SaturnMom

Hi everyone, thank you for your input. I will ask my hubby if he want to drive all the way from Kansas to Houston or get up super early (4 am) to drive from Dallas to Galveston in the dark. I will give him all the pro and con. If we are driving straight to Houston, I may find a hotel on the outer skirt of Houston to avoid rush hour traffic. Is Friday 8pm still rush hour? 

We try to cut the driving time to 8-10 hours because we don't like to drive after dark, especially on the area that we not familiar with. And the other factor is the boarding time, I haven't check in to the cruise yet, with the ship almost fully booked, I think we will be assigned to a very late boarding time. Then after we park our car, we will have to carry our luggage for hours. 😂

Dear cruise critic member,

I will be appreciated if someone can help me with this. Had anyone drive from Kansas City to Galveston before? I searched the forum but only find two older posts with related topic.  DH booked a last minutes cruise to escape the cold winter. We are sailing out from Galveston on Saturday 4/13 on Carnival Freedom.

My plan is driving from Kansas City to Dallas on Friday, which will take about 7 1/2 to 8 hours. Spend a night at Dallas, then drive another 5 hours down to Galveston the next morning. If we leave Dallas at 7:30 am, then we will arrive Galveston no later than 1 pm. I think it is doable, because lot of fellow cruisers are driving from Dallas of departure day. 

My only concern is if anything happen on I-45 that morning, like accident, that the highway has to close for hours; then we probably not going to make it. But if it happened, then the shuttle service from Houston to Galveston may be affected too, then the cruise line may forced to delay the departure time. Have this happened before? 

I try not to drive straight down to Houston, it will take almost 12 hours and it is not fun. If we move the stopping point to somewhere between Dallas and Houston, do you have any suggestion for a safe town to stay overnight? 

Thanks in advance,

Peggy

We are doing his Grand Island Tour. It is the only tour that we didn't book through Carnival. We were in St. Thomas in May and did the Magen's Bay Beach Tour with Paradise Point. This time, we are doing a "his & her choice" on our own. Hubby wants to go to the Pirates Museum that is next to the entrance to the Paradise Point tram. Then we are taking a taxi to either Coki Beach or Sapphire Beach.

Thanks for your suggestion, I checked with the operator today, and they only offer Grand Island Tour on the day we visit. It is a long tour but I booked it anyway. :D Thanks again.

A six hour tour is going to be a loooong experience, especially with a port every day. Shorter tours make it easier to have lunch on the ship when it's not busy, and a break. The latter part of the day is really good for checking out the local port area near the ship.

 

I wrote a detailed review last week but last I looked it was not yet published. It was a great time all around. Not disappointed in the least. If you have questions let me know.

Can't wait to read your review, please post it out.

You can mitigate this risk by taking an early tour. For example, in St. Lucia, the traffic can get pretty bad coming back from Rodney Bay if you wait until 3 pm to leave, thinking you only have a 30 minute taxi and the deadline is 4:30. Could be stressful... we headed back at 1 pm when there was no traffic, after getting an early start.

 

If you absolutely must "cut it close" on return time, a ship tour may make sense, but you don't have to put yourself in that position. There are plenty of early tours.

 

If the unforeseen does happen, like you wind up in the hospital or something, there's travel insurance for that.

Hi Salty Dingo,

Seem like you just came back from Fascination, how was your trip? I like your idea, and maybe I should pick some 4 hours tour instead of 6 hours. :D

Thanks.

Thank you everyone. If the ship time is the same as local time, then make planning much easier. Hubby wants me to book excursions through Carnival because he doesn't want to take the risk of missing the ship. But I want to save some $$ because we are visiting so many ports.

I told him if we dock at St. Martin from 7am - 5pm, even for a 5 hour tour starts at 9:30 am, we should be back to the pier by 3:30 pm and still have a lot of time to spare. And seem like most of the time, Fascination is the only ship visit the port.

This is my first time visiting Eastern Caribbean, do you have any suggestion for each port? Something that we must do? I am a beach people, so if I can't find anything that I really want to do, I will just take a taxi and spend the whole day swimming and snorkeling.

Thanks.

Great! Thank you. Which tour did you book with Thenford Grey? I am planning to take the taxi and go to the beach.

Hi,

I am going to sail from San Juan in two weeks and ready to book some excursions.Thanks for the lovely CC members' suggestions, I locked into several local tours that I would like to join. When I reading their reviews from TA, some have mixed reviews. Usually for the one with only 1 star, it was because the people almost missed the ship on their return, or missed the meet up time because of the time confusion.

If the Fascination is sailing out from San Juan, and all port of calls are in the same time zone, does it mean the ship time and the local time will be always the same? Thanks in advance. :D:D