Port of Galveston?

[jenhelgren]

I was reading some reviews on the Port of Galveston last night and they were ugly!! I did not read any from DCL cruisers they were all Carnival or RCCL. Almost all reviewers said customs, lines, etc were terrible compared to other ports. We have sailed from Port Canaveral, New Orleans, and Miami in the past. Will Galveston be horrible?? I am crossing my fingers that Disney brings some "magic" to the port and it's not as bad as I read!!

 

[jjje]

We only sailed out of there once but we didn't have any problems at the port. Lines were a breeze and I don't think we waited for anything more than a minute or two. The port itself is pretty ugly with brown water and a lot of industrial looking stuff but I don't suppose there's much Disney can do about that.

 

[Luv2Diz]

We've cruised twice from Galveston. No issues with long lines at all for us. Took only a few minutes to get thru security. No wait to do check-in.

 

[FrogMBA]

I cruised from there in March for Easter on the Magic. The port itself is pretty industrial but Disney has spruced up the terminal that they use to the best of their ability with everything needing to be portable.
Security was efficient and wait times were minimal, the longest wait I had was 10 min and that was in the upgrade line.

I am sailing out of there again in October.

 

[m&m's mom]

I have cruised from or arrived to; PC, Port of LA, Galveston on DCL, and on other lines from: Vancouver, and Puerto Rico..... I personally think there is just not that much of a difference between them.
The port of Galveston is in a more industrial area and not a ton of DCL touches but I thought it was fine. I did not notice a problem w/ Customs; pretty much the same line as PC.

 

[mickeys girl 52]

I also sailed twice out of aGalveston. No problems at all .

 

[alaskanabbott]

One DCL trip out of Galveston- longest and most disorganized arrival out of our 3 DCL cruises.

 

[gumbypee]

Sailed out of Galveston and had no problems

 

[amejiajr8]

Sailed out of Galveston twice Royal & Carnival and didnt have issues.

 

[beaglefan]

Sailed twice out of Galveston, and getting ready for our third this fall. Being from Houston know a lot of folks that sail from there, and the lines have not been an issue at all. Very organized and efficient.

What is lacking is the facility. Port Canaveral is a beautiful facility with a lot of light. This Galveston terminal is more utilitarian. It suits your needs, but you don't want to spend 3 hours sitting and waiting for boarding.

Don't worry -- the lines will be fine and you will be so excited about what's to come you won't think twice about the process.

Enjoy!

 

[TXDCLfan]

I was reading some reviews on the Port of Galveston last night and they were ugly!! I did not read any from DCL cruisers they were all Carnival or RCCL. Almost all reviewers said customs, lines, etc were terrible compared to other ports. We have sailed from Port Canaveral, New Orleans, and Miami in the past. Will Galveston be horrible?? I am crossing my fingers that Disney brings some "magic" to the port and it's not as bad as I read!!

We have cruised twice out of Galveston once on Carnival and the other on Disney both times were hassle free

 

[dacjam]

We typically sail out of Galveston for spring break. When there are two fully loaded ships in port on Sunday, the lines getting off the ship can be a couple hours long. It's also the only port where I've had the customs agent ask each person in every party an individual question from our passports. I understand the negative comments about the port, but I think you'll be fine. Disney has the best disembarkation procedure of any of the lines I've ever sailed. I assume they'll have the same procedure for Galveston. Enjoy your trip.

 

[StephenKay]

Hi there,

I found that after a 5000 mile journey to get there, was not so much the port more the island itself. Frankly it would be easier to find the island in "Lost" a total bummer if you come into Houston Bush airport and not Hobby airport. I found the people of the island helpful apart from those at Enterprise car rental. The port building itself was just a 2nd string cruise port, lines for embarking was fine no great hassles whatsoever.

That said if you want that port to grow, it has to have greater transport links with Houston Bush, how can the ONLY car rental location be closed at half day on a Saturday and all day on the Sunday, they say they aren't allowed to drop people off at the cruise terminal???

If you expect a person to pay $210 for a taxi journey plus tip from Houston to the island then you really need to thing are we doing things right on that island. I would say the people I met during my stay on GALVESTON for a couple of days stay prior to the cruise were nice and helpful.

 

[*Flower*]

Hi there,

I found that after a 5000 mile journey to get there, was not so much the port more the island itself. Frankly it would be easier to find the island in "Lost" a total bummer if you come into Houston Bush airport and not Hobby airport. I found the people of the island helpful apart from those at Enterprise car rental. The port building itself was just a 2nd string cruise port, lines for embarking was fine no great hassles whatsoever.

That said if you want that port to grow, it has to have greater transport links with Houston Bush, how can the ONLY car rental location be closed at half day on a Saturday and all day on the Sunday, they say they aren't allowed to drop people off at the cruise terminal???

If you expect a person to pay $210 for a taxi journey plus tip from Houston to the island then you really need to thing are we doing things right on that island. I would say the people I met during my stay on GALVESTON for a couple of days stay prior to the cruise were nice and helpful.

We flew into Hobby, and it was still difficult to get to where we wanted to go! We'd arranged transportation and luckily were adopted by a desk clerk and driver who weren't who we'd reserved. They were an affiliated partner, and were most helpful- but it kind of left a bad taste in our mouth.
And for that we paid roughly $100 plus tip.
I will say that they were both amazing, and the driver definitely went above and beyond!
If we cruise out of Galveston again, we'll know what to expect.

 

[jenhelgren]

We will be driving down in a rental and park either at the port or somewhere close after I look into pricing/etc. Are the negative transportation comments just based on air travel and getting a rental on the weekend? Will we have any problems with our GPS getting to the island?

 

[Doudounka]

Hi there,

That said if you want that port to grow, it has to have greater transport links with Houston Bush, how can the ONLY car rental location be closed at half day on a Saturday and all day on the Sunday, they say they aren't allowed to drop people off at the cruise terminal???

Well might be one of the reason Disney ain't coming back to Galveston and abandoning it as a port of departure.

Never went there and will use it in our upcoming sailing in octobre, but yeah, getting to port from airports seems to be a pain.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I live in Friendswood. If you fly into Hobby you likely will fly over my house. We were living in Kemah until a few months back. With all the transportation issues I've heard about I'm surprised DCL didn't elect to sail out of the Houston cruise terminal. It's big, new, gorgeous, been sitting there unused for a few years. Yes, it's an industrial area but so is the port at Galveston. There's plenty to see & do between the Space Center and the Kemah Boardwalk. Plenty of hotels. A lot closer to Hobby. I just don't get why Disney seemed to drop the ball on the transportation. You'd think they would've worked something that important out well ahead of the first sailing.

 

[*Flower*]

You shouldn't have any problems with your GPS.
Our problem was that it didn't seem like the car rental companies wanted to pay any attention to anyone wanting to maybe do a one-way rental from the airport.
We had Hertz points that we could have used for a one-way rental, but ran into the same issues as the previous poster renting (or trying to) from Enterprise.

1. The Hertz office was too far away (not even in Galveston proper) and their hours were not user friendly. Half day Saturday and closed Sunday.

2. As usual- the one-way rental fee was outrageous!

We wanted to use DCL transportation, but although we could book it from the cruise terminal to the airport, we couldn't book it from the airport to Galveston because we didn't use DCL to arrange our hotel for the night before the cruise.

Not the most fun- but we got over it. And had a great cruise!