Galveston hotel and parking

[MLB]

We are driving down the day before our March cruise on the Grand Princess. We will need to stay somewhere and park. Any suggestions on what the best way to do it is? There will be 8 of us and 2 cars. We can stay at a hotel that offers free cruise parking and shuttle service or another hotel and park the car separately. We don't need a special hotel, only one that is clean.

 

Thanks!

[isujim]

Have stayed at the Galvez twice where they have free parking and it is gated (not covered, but gated).......they also have a free shuttle to and from the pier.

[BrendaB1]

Hilton is nice & also offers free shuttle to & from the pier with free parking. March is peak Springbreak time. Good luck finding a decent priced hotel. more info at www.galveston.com Many offer fre parking so just look around.

[DannyMac]

MLB, since you are driving in a day early, it makes sense to stay at a hotel that offers free parking and a shuttle to the terminal. I wouldn't wait in booking my rooms, March is a busy time in Galveston with the the spring breaks spread throughout the first three weeks of March.

 

Locating hotels accommodations could be a challenge!!

[clearlakecruisers]

If you have trouble booking lodging in Galveston due to Spring Break, try looking for something on I-45 north of Galveston/south of Houston. Try my area (NASA/Clear Lake) which has lots of newish motels adjacent to I-45 on Bay Area Blvd. and/or NASA Rd #1 (name being changed to NASA Parkway). You could also go further south toward Galveston and stay in Dickinson or Texas City where there are also motels along I-45.

 

It's an easy +/-30 minute drive to the port from any of these areas and parking at EZCruise is easy too. Go to www.galveston.com for information.

[MLB]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm planning to book something soon because I know it will be busy.

[tawcat]

located 2 blocks from the terminal and they allow you to park for the duration of the cruise at no cost.

[Natanni]

We are also sailing out of Galveston in March. We are staying at the Harbor House March 24 prior to sailing on the Rhapsody. I was quoted parking to be $10.00 for the week to leave our car at the hotel. We sailed on the Grand 3/2004 out of Galveston. What a gorgeous ship!

[MLB]

Any idea how the Howard Johnson is? It is inexpensive and just 4 miles from the pier. It offers free parking as well. I'd rather spend less on our stay and parking in Galveston and more on the ship, but I want our cars to be safe and the hotel to be clean. If we don't do that we will probably plan to sleep further away and use either EZ cruise parking or lighthouse parking. Is there any difference betweek those 2 places?

[clackey]

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on the Beach twice, but their prices differ with the season. We stayed for $99 per night during Jan. and Feb. but the same room was $179 in Nov. They have a good shuttle service and free parking. I've seen good reviews on the Harbour House and Galvez.

 

On our last trip we stayed in Cleveland and parked at EZ Park. I had seen good reviews on EZ but I wasn't impressed. We waited over an hour for them to pick us up at disembarkation.

 

For all that are sailing on the GRAND PRINCESS, you are in for a treat. She is a beautiful ship with lots of room. This is the only ship that has not seemed crowded.

[Ali-in-Texas]

MLB,

 

We stayed at HoJo's this past January. We had two rooms for our family and I was quite surprised at how clean the place was. I wasn't expecting much because it was about $42 a room.

 

We just cruised again this Dec and stayed at the Hilton. HoJo's was cleaner than the Hilton.

 

We didn't leave our car at HoJo's because you have to take a cab and our family of 6 would have needed 2 cabs. We parked at EZ cruise.

[GORDONCHICK]

Most of the hotels in Galveston have either a secured or semi-secure lot for cruise parking. They are pretty diligent about keeping an eye on things because they know that repeat business and word-of-mouth is important.

[runner1909]

We just booked the Hotel Galvez March 16 (the night before our Grand Princess cruise). Rates are very high in Galveston that time of year, but at least we can park our car there the entire week free. If it is the same as our March '06 cruise, we did our pre-boarding stuff at the Galvez, which saved us some time. As a sister hotel guest (Tremont), we also took the free shuttle to the pier from there. As I must work until about noon on the 16th, we won't even get there until 10 - 10:30 p.m.