Galveston/Conquest Debarkation

[Jess_TX]

I've never been on a cruise out of Galveston (and have only been one cruise ever), so I spoke with a Carnival rep about a few questions I have. She wasn't the most knowledgeable rep. She couldn't answer my questions and kept offering to change my reservation (which I had no intentions of doing, I just had a question) or to add on airport transfers despite repeatedly telling her we're driving to the port. I thought maybe you guys could help since you've always been full of excellent answers.

 

So, my questions are about debarkation in Galveston. I've read in other threads that it's a problem and extremely slow. The rep was able to tell me that I could get a flight at 1:30 or later, but I had already seen that on Carnival's FAQ. My husband and I live a little less than 4 hours from the port, and we just found out that a friend of ours is having a charity event the afternoon/evening we get back. I wanted to make sure that we could get out of Galveston as soon as possible so that we are not too late to the event.

 

I've read that the Express Debarkation is extremely slow. It's been a few years since I've cruised, and at the time I didn't pay attention to how debarkation was done. How do they assign which groups go first? And what is the average time it takes to go through customs and get out of Galveston?

[Kaki]

We did self debarkation on our last Conquest cruise and we were in our vehicle ready to head home at about 9:30 a.m.

[Jess_TX]

What do you have to do for that? We'll probably each (my husband and I) have a carry-on and a suitcase, but I doubt we'll buy much of anything in the ports except maybe some t-shirts or souvenirs for friends/family.

[jam82]

We've been on four cruises out of Galveston. All but once we have been through customs by 9:30 without rushing. Of course everyday is different. We have never carried our luggage. If you do that, you could probably be quicker.

[yst347]

Hi Jess,

 

We live near the Woodlands. We have cruised from Galveston six times including the Conquest. Since we live 80 miles up I-45 we always drive to the port. On two cruises we were home by 10:30 am including our last Conquest sailing in January of 2007. The latest we have ever gotten home was 1:00 pm.

 

I have read about a few occasions where the Conquest suffered long delays. One was a Cruise critic group cruise several years ago. You should bear in mind that ships in all home ports suffer these sort of delays from time to time. Fortunately they are the exception, not the rule. You should not have any greater concerns about Galveston than Miami or Los Angeles.

[CAROLG903]

We were in our car yesterday morning at 7:48 am! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised. We did "self-assist" which means carrying all of your own luggage. They call decks randomly and 2 at a time. We were on Riviera deck on the Conquest (deck 1). They called "Self-assist passengers on Decks 10 and 1 may now disembark". We hauled a** and were quickly off the ship. I would imagine it depends on what deck you are on.

[lovesublime]

We sailed Conquest in December and were off the ship and in our car by 8:30 am. We did self disembark. No problems at all.

[bead_dazzled]

We have been on 5 cruises out of Galveston.

 

If you are in the higher de-barkation numbers, the wait can be very long. You can never tell which de-barkation group you will be in. They range from 1 to 33.

 

In order to take advantage of Carnival's self-assist de-barkation process, you must be able to carry everything off of the ship yourself.

 

If you can manage your bags, then by all means follow the instructions for self-assist de-barkation. Keep in mind, this is not a easy walk...up and down ramps and esclators pulse a good amount of walking/standing.

 

The Conquest usually arrives in port between 6:00 am and 6:30 am. She usually clears Customs within an hour or two and self-assist de-barkation can begin as early as 7:30 am.

 

Another tip for sailing out of Galveston is to use Lighthouse Parking instead of the cruise terminal parking. When you use the cruise terminal parking, your party has to separate when you are boarding as the driver has to drop off the luggage and then park the car. They will not allow you to carry your luggage on the shuttle bus. You can make on-line reservations...http://www.lighthouseparking.org/

 

With Lighthouse, they carry you and your luggage to the cruise terminal and your party does not have to separate. Plus you can save a few bucks at Lighthouse over the cruise terminal parking. Just be sure to tell them you will be self-assist de-barkation so they will arrive early. Better yet, get a card w/the phone number and ring them on your cell when the self assist debarkation starts and get them to get to the cruise terminal asap.

 

 

Another tip about clearing customs @ Galveston. Grab a porter if the customs lines are long. The seem to have more custom agents assigned to the lines that are used by the porters. Be sure to tip the porters a few bucks for the service.

 

Enjoy the Conquest. She is nice ship. We have sailed her twice with a third trip planned for June.

[Jess_TX]

Thanks for the responses. I'm just trying to get a general idea of how long of a wait to expect.

[robtx100]

Jess, for embarkation, we usually try to get there around 11am and we're usually on board by 12. We've done both self debarkation and waiting for our color to be called. Self debarkaton is much faster if everyone else plays by the rules. However, one time, half the ship decided to be waiting to get off the ship at the same time. It was a cluster. It just depends on if everyone plays by the rules and if your number gets called first. We have been off the ship by 730 once before.

[tkportersat]

I have always gotten off the ship when my color is called, never self disembarked....I have usually gotten back to San Antonio between 4-5pm, but I am typically lower deck and one of the last groups called. I usually use a porter to load all of our luggage as this seems to get you in a shorter line and moves things along faster. I also use ezcruiseparking.com as they will pick you up and take all your luggage back to the parking lot. $50 for the week if you book online (7 day cruise).

[klmorg]

We did self de-bark in Galveston a couple weeks ago and were off the ship, thru Customs and to our car at EZ Cruise parking lot in about 30 minutes! Our friends did the regular de-bark (put bags out night before), and we waited over 2 1/2 hours for them to get out of there.

[ed_k_tx]

Been on 4 cruises out of Galveston, 3 Ecstasy and 1 Conquest.

We live just north of Houston so have always driven, normally takes a little over 1 hour. We have never used self debarkation since we've never been in too much of a hurry to get off. On the Conquest last year we were in zone 7 and were off the ship, through Customs and in our car by 9:30.

But this year on the Ecstasy we were in one of the last groups and didn't get out until around 11. We learned after the first cruise to always get a porter. It costs a few bucks but they will definetly get you through Customs faster.

 

One more thing, they have been doing road work on I-45 between Galveston and Houston lately so plan on delays. A few weeks ago our 1 hour trip took over 2.

[tkportersat]

I wish I was more familiar with detours....in 10 cruises I have always taken the toll road and then I-45, I already have my roll of quarters ready :confused:

 

One more thing, they have been doing road work on I-45 between Galveston and Houston lately so plan on delays. A few weeks ago our 1 hour trip took over 2.

[WestTxCruiser]

We have cruised out of Galveston 3 times now.....Conquest twice, Ecstasy once. We have done self assist once on Conquest and put our bags out the night before ......either way.......the latest we were off the ship was 9:30. On the Ecstasy we did self assist and were off the ship by 8:30.

When we checked our bags on the Conquest we did get a porter and got through customs very quickly. Very worth the $5 tip for the porter.

The only thing about planning to be somewhere at a certain time........you just never know for sure what is gonna happen.

We always schedule our flight for 2pm or after......just in case.

So, if you do make plans for that afternoon, just do it knowing that the possibilty is there that you could be late.

Most of all......Have a BLAST!!!

[Jess_TX]

I have always gotten off the ship when my color is called, never self disembarked....I have usually gotten back to San Antonio between 4-5pm, but I am typically lower deck and one of the last groups called. I usually use a porter to load all of our luggage as this seems to get you in a shorter line and moves things along faster. I also use ezcruiseparking.com as they will pick you up and take all your luggage back to the parking lot. $50 for the week if you book online (7 day cruise).

 

Do they call the lower decks last usually, or have you just been "lucky" enough to be in one of the last groups to be called? We're on the Empress deck (7), and I wasn't sure how they assign groups.

[aggie1]

We were on the Conquest that came in on Jan.4. We were delayed by fog and did not dock until 1:30 in the afternoon so things can happen. We did have breadfast and lunch while still on board and were able to stay in our cabins. We finally were called about 3:30, got our bags and were out of the terminal by 4:00, but that was when the wait began. With 3,000 trying to get on and 3,000 getting off the lines and parking were a mess. We were a family of 8 and ez cruise only has small shuttles. Guys finally walked to parking and brought cars around and picked us up. the traffic was awful, but we were on the road about 5:00. Cars could not park until we were out of there. This was not the norm. You should be off and on your way within a couple of hours.

[robtx100]

Last Sunday, we did the self assist debarkation. It went very, very smooth. They started with deck 11, then deck 1. About 10 minutes later they called deck 10, then deck 2. There are no cabins on decks 3, 4, or 5, so they called deck 9, then a few minutes later they called us, deck 6. There were many people waiting patiently on the Promenade. They have done away with the escalator in the terminal and replaced it with a series of ramps. This made it very easy as there used to be a cluster at the top of the escalator. We waited in line a little while for customs, the whole time with porters saying they could get us through customs faster (which ended up being true, because they have a set of lines dedicated to porters). Anyway, we were through customs by 9:05, we just missed our hotel shuttle to pick up the car, so we waited at the curb until 930 for him to come back around. The driver called ahead to have our car waiting for us and we were driving away by 950. Now, two of our friends bought Carnival transfers while on the ship to go to IAH, their flight wasn't until 530, but they were in the Toulouse lounge waiting at 7am and took the first shuttle out and called us around 915 saying they were at the airport and were able to get and earlier flight at 1.