What's up for Houston?

[fergy919]

What is the future for NCL in Houston after the Dream relocates?

[Jana]

Houston is building a new terminal which should be ready for cruise ship traffic in early 2008. Hopefully it will draw more ships to the region and also help take some of the traffic woes away from Galveston. So far (at least as of last week), no line has committed to it yet.

[Don Haynes]

While Galveston has two nice cruise terminals next to one another, and with Houston building a new cruise terminal, Houston/Galveston are not the favorite cruise line cities for embarkation and disembarkation. Houston/Galveston's main fault is the very long distance to Bush International Airport, as compared to other cities, transfer buses and cabs are very expensive.

 

Princess and Celebrity came and moved on, and it appears Norwegian is doing the same, leaving only Carnival and Royal Caribbean. When the large Voyager of the Seas arrive, RCI will be reducing its commitment down to one huge ship.

 

The second fault with Houston/Galveston have been the very similar itineraries over the past ten years. Within a weeks voyage in time, its either east-west Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and Jamaica; or north-south Cozumel, Playa del Carmen (Calica), Belize City, with either Progresso or Roatan. Recently Costa Maya has been introduced replacing Playa del Carmen. If a itinerary includes Progresso, Roatan is lost.

 

Ships stationed out of Miami can proceed with any number of itineraries within a week's voyage. Princess and Celebrity attempted longer than one week cruises and failed to generate enough interests to remain in Houston/Galveston.

 

Its my opinion the future of the cruising industry in Texas is weak. Houston/Galveston's petrochemical complexes doesn't help with the repeat business from non Texans. We Texans are aware of the huge petrochemical complexes and are willing to ignore them, but passengers from the Mountain states and midwest states aren't willing to ignore them. They have many more itinerary options flying into Miami. In other words Houston isn't Miami.

 

Carnival has committed two ships to the area, one ship doing 7 day cruises and one doing 3-4 day cruises. RCI is reducing to one ship doing 7 day cruises. I wish one cruise line would commit to one ship doing 5 and 9 day cruises, but so far none have. A 5 day cruise could do Cozumel, and Belize or Grand Caymen, and a 9 day cruise would do both Progresso and Roatan, or incllude Belize with Grand Caymen and Jamaica.

[clearlakecruisers]

Well, Don, I'm hoping your conclusions are proved wrong over the long haul. I tend to think that Galveston will continue to be a viable cruise port as lots of people like the ports it offers. I am wondering - as I have for many years - why the Ports of Houston and Galveston didn't cooperate to provide one great terminal area in Galveston and all the support (airports, shuttles, hotels, pre- and post-excursions) from Houston. Think it could have had something to do with politics??!?!?

[Don Haynes]

The new Houston terminal at Bayport will be in a nicer area than Barbours Cut. While Texans and Okies will continue to support cruising in Texas, I have read unfriendly comments about the petrochemical complexes from passengers from other states. New Orleans has similar itinerary problems, but at least the cruise terminal is next to their convention center downtown not far from the French Quarter. This is what Texas is up against.

 

The new Houston cruise terminal costs $81 million. Houston has stepped up to the plate, I won't deny that. But its still a long ways from Bush Internaitonal Airport, up to and over a mile depending upon traffic. Miami's airport is on the other side of downtown, a few minutes away from their cruise ship terminals.

[newmexicoNita]

While Galveston has two nice cruise terminals next to one another, and with Houston building a new cruise terminal, Houston/Galveston are not the favorite cruise line cities for embarkation and disembarkation. Houston/Galveston's main fault is the very long distance to Bush International Airport, as compared to other cities, transfer buses and cabs are very expensive.

 

Princess and Celebrity came and moved on, and it appears Norwegian is doing the same, leaving only Carnival and Royal Caribbean. When the large Voyager of the Seas arrive, RCI will be reducing its commitment down to one huge ship.

 

The second fault with Houston/Galveston have been the very similar itineraries over the past ten years. Within a weeks voyage in time, its either east-west Cozumel, Grand Caymen, and Jamaica; or north-south Cozumel, Playa del Carmen (Calica), Belize City, with either Progresso or Roatan. Recently Costa Maya has been introduced replacing Playa del Carmen. If a itinerary includes Progresso, Roatan is lost.

 

Ships stationed out of Miami can proceed with any number of itineraries within a week's voyage. Princess and Celebrity attempted longer than one week cruises and failed to generate enough interests to remain in Houston/Galveston.

 

Its my opinion the future of the cruising industry in Texas is weak. Houston/Galveston's petrochemical complexes doesn't help with the repeat business from non Texans. We Texans are aware of the huge petrochemical complexes and are willing to ignore them, but passengers from the Mountain states and midwest states aren't willing to ignore them. They have many more itinerary options flying into Miami. In other words Houston isn't Miami.

 

Carnival has committed two ships to the area, one ship doing 7 day cruises and one doing 3-4 day cruises. RCI is reducing to one ship doing 7 day cruises. I wish one cruise line would commit to one ship doing 5 and 9 day cruises, but so far none have. A 5 day cruise could do Cozumel, and Belize or Grand Caymen, and a 9 day cruise would do both Progresso and Roatan, or incllude Belize with Grand Caymen and Jamaica.

Don, I am still hoping with the new port being built NCL will think of coming back and yes, changing the damn itinerary. I like your idea of 5 dayer as well as 9 or 10 day cruises. Actually if they were to offer longer cruises there would be nothing stopping them from cruising a little further east. I think many of us are tired of the gulf ports. The next year or so could be interesting. NMNita

[Jana]

GALVESTON:

2007:

Galveston’s two cruiseship piers are busy all year, with a total of 207 departures scheduled out of the port in 2007. Carnival Conquest leaves every Sunday for the Western Caribbean, with a seven night itinerary of Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay, Jamaica. Ecstasy offers its successful five night-five night-four night schedule with stops in Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico (five night) and Cozumel, Mexico (four night). Grand Princess continues its exotic Western Caribbean run (Belize City, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico, and Roatan, Honduras) through April, when it transitions to Europe for the summer. It won’t be returning to Galveston; after Europe, Grand Princess has some fall foliage Canada/New England voyages on its schedule and then homeports in Fort Lauderdale through spring, 2008.

Royal Caribbean has two ships homeporting in Galveston in 2007, with a third substituting for one of them (Voyager of the Seas replaces Rhapsody of the Seas) for a two-week run. Rhapsody of the Seas does seven night cruises with alternate itineraries, one week going to Key West, Cozumel and Grand Cayman, the next going to Ocho Rios, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. These itineraries go through April, 2007. In May the ship sails exotic Western Caribbean itineraries with stops in Cozumel, Progreso and Costa Maya, Mexico and Roatan Honduras, while on alternate weeks goes to Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Montego Bay, Jamaica. In September the ship will sail through the Panama Canal and begin its service to Asia.

Splendour of the Seas is offering –as does Carnival’s Ecstasy- a five-night, five-night, four-night series, with Cozumel (four night) and both Cozumel and Costa Maya (five night) port stops. The ship departs for Europe at the end of April and remains there through the end of 2007 when it transitions back for South America itineraries.

New for 2008:

The port’s schedule isn’t posted yet; so far, Carnival has committed both Ecstasy and Carnival Conquest through spring. Look for more ships to move over to Houston’s new Bayport Cruise Terminal; negotiations with the cruiselines are ongoing now. This will relieve some of the traffic pressure from the one main road that goes into and out of Galveston and can be a nightmare on days when there is more than one ship in port.

[Jana]

dupe

[electricron]

I'm hoping NCL, Princess, Celebrity, or Holland America moves into the new Bayport facility in early 2008. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have spent some of their own cash to enlarge their facilities in Galveston, it will be hard for them to move to Bayport. But they could do so f they really wanted.

 

So far, The Port of Houston doesn't have a contract with any cruise line to move into it's new state of the art Bayport facility. Maybe it's just too soon, as it will not be ready for cruise ships until early 2008. Maybe we will hear more come May or June, when the cruise lines announce their winter 2008-09 schedules. By the way, NCL didn't leave Houston's Barbour's Cut facility as much as Houston closed it. That pier is really needed for container ships. Barbour's Cut is the largest container ship port for the Gulf of Mexico, and it's container business has been increasing significantly lately.

 

I have a feeling all the cruise lines may want to move to Bayport once they see it finished and ready for occupancy. Of course, port fees charged may discourage them somewhat.

[elisamarie]

We were on the Dream out of Houston leaving 1/27. We live in St. Louis and were weary about the Houston terminal because of what we have read on these boards.

 

We loved the Houston port. It was small and easy to navigate (other than the mountain we had to climb to get on the ship, but we did survive) and we really enjoyed watching the containers being moved from land to the ship with the big mover thingys (yes, that is a technical term).

 

Yes, the water was brown, yes the port was very industrial, yes, it was far from the airport. But I was getting on a cruise, who really cares. I think the best part was that people came out and watched us leave the port and waved us on. It was cool. You never see this in FL...they are so immune to the cruise ships that they don't even see them.

 

ANd coming back on Friday night, we passed a lot of Oil Rigs and it was like passing little cities in the middle of the Gulf. I loved it.

 

Again, we were on a cruise and this just gave us a different point of view.

 

I hope the lines don't leave TX. We'll do it again.

 

elisa

[ce2000]

If you have never boarded ship in Galveston/Houston you should. I have had the good fortune to, but only once. A large percentage of the cruisers are from Texas, and Texans know how to have a good time, and are very friendly. I really love the way the ladies talk down there, with the southern accent. It was one of my favorite cruises, and the ship was not that great, it was the Carnival Jubilee, if you know what I mean.