soundman10f

It will be docked at Cruise Terminal 25 or 28. Only Royal Caribbean ships dock at terminal 10.

Just some advice, take it or leave it that's up to you, but think of the worst case scenario & ask your self if it's worth the trouble. Best case, from what I have read over the past year, most ships here are getting self-disembark going between 7:30-8:30am. If that happens you are probably leaving the port around 30 minutes after walking off the ship with a 90 minute drive to the air port (IAH) with no traffic. In that case yes it is doable. But worst case, there is fog in the port that morning and the ship doesn't dock till after 8 or 9am (I have been watching the web cams the past month for our upcoming May cruise and most are docked by 6:30am but no fog this time of year). That could mean self-disembark starts at 9 or 10am or later. That puts you at the airport (again with no traffic or road construction) right around 11am or 12pm. What if your shuttle is running late or you use Uber/Lyft & they keep dropping your fare (I have seen reports of this happening)? I will also take this time to say that I45 south has been under construction for the past 10 years, with varying lane closures once or twice a month on the weekends, and it is still not done (I drive south bound a couple time a month on I45 during the morning on the weekends and had to deal with it several times). It is a real gamble to try any flights from IAH before 2pm in my opinion. You can make it if everything goes right, but it only takes 1 thing to go wrong and your missing you flight. I wish you best of luck with your travels no matter which you chose.

Thank you. I had seen your post before and flagged it to read but never got through it. I went through it this morning and found it very helpful, especial the info about the specialty dinning. I still have some anxiety about it all as I am not great when it comes to speaking up about my dietary needs, but I am thankfully my wife will be there with me & she has no issues speaking up for me.

Anyone know about eating gluten-free on Allure recently? Going on Allure at the end of May and I am very nervous as this is the first time cruising for me after finding out I have celiac disease. We got the UDP when we booked the cruise a year ago and I am really wanting to take advantage of it. Also a lot of post I have read about the MDR menu change & being celiac make it sound like there is not many choices. Thanks for any input anyone might have.

And they released a new map recently with a new covered parking option at the Royal Caribbean Terminal.

This has changed. Uber final signed a deal with the port and can now pick up and drop off at the pier.

This has changed. The Port of Galveston recently announced that Uber signed a deal with them so they can enter the cruise terminals. With the new Royal Caribbean opening in the next month and a half Uber saw the light and agreed to sign the ports deal.

Here is a map of the new parking lots for the new terminal.

If your leaving from Pearland, then give yourself an hour to an hour & 15 minutes. Should only take 45 minutes but that gives you plenty of time for traffic or if they close lanes again for the ever on going construction.

If I were you I would leave at 10pm and get a hotel somewhere along I45 south, between beltway 8 & League City. Puts you less then an hour from the port and going out bound when then mourning rush hour is in bound. If boarding time is 11am means you don't have to leaves the hotel till 9:30 am at the latest. Also there are cheaper hotels in that area then on Galveston. I know that it probably sucks but better then driving in that morning and something like a break down happens and you miss your cruise. Best of luck.

I have seen many posts over the years asking for info getting to the Galveston cruise terminals, mostly from the Airports, and as someone who lives in the Houston area & drives to Galveston several times a year & often to a friend's house that is halfway to Galveston I try to help with the knowledge I have of traffic & construction info. So I thought I would create a post with the info I know to help others. I don’t claim to know everything or every possible route but I hope what I do share can help others coming to cruise out of Galveston. First of all the only viable route onto Galveston island for a cruise is Interstate 45, unless you're driving in from Louisiana or southwest Texas. There is a different route option for each of those directions but for now I will just focus on coming from the 2 Houston Airports which for the most part will also help most people driving in from anywhere north of Houston. Heading from IAH (Bush airport) the best route is to take interstate 69 (aka state highway 59) to downtown Houston to interstate 45 then take I-45 all the way onto the island. There are also many alternate routes which I will list next. As you can see on the map below there are 2 other routes to get around downtown and any traffic or construction there might be the day you cruise. Those routes are Beltway 8 and are toll roads most of the way. The east side of beltway 8 is faster and less congested than the west side, as the west side will take a ways out of the way. Also you could take a route from IAH to the west onto the Hardy toll road which will take you to I-610 loop which you can take to the east and get to I-69 or continue around the loop to I-45 south. You could also take I-610 west to I-45 then head south. Another route you could take is to travel south from the airport and take Beltway 8 to the west to I-45 then head south. This part of Beltway 8 is not tolled and free to drive on. Lastly in the 2nd map below is a last ditch effort route. It is possible to head from the airport to either Beltway 8 or I-69 south then Beltway 8 around to state highway 225, and then to state highway 146 which merges with I-45 just before the Galveston causeway. This route would be the slowest of all of them and has an area that is under construction for the next year or more, but if I-45 south has a major backup on it, this route could get you by it. There are some tolls along the Beltway 8 portion and when you get to the part of state highway 146 that is under construction it has stop lights on it from there till it merges with I-45. I will include a map of where the construction is on state highway 146 at the bottom of the post. Next I will cover from Hobby airport along with alternatives for construction on I-45 south. The best route is to head east from the airport and get on I-45 south which will take you all the way onto Galveston island. The big note on this route is I-45 south has been under construction for years & years, and has years of planned construction to go. Here is a map of current & future areas of construction. At the very top of the area under construction I-45 goes from about 5 lanes down to 3 lanes and because of the construction sometimes less than 3 lanes (yesterday 7/23/22 it was down to 1 lane and had about a 30-40 minute delay that I had to get around and is the reason I decided to make this post). 1. The first alternative & maybe fastest one is state highway 3 (aka old Galveston road). The catch is it is not a normal elevated highway, is usually a busy road, has many stop lights and the speed limit for most of it is 45 MPH or less. The big advantage of it is it is close to I-45. If I-45 has a major backup you can hop off and head east to highway 3 and take it south all the way till it merges with 146 & I-45 right before the Galveston causeway or just get around the traffic jam then head back over to I-45. 2. A little bit of an out of the way route is to head west from the airport and get on state highway 35 and take it to state highway 6, which then merges with I-45 just before the Galveston causeway. Just like state highway 3, state highway 6 is not elevated and has stop lights on it but is not usually as busy as state highway 3 and should have less stop lights. It is more of a rural route with less gas stations & stores to stop at but there are some. 3. There is one last ditch route to list, almost the same one I listed for IAH, but I did not make a map for it as it is way out of the way. But if all other routes are bad this could save you. You can take I-45 south from the Airport to Beltway 8 east, take that to state highway 225 east, then state highway 146 south which eventually merges with I-45 just before the Galveston causeway. This is a long out of the way route that is not worth it unless I-45 & both state highways 3 & 6 are both jammed. It has tolls on it, 146 is under construction and the last half of 146 is not elevated and has stop lights on it. Again this is a last ditch effort route if everything else is backed up. The last thing to note is there are several routes to the cruise terminals once you get on to Galveston. The main route which most people take as it has signs leading to the terminals is to exit I-45 just after crossing over the Galveston causeway at Harborside drive and taking it all the way to the terminals. You can stay on I-45 which turns into Broadway street and turn down one of the many side streets that head towards Harborside drive. The 2 shown on the map below are 51st street or 33rd. Even better options are to go to 22nd St/Kempner St which dead ends into the current entrance to terminals 1 & 2, or go past all the way to 19th street or 14th street and cut over to Harborside drive and back up to the terminals. Some major notes about the Galveston Cruise terminals are as follows; currently there are 2 of them with a new 3rd terminal being built for Royal Caribbean which should open at the end of Oct or beginning of Nov 2022 if construction stays on track. This terminal will be for Royal ships only & all other lines will use terminals 1 & 2. The city & port are also working on the streets around all the terminals to make it easier and faster to get to them, which means the fastest routes on the island might change in the next few years. Finally, there are 2 more images below which show the cruise terminal locations along with a satellite map which shows the location of a possible 4th terminal which is currently being considered. No news which cruise lines would use this 4th terminal but I would bet that Carnival ships would be the main users of it. Here is the above mentioned map of state highway 146 where the current construction is taking place. This is not an exhaustive list but the best and fastest routes I know. I welcome any tips or secret routes anyone else might like to add. Thank you for your time and I hope this helps someone.

As someone who lives in the area and drives south on 45 almost every weekend I can tell you traffic is completely unpredictable. Most weekends it is fine, some it is a nightmare. Since you are arriving at the airport at 2pm then heading down you should be good as traffic heading down to Galveston at that time should be lite as most people heading down there go earlier in the day. No. The construction currently on 45 south on the way to Galveston is not scheduled to be completed for several more years. It's just something we locals have to live with & visitors just have to be prepared for. Sorry. I would be prepared for it to take 2 hours to go from IAH to Galveston & hope it only takes 1 hour. Best of luck.

Oh BTW here is a link to a webcam in Galveston that most of the time is focused on the dock where they are building the new terminal. I have seen it move and show other views now and then but it always comes back to the dock and stays there most of the time. If you want to watch the progress. https://www.visitgalveston.com/webcams/north-galveston-webcam/

In the news story I linked above they said that the parking lots would have a over 2,000 parking spaces. Allure has about 5,000 passengers. If you consider that some people take a shuttle from the airports & from hotels, and some will use other cheaper parking lots & shuttle over, and also consider that most people driving have more then 2 people in each vehicle there will be plenty of parking with these lots, no garage needed. Now if you want garages so that your vehicle is in the shade and not sitting in the hot Texas sun I completely understand & I hope that they build some kind of covered parking on these lots.

Here is a link to a KPRC channel 2 news article that has a map with the new parking on it. Should help you out. I also add it as a image in case the link doesn't work. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2022/05/10/first-on-2-kprc-2-gets-dibs-on-inside-look-of-port-of-galvestons-new-high-tech-terminal/