Has anyone cruised from Galveston?

[English Tim]

I'd like to rent a car from Houston Int Apt to Gaslveston and retiurn, but I'm having great trouble in finding any info on this. How have all you cruisers achieved this journey?

[ssb]

I'd like to rent a car from Houston Int Apt to Gaslveston and retiurn, but I'm having great trouble in finding any info on this. How have all you cruisers achieved this journey?

 

Are you renting for like a week and leaving car in Galveston during cruise?

[BMRSNR]

depends on what day you will be needing the car ... heres my story

 

enterprise is the ONLY rental car place in galveston since the hurricane ... no other options .

for the past 3 years we have used the enterprise ... but ..the galveston location is closed on sundays so you will need to call the galveston location and tell them the date you will need to pickup the car and when you will be returning the car to galveston .. they DO have 1 way rentals...sometimes when you call the 1800 number they try to say there is a 200.00 1 way fee ... that is not true ... if you reserve from the galveston location they will not charge that fee ...

 

we always picked up the rental car saturday when we fly into houston hobby (there is a shuttle that will drive you to the houston location cause its a few miles from the airport ..fee of charge)

rent the car drive to galveston and keep it till sunday morning , drive it to the location in galveston which is closed on that sunday but the gate is unlocked .. just park the car there and leave the keys in the drop box and your set. ...call a cab to take you to the terminal ( 10.00 max ) and enjoy your cruise ! :D

 

hope this helps you ... if you need more information feel free to email my wife at kimsboysx3@yahoo.com and she will be more than willing to help you in anyway she can !

[English Tim]

depends on what day you will be needing the car ... heres my story

 

enterprise is the ONLY rental car place in galveston since the hurricane ... no other options .

for the past 3 years we have used the enterprise ... but ..the galveston location is closed on sundays so you will need to call the galveston location and tell them the date you will need to pickup the car and when you will be returning the car to galveston .. they DO have 1 way rentals...sometimes when you call the 1800 number they try to say there is a 200.00 1 way fee ... that is not true ... if you reserve from the galveston location they will not charge that fee ...

 

we always picked up the rental car saturday when we fly into houston hobby (there is a shuttle that will drive you to the houston location cause its a few miles from the airport ..fee of charge)

rent the car drive to galveston and keep it till sunday morning , drive it to the location in galveston which is closed on that sunday but the gate is unlocked .. just park the car there and leave the keys in the drop box and your set. ...call a cab to take you to the terminal ( 10.00 max ) and enjoy your cruise ! :D

 

hope this helps you ... if you need more information feel free to email my wife at kimsboysx3@yahoo.com and she will be more than willing to help you in anyway she can !

 

Thanks, a good idea, but no good for the return,the following Sunday! It's too costly to rent a car for the whole cruise, so we may decide on a shuttle. It's crazy that the local authorities don't offer a Sunday facility, as surely there would be a great demand.

[ssb]

Definitely shuttle!

We live in Galveston, feel free to ask questions!

[Galveston Cruiser]

Car rental facilities are operated by the rental company or franchises. The cruise lines, port nor City have no control how they operate.

We all wish we had more competition on the island and more shuttle services.

 

Orlando Airport is the close to the same distance to Port Canaveral as Houston Intercontinental Airport is to Galveston. Seems no one wants to try to expand the market.

[BMRSNR]

oops ... forgot to put that :D

 

we dont rent a car to go back to houston for the flight back ... once on the ship we go down and pay the little fee to be chartered back to hobby when we return ... i think its like 30-40 a person ...

last year the rental car was like 50-60 total

 

so just rent the car to get to galveston and use it for running around saturday and return it sunday and get the shuttle back when you come back the following sunday !

[auntkaty]

English Tim...what day & time are you getting into IAH? When is your flight back on Sunday?

[English Tim]

English Tim...what day & time are you getting into IAH? When is your flight back on Sunday?

 

We arrive at IAH on 5 March at 18,40 and leave on 13 March at 17.35

[auntkaty]

o.k., let's see...18:40 would be 6:40 p.m. on March 5th. Do you plan to stay that night in Houston or go on to Galveston? If your plane does not leave until after 5:00 p.m. on the 13th, then you will have time to roam Galveston or Houston. It will be about 1 hour and 30 minutes (possibly 15 minutes less or more) between the airport and Galveston. You will want to be at the airport two hours before your flight back to England (the international terminal is nice). Heading north out of Galveston on Sunday at that time of day should not be a problem...you will miss the beach traffic coming back into Houston (assuming it is warm enough to be a beach day that day). Renting a car would give you the most flexibility, but with the cost of gas, taxes, parking, etc figured in, you would probably be at about $250. Enterprise has cars for as little at $175 + gas + parking that covers 8 days of rental. Depends on how much luggage you have...maybe you could crowd into our car. We are on the same cruise and live in Houston.

[English Tim]

o.k., let's see...18:40 would be 6:40 p.m. on March 5th. Do you plan to stay that night in Houston or go on to Galveston? If your plane does not leave until after 5:00 p.m. on the 13th, then you will have time to roam Galveston or Houston. It will be about 1 hour and 30 minutes (possibly 15 minutes less or more) between the airport and Galveston. You will want to be at the airport two hours before your flight back to England (the international terminal is nice). Heading north out of Galveston on Sunday at that time of day should not be a problem...you will miss the beach traffic coming back into Houston (assuming it is warm enough to be a beach day that day). Renting a car would give you the most flexibility, but with the cost of gas, taxes, parking, etc figured in, you would probably be at about $250. Enterprise has cars for as little at $175 + gas + parking that covers 8 days of rental. Depends on how much luggage you have...maybe you could crowd into our car. We are on the same cruise and live in Houston.

 

Thank you so much for such a kind offer and thoughts. I think we'll have quite a bit of luggage so we'll probably stay at IAH, then rent a car for the drive down and take the Carnival shuttle back, which will probably mean getting to the airport very early, so maybe a trip into Houston if we can check our bags in early.