 

 

[cruisintex85]

I had the chilled strawberry bisque to start and nick had the scallops. We both enjoyed them. I am a total sucker for the chilled fruit soups. I missed them on Princess, I only noticed maybe one on those cruises. It had this weird jello thing in the middle, but it worked! Nick is telling me the scallops were fine, but the risotto was really just rice-a-roni (not that there is anything wrong that, it just wasn't risotto - note: these are his words not mine, lol)

 

 

 

[cruisintex85]

For dinner I ordered the shrimp and Nick got the sea bass. We had heard bad things about the ravioli from other reviews so we steered clear of that. Nick says "the sea bass was good and the tomato stuff on it was delicious." The shrimp were ok. I am a bit spoiled living close to the gulf. I don't think the potatoes were particularly mustardy as described. Overall, it was pretty bland, but the shrimp were cooked well.

 

 

 

For desert Nick had the chocolate malted cake and I had the famous chocolate melting cake. Nick says the cake was "so good, worth every f****** calorie."

 

For me, I had heard ALOT of hype on this melting cake. Did it live up? YES. It was FABULOUS. I dream about that cake. They nailed baking it each time I got it and it was served hot each night. This might be the best thing I had on the cruise.

 

 

[cruisintex85]

I forgot to mention that we had late dining on the upper part of the middle dining room on the boat. I think that late was all that was available as we booked so close to the cruise. That was fine with us, I don't know how people do early seating. That is way earlier than we ever eat dinner.

 

On our way out of dinner we saw the famous carnival dancing waiters. It was cheesy but pretty fun. This was the only night we saw the performance. I think they only do it on the floor level of the dining room.

 

 

 

After dinner we went to the love and marriage show in the main theater. There was supposed to be performance show, but it got cancelled as the ship was moving so much. It was a fun show and we enjoyed it. It was pretty tame though.

 

Table top in the theater. Everything was over the top in there.

 

 

 

I believe we just wandered around the rest of the night after that and probably spent more time in the casino. Here was our towel animal for the night.

 

 

End of day 2! Cozumel and Nachi Cocom on day 3!

[cruisintex85]

 

[cruisintex85]

We woke up and had breakfast at the burrito bar on the lido deck. I know people love this, but I thought it was just ok. It always felt like everything was always cold or room temperature. It was better than the buffet options however.

 

After eating, we watched us pull into Cozumel. I think our arrival time was 9 or 10 so there were a lot of people watching us pull into port. There was a Royal Caribbean ship in port with us. I think it was the Brilliance of the Seas but I could be wrong.

 

 

You can see in the picture that it was pretty overcast. It was also pretty cool in the low 70s, but that didn't stop us.

 

We were a little late getting off the boat and they were making everyone stay on deck 3 or above to avoid people crowding the gangway. I don't know how, I guess we were in the exact right place when they started letting people go, but we were the first ones off the boat. Don't ask me why, but this made Nick's day. It is the small things I guess? While we were waiting to go we saw several groups who said they were making their way to Mr. Sanchos. We went their a year before on a holiday cruise and decided to try Nachi Cocom this time. We like Mr. Sanchos, we just wanted something to compare it to.

[kupers]

Following, hoping you have more to write!

 

 

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[Sharonlee912]

Love your review!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.