My recent trip out of Galveston on Carnival Conquest

[djt529]

Since I spent a lot of time researching on the board before my trip, I thought I would post my experience here for others doing the same research.

 

We sailed out of Galveston on 6/21 on Carnival Conquest. There were 6 of us in our party.

 

We flew out of CLT (NC) to IAH on USAir. My husband and I had 2 bags a piece and took special caution to weigh them before we left. USAir did not weigh any of the bags. We had 6 bags in total. 4 we checked and 2 we carried on. It cost us 88.00 to check the 4 bags. The biggest one we had was at the max of 62 inches and based off our home scale was 50lbs exact.

 

We made arrangements with Matrix Limo out of Houston for pick up and drop off. We had 2 flights coming into IAH, ours out of CLT and the other out of PHL. The PHL one was late, and so was Matrix about 15 - 20 minutes. I assume their lateness was due to the delay of the PHL flight.

 

The van they had for us fit us 6 very comfortably with all of our luggage. The driver was nice. They charged us 185.00 each way (plus tip). One taxi ride from IAH into Galveston was going to cost 160.00.

 

We stayed at the Tremont. I won a bid on Priceline for 90.00 a night for 3 rooms in early May. We were able to stay just one night. The hotel was beautiful. Its kept a lot of the old architecture which was great. The place was neat, the rooms were big and the bed was very comfortable! My biggest complaint about the hotel was its non smoking policy. As a smoker, I respect non smokers and have no problem going to a designated smoking area to smoke. HOWEVER, they had none. Our only option for smoking was go out front of the build to the corner of the block. Thank goodness we only stayed one night. And thank goodness it did not rain since we were really in the street to smoke. It would have been nice to have a designated smoking area.

 

Since we were flying we wanted to buy some water and small quantities of liquor in Galveston to board the boat. The liquor store was right around the corner from the hotel, but we had to go about 10 blocks away to find the water bottles. If I knew the airline was not going to weigh my bags, I would have flown with it.

 

We could have walked to the port from Tremont because it was that close. However, we had 6 bags just to the 2 of us and took a taxi. Which was probably good, because the congestion around the port was bad. Walking probably would not have been good for our health! The taxi ride cost us a little over 10.00 as they added a standard fee because of the port then the actual time in the car. All the taxi's were mini vans, so we were able to get more luggage and people in one taxi than we thought. The Tremont did not have any shuttle service to the port.

 

We set sail with no issues and hand a wonderful time on the cruise. In Montego Bay we did the Sandals excursion. Don't do it.. Unless you really plan to drink 120.00 worth of free booze, it was not really worth it. Cayman Islands had the best beaches we seen out of all 3 destinations. If I knew this before hand I would have done a beach excursion. We did the tour on the Trolley Roger which was only an hour. But it was excellent! The tour guide was great and I would easily do that one again. Shopping in Cayman Islands was good as everything was in blocks of the port. Crime, as explained by our tour guide is very very rare. The cops don't even carry guns. Mexico we decided to take a taxi to a public beach. Which is nothing like we have here on the East coast! We took a taxi to Paradise Beach which is a free access beach. The taxi ride cost us about 13.00 each way and was about a 10 minute trip. For free they showed you to a beach chair, had a bathroom and changing rooms. All they asked was that you bought drinks and food. They had a full service bar and restaurant that they delivered right to your beach chair. And for 10.00 extra you could receive a wrist band that allowed you to participate in the many extras they had like a trampoline in the water and rock climbing in the water and a banana boat ride. It was something I would definitely do again!

 

We originally schedule Matrix Limo to pick us up at 11:30 since I could not find any debarkment time on any site. We learned the day before that last call off the boat would be 10:00. I emailed Matrix the day before we were to get off and asked if they would bump up our time to 10:30 from 11:30. They emailed back saying they could do it. We actually were off the boat and through customs and under our color flag by 9:45. I called Matrix to let them know what flag we were under and he said he would see how early he could get the driver there. They actually picked us up by 10:15.

 

I've read alot on many sites that the drive to and from IAH is about 45 min. It actually took 1 hour 10 min - 15 min to and from. For a Sat afternoon and Sun morning, houston has alot of traffic!

 

We arrived at the airport at 11:30. Our flight out was at 3:50 since I was fearful about booking one too soon and missing it. We were able to get on a 12:30 flight by paying an extra 50.00 a person. My sisters were not as lucky as the PHL flight had no available flights sooner than their 5:20 flight. They had to wait in the airport all that time, then on top of that their flight was delayed. We flew out continental and they too did not weigh our bags. Where you place the bags it is actually a scale. I looked at the weight of our 62 inch bag and it was almost 65lbs. Good thing they did not check it! We took our 2 carry on bags with us which was good because we bought alot of fragile items back from the Islands which we packed in those bags. My sister in law checked her fragile items and something did break. We brought back 6 bottles of alcohol. We had no choice but to check those. They came out fine nothing broken.

 

I would definitely use Matrix again. Nice thing about them is that the owner has all calls directed to his cell phone when the place is closed and its also a blackberry. So he can get my call or email real time. I never felt I would get stranded anywhere. For 90.00 a night I guess I would stay at the Tremont again.

 

Also, if you have not thought about it call your Cell phone company. We had to do that *228 (for verizon) option 2 to allow the phone to make international calls. The boat has a cell phone tower so you can make and receive calls the entire time. However its like 2.50 per minute. I did register in the Internet Cafe so I could email my kids. Lesson Learn - go for the biggest package (250 minutes for 100.00). The ship Internet speed is very slow. What I thought would be quick on quick off to email took 20 - 25 minutes each time. Oh and a big lesson learned is to bring a watch!! I use my cell phone for time all the time. Since I did not cart my cell phone around the boat I never new what time it was!!

 

Hope this information is found helpful by someone. It took alot of research to find many of my things to plan the trip. I know something like this would have helped me!

[redswim]

how did you get the liquior on board the ship?

[firefly333]

I've read alot on many sites that the drive to and from IAH is about 45 min. It actually took 1 hour 10 min - 15 min to and from. For a Sat afternoon and Sun morning, houston has alot of traffic!

 

I think you may have misunderstood. Hobby is about 45 minutes and IAH is about twice as far 1 hour and 15 minutes. Maybe you read a post saying the airport was 45 minutes from Galveston and assumed they meant IAH??

 

Iv read a lot of posts and never saw one claiming you could get from IAH in 45 minutes, you made great time, no fears.

 

Glad you could stay at Tremont, sounds awesome.

[nealstuber]

Since I spent a lot of time researching on the board before my trip, I thought I would post my experience here for others doing the same research.

 

We sailed out of Galveston on 6/21 on Carnival Conquest. There were 6 of us in our party.

 

We flew out of CLT (NC) to IAH on USAir. My husband and I had 2 bags a piece and took special caution to weigh them before we left. USAir did not weigh any of the bags. We had 6 bags in total. 4 we checked and 2 we carried on. It cost us 88.00 to check the 4 bags. The biggest one we had was at the max of 62 inches and based off our home scale was 50lbs exact.

 

We made arrangements with Matrix Limo out of Houston for pick up and drop off. We had 2 flights coming into IAH, ours out of CLT and the other out of PHL. The PHL one was late, and so was Matrix about 15 - 20 minutes. I assume their lateness was due to the delay of the PHL flight.

 

The van they had for us fit us 6 very comfortably with all of our luggage. The driver was nice. They charged us 185.00 each way (plus tip). One taxi ride from IAH into Galveston was going to cost 160.00.

 

me!

 

Surprised you decided to fly for the Conquest when you could have driven from CLT to Port Canaveral to get on Glory.

[yst347]

Houston has two airports.

 

Hobby airport (HOU) is 45 minutes from Galveston.

Bush-Intercontinental (IAH) is 90 minutes from Galveston.

 

It sounds like you had a nice trip. :)