Princess Leaving Port Houston in 2016?

[StormTight]

Is it a fact that Princess will no longer sail out of Port Houston starting sometime in 2016?

 

If so, we sure hope they maintain presence somewhere in the mid-south Gulf area. If they go back to Galveston, or perhaps sail out of New Orleans, that would be great too!

[Dudleydog73]

The schedule says it is so. No Princess cruises are out of Bayport in Hpuston after April 2016

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes, there are a couple of threads on this already. ;)

[caribill]

The schedule says it is so. No Princess cruises are out of Bayport in Houston after April 2016

 

Or any scheduled from Galveston or New Orleans.

[Stevesan]

Sounds like a good plan. Galveston is much easier to access then the Bayport terminal. And it's a toddling town :p

[caribill]

Sounds like a good plan. Galveston is much easier to access then the Bayport terminal. And it's a toddling town :p

 

What plan? No Princess cruises out of Galveston either.

[satxdiver]

It will be sad to see Princess leave the south Texas port once again. It was so convenient for us to drive to the port (4 hours). Princess left the Galveston/Houston port after the spring 2006 season so we were very happy to see them return. Now it appears they will be gone again. Carnival seems to have this port locked up with two ships year around and it appears they may be adding yet another ship. If we want to continue driving to the port, our choices will be limited to Carnival and RCCL, neither of which are our favorite.

[DebJ14]

It will be sad to see Princess leave the south Texas port once again. It was so convenient for us to drive to the port (4 hours). Princess left the Galveston/Houston port after the spring 2006 season so we were very happy to see them return. Now it appears they will be gone again. Carnival seems to have this port locked up with two ships year around and it appears they may be adding yet another ship. If we want to continue driving to the port, our choices will be limited to Carnival and RCCL, neither of which are our favorite.

 

Carnival has 3 ships in Galveston year round. Right now it is the Triumph, Magic and the Freedom. The Triumph will be replaced by the Carnival Liberty and the Magic will be replaced by the Breeze. We did not like the Magic and sailed the Freedom and Breeze out of Florida in 2012 and 2013, but have no desire to go on them again. Our cruise on the Triumph was the worst we have ever had and it wasn't the one that broke down.

 

RCCL will be replacing the Navigator with the Liberty of the Seas on Nov 13, 2015. We were disappointed in our Navigator cruise after having several great cruises on the Voyager and Mariner. We are hoping the Liberty works for us.

 

This is going to get confusing with 2 ships in Galveston named Liberty.

 

NCL sails from Houston from Nov- April and they have cruises scheduled for the 2016-17 season.

 

We are very disappointed that Princess is leaving the Port of Houston. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruises on the Caribbean and Emerald Princess.

 

We are booked on RCCL for the first cruise on the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston. We like RCCL, but Princess was a better fit for us.

We are also going to give NCL a try in January. We have not been on NCL in 10 years.

Edited June 12, 2015 by DebJ14

[satxdiver]

I knew about the Breeze replacing the older Magic in December 2016. Triumph is an older ship and we are very wary of their older ships after our disastrous time on the Elation - what a tub of a ship. I had heard about the Freedom but did not realize it had arrived in February. Any ship other than a Dream-class ship is not an option. The Dream-class ships are tolerable.

 

We were on the Navigator the last of 2013 and it was OK. It is a voyager class ship and the five are pretty much alike aside from decoration and a few changes. We go to sea to see the water which is limited on the voyageur and freedom class ships and is one of our major complaints. We can go to the Piazza and see the water, pax etc. We have only been on voyager class ships so far.

 

I have a couple friends who have been on NCL and they hated it. Major complaint was all the nickel and dimming that goes on. I don't think at this time we want to try the NCL ships.

[MaChere]

As a recent retiree, I was so looking forward to some Princess cruises out of Houston. An easy hour and a half drive from my home....oh well. We've done one Carnival to a few ports in Mexico and don't plan another. :(

[twocc's]

We will miss Princess out of Houston. It was so nice to be able to drive to port.

 

Charles and Connie

[blyle]

With all the concessions Princess was given to sail out of Houston it's a shame they chose not to continue. They had quite a deal. I guess now that they have to pay the "normal" price they are not interested. We've sailed them quite a bit and we are sorry to see them go.

[Mikeyto]

I am also disappointed Princess is leaving Houston. I was on the Emerald earlier this year. Granted we were delayed leaving port by almost a full day, we were still able to visit every port on our itinerary and I still had a wonderful time. I've left from both Bayport and Galveston and I much prefer Bayport. It is a much newer and cleaner facility.

[satxdiver]

I am also disappointed Princess is leaving Houston. I was on the Emerald earlier this year. Granted we were delayed leaving port by almost a full day, we were still able to visit every port on our itinerary and I still had a wonderful time. I've left from both Bayport and Galveston and I much prefer Bayport. It is a much newer and cleaner facility.

 

We were also on the ship the same time you were. It was a real downer that the ship was not able to leave port until the next day. BTW the Emerald was the only ship to leave Houston that day due to the fog. We were told that the ship had called the port so many times to leave that they finally let us leave in order to get rid of us.

[Lsmith52]

I am really sorry to see Princess pull out of the Houston port. It was an easy hour drive from our house. I do understand why they are leaving though.

 

We will cruise on RCCL or Carnival but I will never sail on NCL again. Just not our cup of tea. We sailed the Getaway out of New York in April and had the "opportunity" to eat at the Tepenyaki grill. For those who are not familiar with this grill, they present themselves as like Benihana. We all sat down to dinner and every one at the table ordered steak along with chicken, shrimp or lobster. Some of us ordered a filet while others ordered their standard steak offering. What they brought out was literally a big ball of cut up beef chunks and plopped it down on the grill to cook. We were all served from the same mass of bovine flesh regardless of what cut of steak we ordered, and I can tell you it wasn't filet. All meals were cooked in the same juices of all ingredients so everything came out tasting the same.

 

The "chef" didn't give us all of the cooked food, instead he took a large bowl and scooped up rice, shrimp, vegetables and steak still on the grill and put it on his cart telling us it was for his meal and left.

 

We had the ultimate drink package and many of the drinks had no alcohol at all in them. I had to tell one of the bartenders that he forgot the rum the one time I watched him make our drinks. We couldn't get fresh brewed coffee with the package even thoug the website told us we could. It was explained to us that the free coffee was the swill available in the buffet area.

 

I don't know if this is indicative of NCL cruises but I don't watn to spend any more money to find out.

[suzyed]

I knew about the Breeze replacing the older Magic in December 2016. Triumph is an older ship and we are very wary of their older ships after our disastrous time on the Elation - what a tub of a ship. I had heard about the Freedom but did not realize it had arrived in February. Any ship other than a Dream-class ship is not an option. The Dream-class ships are tolerable.

 

We were on the Navigator the last of 2013 and it was OK. It is a voyager class ship and the five are pretty much alike aside from decoration and a few changes. We go to sea to see the water which is limited on the voyageur and freedom class ships and is one of our major complaints. We can go to the Piazza and see the water, pax etc. We have only been on voyager class ships so far.

 

I have a couple friends who have been on NCL and they hated it. Major complaint was all the nickel and dimming that goes on. I don't think at this time we want to try the NCL ships.

 

We have been on two NCL cruises to Alaska and loved them...granted, we were in a suite and we really enjoyed the suite perks, but the crew and the staff were all wonderful! Not anymore nickel and dining than any other cruise line in my opinion.

We are Diamond on RCCL and our two favorite ships are the Mariner and the Freedom...we sailed many of the smaller ships out of Fl, since we can drive to port very easily....our old favorite was the Sovereign of the Seas! Loved that ship!

We have also been on Carnival quite a bit, again because they were an easy drive from home to the FL ports.

We love Princess too for their great itineraries! We attained Platinum status on Princes on our last 28/29 day sailing and will be sailing with them again next spring out of Houston...I guess that being one of the last to sail out of that port!

And we love Cunard QM2...just so classy to us! We will be on that one again next spring as well.

[suzyed]

We ate at all the specialty restaurants on the NCL Star and enjoyed every one of them!!

[margeg]

Princess is always our favorite, but we enjoyed our cruise on the NCL Dawn.

 

Im keeping my fingers crossed that maybe Princess will come back to NYC????

They used to go south from there, but not for a few years now.

 

They only have the Canada ones from there.

[JasonTehGreat]

It will be sad to see Princess leave the south Texas port once again. It was so convenient for us to drive to the port (4 hours). Princess left the Galveston/Houston port after the spring 2006 season so we were very happy to see them return. Now it appears they will be gone again. Carnival seems to have this port locked up with two ships year around and it appears they may be adding yet another ship. If we want to continue driving to the port, our choices will be limited to Carnival and RCCL, neither of which are our favorite.

I love cruising out of Houston. I am 15 minutes away from the Galveston terminal and maybe 25 to 30 from Bayport.

 

It will be sad when they go.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

[JasonTehGreat]

Carnival has 3 ships in Galveston year round. Right now it is the Triumph, Magic and the Freedom. The Triumph will be replaced by the Carnival Liberty and the Magic will be replaced by the Breeze. We did not like the Magic and sailed the Freedom and Breeze out of Florida in 2012 and 2013, but have no desire to go on them again. Our cruise on the Triumph was the worst we have ever had and it wasn't the one that broke down.

 

RCCL will be replacing the Navigator with the Liberty of the Seas on Nov 13, 2015. We were disappointed in our Navigator cruise after having several great cruises on the Voyager and Mariner. We are hoping the Liberty works for us.

 

This is going to get confusing with 2 ships in Galveston named Liberty.

 

NCL sails from Houston from Nov- April and they have cruises scheduled for the 2016-17 season.

 

We are very disappointed that Princess is leaving the Port of Houston. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruises on the Caribbean and Emerald Princess.

 

We are booked on RCCL for the first cruise on the Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston. We like RCCL, but Princess was a better fit for us.

We are also going to give NCL a try in January. We have not been on NCL in 10 years.

Princess is so far my favorite followed by Royal Caribbean. I'd sail on Carnival under the same circumstances as last time: big group of family went and that's what they all booked.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

[dforeigner]

Agreed. It is a shame that Princess will be, once again, abandoning Texas. We are about 6 hours from the Houston area. We like cruising out of Texas due to the fact that we save quite a bit on airfare. We will not start paying for airfare just to cruise Princess during Spring Break.

 

Therefore, we will try RCCL.

 

What a shame.

[caribill]

Agreed. It is a shame that Princess will be, once again, abandoning Texas. We are about 6 hours from the Houston area. We like cruising out of Texas due to the fact that we save quite a bit on airfare. We will not start paying for airfare just to cruise Princess during Spring Break.

 

Therefore, we will try RCCL.

 

What a shame.

 

Write to Princess and let them know.

 

If enough people do this, then maybe in 2017 Houston will have a Princess ship again.

[dforeigner]

Write to Princess and let them know.

 

If enough people do this, then maybe in 2017 Houston will have a Princess ship again.

 

Maybe I will stir the pot via their Facebook account as well. :D

 

We have a cruise set up for 2016. I will make sure to mention this in the cruise eval as well.

Edited August 10, 2015 by dforeigner

[lhsail]

After many years away from NCL the pricing on a last minute cruise out of Houston got us back last February. It's a different vibe than Princess and we went in with eyes wide open and had a great time. We've got both Princess and NCL cruises booked. However, NCL is also pulling out of Houston. For those of us who love driving to a Texas port we'll be down to Carnival and RCCL. I'm not anxious to try Carnival again and not impressed with the value proposition of RCCL. Will hope for cheap flights to Florida on Southwest and Jet Blue.

[redtogo]

Many factors determined the decision. Distance to international waters, fog, etc.....

When restricted to the Gulf area, the casino and probably even the shops cannot open for business....lost revenue to the cruise line.