New ships to sail out of Houston

[Littlegoo75]

Whoo Hoo! I knew it was going to happen eventually. NCL and Princess will start sailing out of the Bayport Cruise Terminal in 2013 and 2014. Now, I am a Carnival faithful, and I really wish Carnival would opt for Bayport as well, but I think more ships and more cruiselines sailing out of the Houston/Galveston seaport areas is going to be a good thing for us cruisers, as more ships = more competition = better fares for us. I think that puts all of the major cruiselines sailing out of our area now; Carnival, RCCL, Princess, NCL, and Disney. I guess the only (major) cruiseline missing is Holland America.

I live North of the city, and Bayport is only a 30 minute drive for us opposed to an hour to Galveston. In the grand scheme of things, that's not a big difference, but it is still exciting news to have another port being used now.

 

I have been in the Bayport Cruise terminal several times, and it is a VERY nice facility. It's a shame it has been sitting there unused for so long. They have been trying to get Norwegian to come back for some time now, I guess it's finally happening.

 

This may also lead to the area being built up with more restaurants and entertainment venues. This could be a very good thing for the city of Houston.

[douglinc@msn.com]

That is good news, a little more competion is really a good thing and I'm sure it won't be long before that area will start to grow.

 

Doug

[crewsweeper]

That is good news. Unless the area has changed over the past few years, though, there's nothing in the LaPorte area except refineries and empty land. Pretty desolate for tourists. I guess if you go down to Kemah, you'd find some places along the boardwalk.

[64drvr]

Its not in LaPorte...your thinking the Barbars Cut Terminal...Its south closer to Seabrook off of Port Road. Plenty to do and those of us who live here are excited.

[mickide]

I would be very excited if I had a port closer to me...however, I would probably be cruising 3-4 times a year instead of 2! Nothing wrong with that though :p.

Closest ports are Seattle which is about 4 hours away (have already done the Alaska cruise) and Los Angeles which is an 18 hr drive (or 2 hr flight). So when I have to fly to Florida, it costs almost as much (or more) than the cruise itself.

Happy for you to have something so close, but really jealous at the same time :).

[Littlegoo75]

Hopefully Bayport will end up being used on a regular basis now, and it will cause more attractions to pop up. It's not too far from the Houston Space Center, which is a great tourist attraction, and Bayport is not too far from Houston proper. It's closerto Hobby than IAHwhich is great too.

It will be a big perk for locals to cruise out of there, and locals don't need tourist attractions. We just want to get to the cruise terminal as quickly and painlessly as possible.

[sbnuggie]

Havind done the conquest a couple years ago from Galveston I can tell you from experience that Galveston is not a very friendly port for fly in travellers. don't get me wrong, we loved Galveston itself, the island is a great tourist destination but getting there and back from the houston area airports is an expensive endeavour. With options in Houston proper I definately see this port becoming popular, as already mentioned, us on the west coast flying all the way to florida (especially a family of 5) for a carribean cruise it becomes quite expensive but to Houston is not so bad.

[dolphiness]

Awww...man!!! Sure hope Carnival follows suit! I always cruise with my sister and her husband and we've always taken Carnival! I lived 5 min. from Bayport growning up! Matter of fact, I even used to sit on the shore and watch them dredging long before I knew about cruising!!! lol...C'mon Carnival!!!! Get in there!!!!

[cruzinlisa]

Interesting. This opens up new options for me as well. We live in Missouri and as of now the most driveable ports are New Orleans and then Galveston. It appears that Houston is a little closer to me than Galveston, making it not that much further than New Orleans. Having DD, I find its easier to drive when we can, due to not having to deal with a toddler on a flight, as well as less hassle managing luggage (because we have less time with it).

[Haoie]

Texas is like the new Florida.

 

Spare a thought for the poor west coast!

[Keith1010]

Thanks for posting this information.

 

Keith

[iceleven]

Havind done the conquest a couple years ago from Galveston I can tell you from experience that Galveston is not a very friendly port for fly in travellers. don't get me wrong, we loved Galveston itself, the island is a great tourist destination but getting there and back from the houston area airports is an expensive endeavour. With options in Houston proper I definately see this port becoming popular, as already mentioned, us on the west coast flying all the way to florida (especially a family of 5) for a carribean cruise it becomes quite expensive but to Houston is not so bad.

 

I have priced out airfare to all florida ports and find Houston still more expensive for us west coast flyers. Maybe it's just that the Bay Area doesn't use airlines who fly cheaply to the Houston area but until I can find a flight that doesn't cost me more than a grand for two people, I'll keep my cruises to the west coast, Hawaii, or even out of Florida.

 

I've also read several comments about the fog that rolls in the Houston area, I believe in the winter? I understand that this has caused several ships from getting into port on time and leaving port, as well. Is the new terminal in an easier location or will it also have to endure the fog? I am no stranger to fog, in fact the town I live in is also called "Fog City."

[satxdiver]

Having been to both Houston/Galveston and San Francisco the fog is much less a problem in Houston than San Francisco. The fog in Houston is more early spring but can occur in the winter. As for airline flights, have you checked out the cattle car (aka Southwest). Houston was home for Continental now United.

 

Glad to hear the new multimillion dollar Houston cruise terminal is finally going to be used. This definitely is an improvement over the minimally modified warehouses in Galveston. We usually stay in the Clear Lake area when sailing out of Galveston but then we are able to drive to there (~250 miles). It is an easy drive over IH10 which now has speed limits as high as 75 which in Texas means for everyone that is the minimum speed limit!

 

We have been to the NASA displays and to Kemah several times. The nice thing about the Clear Lake area is that the hotels are reasonable as are the restaurants since it is not a tourist area like Galveston with their jacked up tourist prices.

[Almost Packed]

woo hoo!!! I hope to see prices falling soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would certainly be cruising more out of Texas if that was the case. As it is, I can usually fly to Miami and pay for hotel too and still get out cheaper than trying to cruise from Texas.

 

This is exciting news indeed!:D

[marimojo]

Do we know what ships will sail from Houston? This is very exciting, I think it would cut our drive from Dallas down by an hour, I like that!!

[Rudyard]

That is good news. Unless the area has changed over the past few years, though, there's nothing in the LaPorte area except refineries and empty land. Pretty desolate for tourists. I guess if you go down to Kemah, you'd find some places along the boardwalk.

 

I used to have to drive by there every week for about a year. It's only a few minutes from both the boardwalk and NASA. There's still lots of empty land around there and I bet that with a year to go we'll see a number of hotels and restaurants open in the area. There's already a Comfort Inn sitting all by itself not far from the terminal that was built around the same time.

[Rudyard]

Do we know what ships will sail from Houston? This is very exciting, I think it would cut our drive from Dallas down by an hour, I like that!!

 

Caribbean Princess starting in November 2013 and NCL Jewel starting in November 2014 from what I understand.

[luv2trvlnow]

Do we know what ships will sail from Houston? This is very exciting, I think it would cut our drive from Dallas down by an hour, I like that!!

The information is here:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5083

 

Sharon

[flounder315]

I'm very glad to hear this news. More competition should = lower cruise fares. Floridians have had this benefit for years. Now we Texans may get some lower fares. :D

[morganboys]

how long does it take to sail between houston and the gulf? sailaway down the long ship channel to the gulf doesn't sound appealing to me.

[Rudyard]

how long does it take to sail between houston and the gulf? sailaway down the long ship channel to the gulf doesn't sound appealing to me.

 

Everything I've found when searching for a time simply says the Port of Houston is "several hours" from the gulf. The cruise terminal is actually about halfway to the gulf from the main part of the port, so my wild guess would be a couple of hours.

 

Hopefully someone who sailed out of there after Ike can shed some more light on this.

[Paul Bogle]

NCL used to sail from the old Barbours Cut facility which is farther from the Gulf than the Bayport facility. NCL ships used to take over three hours to reach open the Gulf, from Bayport it should be about an hour less.

 

The Bayport facility isn't in Houston proper. It is located a few miles north of Seabrook and the Kemah area. While it is closer to Houston than Galveston, it will save maybe 30 minutes or so drive time from points north. Bayport is still an hours drive from IAH. Hobby airport is much closer, perhaps 20 to 25 minutes barring traffic.

[Littlegoo75]

I have priced out airfare to all florida ports and find Houston still more expensive for us west coast flyers. Maybe it's just that the Bay Area doesn't use airlines who fly cheaply to the Houston area but until I can find a flight that doesn't cost me more than a grand for two people, I'll keep my cruises to the west coast, Hawaii, or even out of Florida.

 

I've also read several comments about the fog that rolls in the Houston area, I believe in the winter? I understand that this has caused several ships from getting into port on time and leaving port, as well. Is the new terminal in an easier location or will it also have to endure the fog? I am no stranger to fog, in fact the town I live in is also called "Fog City."

 

What city do you live in? I grew up in South San Francisco, which was definitely fog city. Last time we cruised out of Galveston, in April, 2009, we ran into heavy fog and were a few hours late getting back in. It didn't affect us because we drove to the port, but that had to stink for those people who had flights to catch. It's definitely a seasonal thing.

 

I think Bayport would be affected, as it's just further up the Houston ship channel from Galveston.

 

FYI- you can find cheap flights on Southwest into/out of Hobby, which is actually about 15 minutes away from Bayport Terminal.

[dane225]

So glad to hear this! Thanks for posting!:)

[rockyman935]

I wish I had a easy port to get to they quit sailing from my closest port in mobile al ! Been asking john for them to build a new port in nashville tn but he said NO ! :mad: