Port of Houston

[Dudleydog73]

Hi DudleyDog!! We are going out of Houston on the CB APril 19th! Maybe the weather improves during the Spring?? Hope so - wanted to see Belize and Roatan - now I'm wondering! Hope you and your family are well!

 

Hi Debbie! We are all well. I'm sure you and your hubby will have a great cruise. We wanted to see Roatan and Belize as well but the cruise gods conspired against us. It will be interesting to see how the Bayport terminal works out as the seasons change.

[fishin' musician]

... As for all the complaints about the western Caribbean ports of call, it does not matter what port you sail out of when it comes to weather in those ports. Mahogany Bay in Roatan is used by all Carnival Corp ships including Princess, CCL, MSC, etc. ...

 

Does Carnival now own MSC?

[Gunner22aa]

Carnival Corporation & plc is a global cruise company and one of the largest vacation companies in the world. Our portfolio of leading cruise brands includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Seabourn in North America; P&O Cruises (UK), and Cunard in the United Kingdom; AIDA Cruises in Germany; Costa Cruises in Southern Europe; Iberocruceros in Spain; and P&O Cruises (Australia) in Australia.

 

They do not own MSC

[caribill]

Does Carnival now own MSC?

 

Per Wikipedia

 

MSC Cruises (Italian: MSC Crociere S.p.A.) is a division of Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC). MSC is a italian-swiss shipping company devoted to the cruise market with headquarters in Geneva.

[slc22]

…

As for all the complaints about the western Caribbean ports of call, it does not matter what port you sail out of when it comes to weather in those ports.

Belize has a rain forest so it .....RAINS! Adjust to the weather patterns.

 

 

Thanks, you made me laugh!

 

And so true….thanks for adding good logic to the discussions.

[pablo222]

Noted.

Why is it that Princess can offer "full fare refunded in future OBC" on unsold sailings from the West Coast and Cruise Critic members don't seem to predict DOOM DOOM DOOM for those ports?

 

They offered the same from Ft. Lauderdale. I don't think it's doom for the port, but rather for the short cruises.

[frangul]

Sminfiddle, your response of: "If you mean the waived port fees, my experience is that the first item on my folio was a credit for over $20, description was "GOVT" and though unconfirmed by Princess, this looks like a refund to the passenger of the Houston port fee. This would not help Princess' bottom line, right?

Net Positive for a passenger sailing from Bayport.

 

Houston is also giving Princess and Norwegian the proceeds from parking. I don't have any problems with that. You pay for parking wherever you go. Neutral effect on passenger."

 

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Parking proceeds that Houston is giving to the cruise lines does have an effect on passengers when winds and fog prevent us from leaving in a timely manner due to the narrowness of the channel. It is not a neutral effect imho. If they had opted to forego the "Park free" perk and docked in Galveston, the narrow channel would not have had to be dealt with.

 

And, please, please, please, keep the $20 government rebate for the Houston port fee and let me go to the ports on the schedule by leaving when we should, not 20 to 24 hours late.

Edited January 19, 2014 by frangul

[satxdiver]

The nice part of the cruise industry is that they have ships going out of many ports including Galveston. If you prefer sailing out of Galveston, I would suggest booking on Carnival which has a fairly nice remodeled terminal or on Royal Caribbean which sails from the shack they call a terminal. I have sailed out of both.

 

Aside from the fact that I do not like Galveston as it is a tourist town with tourist prices, the traffic around the port when two large ships arrive and then depart is a nightmare. I have been stuck in traffic many times trying to simply get to the luggage drop off point.

[frangul]

Unfortunately, Princess did not disclose the issues involved with being docked in the ship channel at the Houston port. That would have helped make the decision on which port to leave from. Honesty and full disclosure, is that too hard to expect? We would not have booked with them had we known.

[Gunner22aa]

I read a review on here from a poster who was caught in this situation and questioned why they didn't just drive right on in using GPS and accused the line of navigating instead with instruments that the Mayflower would have had. It was very obvious that the poster had little to no knowledge of how accurate GPS really is and how it really works.

 

First and foremost GPS is a military system that we mortals have been allowed to use. We don't however get full use of it. Without a coded receiver that only the military have (I am one) you do not get the stated less than 10 meter error. Actually it can be better than that depending on where you are and most think the 24 satellites up there provide global coverage which isn't the case. There are black holes and accuracy is degraded depending on how many of the satellites you are receiving a signal from. Commercial GPS in everything from your car to the ship have a 100 meter accuracy and 10 meters in elevation. I haven't been through the channel in question but 100 meters probably means the difference between the channel and the bank. Visual navigation is still a very important tool. You don't use GPS to pull along side the jetty. Thats eyeball territory.

 

The Capt made a decision not to proceed and that is his call. You were inconvienenced but your here to tell the tale.