Galveston...rental car return?

[Koval]

So, for all of us trying to figure this all out

What is the best way (names of limo/shuttle/taxi service) for us to go...

Renting a car for $200 is one thing,

but with $300 of fees and sport taxes is another

total over $500 is just silly

[jandjfun]

Well, Princess just announced that they are coming. Carnival upgraded their ships there. There's a "rumor" that someone else is coming too. Most of the Galveston cruisers drive to the port from home (look at all the threads about the various parking lots) - so you probably won't be missed.;)

Wow!! What a crappy attitude. Are all Texans as rude as you:eek::p? Probably not!!

To the person who said we won't be missed, we will be missed if everyone that is trying it for the first time is coming in from the East Coast or Seattle won't be coming back. We have over 50 couples in the two upcoming cruises that are all disgusted. Our other group has over 60 couples coming in from Canada and everywhere. So it doesn't look like most Galveston cruisers are driving in. I don't know where you got your attitude from. You are the first person that have been mean on this board today. If you have nothing good to say, don't bother writing back . Galveston is supposed to be hurting. If they don't help themselves, they aren't going to improve.

Amen Esther.

So, for all of us trying to figure this all out

What is the best way (names of limo/shuttle/taxi service) for us to go...

Renting a car for $200 is one thing,

but with $300 of fees and sport taxes is another

total over $500 is just silly

Did you figure anything out Marie?

[mnh]

Please don't be Galveston haters....it really is a great city with a lot of history and you will find most Texans very friendly and yes some full of themselves....as a native Texan I can admit to such.

 

The car rental situation is not good....should be open on Sunday for a part of the day and maybe different hours on Saturday.

 

If you google galveston shuttles you might be surprised what you will find. I found a well known airport shuttle company that offers a van....up to 10 people for $100 each way....not too bad.

[English Tim]

We finish our TA in Galveston and were going to spend two nights at IAH, but with no car rental open on Sunday, we'll probably stay 1 night in Galveston and 1 night at IAH, renting a car from Monday morning, so we may need a nice hotel in Galveston.

[Texas Tillie]

We finish our TA in Galveston and were going to spend two nights at IAH, but with no car rental open on Sunday, we'll probably stay 1 night in Galveston and 1 night at IAH, renting a car from Monday morning, so we may need a nice hotel in Galveston.

 

Are you planning on staying the second night at IAH because you have an early morning flight? Just want you to know that the airport isn't in the best neighborhood, so you should not expect to do more than go to the hotel and stay there. No tourist spots in a vacinity of IAH. :)

[English Tim]

Are you planning on staying the second night at IAH because you have an early morning flight? Just want you to know that the airport isn't in the best neighborhood, so you should not expect to do more than go to the hotel and stay there. No tourist spots in a vacinity of IAH. :)

 

Thanks for the heads up. We stayed there in March, so know the area. We stayed at Sheraton North Houston, getting a very nice room on the club floor (includes breakfast and evening snacks / drinks) using points, but not essential as our flight doesn't leave until the evening. We could stay in Galveston for two nights, which would save moving bags around, dropping car at IAH.

[Texas Tillie]

Thanks for the heads up. We stayed there in March, so know the area. We stayed at Sheraton North Houston, getting a very nice room on the club floor (includes breakfast and evening snacks / drinks) using points, but not essential as our flight doesn't leave until the evening. We could stay in Galveston for two nights, which would save moving bags around, dropping car at IAH.

 

Just didn't want someone who was unaware of the location to expect one thing and find something else. Have a wonderful cruise!

[realmccoy]

So, for all of us trying to figure this all out

What is the best way (names of limo/shuttle/taxi service) for us to go...

Renting a car for $200 is one thing,

but with $300 of fees and sport taxes is another

total over $500 is just silly

 

Our $300 rental for 9 days is the TOTAL cost...taxes and fee's included. You need to shop around.

[Bear2012]

My wife and I are also planning to take a cruise out of Galveston in October, I haven't booked yet, even after discovering the huge headache:confused: transfers/Shuttle/car rentals I am not detoured. I am very methodical and I don't give up so easy. This is what I have found out.

Transfers booked through Carnival are $40 per person IAH to Galveston one way and $30 per person Hobbs to Galveston one way. There are lots of alternatives but all are more expensive $95>125 one way to limo's sky's the limit.

Since I plan on renting a car after our cruise and the ship docks on Sunday I am really frustrated that there is no car rental company's open on Galveston Island :mad: I can't believe that a whole ship full of people will dock and no one can rent a car, what!

Flying a day early (because I think its the smart thing to do, fail to plan, plan to fail you know)Renting a car at IAH, drive to Galveston stay the night park the car at the hotel in Galveston, go on the cruise, shuttle back to the hotel, pick up my rental, drive to San Antonio spend the night, Alamo blau blau blau and back to George Bush to drop off car would be $300.99 less gas and insurance.

There is a Avis in Clear lake which is 26 to 30 miles from Galveston and is open on Sunday, one shuttle company quoted me $95 one way. and a Taxi would be about $70, Pier 25 to Avis Clear Lake. They have a shuttle but only up to 5 miles from the office.

Ther are plenty of Hotels that offer Stay/Park/Cruise specials for about $200 or less taxes in. like La Quinta, Treemount, San Louis, Holiday Inn and Galveston Island Hilton, Harbour House has parking extra 50>75$ but its secure(Galvez). Hey any body want to challenge me on any of this info go right ahead, this information is from E-mails, phone calls and Internet web sites I have gathered over the last 3 weeks and I am still looking. I haven't booked yet but I probably will and for me keeping the rental over 8 days is looking like the option I would take.:cool:

[Koval]

Our $300 rental for 9 days is the TOTAL cost...taxes and fee's included. You need to shop around.

Who did you use...?

 

Not that it matters to me any more, as we are going on a CC Group cruise and enough of us are coming in at the same time, that we can book a shuttle. split 10 ways works out well. So far we have 7 to split it, but still early, so we will hopefully find a couple more for that day.

[FLACRUISER99]

I gues I am an idiot too. I booked for Galveston for Friday and SAt before the cruise. I have never heard of a car rental being closed on Sat or Sunday. I am also sorry we booked for Galveston. I should have stayed my but or our butts in Florida. Never had this much trouble with anything for a cruise. Someone said $200.00 drop off fee. Are you kidding me? I didn't pay that for renting a car for 5 days before our cruise even in Miami. It doesn't seem Like Galveston cares about cruisers. If this is the case , this will be our first and last cruise for the 4 of us too. We will go back to Florida. Very disappointed with Galveton already. To the guy who wants to open up a car rental, I will be your second customer. Please be open on Sat and Sunday. We wanted to go sight seeing before the cruise. If Glaveston cared about the economy in Galveston, they would offer car rentals that are open on weekends. I really am getting more discouraged everytime I read more remarks.

 

Well, Princess just announced that they are coming. Carnival upgraded their ships there. There's a "rumor" that someone else is coming too. Most of the Galveston cruisers drive to the port from home (look at all the threads about the various parking lots) - so you probably won't be missed.;)

I have a feeling ooulio won't be the only one avoiding Galveston!

[tigercat]

Right now my husband and I are booked on the bloggers cruise on the Magic on March 4 out of Galveston. I am really not as excited about this cruise as it is going to cost us a lot more money just to fly there and get to the port. I was sort of looking forward to seeing that part of the U.S. but am not sure it is worth spending all the extra money. We could do a B2B out of Florida for the same amount. We could drive to Florida but Galveston is a lot longer.

tigercat

[breenw]

We are in the same boat (no pun intended!) Tigercat. We booked for the BG5 and are planning to fly in a day early just in case of weather, etc. Now I'm trying to find out how to get to Galveston without it costing an arm and a leg. We can't utilize the Carnival shuttle as it isn't available on Saturday - only Sunday.

[CGBCruiser]

Try contacting that Super Shuttle...I see them ALL the time at the airport and they are supposed to be cheaper, especially if you can get someone to share the van with you.

[ooulio]

Unfortunately, we already gave our $500.00 deposit on the cruise. We were going with a Great group but the rest of our group didn't want to go to Mexico. We are booked and stuck. I am going to be positive and try it once. I did write once to Enterprise and no one ever wrote me back asking about Sat and Sundays. We will try it once and see. If it is too much hassle, we will be back to Florida on our next one. I love cruising out of Florida and have great luck on all our cruises out of Ft Lauderdale,Pt Cananveral and Miami. We already booked our hotel which I think looks nice. San Luis Resort I think is spelled. I was in Dallas years ago . They were so friendly. Not going to let the one mean person scare me off. I am used to East coast. I am not afraid of people.

[realmccoy]

Who did you use...?

 

Not that it matters to me any more, as we are going on a CC Group cruise and enough of us are coming in at the same time, that we can book a shuttle. split 10 ways works out well. So far we have 7 to split it, but still early, so we will hopefully find a couple more for that day.

 

Alamo with a coupon. I tried them all...Alamo was the cheapest and I booked alomst one year in advance.

[MrSnarkyPants]

i have been looking for a couple of days now.

checking here to make sure i didnt miss anything

only car return is for enterprise and they are closed on sunday and you leave keys in drop box, but they charge you till monday even if you drop car on sunday.

no other car return in galveston at all????

 

You are correct. Enterprise is the only rental company on the island, and those are their policies.

 

I would price a limo company and compare.

[MrSnarkyPants]

Just didn't want someone who was unaware of the location to expect one thing and find something else. Have a wonderful cruise!

 

Yeah, while the locals don't call Greenspoint "Gunspoint" anymore, it's not representative of the rest of Houston either. If you do stay near IAH, a car will be helpful if you want to get something to eat. Most of the airport hotels are surrounded by office buildings, business parks, and parking lots.

[MrSnarkyPants]

Unfortunately, we already gave our $500.00 deposit on the cruise. We were going with a Great group but the rest of our group didn't want to go to Mexico. We are booked and stuck. I am going to be positive and try it once. I did write once to Enterprise and no one ever wrote me back asking about Sat and Sundays. We will try it once and see. If it is too much hassle, we will be back to Florida on our next one. I love cruising out of Florida and have great luck on all our cruises out of Ft Lauderdale,Pt Cananveral and Miami. We already booked our hotel which I think looks nice. San Luis Resort I think is spelled.

 

The San Luis is one of the nicest on the island. According to the hotel's website, Galveston Limo will take you from either airport direct to the hotel. Once you're on the island, it's easy to get around (it's not that big) and the San Luis will also be able to arrange transportation to the pier. It's something to consider.

[Galveston Cruiser]

Enterprise is open on Saturday until noon, closed on Sunday. They are a franchise.

Galveston has nothing to do with car rentals; they are private and only they can decide where they want to have an office and when they will be open. Please cruisers, contact the rental agencies stating the simple fact that they are needed in Galveston.

Even those of us that live here need other agencies AND competition.

[pilotboy1985]

I'm sailing Mariner Nov 27th 2011 and I booked it due to the great price of a GS. I didn't expect all this hassle with Car Rentals!

 

It's me, my partner plus my mom and dad going on this cruise. Mom and Dad asked me to figure out the transportation and I said " no problem, it'll be easy! done this many times" well this isn't as easy as I thought.

 

We're flying in Houston on the Friday to spend some time touring around ( I used to live in Houston before I moved to Canada so I'd like to go down memory lane)

 

I'm going to look into a few things and report back what I found works best for me.

[Happy Canadian]

We were experiencing same difficulties I was reading in some of these threads i.e. rentals very expensive especially if you were hoping to pick up in Galveston and drop off in another location AND locations not open on weekend.

We finally found a great price with Avis renting out of Mall of the Mainland in Texas City (app 15 -20 miles from Galveston). The drop off is "only" $100 which is much more reasonable than any other quotes we were seeing. Weekend hours are Sat 9 to 2 and Sunday 10 to 2 which works for us since we are arriving on the Magic on Sunday (repositioning cruise). Hope others find this information useful - we had to hunt for it!

[murcor]

Hello Neighbor :)

 

 

 

We were experiencing same difficulties I was reading in some of these threads i.e. rentals very expensive especially if you were hoping to pick up in Galveston and drop off in another location AND locations not open on weekend.

We finally found a great price with Avis renting out of Mall of the Mainland in Texas City (app 15 -20 miles from Galveston). The drop off is "only" $100 which is much more reasonable than any other quotes we were seeing. Weekend hours are Sat 9 to 2 and Sunday 10 to 2 which works for us since we are arriving on the Magic on Sunday (repositioning cruise). Hope others find this information useful - we had to hunt for it!

[Happy Canadian]

Hello Neighbor :)

Hello to you. We are also booked on the Magic (see you are going in January). We are on the repositioning cruise (Barcelona to Galveston) which is why we were searching for the car rental information.

Enjoy.

[pilotboy1985]

Three people from the Maritimes trying to find out car rentals in Galveston, lol.

 

Thanks for the info about Texas City, I'll look into it.