Houston Port - car rental

[chrisradosevic]

Hello. Cruising out of Houston (not Galveston) on Princess in March. Cannot find a rental car company near the port to return the car. Very odd. No shuttles etc. Can someone help me out with some suggestions? Thank you.

[LeeW]

New port in an industrial area, so not much around there. Our son cruised out of there in December and found that booking a hotel and transfer through Princess was cheaper and easier than messing with a rental car. You might be able to stay at one of the hotels near Hobby, since they have cruise transfers down to Galveston and might now support the new port. Check other posts on this site for details.

[chrisradosevic]

We arrive the day earlier so we want to rent a car to explore Houston. Still need help with a car return location near the port. Seems so odd to me that there are no options.

[MJC]

We're flying in to IAH two days before our cruise, renting a car there so we can do some sightseeing, then returning it on embarkation day to Hobby and taking a cab or Princess transfer to Bayport.

 

 

There is an Enterprise in Seabrook: some have mentioned returning their car there and they gave them a ride to the port. Others have said they are charging a drop-off fee for that service. You would have to call them directly, I only have hearsay on this.

[OnTheRocks63]

Hi, We're planing on using the Budget Car Rental in Webster near NASA which is about 10 miles away. There is a closer car rental (Seabrook) but they don't have good hours on Saturdays which makes it almost impossible. I decided to do this and pay the remote drop off to/from the airport. This gives us the flexibility to tour Houston and it appeared to cost than all the other shuttle options. It may be a little trouble to do Airport, car rental, taxi, cruise, taxi, car rental, airport, but it gives us some flexibility coming in a day earlier and sightseeing. We'll know how it goes in a couple weeks.

[Lobez]

Enterprise has a rental return in Seabrook which is very close to the port, however they are currently not accepting 1 way rental returns for the date of my cruise. I booked with Budget with a pickup at the airport and returning to their Webster office. None of the rental centers near the port offer shuttles, so I was going to take a taxi to the port after returning the car. I keep checking with Enterprise to see if their status changes as I would rather book through them with the return closer to the port. One thing to keep in mind is that all of the satellite offices I checked with close at noon on Saturdays, so plan accordingly.

[jcw0313]

We arrive the day earlier so we want to rent a car to explore Houston. Still need help with a car return location near the port. Seems so odd to me that there are no options.

 

Check out Enterprise Rental Car from IAH or HBY airports. They have a location at 1815 Bayport Blvd., Seabrook, TX which is about 5.3 miles from the Bayport Cruise Terminal. They are open from 0900 to 1200 on Saturdays for drop off and will shuttle the driver to the cruise terminal for free. Last shuttle run to the port (they tell us as we live near here) is 1100. Good luck and have a GREAT cruise!

[Schmoozed cruiser]

Check out Enterprise Rental Car from IAH or HBY airports. They have a location at 1815 Bayport Blvd., Seabrook, TX which is about 5.3 miles from the Bayport Cruise Terminal. They are open from 0900 to 1200 on Saturdays for drop off and will shuttle the driver to the cruise terminal for free. Last shuttle run to the port (they tell us as we live near here) is 1100. Good luck and have a GREAT cruise!

 

We just finished a great Princess cruise last weekend via Bayport terminal. We did a one-way Enterprise rental from the IAH to their Seabrook office. 11AM Saturday last shuttle run to the port is exactly what they were doing. My husband dropped us off at Bayport and returned the car to Enterprise Seabrook. They will only drive one person to port with minimal luggage if any.

 

Returning to the airport the following Saturday, we booked a Budget rental since they are running a special, zero cost for one-ways. By contrast, the enterprise Seabrook office charges a $100 one way fee. From the port we took a taxi to the Budget Pasadena location about 12 miles away, $36 before tip. Since the rental was only $23 we still came out ahead.

 

Note rental rules are that you must show your gas receipt to the agent upon return, else they charge you a $14 fee, even if the gas meter is full. For such a short ride, we drove into IAH still with a full tank. For the time I spent perplexed at the counter, I should have just added $1 of gas.