Galveston?

I am very curious regarding cruise lines leaving from Galveston. It
seems that Celebrity has left the port, and I seem to remember something
about Princess leaving as well. It also appears that after Rhapsody leaves,
RCCL will move Voyager in for the winter, but she appears to be leaving for
the summer months, and it further appears that Splendor which has done the
short cruises for years may not be returning. This leaves just Carnival
doing 4,5 and 7 day cruises from that port year round.
I'm also not sure that Norwegian is coming out of Houston anymore
either. Does anyone have any info on what's going on in Galveston? That is
my main port to use since I live in Ft. Worth.

Thanks,
Ray B.

Ray Bensch wrote:

I am very curious regarding cruise lines leaving from Galveston. It
seems that Celebrity has left the port, and I seem to remember something
about Princess leaving as well. It also appears that after Rhapsody leaves,
RCCL will move Voyager in for the winter, but she appears to be leaving for
the summer months, and it further appears that Splendor which has done the
short cruises for years may not be returning. This leaves just Carnival
doing 4,5 and 7 day cruises from that port year round.
I'm also not sure that Norwegian is coming out of Houston anymore
either. Does anyone have any info on what's going on in Galveston? That is
my main port to use since I live in Ft. Worth.

Thanks,
Ray B.



Galveston is an interesting port from the point of view of the lines.
It has fair facilities and convenient loading & unloading. It is very
quick to get in and out of. Alas this corner of the Gulf is a fair ways
from anything with it taking a full day & a half to get to either
Jamaica or Cancun/Cozumel. It works best for week long trips.

Galveston is a pretty minor location and a long way from airport service
so in that way it is not convenient. I doubt that it will be a good
location for the lines although it would be an excellent place for long
range cruising.

The port got a real boost when Katrina & Rita took out a lot of the
competition. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

"Ray Bensch" wrote

I am very curious regarding cruise lines leaving from Galveston. It
seems that Celebrity has left the port, and I seem to remember something
about Princess leaving as well. It also appears that after Rhapsody
leaves, RCCL will move Voyager in for the winter, but she appears to be
leaving for the summer months, and it further appears that Splendor which
has done the short cruises for years may not be returning. This leaves
just Carnival doing 4,5 and 7 day cruises from that port year round.

Galveston is a great port to sail from if you are within driving distance...
and not too terrible if you fly. Houston (IAH) is a Continental hub and
Hobby is served by SouthWest. Drawback is that both are a fair distance
from the pier with at least an hour+ drive from IAH (Hobby is closer but
fewer flights).

Mostly, the cruise lines are pulling out because the per diems weren't as
much as they could get in other ports and other itineraries. Carnival is
committed to staying in Galveston and loaned the Port of Galveston $$$$ for
improvements to the terminal and passenger loading/unloading area. It used
to be a nightmare getting in and out of there... now it is pretty easy.

I don't see and haven't heard any news about any cruise line operation out
of Galveston year round except Carnival. It is great that the Voyager of
the Seas will be there through April. Down the line, some of us are hoping
that Carnival moves the Conquest out (maybe to replace the Destiny in San
Juan?) and replaces it with a Spirit-class ship.... but that is just wishful
thinking at that point.

New Orleans is still not ready for prime time and I promise not to get off
on a rant about that. Carnival decided to keep the Triumph in Florida
rather than move her to NOLA as scheduled. NCL will run some 7 day cruises
on the Norwegian Spirit from there this winter, and Carnival has the Fantasy
doing 4 and 5 day cruises.

Right now and for the immediate future, there are not a lot of choices when
it comes to sailing out of Galveston or New Orleans.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

October 14, 2007 MOAGC 3 - http://www.moagc-3.com
January 20, 2008 - GGC2008 - http://cruisemaster.com/adventure.htm
June 5, 2008 9 nt from NJ - http://www.cruisemaster.com/explorer.htm

Also, as George pointed out, we Texans
are cheap! They weren't getting the on-board revenue they wanted.

Let's just cross our fingers and see what happens but the best I think
we can hope for are ships winter-porting here when the Alaskan season
runs out.

That is what my daughter (not the MSC one) thought as well when she was
trying to sell art on the Rhapsody last fall. All of those drive ins are
great for the cabin sales, but they don't buy the shore excursions,
don't drink enough, and certainly aren't feeding the casinos the way
they are supposed to. We Floridians are just so much more generous :-)

Hi:

The information you have is pretty accurate. NCL has gone until at
least 2009 when we heard they would reconsider putting a ship in here.
Princess and Celebrity have also split. RCCL is cutting back on their
ships just leaving Carnival to feed the masses.

What we locals are hoping is that the Port of Houston is building a
shiny new state-of-the art cruise terminal at their new Bayport
facility. We'd like to think that the cruise lines are holding back
signing contracts with Galveston until they see how it plays out and to
give it a rest because the "cream" has been skimmed off the top--people
that didn't cruise before because they won't fly, left coasters who
would prefer a 2 1/2 hour flight than a longer one to Miami, etc. Maybe
after a year or two, new "cream" will rise and repeat cruisers will
think about cruising since it would have been a while since they went to
the ports offered.

They had originally expected to open the new terminal by the end of
the year but when they found there weren't going to be any ships around,
they put it on the back burner to finish up the container part of the
port. In reality, what we are afraid of is that when they were seeking
bond money for the new terminal to clutter up our countryside with even
more rusty containers and has had major negative ecological impact on
our wetlands, they dangled the economic impact of cruise ships coming
in. They knew that lack of a great terminal was not keeping the cruise
ships away. What keeps them away are the limited itineraries, distance
from the airport, no close by tourist facilities, the long sail down the
ship channel to the Gulf which is closed down periodically due to oil
spills or accidents and can really create havoc, and the aforementioned
"cream." With no ships coming in, that gave them a great excuse to not
finish the project in a timely manner and get the greater revenue
producing container port done. Also, as George pointed out, we Texans
are cheap! They weren't getting the on-board revenue they wanted.

Let's just cross our fingers and see what happens but the best I think
we can hope for are ships winter-porting here when the Alaskan season
runs out.

Tucker in Texas

Ray Bensch wrote:
I am very curious regarding cruise lines leaving from Galveston. It
seems that Celebrity has left the port, and I seem to remember something
about Princess leaving as well. It also appears that after Rhapsody leaves,
RCCL will move Voyager in for the winter, but she appears to be leaving for
the summer months, and it further appears that Splendor which has done the
short cruises for years may not be returning. This leaves just Carnival
doing 4,5 and 7 day cruises from that port year round.
I'm also not sure that Norwegian is coming out of Houston anymore
either. Does anyone have any info on what's going on in Galveston? That is
my main port to use since I live in Ft. Worth.

Thanks,
Ray B.

Our experience on the Splendour, a year ago last Christmas, was both
excellent and horrible. The ship and cruise were excellent, as was the
port facilities in Galveston. The drive from Hobby wasn't too bad.

The downside was our experience in Houston at the Comfort Inn by Hobby.
It was post-Katrina, and the displaced New Orleans "youth" were
assembled in force by the hotel. During the night, there was actually
gunfire as oppressed youths vied for drug deals. At lunch, a friend's
daughter, who had come to visit with us, had her purse snatched my more
of the poor, oppressed children.

If we were to return to a Galveston cruise, we would 1) stay in a
different area of Houston than around Hobby and 2) hope that there was a
fast and reliable (armored) shuttle service between Houston and the port.

BTW- if I could suggest a single thing needed for Galveston, it would be
a decent hotel within walking distance of the port, including secure,
covered parking. While the Queen Mary in Long Beach was not acceptable
as a hotel, it was both within walking distance of the Pride and offered
covered parking. Perhaps Galveston could purchase a retired ship and
make it's own version of the Queen Mary?

--
---Nonnymus---
You don’t stand any taller by
trying to make others appear shorter.

"Nonnymus" wrote:
BTW- if I could suggest a single thing needed for Galveston, it would be a
decent hotel within walking distance of the port, including secure,
covered parking.

There are at least two within walking distance. The Harbor House and The
Tremont. Other hotels in Galveston offer free parking (some covered) during
your cruise and shuttle to/from the port.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

Nonnymus wrote:

BTW- if I could suggest a single thing needed for Galveston, it would be
a decent hotel within walking distance of the port, including secure,
covered parking.

Flew into Hobby, rented a car and drove down to Galveston that day.
Stayed at the Harbor House (free parking) and returned the car the
following morning (cruise day). Took the free rental car shuttle to the
pier. It worked perfectly.

~ Peri

They have pretty much been arrested or shipped away to New York City.

It would be better if you stayed away though.

Nonnymus wrote:

Our experience on the Splendour, a year ago last Christmas, was both
excellent and horrible. The ship and cruise were excellent, as was the
port facilities in Galveston. The drive from Hobby wasn't too bad.

The downside was our experience in Houston at the Comfort Inn by Hobby.
It was post-Katrina, and the displaced New Orleans "youth" were
assembled in force by the hotel. During the night, there was actually
gunfire as oppressed youths vied for drug deals. At lunch, a friend's
daughter, who had come to visit with us, had her purse snatched my more
of the poor, oppressed children.

If we were to return to a Galveston cruise, we would 1) stay in a
different area of Houston than around Hobby and 2) hope that there was a
fast and reliable (armored) shuttle service between Houston and the port.

BTW- if I could suggest a single thing needed for Galveston, it would be
a decent hotel within walking distance of the port, including secure,
covered parking. While the Queen Mary in Long Beach was not acceptable
as a hotel, it was both within walking distance of the Pride and offered
covered parking. Perhaps Galveston could purchase a retired ship and
make it's own version of the Queen Mary?

Diana Ball wrote:

"Nonnymus" wrote:


BTW- if I could suggest a single thing needed for Galveston, it would be a
decent hotel within walking distance of the port, including secure,
covered parking.



There are at least two within walking distance. The Harbor House and The
Tremont. Other hotels in Galveston offer free parking (some covered) during
your cruise and shuttle to/from the port.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX



Its as good, as its going to get near cruise ship terminals.