City of Galveston/Royal Caribbean

Wonderful news for us cruisers and for Galveston economy. Yes to more hotels since we always drive to the port the day before a cruise.

Seem to be inching closer to a deal to build a 3rd cruise terminal fueling speculation that an Oasis class ship will home port in Galveston! :cool:

I have actually heard this from a travel agent who got the scoop straight from RCCL. Guess we'll wait and see! ;)

Wonderful news for us cruisers and for Galveston economy. Yes to more hotels since we always drive to the port the day before a cruise.

Tugboat might tell you to bring a tent! lol

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With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in Houston over there.

Such a waste.

fog

with a perfectly good terminal and pier in baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in houston over there.

 

Such a waste.

fog

Awesome!

With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in Houston over there.

 

Such a waste.

The Houston cruiseport ist kaput.

It is now part of a commercial dock:(.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2016/07/27/port-of-houston-officially-exits-the-cruise.html

If another terminal is coming to Galveston I'd like to see another cruiseline there, maybe one with enough imagination to offer longer trips e.g. Panama, Cartagena etc. I have little interest in the likes of Oasis.

Of course if Royal is building it that won't happen unless their second ship does something different.

Regarding the old commercial docks, has Fertitta's plan to redevelop some of that area progressed at all?

With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in Houston over there.

 

Such a waste.

8 hours to the Gulf

Tugboat might tell you to bring a tent! lol

 

 

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I would if it wasn't for that 55 minute drive to the dock

8 hours to the Gulf

8 hours?

Sounds more like New Orleans than Houston.

I'm interested to see how the itinerary would change. I would think it would have to with current itineraries out of Galveston including Grand Cayman & Belize. Tender ports would have to be dropped. How far East could they get on a 7 day out of there? Seems to me they could make it to at least the Bahamas.

With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in Houston over there.

 

Such a waste.

I think it also has something to do with absolutely nothing around Baytown. Nobody wants to go there.

Rhapsody use to do key west and carnival gets all the way to the Bahamas . No way oasis class is fitting in key west, they tried with voyager class and it failed. Oasis class will be pretty much same route as liberty minus grand cayman due to tendering. I say bring it on I like different ships more the different places.

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If pier 10 does come into play, I don’t see anywhere for close parking. So you would have to be shuttled to all the parking lots. Pier 10 is close to UTMB all their limited parking goes to the college kids and hospital workers.

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My guess, and it is nothing more than that, is Royal may still be weighing the options and even if they had a plan, it could change between now and 2020. I'll just go on record and guess Harmony.

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Why Harmony? She is just beginning a rotation in PC. Kind of pricey to move her after just one year. I imagine she'll stay in PC until spring 2021.

 

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Sure hope your right John, my least favorite ship

We might get a good repositioning cruise when the new ship comes in. Airfare only 1way, drive home from Hobby or IAH. I’ll be looking for this one.

 

 

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Same for us!

With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up. Just a little ways up the bay and no problems getting from the airports in Houston over there.

 

Such a waste.

Not going to happen, too far/Fog and will get new/er larger Terminal with additional parking required...

Baytown: Nope..no local support..ie, parking, hotels, restaurants, entertainment...plus the long time it takes to get down the ship channel. Galveston: strong infrastructure, destination already, and, almost more importantly, the support of the island population and politicians.

But we all speculate, and hope, at this point in time, only a potential plan.

And my guess it would be Oasis class, not one of the newbies.

Symphony is new and Oasis class

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Hopefully they will also build a car rental outlet that is open on Sundays! Getting to Galveston from Houston is such a chore hat it makes me not want to sail from there.

^^This. We would cruise out of Galveston again as flights to Houston are pretty good from western Canada but the lack of options for transport to Galveston is why we've only done this once.

If Texas wants more tourist to sail from Galveston they should get rid of there stupid law that requires cruise lines from selling only booze with a texas stamp on it till they get 10 miles out

With a perfectly good terminal and pier in Baytown, why don't they sink a few million in that and build it up.

I truncated your post, but here's your answer. No terminal is in Baytown. The terminal that was capable was Bayport, actually in the city of Pasadena. The Port Authority spent millions of dollars building the facility with no long term contract in place. Princess had a short term run and Carnival used it for five sailings after Ike damaged the terminals here in Galveston, but it was never a viable option. There is little in the way of facilities close by. It failed miserably. The building is in long term lease to a shipping company.

Nearly thirty years ago NCL had two old ships here for a while and they sailed from Barbours Cut in La Porte. They were moldy, musty old ships and the newer class ran them off.

The average amount of sailings delayed by fog has been an average of five over the past decade. Those are decent numbers.

The single biggest reason is economics. Until the ships reach twelve miles out the casino can't open, bar service is subject to the TABC tax and the onboard shops don't open. Sailings from Bayport require an at least an hour longer sail time to reach that point.

Galveston has five ships now, four full time. There are 5000 hotel rooms on the island and I-45 is only months away from the largest expansion and improvement since it opened. Things are looking good for sailing from Texas.

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