Crown Princess, Galveston Departure.

[satxdiver]

Princess left Galveston after 2006. We were on the Grand and had tried to book for the following winter only to be told the Princess was not coming back to Galveston. They departed Galveston on Saturday just like it is doing now. Last week was their first cruise out of Galveston in 6 years so I can imagine the problems. As one person has already pointed out, there are several terminals at Intercontinental (IAH) so it would be good to know which terminal you will be arriving and departing from. United occupies several terminals and you may not know which one to arrive at but the United terminals are all interconnected but could be a good distance to walk.

[caribill]

Last week was their first cruise out of Galveston in 6 years so I can imagine the problems. As one person has already pointed out, there are several terminals at Intercontinental (IAH) so it would be good to know which terminal you will be arriving and departing from.

 

It does not matter how long Princess has been absent from Galvestion as far as xfers to/from IAH and Galvestion are concerned.

 

The drivers are not Princess employees, but Houston area contracted bus drivers.

 

If they do not know how to get to and around the airport, then the problem is with the contractor that Princess hired. Maybe low bid does not get you local drivers that actually know the main area roads.

[lx200gps]

We just got off the Crown for Christmas. It took about 90 min from when you leave IAH to get to the cruise terminal. We came in on Friday and took the first transfer on Saturday (left I want to say around 9:45ish). The process was a little disorganized. Someone said it was the first time Princess had cruised from Galveston, which I found hard to believe, but it was clearly the first time in a while. We got to terminal 2 and had no issues checking in, boarded the ship just after 12:15 or so. Going home was interesting, the bus driver didn't seem to know the airport very well and did a poor job in trying to get the people to the right terminal, thankfully we had a later flight. But some were scrambling to make their flights home.

 

Talk about a timely thread. My wife and I are doing precisely the same thing later this week; arriving IAH on Friday evening and taking the Princess transfer on Saturday morning. Our travel agent gave Princess an arrival time of 11AM, so with what I`m hearing about a bit of disorganization and the longish drive, we probably wouldn`t get processed onto the Crown until somewhere between 1 and 2PM. I wanted to try getting on earlier to increase my chances of booking the Sanctuary for the week, rather than trying it day by day. Therefore, I have two questions:

 

1) Does anyone know for sure whether it is even possible to book the Sanctuary by the week on the Crown out of Galveston right now (I understand from other threads that it`s no longer a given and the policy may vary from ship to ship, crew to crew)

 

2) We have the written confirmation that Princess knows we are arriving into IAH at 11AM on Saturday. If we show up at the arrivals area earlier and can find the Princess reps, will they allow us to get on an earlier bus, or will they say no, you`re scheduled on one specific later bus and can`t go earlier.

 

Thanks in advance..

 

Jeff from Montreal

[bhopal21]

You will have no problem at all getting on an earlier shuttle (if they have one).

 

I have no idea about the sanctuary, sorry.

 

Mike:)

[Steelers0854]

Talk about a timely thread. My wife and I are doing precisely the same thing later this week; arriving IAH on Friday evening and taking the Princess transfer on Saturday morning. Our travel agent gave Princess an arrival time of 11AM, so with what I`m hearing about a bit of disorganization and the longish drive, we probably wouldn`t get processed onto the Crown until somewhere between 1 and 2PM. I wanted to try getting on earlier to increase my chances of booking the Sanctuary for the week, rather than trying it day by day. Therefore, I have two questions:

 

1) Does anyone know for sure whether it is even possible to book the Sanctuary by the week on the Crown out of Galveston right now (I understand from other threads that it`s no longer a given and the policy may vary from ship to ship, crew to crew)

 

2) We have the written confirmation that Princess knows we are arriving into IAH at 11AM on Saturday. If we show up at the arrivals area earlier and can find the Princess reps, will they allow us to get on an earlier bus, or will they say no, you`re scheduled on one specific later bus and can`t go earlier.

 

Thanks in advance..

 

Jeff from Montreal

 

We got to the terminal at 9am and were on board the ship by 12:15ish. The longest wait was to go through Security at the port, a whopping 10min. If you can get there at 9 that would be my recommendation.

[Pam in CA]

We have non-stop flights from SNA to HOU (Houston Hobby - 28 miles closer to the ship) with Southwest. Best part with that is bags fly free and there are no change fees. Our flight price has gone down 2 or 3 times since booking about 5 months ago and they happily gave us the lower price. (Really strange - good customer service with an airline?)

Sounds good. I booked on UA because I wanted to coordinate with my friend flying in from BOS. We managed to find flights on UA that arrive within 15 minutes of each other. Same thing flying home. First time I've flown on UA in years. I'll have to pay for a bag since I'm not flying Biz or First. It didn't make sense to pay that much for a 3-hour flight. I paid a little extra for more legroom.

[Times Prince]

Talk about a timely thread. My wife and I are doing precisely the same thing later this week; arriving IAH on Friday evening and taking the Princess transfer on Saturday morning. Our travel agent gave Princess an arrival time of 11AM, so with what I`m hearing about a bit of disorganization and the longish drive, we probably wouldn`t get processed onto the Crown until somewhere between 1 and 2PM. I wanted to try getting on earlier to increase my chances of booking the Sanctuary for the week, rather than trying it day by day. Therefore, I have two questions:

 

1) Does anyone know for sure whether it is even possible to book the Sanctuary by the week on the Crown out of Galveston right now (I understand from other threads that it`s no longer a given and the policy may vary from ship to ship, crew to crew)

 

2) We have the written confirmation that Princess knows we are arriving into IAH at 11AM on Saturday. If we show up at the arrivals area earlier and can find the Princess reps, will they allow us to get on an earlier bus, or will they say no, you`re scheduled on one specific later bus and can`t go earlier.

 

Thanks in advance..

 

Jeff from Montreal

Jeff - come and join our Cruise Critic Roll Call meetings at sailaway and our first day at sea to meet other Cruise Critic members on the cruise. The Roll Call is at

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1530413

 

Check out post #442 for details.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Sounds good. I booked on UA because I wanted to coordinate with my friend flying in from BOS. We managed to find flights on UA that arrive within 15 minutes of each other. Same thing flying home. First time I've flown on UA in years. I'll have to pay for a bag since I'm not flying Biz or First. It didn't make sense to pay that much for a 3-hour flight. I paid a little extra for more legroom.

 

Thank God you got the extra legroom with UA's Economy Plus. Even though it's a short flight, their seat rows are terribly close together. Everyone I've talked to that has flown them lately says that is the first thing they notice. Also, just FYI, once on the tarmac, there can be a really long taxi at IAH airport. We didn't get it when we landed, but friends of ours did. We got it when we took off. Seems like we taxied for a good 45 mins. It's pretty normal, so don't worry if you have it too. Happy flying!

[caribill]

2) We have the written confirmation that Princess knows we are arriving into IAH at 11AM on Saturday. If we show up at the arrivals area earlier and can find the Princess reps, will they allow us to get on an earlier bus, or will they say no, you`re scheduled on one specific later bus and can`t go earlier.

 

 

As long as you are on the list for transfers you can show up earlier.

 

You were not assigned to a specific bus when Princess was told what time you would arrive.