Stay at Houston International or Galveston?

[HelloKittysMum]

We are flying in from UK on 26th December for a cruise that leaves on 27th.  Flight arrives at 14.25 but we will have immigration to get through.  Are we better staying at the airport or travelling to the port and staying nearer there.  There is a 6hr time difference.  There will be 9 of us so we will need a van for transport.

 

Any (reasonably priced) hotel recommendations would be welcome.

[1025cruise]

I'd shuttle yourself to Galveston at that hour. Otherwise, there is a Marriot right on the airport (and on the airport subway) you could stay at.

[c-leg5]

Personally having flown Manchester to Houston many times, I would probably opt to stay at the airport and book independent (private or shared) or cruise line shuttle for the following day. The downside is, not a lot of places to eat other than at hotel.

 

If you want to get bulk of travel done in one go you could shuttle down to Galveston (several options discussed on here in other threads). The problem with that may be finding somewhere that will allow one night stay in Galveston at Christmas and finding suitable transport to pier next day for 9. You will probably not be in the mood, or have much time to explore Galveston at that time. 

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, HelloKittysMum said:

We are flying in from UK on 26th December for a cruise that leaves on 27th.  Flight arrives at 14.25 but we will have immigration to get through.  Are we better staying at the airport or travelling to the port and staying nearer there.  There is a 6hr time difference.  There will be 9 of us so we will need a van for transport.

 

Any (reasonably priced) hotel recommendations would be welcome.

I would recommend staying at the airport since  you're going to be rather tired after flying from the UK.

We have stayed at the Airport Marriott before and intend to stay  there in February.  There is a tram that stops at each luggage claim and at the hotel.  I think it runs every 10 or 15 minutes.  This simplifies staying at the hotel.  The Tram is free.

Next morning you have multiple options.  You can book a cruise line shuttle which will pick you up at the airport.  The charge is per person so this tends to be expensive for a large group.  You can arrange a private shuttle as well.  There are shared shuttles or for a group your size you might arrange one just for your group.  This is a simple way since the shuttle will take  you directly to the cruise port.  

If you go onto Galveston upon arrival, i doubt  you'll want to do much sightseeing.  Then you will have to face arranging travel to the actual port which can be another hassle.  

There may be other hotel options near the airport but you will have to arrange travel from the airport to the hotel and then back again the next day.  Most hotels near the airport will have a free shuttle but you have to ask yourself if this is worth the savings.

I would recommend taking the simplest options which is stay at the Marriott and use the cruise line shuttle to/from the port.  At the end of a long day's travel simple is worth  a lot.

[c-leg5]

2 hours ago, HelloKittysMum said:

We are flying in from UK on 26th December for a cruise that leaves on 27th.  Flight arrives at 14.25 but we will have immigration to get through.  Are we better staying at the airport or travelling to the port and staying nearer there.  There is a 6hr time difference.  There will be 9 of us so we will need a van for transport.

 

Any (reasonably priced) hotel recommendations would be welcome.

Is Houston your first US point of entry? If you are on a connecting flight you will have done customs and immigration. 

[Texas Tillie]

1 hour ago, c-leg5 said:

Is Houston your first US point of entry? If you are on a connecting flight you will have done customs and immigration. 

 

The 2;25PM flight arrival from the UK to IAH is the Singapore Airlines nonstop from Manchester

[c-leg5]

8 minutes ago, Texas Tillie said:

 

The 2;25PM flight arrival from the UK to IAH is the Singapore Airlines nonstop from Manchester

OK, although I am familiar with that one I have never used it.

 

The OP lives in the north of England and I assumed they would fly from Manchester but they never actually specified where they were flying from.

[HelloKittysMum]

16 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

OK, although I am familiar with that one I have never used it.

 

The OP lives in the north of England and I assumed they would fly from Manchester but they never actually specified where they were flying from.

yes we are flying from Manchester

[dan4182]

On 9/30/2023 at 10:00 AM, HelloKittysMum said:

We are flying in from UK on 26th December for a cruise that leaves on 27th.  Flight arrives at 14.25 but we will have immigration to get through.  Are we better staying at the airport or travelling to the port and staying nearer there.  There is a 6hr time difference.  There will be 9 of us so we will need a van for transport.

 

Any (reasonably priced) hotel recommendations would be welcome.

The Customs and Immigration at IAH is pretty efficient, The only problem is that most of the international flights from Europe tend to all arrive within about 1 to 1,5 hours of each other.

 

i’d recommend staying at the airport Marriott (recently remodeled) and using the underground tram to the Terminal the next morning and taking the cruise line shuttle to the port and back to IAH at the end of the cruise,