The room we booked in Galveston for the cruise is on the 4th floor overlooking the van. If you spend one night here, you can park for the week while cruising. We picked what we thought would be a good spot and headed out on an Uber ride to the Galveston Texas Cruise Port.
The weather was ridiculous! Extremely windy and very cold. We are dressed as warm as we can get and can not wait for the ship to go south of this cold front.
Our Uber driver took us to the Port before our scheduled time and we got right on the ship without any issues. This ship, the MSC Seascape is gigantic. We explored for hours and still have so much more to see. We haven’t done any of the outside decks because it’s still super windy and cold. We had a nice buffet brunch. The pizza on cruise ships is usually not so good but this pizza was delicious. The soft serve icecream on this ship is also the best we have had thus far.
Our balcony room on the 13th floor is very nice. The bathtub in the bathroom is a bit of overkill but it is nice, not that either one of us takes baths but it must be nice if you have kids. We haven’t spent any time at all on the balcony. Way too cold and windy for balcony sitting.
We did a bit of gambling on the first night when the casino opened. It was definitely Greg’s turn to be the WINNER!! He was getting Bonus after Bonus after Bonus!!! I lost pretty quickly and went back to the room to watch the food network . Haha
Oh, I forgot to mention the production show we went to. It was like an Ocean Themed show sort of along the lines of the little Mermaid but with different music. It was awesome. The costumes were amazing and they had these cool Neon fish that the dancers would dance with for certain songs. Plus really great acrobats. It was a great show.
The next day I was up early and participated in the flower making workshop. It was a lot of fun and I love the way my bouquet came out.
Later on that day they had another paper craft lesson and Greg participated. This is what cruisers do when they can’t lounge around the pool on sea days. The craft involved cutting and folding and taping scraps of paper onto a card. It was pretty tricky but fun.
Our first port was Costa Maya, Mexico. We had been here before, as a matter of fact, all three of the ports that we are going to are repeats for us. I actually like that cause then I can stay on the ship and do nothing. One of my favorite things to do. The only time I will get off is if there is snorkeling or a walk to beach or free port WiFi. Costa Maya had the free WiFi so we got off for a little bit to check our email and do a shout out on social media. But for the most part we spend the day on the ship.
Next day was Isle de Roatan in Honduras. Very lush and mountainous here but no beaches and no WiFi so we stayed on the ship and went out for just a little to walk around. Also we got a note the night before that they were doing some balcony maintenance and to keep the drapes closed. They were out on the balcony at 7 am and stayed most of the morning.
We had a great view of all the port action from deck 18. There were 4 ships here. Two of the ships had to tender to port from anchored ships. Our ship was docked on the pier so that was nice..
The next day we arrived in Cozumel, the hawking capital of the world. “Hey Pretty Lady!! “Hey Pink Lady!!” “Hey Lady, Hey Lady!!” Over and over and over again. We walked to the end of the pier and found some free WiFi. I stayed there and checked social media and saw that the announcement was made that my son, Kennedy and Kaitlin are going to have a baby. I’ve know for a while but was sworn to secrecy but now the word is out!! I’m so happy for them and excited to become a first time Grandma.
Greg decided to walk around Cozumel a bit and I just stayed where I was and then the skies opened up and it really started pouring out. Thunder, lightning, heavy rains and flooding. I was up high and protected, Greg found a spot under a store awning and we just waited it out. It was crappy all day long. I feel bad for all those people that paid for excursions.
I was able to get back to the ship in between downpours and light rain and went back for lunch. They had hot tamales at the buffet which were really good. Greg had a harder time getting back because of the flooding in the street but he did manage to get back eventually. He also had the hot tamale for lunch which is only appropriate since we both won big the night before on the hot tamale slot machine! I won $600 and Greg won $300. Muy bueno!
We went back to these same machines the next night and both lost a hundred dollars pretty quickly. We are still up and are hoping to have enough casino points to earn another free cruise. As of right now it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. They have much harder point system than on Celebrity. They give one free cruise after you get 5000 casino points which is waaaay over our limit. We will never make that many points on a one week cruise but we are grateful to have been given this free cruise.
I’m sure inquiring minds want to know about our cruise bathtub. Greg couldn’t resist and had to try it out.
He lasted about 5 minutes. Some people love baths. It just seems like a waste of time to me.
We arrived back in Galveston and I was awaken around 4 am by the fog horns. It was super foggy. Really really foggy. I’m surprised the ship was even able to dock. After some coffee we headed off and got an Uber back to the van which was fine. No issues at all. We decided to drive a couple of miles west. Did some food shopping at Walmart and found a city campground in Bay City, Texas. We settled into site 35 and enjoyed some peace and quiet at the campground. They have a Christmas lights RiverWalk set up that we will do at dark.
Next day we headed a couple of hours west to the Goliad State Park. Our Texas State Park pass is good until the end of December so we may as well get our moneys worth. The discounts are amazing if you have that pass. 2 nights with electric and water for 30 bucks.
They lit up the mission at night which was pretty cool.
The next day we took a bike ride to the nearby fort. It was about a mile away.
Next day we headed to Choke Canyon State Park. Another beautiful and quiet campground. Also great bike riding and things to see. A family of seven pigs or javelinas. The water level in the reservoir was extremely low.
I went to Christmas mass in the morning. They had a beautiful Nativity made out of Mesquite Wood.
We weren’t exactly sure where we were going the next day but we were definitely heading west. There was a casino along the way in Eagle Pass that was a possibility or the Walmart in that same town so we headed out. We got to the casino and they had height restrictions for parking. Couldn’t get into any of the lots except for the back lot. They also had a casino EV park where they wanted all the Rv’s to overnight. We gambled a little and then asked about the Rv park. It was only $25 a night and we were hoping they had laundry there but they were booked and we were unable to make a reservation although clearly there were tons of spots available. So we headed to the Walmart and it was zoo, a complete madhouse if everyone, I guess returning or exchanging their Christmas presents. So we continued on for another hour and arrived at The San Pedro Campground at dusk. Not something we would normally do but there were plenty of spots and it all worked out.
We paid at the Kiosk, a whopping 6 bucks and settled in for the night. Next day, did some laundry and picked up prescriptions and headed to Governor’s Landing Campground. We’ve been to both of these campgrounds before in Del Rio Texas. They are like 20 minutes apart. This one is $10 because it has water. Both places have pit toilets, meaning no flush toilets. This is fine for us and the pit toilets are very clean but some people would not like it. Oh yeah, and Greg lured over a couple of stray cats.
Next we headed to Seminole State Park. We managed to get the last campsite. An electric and water sure fire $15 a night which included much needed showers. The temperature dropped from 80° to 40° overnight and the wind was brutal.
For the most part, we stayed indoors until we couldn’t take it anymore and then went on a hike to the Canyon Rim. Brrrr
From there we drove to Marathon Texas. We have been to this small town a few times and really love it. The motel and RV park offers dry camping for 15 a night. It’s in walking distance from town. They are going to have some live music today and tonight for New Years Eve. I won’t make it to midnight but plan on heading to town for the afternoon bands.
They built 4 outdoor showers here that are new. Little too cold for that so we will use the indoor showers but if it were warmer, I’d be all over those outdoor showers.
So that’s it for December and for 2025. Below is our December Calendar page. Cruising and Camping has been a great combination for us.
The Van Stops Here 