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Houston homeport in November 2013

RickEk

By RickEk,
in Princess Cruises

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted

Although a closer distance to the Houstion area airports than Galveston, this port is not in a tourist area like the Galveston dock is.

 

Those who come in a day or more early for a cruise will need to stay in a hotel away from the port and will need a car to visit the numerous attractions that Houston and the Clear Lake area offer.

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AKman2495

AKman2495

Posted
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AH! I just checked out a map. Actually, I am booked on the first two cruises out of there-the 4 day cruise for vets and the following 7 day as a b2b.

 

I see that the port is about 20 miles north of Galveston. Interesting, because it is a lot closer to the airport too.

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Ship's Wake

Ship's Wake

Posted
Posted
AH! I just checked out a map. Actually, I am booked on the first two cruises out of there-the 4 day cruise for vets and the following 7 day as a b2b.

 

I see that the port is about 20 miles north of Galveston. Interesting, because it is a lot closer to the airport too.

 

However those 20 miles are on the Houston Ship Channel which has reduced speeds, and will require about two more hours of cruising time each way than sailing from Galveston. The extra cruising time (and additional fuel) has been a barrier to the Houston cruise port getting more sailings.

 

Also, though it probably has nothing to do with the decision, the evp of Princess is originally from Houston.

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AKman2495

AKman2495

Posted
Posted
How far from Bush and Hobby to the Houston Cruiseport?

 

About 15 miles as the crow flies.

 

I did check my personalizer for the two cruises and it shows the port now as Houston although the booking page for the cruises still shows Galveston.

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spindrift

spindrift

Posted
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FABULOUS. Just heard this on the news. The Bayport Terminal is marvelous. Think how many ports are away from the cities they visit--St. Petersburg, Bangkok, etc. etc. I'm sure they will have tours or transportation from Galveston, Houston, Clear Lake and the like.

 

The Caribbean Princess will be the first, and that will be a good test on response. Hopefully Princess will continue with other ships to other destinations. Galveston is great, but it is small and is a real nightmare sometimes in traffic, boarding, etc. They are doing pretty well handling it, but you can't change the size of Galveston.

 

Thank you Princess for giving it a try. :D

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AKman2495

AKman2495

Posted
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I see the booking engine on the website still says Galveston. The Veterans curise says Houston. I imagine the programmers are working on it?

 

HA! when I checked the personalizer I saw the change to Houston and that they had booked a transfer on the turn around day of my b2b.

 

I e-mailed my tA and she said the Princess people hadn't heard about it yet. She talked to a supervisor who confirmed it and took care of the transfers.

 

The supervisor said the TA's were going to get an E-mail from them tomorrow.

 

Once again, Cruise Critic is ahead of then game....

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AKman2495

AKman2495

Posted
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How many veterans cruises are planned? My family will be sailing thanksgiving week. We live in Houston so this is great news!! Wish it was the Crown though cause this will be our second Caribbean Princess sailing.

 

Thanks

 

So far, there is only one. The Caribbean Princess had a 4 day "Caribbean sampler" set for 11/5-9 of 2013. THat is what I booked.

 

About 1week later the site said that booking were closed as the ship was sold out, which seemed odd to me. THen just over a week ago, they announced that the cruise was to benefit 2 veterans groups. The CEO of Princess will be aboard and they have many activities such as receptions for each service, lectures and a film festival.

 

The cruise is called "Cruise for a cause". So, I would expect Princess might be setting up to do more of them for different causes.

 

I guess only time will tell......

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satxdiver

satxdiver

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This is good news as I have never liked the warehouse turned "terminal" at Galveston nor particularly cared for Galveston. I always stay in the Clear Lake area when cruising out of Galveston because it is much cheaper and has better restaurants that are not overrun with tourists and a price to match. Houston built a new multimillion dollar pax cruise terminal which is suppose to be quite nice. It is a short few mile distance from Clear Lake.

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john_galt

john_galt

Posted
Posted

Houston really works for me! We can fly from Dallas Love Field on Southwest. I heard the Bayport Terminal is very nice. The only time I sailed from Galveston, I had priority boarding and it was quick and easy. However, the terminal itself was underwhelming.

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bellebaby

bellebaby

Posted
Posted

This is really good news for us. We live in the Houston area and were already booked for Dec. 14th out of Galveston. We never really liked the Galveston facility or area and look forward to the new adventure.

 

We're also looking forward to the NCL Jewel in 2014.

 

YEA!!!!

 

B

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caribill

caribill

Posted
Posted

Reason for using Bayport

 

Mierzwa said one of the new cruise lines — Princess Cruises — chose to dock at the Bayport terminal, which has sat mostly vacant since its completion in 2008, because Galveston’s cruise terminal is too heavily booked on the weekends when its ships would be arriving.

 

“Right now, we don’t have any room when they want to sail on the weekend,” Mierzwa said. “I know in the case of Princess, they didn’t want three cruise ships arriving on Saturdays, and I understand that.”

 

The Galveston Daily News reports that the Port of Galveston was working to borrow $12 million to upgrade its docks so three cruise ships could arrive on the same day. However, the upgrades still would not be enough to avoid crowding, and Princess was concerned about customer satisfaction.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/2012/11/friends-or-foes-galveston-and-houston.html?ana=e_hstn_rdup&s=newsletter&ed=2012-11-16

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gotta cruise again "Live from...." Rare

gotta cruise again

Posted
Posted

In Dec. 2005, it was only the second time Galveston had 3 ships in port on the same day, with the Grand being one of them. We had to check in at the San Luis hotel as the other two ships were using the terminal. Princess had small-ish passenger busses to transport folks to the pier once they had checked in. If I remember correctly, folks were to drop of luggage at the pier and could shuttle to the hotel to check in. Then they had to wait around (ballroom set up for this with snacks) as shuttles arrived so they could then return to the pier to board. (My group had our own private bus hired for our special birthday surprise party so we got the OK to leave for the pier shortly after the group checked in :D )

 

Needless to say, the ship didn't leave port until a few hours after scheduled departure time. I would rather sail a couple of hours through the ship channel than sit in a hotel ballroom.

 

We're on the Crown in January and will also stay outside of Galveston the night before (probably Texas City) and just park at one of the walk-to-the-ship lots. Bayport will be even more convenient as we'll be able to park at friends or relatives homes and they can use our car to drive us to the pier!!

 

I haven't looked it up (I should know from living in the Houston area for almost 25 years--not there any longer though) but is the Bayport terminal the same as the terminal in La Porte? In the late 1990's, NCL had an older, small ship positioned for a time in La Porte. NCL had an open house where anyone could come and walk through the ship, which we did. It was such a sad sight compared to the original Regal Princess we had sailed about a year or two before!

 

In either location, I'm just glad Princess is giving the area another go. I wish they'd have some 10 day trips too!

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normandes

normandes

Posted
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Live 5 minutes from Bayport cruise terminal in a old shrimping/sailing town called seabrook. Shrimpboats are gone but boating/sailing is still here. Have many hotels within 15 minute drive of port, good local owned resturants and the Kemah Boardwalk is very close...kids love that place. I believe the Clear Lake Area is the 4th largest boating area in the U.S. Johnson Space Center is about 15 minutes away and we now have the space shuttle trainer. We have a lot of small cities within 15 minutes of port...Webster,Nassua Bay, El Lago, Taylor Lake, Seabrook, El Jardine and of course parts of Houston and Pasadena... all these cities combined under title of Clear Lake. Hobby Airpor is about 25-30 minutes and IAH 50 minutes. The terminal is beautiful and has a lot of land that could be developed with restutrants and hotels. If one is interrested in cargo ports there is one right next door and very intresting to watch a boat unload, as it uses the newest technology. Very excited and hope to be on the Veterans Cruise.

 

let me know if you have any questions

bonnie

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