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We stayed there in March and paid nothing for parking. If you book through Galveston.com your parking is free. You may have to remind the receptionist of this.

Their breakfast is just juice, coffee, danish and fruit. Nothing fancy, but enough to hold you over until you can get to the ship and pig out!

Their staff is few and never really seen. Wasn't a big deal for us. They were there when we needed them. We had a problem with a light in the bathroom shorting out, but it was tended to fast.

The location can't be beat. The kids loved watching the ship pass by that morning (me too)! When you make your reservation just ask for a room with a good view of the harbor.

We plan on staying there on our next cruise!

I give it an A+!

I like your saying and attitude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

Livin' ~ Laughin' ~ Lovin' :D

Sure ya'll would be fun to cruise with.:D

Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure :D

We have stayed there too. I really enjoyed the stay for the most part, but there were ups and downs.

 

The good: rooms and views were great! Our room was very large, comfortable, and had a fridge. It is very convenient to the cruise terminal. Some walk to it, but since we normally cruise RCI, and RCI's ships dock a bit further down, we prefer to drive over and one of us waits with the luggage while the other drives back and parks, then walks over.

 

The not-so-good: the elevator is very small and unreliable. It was not operational when we arrived, and we had to haul all of our luggage up to the 3rd floor ourselves (no staff to help, they seem to keep very minimal staff). It did start working later, but was still dicey. Reading some recent reviews, the elevator still seems to be an issue, so it apparently has not been updated.

 

The breakfast really is kind of a joke. They throw out a few store bought bagels and rolls, some yogurt (maybe some cereal, can't recall), juice and coffee. There is no one attending it or restocking if something runs out.

 

There does always seem to be confusion on the parking fee. In our case, it was $20, but I know what you mean about the conflicting reports.

 

Overall, I would stay again if the price was right, but we are looking at other options this time.

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By your comments

they would bother me also.

When were you there?

If sometime after hurricane Ike

the elevator had its problems with 20 feet of water is understandable situation.Continental breakfast would be a concern!

Parking situation would not be a concern with parking lot,

but with the policy and persons managing it.

For a while an telephone operator at another hotel was handling operational matters after the Hurricane for quite a while.

There personal contractors repairing all their properties were staying at the Harbor Housr also for many many months.

Which might account for some of those problems.

The family is a wonderful one.... thats owns and operates Tremont, Galvez and Harbor House Hotels, and owns most of downtown Galveston, and owned Mitchell Energy and Development, and developed a whole town The Woodlands north of Houston with the Cynthia Mitchell Entertainment Pavilion along with many other real estate and other ventures.

Thet are are truely philantrophic large donors to health organizations, worthwhile cause organizations and universities world wide.

They were repairing lots of properties after the storm for many many months,

and spent millions bringing them all back to first class operations.

Thats the way they are!!!!

I would send letter to public relations department at Galvez Hotel and advise

and ask if things have changed at Harbor House.

Hurricane repairs over long period of time and necessary common phone operators for all properties for a while can account for those problems.

Maybe except for problems with person handling Continental breakfast!

Also many special events occur in that area,

and hotel rates, minimum night stays, parking and fees can change to accomodate certain events. The summer season along with

Dickens on the Strand, Yaga Wild Game Cookoff, LoneStar Bike Rally, Mardi Gras and many other smaller special events occur in that area.

50,000 to 200,000+ can attend these larger events.

Galveston is a resort destination vacation town with two major first class convention centers.

Supply and demand and its complications always prevails.

Get everything in confirmation form from any hotels to tie down your concerns.

If you don't go back to any of ones above try Moody Gardens or the St Luis Resorts for that level of comfort!!!!

Galvez, Tremont, Harbor House, St Luis. Hilton and Moody Gardens are wonderful hotels

Galveston is still recovering from a major mother nature event!!!!!!!!!!!

There are definitely cruise snobs,

probably in about same percentage as every day life everywhere.

Luckely we have same choices on a ship,

as we do at home, work and any social enviroment.

Select your own comfort levels of involvement with the people

you want to be around. Speak up or don't speak up. Deal with your own

actions feelings and words. We were all put on this world to struggle. Be happy with yourself!!!

Enjoy the nice peope!!!!!!

Under the normal bell shaped curve concept,

there are the opposite extremes with masses in the middle.

There will always be rude people.

Thats life.

Wes stopped at TOrtola this year on teh Serandade and had THE WORST experience ever. The transporatin on the water taxis was horrendous- the operators were rude and crude to the tourists. At the beach, we were constantly hounded by people selling drinks and food- adn if you did not buy, they mumbled obsecnities under their breath. Even some of the cruise staff told us that night, they hated this sop and would not get off in the future. We asked for a stop on the water taxi back to the boat - to stop in town to let us off to go to the market, and then three different taxi drivers had to argue for 10 minutes, which boat we had to take to go there, we finallyh just said forget it and went back to the boat.

BY the way- we love Aruba- the shopping, the beach etc are great.

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Those are people problems not THE BEAUTY of the ISLAND and BVI"s. :D

They can and will happen anywhere when people are serving cruise passengers. :(

As a cruiser of 20+ voyages mainly in the Caribbean, my wife and I were discussing where we would prefer NOT to get off the ship. We pretty much settled on Tortola as somewhat blah with the assertive hawkers bothering us and not much to do. A HAL Captain told us that Grand Turk was not a great place either. Wondering what others are thinking? Nassau? Ocho Rios?

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You might skip the PORT area,

but not the island or the BVI islands.

If you have 20+ vogages

you have to know at times you have to leave the port area

to enjoy the place.

A good example is Marseille France!

LOVED THE BVI's

Tortola is the HUB of the British Virgin Islands.

and the main hub of Diving and Sailing in the ENTIRE Carribean.

It has access by water taxi to many Islands of BVI but also the US Virgin Islands.

At 12/31/1999 Foxy's on Josh Van Dyke of BVI's

was named in article in Wall Street Journal

as one of top ten parties in the world to be at.

We spent two weeks there on a land based trip

and including a class 5 hurricane IVAN,,

IT IS still one of my favorite vacations yet.:D

The Baths are one of MOTHER NATURES must see spots in the world.:D

A lot of the others things people are mentioning are true and wonderful.

Get off the ship and explore with open arms and wide open eyes.

Life is good there.