Royal Caribbean’s confidence in Galveston continues to grow.

Since first coming to the island, the cruise line has battled right next to Carnival to win the dollars of cruise passengers. Traditionally, this has led to bigger and better ships. Liberty of the Seas, currently sailing from Galveston, is the largest and newest ship that Royal Caribbean has put on the island.

Now the cruise line is making another investment. This time, however, it’s much smaller.

Starting in November, Royal Caribbean will bring Vision of the Seas to Galveston. Vision of the Seas is an older ship — it was first launched in 1998. As well, it’s much smaller than the Liberty of the Seas, holding just about 2,500 passengers.

So why is a smaller, older ship such a big deal for Galveston?

Until now, Royal Caribbean had only the Liberty of the Seas sailing from the island. The ship’s route includes only week-long trips to the Caribbean. Meanwhile, Carnival has had several ships sailing from Galveston, with some going on shorter four and five-day cruises. If a cruise passenger wanted to go on a cruise shorter than seven days, then their only choice was to sail on Carnival.

This move puts Royal Caribbean in direct competition with Carnival for those shorter cruises. When the Vision begins sailing, it will take four and five-day trips to Mexico, including ports in Cozumel, Costa Maya, and Progreso. It will continue to sail those trips until being swapped with the Enchantment of the Seas — a ship of similar size and age — in 2018.

For most cruise ports, having a 20-year old cruise ship come to visit may not make a big fuss. But seeing how this opens up a much larger number of cruises for those sailing from Galveston, and it shows Royal Caribbean’s continued commitment to growing it’s Texas cruise business, it’s welcome news.

There’s little doubt you’ve heard of the mechanical issues affecting the Carnival Liberty. The ship had to cancel multiple cruises due to an issue that affected its top speed. After spending a considerable layover in the Port of Galveston, the issue appears to still be unresolved.

While everything on the ship is still operable, its top speed is still an issue. In response, Carnival is replacing the Liberty with the Carnival Valor in December.

Carnival Liberty is scheduled to enter dry dock for upgrades in early December. This dry dock was planned well in advance of the mechanical issues affecting it appeared. Once it exits dry dock, however, it will then sail to Port Canaveral (near Orlando). The Carnival Valor will then switch from Port Canaveral and sail from Galveston.

Since Galveston is relatively far from any Caribbean ports, the speed of the ship is extremely important. This switch will give Galveston a cruise ship that can make the speeds needed to sail to the Caribbean and return in a 4 or 5-day cruise.

The Valor and Liberty are sister ships, so passengers shouldn’t notice much of a change in the type of ship they will sail on.

The Valor will start sailing from Galveston on December 17th. Past that date, it will simply pickup the schedule that the Liberty originally had, with no changes. Until then, however, there are some changes in the scheduled trips.

Here are the details from Carnival:

Carnival Liberty’s modified cruises from Galveston for the balance of November are as follows:

14 CRUISE – The Nov. 14 five-day departure will include an overnight call in Cozumel (the call at Progreso has been cancelled). The ship’s arrival back into Galveston on Nov. 19 will be delayed until later in the day. Guests sailing on this voyage will receive a $50 per person credit to their shipboard accounts and a 25 percent discount on a future Carnival cruise. Guests also have the option of cancelling and receiving a full refund.

19 CRUISE: The Nov. 19 seven-day cruise will include stops in Cozumel and Costa Maya (the calls in Falmouth, Jamaica and Grand Cayman have been cancelled). The ship’s departure time will be 10:00pm for this cruise. Guests sailing on this voyage will receive a $50 per person credit to their shipboard accounts and a 25 percent discount on a future Carnival cruise. Guests also have the option of cancelling and receiving a full refund.

26 CRUISE – The Nov. 26 five-day departure will include an overnight call in Cozumel (the call at Progreso has been cancelled). The ship’s arrival back into Galveston on Dec. 1 will be delayed until later in the day. Guests sailing on this voyage will receive a $50 per person credit to their shipboard accounts and a 25 percent discount on a future Carnival cruise. Guests also have the option of cancelling and receiving a full refund.

Have questions? Have you sailed on the Valor before? Let us know in the comments.

Great news for Royal Caribbean fans in Texas. With little fanfare, the cruise line has added a second cruise ship to its schedules for late 2017. We first discovered the new ship coming to the island while doing a random search for cruises on cruise line’s website.

To be more specific, Royal Caribbean is adding the Vision of the Seas to its Galveston cruises. As of now, only 10 trips are scheduled. The first trip departs November 6, 2017 and the last cruise departs December 18, 2017.

During that time, the ship will sail 4 and 5-day trips to Mexico, with most trips stopping in Cozumel, but one itinerary stopping in both Cozumel and Costa Maya.

The Vision of the Seas is a smaller and older ship in Royal Caribbean’s fleet, first sailing in 1998 and measuring 915′ long. For comparison, the Liberty of the Seas — the line’s other ship sailing from Galveston — is more than 1,000 feet long and can carry almost double the number of passengers.

So while no one is likely to be “wowed” by the Vision of the Seas compared to more modern ships, we think it’s a very important signal for the Galveston cruise market.

For years Royal Caribbean has left the shorter voyages to Carnival in Galveston. If you wanted a quick 4 or 5-day getaway, your only option was to take one of Carnival’s trips. Royal Caribbean focused only on week-long cruises.

Placing the Vision of the Seas shows that Royal Caribbean is at least testing out the market for shorter trips itself. We believe that if the demand is there, the company may decide to put a smaller ship here full-time to sail shorter cruises.

That would be just another sign that the Galveston cruise market continues to grow steadily.

For a video tour of the ship, check out the video below:

Are you about to set sail on a Disney cruise? Or maybe you’re trying to figure out if Disney is the right cruise line for you.

To give you more details on what to expect, we’ve uploaded the Personal Navigators that the cruise line hands out to each stateroom each day. Here you’ll find the daily schedule of activities, performances, rules, and helpful tips. This was for a December 4-10 sailing from Galveston to Key West, Nassau, and Castaway Cay.

Note: Your schedule is likely to be different from the ones shown below, as they are constantly updated. These are provided for free for informational purposes only. All trademarks and images are property of Disney.

Days 1 & 2:

Days 3 & 4:

Days 5-7:

In November, the Liberty of the Seas makes its arrival in Galveston. The Liberty marks an upgrade in cruising from the island. With room for 3,600 passengers and more than 1,100 feet long, it is the largest cruise ship ever to sail from Galveston.

That upgrade is going to get even better…

Royal Caribbean has announced that the Liberty of the Seas will undergo a massive month-long drydock overhaul in early 2016.

The most noticeable upgrade is the addition of three new waterslides — the first ever for a Royal Caribbean ship. The slides as a whole are called the “Perfect Storm” and include a new design called “Tidal Wave.” The Tidal Wave is a boomerang-style slide. According to the cruise line, “the new hair-raising slide features a steep drop that propels riders up a near vertical wall for a moment of weightlessness and into free fall.” In addition, the new waterslides will have the “Cyclone” and the “Typhoon” that will be near the already existing Flowrider surf simulator.

The Liberty of the Seas will also see upgrades inside the ship. The makeover will expand the restaurant options. Passengers will be able to enjoy Sabor, which features modern Mexican food, Giovanni’s Table, which has family-style Italian food, and R Bar, a cocktail bar with a 1960s theme.

Passenger cabins will see some new things as well. The Liberty will have 26 new Panoramic Ocean View staterooms with floor-to-ceiling glass walls and more than 50 new staterooms around the ship.

While the ship undergoes the drydock makeover, it will mean no Royal Caribbean cruises from Galveston for about a month. The ship will set out on its last cruise on January 3 and will be gone until returning February 7.