longhorn2004

What SSB stated... Took me 15 minutes to get from sidewalk to ship and returning from ship to sidewalk 9 minutes. And that was Allure of the Seas. Yes, I used a stop watch, your mileage may vary. An example of how to embark and disembark. And parking available at the terminal, no more third party parking lots. Love that terminal.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/11/regal-princess-heads-to-the-port-of-galveston/ Which terminal will it use? With only 3600 passengers I guess either one. Not Royal's terminal of course. Will Celebrity be next?

Already sailed earlier this month. Its a clean property.

Saw taxicabs picking up cruise passengers from this location for some reason. https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3080193,-94.7934222,3a,79.8y,346.14h,81.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHoo0FIkYOgk0wNSX_oAQDQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Most of the construction is out of sight of the customers. One can see the second gangway. Looking forward to see if the boarding and deboarding improves to Royal Caribbean speed when done. Have a soft spot for the old terminal, its where I took my first cruise from. Hope something is done for the vehicle traffic area out front. Using the word chaotic to describe it is being nice.

Want a reasonable place to stay and be on or near the beach, there is Town Place Suites by Marriot or the Courtyard in front of it. Terminals about 15-20 minutes away.

My opinion is that Texas faced a lot of blow back on this. While still the law and must be mentioned to pax on cruise ships. I think Texas is not enforcing it.

And once the parking is done, the terminal will continue to impress, from sidewalk to ship in 15-20 minutes

Depends. When you get off the ship, who is transporting you and if I-45 has an accident on it. IAH is not exactly close. But yeah, its doable.

They were not at the new RC terminal in December either. Not complaining.

Hope most of it is complete in October.

IMO, I love the north lot. Its just to the south of the covered parking. The walk is short.

So true, its worth the extra $30 bucks to walk from terminal to car in 5 minutes, and be on your way.

Stay in Texas City and save your money. Now if it was spring or summer, I would say if you plan ahead, stay at Galveston on the beach.

PaPa's Seafood on I-45 near Texas City.............I think.

Keywest does not want big ships. https://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/news-analysis/key-west-cruise-ships/ Two days at sea is not bad, it happens all the time from Galveston going to Roatan or Jamaica.

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-ship-orderbook/ Carnival has more debt than Royal but at least they are paying less per ship. Putting orders for in essence the same LNG ship with slight changes across the Carnival Family (buying in bulk) looks to have yielded lower per ship purchase costs.

https://www.cruisehive.com/msc-cruises-and-galveston-confirm-step-toward-new-terminal/90864 To bring this back to Carnival, they are updating their dated facilities in Galveston to handle the XL Class of ships. So good news all around.

Yes, they are coming to Galveston and getting a new terminal built too.

Rumor been around for years, various cruise outlets on Youtube recently brought it back up as a concern. As Carnival's midsize fleet shrinks, it stands to reason one of the smaller markets will go away, ie. Charleston. You are not sending Dream to Tampa. Talk about "flooding" the market with cabins. Almost $2 Billion in revenue versus $28 Billion in debt, its not hard to see something drastic needs to be done. I have my opinions on what the eventual solution will be. In comparison Royal has $1.5 Billion in revenues, $18 billion in long term debt.

Rumor floating around that the last two Fantasy Class ships will be gone too. I think the next step will be closing the smaller ports. Will not be surprised to see either Jacksonville, Tampa or Mobile service end.

Royal will have more ships in the market in the beginning of the year compared to the latter half.

You have not experienced the new terminal, totally transforms the embarkation process. 15 minutes from sidewalk you are on board. And my party went from Allure's gangway to sidewalk in 9 minutes.

Strange, so the 6 day itinerary is the same as the 7 day itinerary arriving at Costa Maya as the first stop at noon. I just did went to the same ports on Allure and it took 7 days. Must going to be booking full steam to Costa Maya at 12 n

I have been reading Key West wants to reduce the amount of cruise ships visiting the island.