Cruises from Galveston

[philv]

Anyone have a favorite itinerary cruising from Galveston? Do's and don'ts?

[wo5m]

Anyone have a favorite itinerary cruising from Galveston? Do's and don'ts?

 

1. 7-Day Cozumel Belize Honduras is my favorite.

2. Don't park a the Cruise terminal. Many hotels offer complementary cruise parking. Some hotels even offer shuttle to the terminal , but we always use Uber so we can be first on the ship.

 

Been out of Galveston 4 times and we are scheduled for the 14 day prepossessing cruise on the Breeze in September.

[jordanaire]

Do fly into Hobby Airport

 

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[cxr133]

1. 7-Day Cozumel Belize Honduras is my favorite.

2. Don't park a the Cruise terminal. Many hotels offer complementary cruise parking. Some hotels even offer shuttle to the terminal , but we always use Uber so we can be first on the ship.

 

Been out of Galveston 4 times and we are scheduled for the 14 day prepossessing cruise on the Breeze in September.

 

 

good to hear going on this cruise in June for the first time. Whats not to be missed on the ship or the excursions.

so far thinking Bodden Tour for Roaton, shark ray alley for belize- but concerned the carnival tour will be too crowded looking or a private excursion but shoreexcusioneer says carnival is blacked out and thinking beach day paradise beach I think for Cozumel.

[firefly333]

I love Honduras and second Victor Bodden. Maybe get him to stop at a grocery store and pick up some local coffee to bring home. lol. I brought home a lot. Its worth the little extra to go to his house and get in the cage with the monkeys to me. Maybe $5 extra pp. Some other animals, but none like the monkeys. Though I got to see a cashew tree at his house, what a hard nut to harvest.

 

Belize is the only port where you can buy some meds. valium to sleep and some pain pills with coedine (thats all the pain meds you can buy there over the counter), and i get some antibiotics etc to have stuff on hand. Nothing like having a tooth ache over the weekend when dentists are close, need to start those antibiotics.

 

they do sell some other meds you can buy elsewhere but not as cheap as in the port of Belize, so i go there just to refill. I didnt have insurance for years and self medicated I admit it.

 

So this iternary is a must once a year for many I have talked to, Belize, and of course who doesnt love the lovely Honduras.

 

RCL doesnt go to Belize out of Galveston, their loss.

 

Another favorite or at least on my bucket list, is the now once a year 14 day cruise, partial panama transit leaving oct 27 this year. I had already booked the Belize etc 7 day and it conflicted when the solo X 2 was removed, or i would have done the 14 day last fall partial panama ... hoping to score it this oct 27.

 

Bahamas, ehhh. I lived in Hawaii for 10 years, and firsts time I saw Bahamas I was shocked tbh, flat and brown, but i guess people love the private beaches and dont care the island is ugly and flat and brown. The so called Easter out of Galveston to me stinks. ... lol, but if the price was cheap enough and i wasnt booked on another cruise, id go, any really cheap cruise is ok to me, but i wouldnt pay as much for the eastern.

[firefly333]

1. 7-Day Cozumel Belize Honduras is my favorite.

2. Don't park a the Cruise terminal. Many hotels offer complementary cruise parking. Some hotels even offer shuttle to the terminal , but we always use Uber so we can be first on the ship.

 

Been out of Galveston 4 times and we are scheduled for the 14 day prepossessing cruise on the Breeze in September.

 

If off season in the winter, I do like to stay on the beach side where i can see the ocean and walk along the ocean blvd. Go down the night before.

 

Though last time I was by myself and drove down the day of, and EZCruise had $15 off if you carried your own luggage. I shouldnt have done it over those brick streets, now my favorite suitcase the wheels squeek. Not a far walk from any of the private parking lots, many to choose from. covered, futher away, save a extra $5 and so on.

 

Holiday Inn is one with free parking and a shuttle but i always hear how slow the shuttle is, never took it either.:( But would be worth it to stay here or one of the hotels with free parking if its a 2 week, if only one week, kind of a toss up. about the same to drive to ezcruise parking or one of those to me and I can get off the ship faster parking that close and having my car handy, though idk why im always in a hurry to get off, but might as well, its not like you can stay in your cabin and enjoy getting off slowly.

 

The one caveat out of Galveston, is now they are chargine a fee, around 3.25? per bottle if you bring back booze and most of my friends tell me its just as cheap in stores here. I brought back 3 bottles of scotch last time i bought on the ship. Used to be able to bring in 1 gallon per person.

 

There is no limit on cigars if you have friends who smoke. I got some cubans in cozumel and 20 hand rolled cigars in Mahagany Bay that were all good. Maybe not super buys but something unusual anyway for friends who enjoy cigars.

 

Im a shopper, I go to shop, I admit it.

 

Ive long since lost track of how many times Ive been out of Galveston. 30 to 40? so I know it pretty well.

[Lisee13]

DH and I love the Cozumel - Belize - Honduras Cruise. Had a wonderful time in Honduras. Belize I could’ve skipped, but I would go again just for the Honduras part. We got one of the cheaper beach excursion packages ( like 2 people for $50 ) and had the time of our life.

[Kfxduners]

Do fly into Hobby Airport

 

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How is Hobby different from the others?

A group (10) of us from Oregon will be flying in for a 7 day out of Galveston in Aug/2019. None of us have ever been to Texas, so this thread is going to be soooo helpful! Thanks in advance!

 

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[Rudyard]

How is Hobby different from the others?

A group (10) of us from Oregon will be flying in for a 7 day out of Galveston in Aug/2019. None of us have ever been to Texas, so this thread is going to be soooo helpful! Thanks in advance!

 

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Hobby (HOU) is about 45 minutes drive from Galveston. Bush (IAH) is about twice that. Also, if you like to fly Southwest Airlines, they don't fly into Bush.

[firefly333]

The beach side of Galveston where the hotels are, besides the boardwalk being nice to walk along, is about 3 miles across the island from the side where the port is. There is a pier with rides and stuff. Guidos is the best known place to eat fresh fish, but pricey to me.

 

The port side only has 1 or kinda 2 hotels. Harbor House is walking distance to the port but very expensive and during season if booked directly usually requires a 2 night stay, but one of the hotel sites you can usually stay one night. Its a old historic place downtown where the tourist shops and fancy dancy eating places are. a good price is still like $165 per night, so it aint cheap either. but walking distance to the port is nice.

 

There are a couple really nice hotels on the beach side. There is a bigger nicer area of beach where they rent houses up on stilts we used to rent for the weekend.

 

Also, there are hotels that have free parking near the waterpark area. The waterpark would be fun if you had a extra day. Otherwise I prefer staying in a hotel near the boardwalk beach side.

 

I think the other big name hotel besides Harbor House is Trevor House, not quite the right name, Trevor somethng, id have to go look, memory fails me. The rest of the hotels you can get pretty reasonable.

[firefly333]

Hotel Galvez and Tremont are the other two expensive hotels. I think Tremont is owned by Harbor House. All 3 runs $300 and up during season. January when the ocean is too cold you can find deals, but then you can find Quality Inn across from the beach for $60 etc. (I think all the hotels are across from the ocean, not on the ocean side)

 

btw Gaidos seafood, saturday night, the wait if you just walk in is about a hour to be seated. Hotel attached to this seafood is a nothing, just the restaurant. You can walk to the restaurant from most all the hotels along the seawall/ocean blvd.

[purplefrogs]

I have favorite ports but not necessarily favorite itineraries. That being said, we are are on the Breeze in June doing the same itinerary we did with RCL a few years ago. It's Belize, Roatan, Cozumel. Doing the same itinerary again mainly for Roatan and this is what the rest of the travel companions decided on!

I have also done an Eastern out of Galveston which was enjoyable since it offered different locations from Cozumel and Belize.

 

As for traveling out of Galveston, my first cruise I picked a hotel that included the parking and free shuttle. We had issues since the hotel never came to pick us up from the terminal at the end of the cruise. Not a horrible thing but when you are ready to get on the road having an extra hour delay wasn't fun. Now we do cruise terminal parking, stay at hotel somewhere between Pearland (have family there) and Galveston and then drive to the terminal early the day of. I've found that Galveston hotels are priced a bit on the high side so staying away from Galveston is a bit cheaper. The drive from outside of Galveston in the morning isn't bad on a Sunday.

[purplefrogs]

 

Belize is the only port where you can buy some meds. valium to sleep and some pain pills with coedine (thats all the pain meds you can buy there over the counter), and i get some antibiotics etc to have stuff on hand. Nothing like having a tooth ache over the weekend when dentists are close, need to start those antibiotics.

 

 

Need to remember this about the meds in Belize

[cheermomof2girls]

We always drive in the day before and stay at one of the hotels that offer park and cruise. We prefer the Hotel Galvez or the San Luis. We have stayed at the Tremont before and it was nice. We like to relax at the hotel, walk around the strand, etc so we really enjoy splurging on a nice room the day before and when we factor in free parking (or only paying for one night depending on how they run them), it's a great deal.

[nealstuber]

If off season in the winter, I do like to stay on the beach side where i can see the ocean and walk along the ocean blvd. Go down the night before.

 

Though last time I was by myself and drove down the day of, and EZCruise had $15 off if you carried your own luggage. I shouldnt have done it over those brick streets, now my favorite suitcase the wheels squeek. Not a far walk from any of the private parking lots, many to choose from. covered, futher away, save a extra $5 and so on.

.

 

 

Even when traveling by yourself, you can still drop your bags with the porter then go park on embark day. Getting back to the car without schlepping bags would be more problematic when traveling solo.

 

But for non-solo travelers the “park and walk” option should be more aptly named “drop park and walk” as your traveling companion can watch the bags while you get the car. I’ve found this is much faster than the shuttle.

 

 

 

 

 

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