The Sunday after Christmas, we woke up from my parents' house in Conroe & made the short 1 1/2 drive to Galveston to meet Bryan's family & board the Regal Princess for a 1-week sail:
My in-laws are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year & they have been planning this trip for over a year & we couldn't have been more excited! Originally there was going to be 16 of us, but my sister-in-law is pregnant & too far in her pregnancy to travel so she had to stay behind with their youngest & one of Bryan's grandmothers decided not to come either, but we still had 13 of us tag along. We boarded Sunday around lunchtime & set sail that afternoon:
I was not surprised at all when Sophie jumped up & started dancing during the sail away party:
Our first full day was at sea & we had perfect weather! It warmed up the farther we went out into the gulf, so we took full advantage of the weather & enjoyed our time outside playing, exercising, swimming & eating. Of course. There was a lot of eating!
They played a lot of games, specifically dominos but I enjoyed sitting in the sun & reading:
They had 3 kids clubs on board for the different age groups, so the kids popped in & out of here the entire week:
We ended up having 3 days at sea, 2 were at the end of the trip & the weather was nice, but not as nice as that first day. We visited the buffet a lot as well as the pizzeria, hamburger hut, swirls ice cream shop & the gelato shop:
We even bought the girls the soda package, which came with unlimited sodas & virgin drinks for the entire week. It was well worth the money with the number of Dr. Peppers, Fanta & Strawberry Daiquiris that were drank:
Wednesday was our worst weather of the trip & it rained all day but that didn't stop us from enjoying the Longhorn football game up on the lido deck with all of the other Texas fans:
One afternoon they had a family fun fair where all of the kids got face painting, glitter tattoos, played games, had arts & crafts, etc.:
They even passed out Christmas presents for each child with a stuffed animal inside:
We played bingo one day:
and we spent a lot of time in the Game Show Lounge playing a lot of trivia games:
Thankfully our last day at sea was beautiful & the kids got to swim one last time before we had to head back home:
At night we had a standing reservation for dinner at 5:30 in the Allegro dining room so we had to get ready early but that helped us see some beautiful sunsets from our balcony:
Dinner was one of my favorites from the trip because it was one of the few times all 13 of us were all together:
After dinner we had busy nights! Well, our family did. Not everyone tagged a long, but Bryan & I pretty much went to 2 game shows, the late show & the comedian every night. Sometimes the girls would join us, or they would go to the kids' club or walk around the ship with their friends:
Kaitlyn tried out for the Voice so that was fun cheering for her:
Another night we all played a music game called Strike Out (& when I say everyone, it wasn't just our family, I mean everyone in the theater) and the game came down to these 2 - can you tell who the winner was?!
I told the waiter a few of our surprises so they celebrated Robert & Sherry at dinner one night:
and it was Granny's birthday on Friday, so we had to celebrate her also:
Our final night at sea, they had a party in the dining room & our kids jumped right into the conga line:
Most nights ended with these 2 in their bunk beds with drinks & french fries:
My favorite night of the ship was New Year's Eve. Our family dressed up & stayed up even later celebrating the end of 2024:
After dinner & the shows, we went up to party on the lido deck where they had live music, ice sculptures & all of the 2025 swag:
We actually ended the night in the buffet watching the NY countdown on tv & eating our way into 2025. Ha!
Fun side note to cruising - the small space! I found this picture on Sadie's phone & I didn't even know it was being taken but it shows how all 3 of us girls had to get ready with one mirror in the room while Bryan was showering in the tiny bathroom. Ha ha!
The next morning was fun because they had everything decorated for the new year:
Did I mention the boat was still decorated for Christmas? That was a fun surprise even though the holiday has passed. We heard a lot of Christmas music & saw decorations everywhere we went on & off the ship:
They had Christmas trees everywhere with different colors & themes:
And they had a beautiful gingerbread Christmas village that I am guessing guests on the cruise the week before probably made:
You probably can't see what's in that bottom picture inside the gingerbread house? It is a rubber duck! That was the biggest surprise of the week for the kids. Other cruisers brought rubber ducks onto the ship & hid them everywhere so it was like a big game trying to find them & who could find the most. The kids LOVED it!
Wait, did I say kids? Because I was actually the very first one to find one & they didn't even know about it so after I found the first, the adventure was on:
As you can see, we had the best time on the trip & this was just the first part of us being on the boat! We made 3 stops & I will blog about them next but what a fun adventure to share with the Dodson family:
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