Because a flight to Houston takes about half as long as a flight to Ft. Lauderdale from Los Angeles, cruises embarking from nearby Galveston, Texas, have become quite popular with Southern Californians. It actually is possible to fly out of LAX in the morning and catch a cruise that afternoon, despite the time change, but in this age when airlines cancel flights and bump passengers seemingly at will, flying in the night before gives most of us a greater sense of security.
We flew into Houston the night before our cruise with a small group. The non-stop flight feels short, although arriving at the airport the requisite two hours early keeps it from being a quick jaunt. We arranged for Houston Limousines to pick us up at the airport, and cell phones made it easy to meet up with our driver, despite the fact that he wasn't standing there holding a sign when we arrived at baggage claim. The "limousine" was a large SUV, and in the hard rain storm pounding the area, it felt very secure on the highway.
The propensity for rain is one of the downsides of departing from Galveston. Many clients have mentioned it raining when they embarked on similar trips. It slowed our transport a bit, but we arrived at the Galveston Hilton about an hour after departing the airport. Located by the beach seawall and a short walk from the Rainforest Cafe, the Hilton is well located for a scenic stay, but the constant rain dampened our enthusiasm. Most everyone in our group went out to nearby Landry's Seafood for what reportedly was a delicious meal, but our family ate at the hotel restaurant before turning in.
The next morning, we walked to breakfast at the International House of Pancakes, hoping the skies would clear long enough to enjoy the pool. After breakfast, despite the fact the sky stayed gloomy, we managed to enjoy the pool a bit. Amy, Jamie and I then walked over to the Rainforest Cafe to look around the gift shop and see the fish in the giant aquarium.Against my better judgement, we took the shuttle over to the cruise ship before noon. When we hit the old west port area of Galveston, the major traffic jam was a clue that things would not go smoothly. Because it was such an overcast and rainy day, a lot of others decided to head to the port early too, and an absurdly long line formed an hour before the boarding was scheduled to begin. Unfortunately, some problem caused the ship to disembark the previous sailing of passengers three hours late, and of course the crew needs time to clean the ship and prepare it for the next batch of vacationers, so the delay became quite long.
We should have gone over to old downtown Galveston, which is right across the street from the port, but instead we just stood in line for literally hours. When the line started moving, people crowded and cut in from the other side, and that heated tempers fueled by frustration. Many blamed Princess, but much was out of their control. On this holiday weekend, a triple witching hour had more ships in port than at any other time of year, and the port simply didn't have the personnel to handle the volume. Those who bought transfers from Princess ended up in a more pleasant environment, at least seated in a holding area instead of standing in line.
All's well that ends well, and we finally boarded the ship and enjoyed a fantastic cruise. What lessons can be learned? On a holiday sailing, transfers with the cruise ship are a good choice. For arrival on your own, while the rule of thumb used to be to arrive early and beat the crowds, sometimes it pays to procrastinate and arrive about two hours before the ship embarks, especially for holiday and summer sailings that attract families, who tend to arrive early, on very large ships. On our summer cruise, we also had arrived too early and had a long delay, although nothing compared to the nightmare created by the previous cruise disembarking late.
If you want to go to the Western Caribbean, cruising from Galveston can be a good choice for saving time on flights, but the long commute from the Houston airports and the fact that...let's face it....all cruises from Galveston go to Cozumel keeps it from being the natural choice over more efficient Miami/Ft. Lauderdale for the Caribbean.
