South-TX Weather Has Been Wonderful (So Far)

At least we know it's worse at home!

....what I'm seeing in Brownsville this moment is 38F (!), with little chance of exceeding 47/48F today. Not good. 55F Friday; 42F Saturday; 58F Sunday (I won't even go into the lows for these days!).

Ya better look at Cancun (or, Jupiter to the Keys in Florida) !

Not sure what part of the RGV. where you are?
SPI TODAY 30-40 MPH winds out of the N. 41*
Not forecasting any sun for a week. UGH. Only
Salvation is that we don't have ot "shovel" the precip..

Exactly why we most likely will sit out the cold for the next few weeks. We have done the Galveston trip, stayed at a hotel, took a cab to the ship, the whole bit. It is still a lot of driving. Especially the return trip to the Valley.

TomG2 wrote:
I am not a cruise person, but when I looked at the weather and saw that Cozumel, Mexico is going to be thirty degrees warmer than the RGV (78 vs 48) for the next few days, I started looking at the ads.

FWIW, a lot of people from the Valley make the trip up to Galveston during the winter. Most are not RV'ers but northern retiree's that moved to the Valley.

Why or why the cruise industry doesn't open up a line out of the port of Brownsville I'll never understand. You have all the snowbirds, three airports, SPI with it's hotels, and an economy that would welcome it with open arms. Plus, the ship would save on the fuel it takes to get to Mexico.

Wouldn't it be nice to jump on a ship in Brownsville right now for as low as $50/day/person (like in Galveston.)

2112 wrote:
...We live 20 miles from the Galveston cruise dock so it's too easy for us. We have our son drop us off and pick us up. We hit RCCL gold so the perks are getting better. CCL gold doesn't mean as much.

To add a little more to this, Texas is a great state to snowbird in if you're an RV'er and view weather as not the only thing.

A couple of winters ago we drove the Class A up to Galveston and stayed for the month of March on our way north. The owners of the park took us to, and picked us up, at the RCCL dock and watched our rig while we were gone for that week (Texas hospitality.)

When the month was over we took the ferry over to Cajun country, and the Natchez trail for a nice slow drive up to our northern spring.

To compare snowbird places only on weather is a great disservice to someone just starting out in RV snow birding. Now if you're going to buy a fixed place, that might be a totally different story.

I am not a cruise person, but when I looked at the weather and saw that Cozumel, Mexico is going to be thirty degrees warmer than the RGV (78 vs 48) for the next few days, I started looking at the ads.

We disembarked the Magic referring to it as 'The Wal-Mart Ship'. We had to stand in line for everything. Acquiring a slice of pizza or cheeseburger requires standing in line for up to 20 minutes. They were good but not worth the wait. There is not enough seating at any venue. Get there early or do something else. There were no adult only hot tubs. I'm not relaxing in a hot tub with your 4 year old. But if you are looking for alcohol it's only a few steps away. Plenty of seating at the many bars but lacking anywhere else. The casino is small and has a dark, depressing feel to it.

My highlight is being pampered at the dining table by a quality waiter serving quality cuisine. We got neither. Our waiter barely understood English and was in robot mode. No personality. The food was poorly prepared and usually cool to cold. My lobster was under cooked. Limp, soft shrimp cocktails. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad but from a scale of 1-10 I'll give the food a 5. I get on a ship for the food whereas DW gets on for the care free vacation. Unpack once, don't have to worry about feeding and amusing me for a week etc..

\\ RANT OFF

We live 20 miles from the Galveston cruise dock so it's too easy for us. We have our son drop us off and pick us up. We hit RCCL gold so the perks are getting better. CCL gold doesn't mean as much.

2112 wrote:
...And yes, a cruise is a great vacation for the $$.

Thanks for the input on the Magic. It's a very nice looking ship. Been on two Carnival cruises out of Florida. We'll be going on our 19'th cruise (we're avid cruisers also) in just a few weeks. We're RCCL mostly because of the perks they now throw at us.

I know cruising isn't for everyone, but it is a nice addition to snow birding. When in Florida we took three fire sale cruises because it was so easy to drive to a port there and the price can't be beat.

Here in the Valley you have a 400 mile trip to a port which makes it not very convenient. If I was in the Corpus Christi area I would definitely be looking into them right now to break up the Texas winter. Who says you can't take a vacation from your vacation. :)

Ivylog wrote:
J & J, you might want to do what a previous poster suggested... a cruise. The Magic is a nice new ship with plenty of things to do on board.

I know this is off topic but coming from an avid cruiser (12 total) that walked off the Magic three weeks ago, the Magic is the worse ship we have ever been on. It is poorly laid out, has no grandeur and the food was poor. I would not recommend the Magic for a first time cruiser. The RC Navigator would be a better first time cruise leaving Galveston.

And yes, a cruise is a great vacation for the $$.