Galveston Limousine Service

[Brickwood]

Since I used the info from this board to book our transportation from IAH to Galveston for our 3/24 cruise, I thought I'd share our experience. Sorry it's so long but I thought the details might help someone down the road.

 

First, and most importantly - they got us there and they got us back!

 

For the trip there - had reserved a 10:30 departure from IAH. We'd arrived about 1:00 am and stayed at the Sheraton but were told they could only pick up from the airport so we had to hop the Sheraton shuttle back in the morning. The Sheraton kindly dropped us off at the baggage claim area for Continental where we were to meet Galveston Limo. Galveston Limo was pretty much on time - maybe 10:40 at the latest. I don't know what the deal was, but the driver was on the phone and sat at the curb for 5 or 10 minutes and didn't open the door or even acknowledge me when I walked up to the the shuttle. He finally did open the door, but didn't make any kind of move to help with our luggage (DH uses a cane to walk so this type is help is much appreciated by us and I'm sure the need was very obvious). The vehicle was a standard shuttle that had a luggage rack and probably held about a dozen passengers but was probably the oldest of this type of vehicle I've ever ridden on. We spent the next 30-40 minutes driving around the airport picking up other folks, some of whom had reservations and some of whom did not so quite a bit of time was taken up collecting cash fares and such. Ended up with a full vehicle and started off to Galveston.

 

We bounced up and down with every little bump we hit for the next hour and a half, literally coming all the way off our seats at times. We all kind of got to the point where we just rolled our eyes, laughed...and looked again at our watches. There was a sign that said "DO NOT TALK TO DRIVER WHILE VEHICLE IS IN MOTION" which certainly discouraged any conversation with the driver! About 15 minutes before we hit Galveston, they pulled off the highway into a gas station where there was another shuttle waiting and they asked us all to switch vehicles. Apparently, there was some sort of problem with the shuttle we'd been on for the last hour. This time we waited for them to move our luggage.

 

Anyhow, we got there and had a wonderful cruise. I was a bit worried on the way back because we again had a 10:30 reservation but were off the ship before 8:00. Luckily, we found a Galveston Limo rep who showed us to a waiting bus (full size and quite comfortable). This time, they were very friendly and extremely helpful with the luggage - didn't let us take any of it. They didn't care that we had a 10:30 reservation. They seemed to just be waiting until they had a dozen or so passengers and then moved up to the next cruise ship and loaded some more passengers. There was one couple that was very concerned because they had an 8:00 "reservation" expecting that they'd have plenty of time to make an 11:45 flight. We didn't hit the road until about 9:30 and the bus made a stop at Hobby before proceeding to IAH. I hope they made their flight.

 

Don't know that I'd cruise out of Galveston again just because the transportation to and from the airport is such a hassle. This certainly could have been much worse and like I said to begin with, at least they got us there and back. At $70 pp round trip for this, I should have just taken the Princess transfers, but couldn't get them added after I paid - I think because of the online travel agent I used (another lesson learned! :))