Earliest embarkation at Galveston

[DisneYE]

What's the earliest embarkation at Galveston?
Sailing next week.
I called DCL to find out about our transfer from IAH hotel to port and said we're scheduled to be picked up by a shuttle at 9.30. Really? I asked what time we should be at port, she said about 11 am and we can board at that time.
Is this accurate? Is 11 am boarding ever happened? I mean, we'll be happy to board but wow that's early.
Earliest we've ever boarded before on other Disney cruises was 12.00

 

[oumagic]

My port arrival time for Galveston is 11:00AM. I have never cruised Galveston to know how quick they usually get you onboard. I know that there is always a chance of delays.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Our PAT in Galveston last year was 11:30am. We took the 11:00am shuttle from the Hilton Galveston Island, were there by our PAT, and boarding was a walk-on at that point.

 

[DisneYE]

Thanks for the replies @DisneyPiPhi and @oumagic
It seems our PAT is 11.30 - still curious as what is the earliest ppl have boarded the ship at Galveston.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I'm actually thinking we had a noon PAT (first time cruisers) and still took that 11:00 AM shuttle anyway and were on the ship before noon.

I want to say that the earliest PAT that we could theoretically have selected was 10:30 AM (that was full by the time we could select our PAT).

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

It has been many years, but once our PAT was at 10:30am in Galveston.

 

[undertheradar]

Galveston is notorious for fog delays. The sailings this year have been pretty much on schedule, the same cannot be said for last year.

 

[acndis]

We are parking at the port. Our PAT is 11 am. Does anyone know how long the process to park, take the shuttle, go through security, etc. We are planning on getting there at 9:30, too early? We would prefer not to sit and wait at the port but don't want to be in long security/parking lines either!

 

[RAD]

We sailed out of Galveston last month. We used the port parking lots and got their shortly after 10AM. They were using little buses to take people from the port to their cars but not taking anyone back to the port, they said there would be a big bus coming to take us to the port. After waiting 20 minutes on a cold windy day out in the open some people decided to just walk, after 30 minutes they decided to start taking folks to the port in the small buses.

In the terminal checking went very quickly, we had an 11:30 PAT and got to check in about 11:00. IIRC they announced the family of the day about 11:30, and about 11:45 started concierge and a platinum then regular boarding groups.

 

[acndis]

Thank you! This EXACTLY what I needed to know. Is it a far walk from Lot A? If not, we will just do that. We like walking anyway!

 

[RAD]

Thank you! This EXACTLY what I needed to know. Is it a far walk from Lot A? If not, we will just do that. We like walking anyway!

It wasn't that far, but from what I saw there was a lot where there weren't sidewalks. Plus it had rained the day before so there were a lot of puddles to go through, we were glad we just stuck it out and waited on the bus.

 

[Macmaro]

We left Galveston on 12/7. We stayed at the Tremont almost across the street. They provided a free shuttle to the port and we took the 9:30AM. We were the third or forth family in line at 10AM. I believe they opened the doors at 10:30AM. We checked in immediately and took a seat near the ropes. I want to say it was just about 11:30AM when they invited the family of the day aboard. We are Platinum and therefore group 1 so we were on minutes later.

 

[DisneyBelle_x]

sailed from Galveston last month, we had checked in by 11 (were group 8) and at which point boarding hadn't quite started, we boarded at 12.15 and I think they had started it around 12 or just a little before

 

[mocodis]

We left Galveston on 12/7. We stayed at the Tremont almost across the street. They provided a free shuttle to the port and we took the 9:30AM. We were the third or forth family in line at 10AM. I believe they opened the doors at 10:30AM. We checked in immediately and took a seat near the ropes. I want to say it was just about 11:30AM when they invited the family of the day aboard. We are Platinum and therefore group 1 so we were on minutes later.

we were on this cruise and stayed at the Tremont house too. and platinum too.

 

[WiseMan]

Just off the Wonder 12/14-12/21 Merrytime Cruise. We arrived way early to the port and were able to get into
lot A around 10am. We were the first car in line and caught the shuttle they provide. We had a port arrival time of 11:30. We were able to get in line and get our KTTW cards by 11am and onboard before noon.

However, on the 21st, we were delayed getting off the ship due to low tide. We sailed through a heck of a gale the night before to reach the port. The storm and low tides made the ship set too low in the water to bring the luggage off by forklift. They had to unload most of the luggage by hand. We weren't even called to leave the ship to almost 10. I'm sure that boarding was probably delayed.

 

[Snowwhyt]

Can anyone offer their experience taking Disney Transportation from
San Luis Resort, Galveston to the DCL Port?

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Can anyone offer their experience taking Disney Transportation from
San Luis Resort, Galveston to the DCL Port?

Sort of! We stayed at the Hilton Galveston Island last year before our DCL Merrytime cruise. We booked the hotel on our own - not through Disney - and used HHonors points.

The Hilton shares a cruise shuttle with the San Luis Resort. We signed up for a shuttle time at the valet stand upon arrival at the hotel. (We got there around 5:30 PM and there were still early shuttle times available, but they were fairly filled up by the time we got done with dinner at Rainforest Cafe next door - I asked.)

The morning shuttle was right on time, easy, and very quick. We were dropped off very near the porters at the port. I would do the whole thing again in the heartbeat! I am assuming that if people book the San Luis Resort via DCL, they would also take this shuttle? I didn't see any other shuttle buses at the San Luis.

 

[undertheradar]

Can anyone offer their experience taking Disney Transportation from
San Luis Resort, Galveston to the DCL Port?

We've done this on three separate cruises. We booked through DCL and between our TA and DCL, our shuttle was booked for us. An envelope was ready for us at check-in, with directions for the shuttle and time to be at the shuttle area downstairs.

One year the weather was rainy and cold, so a group of dads from the shuttle helped load the luggage. The resort brought down a tray of hot chocolates for those of us who had helped.