- Princess placed a price limit on our reimbursable hotel cost
- The Lonestar motorcycle rally is going to take place in Galveston this week starting Wednesday, and there was very limited hotel availability during that timeframe, and what was available was extremely pricey.
- I am very fussy when it comes to hotels at any time, but particularly in beach towns.
Searching online, I found two properties that might be acceptable but they both had very limited availability, and we didn’t want to book them sight unseen, so Sunday morning G got off the ship as soon as he could (he was turned back several times because luggage wasn’t ready, but we didn’t care; he was just taking a taxi to the most likely hotel). He went first to the hotel that looked the most promising, then walked eight blocks to the second hotel and decided the first property looked better. Meanwhile, I stayed on the ship until last and final call and then schlepped our three large suitcases and one roll aboard out to the Uber lane.
The Uber lane was packed. Ugh.
To make matters worse, the Ubers I was ordering kept canceling on me. Then I checked Lyft. For less than half the price of Uber, Lyft showed up in ten minutes and the young driver did all the heavy lifting for me. Yay!
G was waiting in front of the hotel and got all the luggage stored and we sat around for another hour until the room was ready. This place is new and spotless and has a fully stocked kitchenette and a large shower and lots of counter space and a balcony with a gulf view and we are as happy as we can be to be here instead of flying home and having to come back a few days later.
Saturday morning on the ship we saw a cruise friend and blog reader dating back to the Pacific Princess days and he said, “This isn’t your first rodeo with something like this, is it?”, and, no, it’s brought back memories of Nice since we heard the captain’s announcement Friday night, but is easier in a hundred different ways than that was.
It also reminds us of the several times we got off a ship for a cruise or two and then got back on. The packing part is a pain, but it’s not that bad. I don’t know if we’re especially unlucky or if these things just happen if you cruise a lot but I tend to think it’s the latter.
My first order of business was to launder all the clothes we just stuffed into the suitcases on Saturday when we thought we were going home and then re-pack with some semblance of order. We also placed a Boost delivery order from Kroger and at 7am Monday morning several cartons of Mountain Dew and a case of water was delivered, as well as some snacks and ice cream.
We have a microwave and full sized refrigerator, so if we get word the Regal is operating as planned on Sunday, we may place another order. I think that our insurance will pay for our meals, but don’t know for sure so we don’t want to live too large while we are here. There is an Italian place next door that makes good pizzas and we’ve gone there once. In fact, G said Sunday morning that we wouldn’t need to eat for a week, but by Sunday at 4pm he was starving and walking next door for pizza. 😆
As for what’s going to happen, we simply don’t know and don’t know when we will know. We could be flying home any day, or staying here the full week. The motorcycle rally doesn’t scare us. G still has his Harley and I just sold mine two years ago (a 1998 candy apple red Heritage Softtail Classic, my baby), and though we’ve never been to Sturgis, we have been to smaller rallies and know what to expect. It is supposed to turn rainy here later in the week, so that might put a damper on everyone’s plans.
We have already received our promised refund to our credit card for the cancelled cruise and a whopping 25% Future Cruise Credit for our inconvenience, so kudos to Princess for not sitting on those.
Meanwhile, we’re here, walking on the beach, watching football on a 55” TV, renting an occasional golf cart to tour the island and eating pizza and drinking Kroger water. I’ll pop back on when we know more.
