Princess Transfer from IAH

[Pinky33]

I’m here this morning waiting to board my shuttle bus, and have been here for 2 hours now. This has to be the most inefficient thing I’ve seen. One woman to check everyone in with her spreadsheet and highlighter, and another who is the sole person calling the various colors and numbers. The same person is boarding shuttles for both Princess and RC, one bus at a time, even though there is more than one bus waiting to load. Hire more people, and give them walkie talkies and a computer spreadsheet to click on! 

[Rick&Jeannie]

I've never traveled through Houston for a cruise...but I can definitely say that what you are experiencing is NOT the norm, at least for the 15 or so transfers that we have done. Sorry you're having such trouble! Hopefully you will have a better time once onboard!

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, Pinky33 said:

I’m here this morning waiting to board my shuttle bus, and have been here for 2 hours now. This has to be the most inefficient thing I’ve seen. One woman to check everyone in with her spreadsheet and highlighter, and another who is the sole person calling the various colors and numbers. The same person is boarding shuttles for both Princess and RC, one bus at a time, even though there is more than one bus waiting to load. Hire more people, and give them walkie talkies and a computer spreadsheet to click on! 

Easy solution.  Try Uber or other independent ground transportation if not wanting to deal with the tedious group transportation option.

[dog]

The transfer makes sense for this cruise if flying in the day of embarkation. The port is over an hour away.

Galveston Express has a shared shuttle $35 pp, as well.

We are going 2 days early and renting a car to return at Enterprise-in Galveston.

Enjoy your cruise.

[Reina del Mar]

We have used both Princess and RC shuttles from the Marriott Hotel at IAH . They certainly weren’t sharing shuttles pre Covid. In those days there was plenty of staff to greet us at the airport, help with transfer to the hotel and to the terminal the next morning.

 

More recently we have used a hire car from the airport to Galveston,  and stayed a few days at Holiday Inn Resort or Hilton Hotel. More expensive as we needed to book park, cruise and stay option. Hotel offers shuttles to and from cruise port…suited our needs.

 

Hire cars are difficult as only Enterprise has an office on Galveston Island and this isn’t always open on Sundays.

 

However, maybe use Uber as suggested…we don’t use Uber or Lyft. We have booked Galveston Express Shuttle, Pink Taxis (which were wonderful but have now left Galveston). Have read Saltwater Mums taxis are very good.

[Trevelbond]

I'm finally on the bus, so I'll post here what I posted elsewhere:

 

"I'm standing in baggage claim at IAH right now. The transfer setup is totally disorganized. One person is checking in multiple ships and lines, and I have seen nobody with a Princess sign at all. The passengers have figured out where they are supposed to check in by noticing the tags on baggage. They handed me a blue ticket once checked in and told me to just stand "over there." No estimate on departure time. Not much seating, even less information. 

 

Disney and Royal Caribbean have people down here to answer questions at let nervous travelers know that they're in the right place. An RCI rep is talking to a group of Princess passengers right now. Why doesn't Princess have anybody here? 

 

I'm a really easygoing traveler, but looking at the faces of fellow passengers this is a poor first impression."

 

I've since heard from other passengers that there were problems getting passengers off of the Regal that delayed things. That's fine, things happen. The problem is no signage, no communication.

 

I was told to be at baggage claim at 10am "where you will be met by a Princess representative." That simply didn't happen.  Figured it out on my own, as did hundreds of other passengers who will board the Regal Princess with a lousy impression of what is to come. I travel a lot, I can deal with pretty much anything.  This was altogether done poorly.