Hotels at Galveston

[LullabeeDisney]

I saw that it's recommended to show up a day prior to your sail date, just to make sure there's no delays on your end getting on board.

I was curious if anyone has stayed in Galveston/surrounding hotels and had suggestions? I will have a DS (5) who's SN and a significant other with cancer, so the less walking etc the better. (one of the reasons why I chose cruise over the parks!)

Thanks for the help!

 

[LSUfan4444]

I saw that it's recommended to show up a day prior to your sail date,

My opinion is to just not fly in on your sail date (or have a drive longer than say 1.5 - 2 hours) not that you need to be in Galveston the night before you cruise..

There are a few options in Galveston but Houston has alot more to choose from (and more to do) if you happen to be flying into to Houston. We've done the Hilton (included free parking for length of cruise, free shuttle to/from cruise)

 

[cmph]

We stayed at the San Luis, with a stay/shuttle/park package. They let you park in the garage or on an open lot for the cruise duration, even gave us an extra full day at the end in case the ship got in late and so we could have a meal nearby without worrying about the car retrieval immediately. One of the shuttles had a guest in a wheelchair, so that would be accommodated if you needed it. It's a big hotel, but I didn't feel like we did a lot of walking, since it was mostly up-down. Every room had a view of the beach, with a balcony, which was really nice. They have a few restaurant options on-site, so no need to go elsewhere for that, but there is also a Rainforest Cafe literally next door; it even has a ride in it. The pool area was really, really nice too. It was heated, had a swim-up bar, water slide. I thought the room and beds were quite nice, and I can be a little particular about things being dated or dirty looking. I would absolutely stay there again. I would have stayed there more than 1 night if I had known how nice the pool area was! My kids loved it.

The one negative was the shuttle system. I felt like abandoning it after we'd been waiting a bit. It's really confusing - there are 2 shuttle groups stopping at the San Luis. One also picks up at a Holiday Inn, the other at a Hilton. One ran like clockwork; ours didn't. Ours was late, as we watched the other driver come and go twice while ours failed to arrive, and the driver was kind of a jerk. DH essentially loaded our stop's luggage on to the back by himself - another guest thought he was an employee!! They also do not make very clear to you that you have to pre-book the shuttle time. I know some guests didn't find out they were supposed to do that until the night before. My TA got on them about the shuttle, so ours had been taken care of well in advance. I am not sure if that day-of confusion is the norm for their shuttle system, or if we had a bad driver on an off-day, though.

 

[LullabeeDisney]

My opinion is to just not fly in on your sail date (or have a drive longer than say 1.5 - 2 hours) not that you need to be in Galveston the night before you cruise..

There are a few options in Galveston but Houston has alot more to choose from (and more to do) if you happen to be flying into to Houston. We've done the Hilton (included free parking for length of cruise, free shuttle to/from cruise)

Well, we'd be coming from the north on a drive (it's only a 10 hour drive with stops), so we'd be there at least the night before. I've been eyeing Marriott because the significant other's father is a manager at one, so we get employee discounts.. the only negative is the cheaper ones are still an hour away from Galveston. So weighing pros/cons right now.

We stayed at the San Luis, with a stay/shuttle/park package. They let you park in the garage or on an open lot for the cruise duration, even gave us an extra full day at the end in case the ship got in late and so we could have a meal nearby without worrying about the car retrieval immediately. One of the shuttles had a guest in a wheelchair, so that would be accommodated if you needed it. It's a big hotel, but I didn't feel like we did a lot of walking, since it was mostly up-down. Every room had a view of the beach, with a balcony, which was really nice. They have a few restaurant options on-site, so no need to go elsewhere for that, but there is also a Rainforest Cafe literally next door; it even has a ride in it. The pool area was really, really nice too. It was heated, had a swim-up bar, water slide. I thought the room and beds were quite nice, and I can be a little particular about things being dated or dirty looking. I would absolutely stay there again. I would have stayed there more than 1 night if I had known how nice the pool area was! My kids loved it.

The one negative was the shuttle system. I felt like abandoning it after we'd been waiting a bit. It's really confusing - there are 2 shuttle groups stopping at the San Luis. One also picks up at a Holiday Inn, the other at a Hilton. One ran like clockwork; ours didn't. Ours was late, as we watched the other driver come and go twice while ours failed to arrive, and the driver was kind of a jerk. DH essentially loaded our stop's luggage on to the back by himself - another guest thought he was an employee!! They also do not make very clear to you that you have to pre-book the shuttle time. I know some guests didn't find out they were supposed to do that until the night before. My TA got on them about the shuttle, so ours had been taken care of well in advance. I am not sure if that day-of confusion is the norm for their shuttle system, or if we had a bad driver on an off-day, though.

Thanks for the good and bad! I'm taking notes and I'll check there as well The parking for cruise is a nice idea.. how is security there? We obviously wouldn't leave valuables in it and it'd be locked, but that's one of my major concerns with parking for 8 days.

 

[cmph]

Thanks for the good and bad! I'm taking notes and I'll check there as well The parking for cruise is a nice idea.. how is security there? We obviously wouldn't leave valuables in it and it'd be locked, but that's one of my major concerns with parking for 8 days.

We had a rental, and we pretty much only left dirty laundry in it, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to whether they had guards around the garage. The open lot didn't appear to have anyone watching it, as far as I could tell, but maybe there were cameras mounted there? Other than when the return shuttle dropped us there (which is where they all do drop-off), I didn't go there. You have to cross a street to get to it. The garage is partially underground and attached to the hotel directly, so I would assume they monitor it more closely and would try to park there again. The dated tags you have to hang from your rearview mirror are pretty pointless unless someone has the job of wandering around to make sure only cars that are supposed to be there are there, but who knows! Staff is all over the place all the time there - gardening, assisting with luggage, etc. The area itself is perfectly fine, so I really wasn't that concerned. I wouldn't be more concerned about parking there than, say, a WDW hotel. fwiw, in all my research, I never read an account of a car break-in there.

 

[LullabeeDisney]

We had a rental, and we pretty much only left dirty laundry in it, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to whether they had guards around the garage. The open lot didn't appear to have anyone watching it, as far as I could tell, but maybe there were cameras mounted there? Other than when the return shuttle dropped us there (which is where they all do drop-off), I didn't go there. You have to cross a street to get to it. The garage is partially underground and attached to the hotel directly, so I would assume they monitor it more closely and would try to park there again. The dated tags you have to hang from your rearview mirror are pretty pointless unless someone has the job of wandering around to make sure only cars that are supposed to be there are there, but who knows! Staff is all over the place all the time there - gardening, assisting with luggage, etc. The area itself is perfectly fine, so I really wasn't that concerned. I wouldn't be more concerned about parking there than, say, a WDW hotel. fwiw, in all my research, I never read an account of a car break-in there.

Ah okay. I was mainly curious because the port website advertises "cops/security monitoring the garage 24/7!" so I wasn't sure of the area. Thanks for the reply. (I'm trying to hit 10 posts naturally without spam.. lol).

 

[dcassetta]

Staying closer to Houston so you can take advantage of the discount at a Marriott would be fine. There are several safe cruise parking areas with shuttles. I have used http://www.lighthouseparking.org/ - which has shuttle and http://www.galvestonparkncruise.com/ which is across the street from the ship.

 

[MUN]

We stayed at a Marriott Springhill Suite in Galveston and we liked it well enough.

 

[undertheradar]

The San Luis has 24/7 security, both foot and vehicle patrols. We have stayed here the past two December Wonder cruises and will stay here again this December.

There are several dining options nearby the San Luis and the Hilton. The Marriott properties were further west, but didn't appear to be far from the port.

 

[cruiser21]

Stay at the Hilton. You get free parking for a week and free shuttle to port. There are many hotels in Galveston that offers this.

 

[phinz]

The garage is partially underground and attached to the hotel directly, so I would assume they monitor it more closely and would try to park there again.

A little side note of interest: For most of my years growing up in Galveston and the surrounding area, that parking garage was an abandoned gun casement, Battery Hoskins, part of the Fort Crockett Coastal Battery, which was built during WW II.

 

[sambycat]

the hotel galvez is neat and you can see over to the port from there, and they have a great shuttle service and you can park your car at the hotel while you cruise i believe for free. we really yenjoyed it and would definitely stay there again if we cruise out of galveston

 

[sambycat]

side note re: doing a lot for parking. it is often foggy and it seems like a fair amount of time ships can be delayed coming in or out of galveston due to weather. one year we were delayed coming back into port by many hours - and this could be affecting obviously more than one cruise ship at a time. even if you have a reserved spot at a lot, conceivably, if the lot were full, there might not be a spot available for you because the owner of the car is stuck on their ship. now of course this isn't going to happen a ton, but it's enough that we saw the lines and line of cars waiting to get into the lots once we finally got off the ship (we had no such problem getting onto the part when we embarked), but its something to think about.

 

[KatieKepic]

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn (Marriott owned) in Texas City on our last cruise. It was only about 20 min to Galveston and it had an indoor pool which was really nice as it wasn't warm enough to swim outside and we were delayed due to fog so it helped kill some time.

The year before we stayed at Harbor House which is right next to the port. I loved getting to see the ship come into port from our window.

We always park at EZ cruise parking and have never had any problems. My husband drops the kids, luggage and I off at the port and then goes to park.

 

[mmouse37]

We stayed at the Hilton and it was fine but if I had access to a discount at a Marriott I would certainly do that. We took advantage of the shuttle and it left from the Hilton and then picked up people at the San Luis next door.

When we got there the day before we signed up for the shuttle and they only had a noon time available. I wanted earlier and was bummed. We checked later in the day and they had scheduled another shuttle so we were able to book a 10:30 am time on that one.

MJ

 

[okamy]

We also enjoyed the Hotel Galvez and found its park and cruise package very convenient. The rooms were on the smaller side, but it was fine for a one-night stay. The pool area was very nice, if you arrive in time to enjoy it. The shuttle service to and from the cruise terminal was fast and efficient. We are sailing out of Galveston again this year and already have the Galvez booked.