Grand Princess & Houston Space Station Tour

[Macawy]

Has anyone taken this excursion at the conclusion of the Grand Princess cruise? I'm wondering how it affected your disembarkation process. Also, we already purchased the Princess transfer from ship to airport, but since this excursion ends "at the airport" I'm wondering if I still need the transfer or not.

 

I called Princess & asked about the transfer issue and was told to wait and ask on the ship! Not the best customer support in my opinion:mad:

[spongerob]

You shouldn't have to pay for both a tour and a transfer. You'll need to get that transfer charge refunded if you choose the Johnson Space Center tour. Have your TA do this for you.

[Stevesan]

The "Houston Space Center" is not at the airport. It is, however, not far from Hobby Airport (HOU).

 

The "Houston Space Center" is NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC).

 

I suspect that Princess has added a JSC Tour to one or more of the airport transfers. It should be an option, just as side excursions are at other arrival/departure ports. It's likely a recent addition which could explain why Princess office reps haven't any info, yet.

 

Depending upon your flight departure time, you may want to opt for the tour. It is interesting, and beats waiting in the airport terminal.

 

http://www.houstonpage.com/

 

http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

[pmck]

Hi there,

We are on the same cruise and purchased our Houston Space Center tix a long time ago through Princess. They will get you off the ship first (atleast this was our experience last year when we were on the Caribbean Princess and had booked an excursion in the Glades).. From there, they will take you right to the airport. You don't need to get transfers to the airport separately. We checked all of this out with our TA ahead of time. This is one advantage to the expense of the trip, atleast your transfers are included....

 

Hope this helps. See you on the Grand!!

 

Patti:)

[Amy G]

I am at work so I can't call Princess right now, so I thought I will ask here first. We have paid in full for our cruise, and booked the transfers to and from the ship, but we are also doing the tour of NASA. Since we have paid, should I call Princess now, or wait until we are onboard to deal with the refund?

[Macawy]

OK, I just got off the phone with Princess (again) and this time I got someone who gave me a straight answer. We do NOT need to purchase the transfer from ship to airport since we are deposited at the airport at the end of our tour - which is what I was expecting to hear. And she credited back $33/pp to my account on the spot since we had already purchased the ship - airport transfers previously. I also asked what happens if the excursion gets cancelled for some reason & she said we'll just be put back on the Princess transfer bus & charged the $33/pp.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this all works out! Our flight doesn't leave until 7pm so we have some wiggle room if we get stranded!:eek:

[Amy G]

We will probably be on the same tour! Thanks for finding out, I will call them this evening. They do go to IAH, right?

[Macawy]

We will probably be on the same tour! Thanks for finding out, I will call them this evening. They do go to IAH, right?

Yes, it says they go to both airports. We're flying out of IAH too so we'll just stick together that day!

[pmck]

OK, I just got off the phone with Princess (again) and this time I got someone who gave me a straight answer. We do NOT need to purchase the transfer from ship to airport since we are deposited at the airport at the end of our tour - which is what I was expecting to hear. And she credited back $33/pp to my account on the spot since we had already purchased the ship - airport transfers previously. I also asked what happens if the excursion gets cancelled for some reason & she said we'll just be put back on the Princess transfer bus & charged the $33/pp.

 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this all works out! Our flight doesn't leave until 7pm so we have some wiggle room if we get stranded!:eek:

 

We are flying out of IAH late too, 6:44 I think. So, this looks good! I'm sure that it will go off without a hitch. When we did the tour the day the CAribbean Princess came in (last June), it was the same scenario and we had no problems. They just leave your luggage on the bus and take you to the airport after the tour.

[Macawy]

Plus, with 3 kids, it'll sure beat sitting on the boat all day or at the airport. My oldest is taking an Aerospace Science class and April 7th is his 16th birthday, so this will hopefully be a special treat for him.

[kaseyoz]

we booked this tour with transfers on our carnival cruise as we had a flight to LA at about 7pm( ithink) to connect with our flight back to sydney.

 

the night before we had notice the tour had been cancelled due to lack of numbers, we were so upset, but nothing could be done. we did try to do it privately with cars outside but nowhere to leave your bags.

 

we ended up with a day room at orlando which was a welcome break from the bustle of the airport. we could also take a shower before flying and didnot have to lug suitcases around for hours.

I was alone with my 14 year old daughter.

 

karon

[emtowle]

Has anyone taken this excursion at the conclusion of the Grand Princess cruise? I'm wondering how it affected your disembarkation process. Also, we already purchased the Princess transfer from ship to airport, but since this excursion ends "at the airport" I'm wondering if I still need the transfer or not.

 

I called Princess & asked about the transfer issue and was told to wait and ask on the ship! Not the best customer support in my opinion:mad:

 

We took this tour last year and I was disappointed in it. We did get off of ship early, the excursion 'met' in a dining room and was escorted out once customs was cleared. We got big stickers to tie us to the tour so after we were done with customs ourselves and had our bags we were directed to a tour bus. That part worked fine.

 

The problem for me was that the tour time was too short. We were told that if we wanted to do the guided tour to go there first because it was maybe 45 minutes long with tours leaving every 20 minutes. We made the first one so that part was good. After we got back from that there wasn't much time left to do something else. The various theatres had different lengths and starting times so in the end we were able to do the guided tour and 1 attraction and the rest was just looking around at the gift shop and a few displays. We then were taken to the airport and got to sit there for hours. (Our flight was 5:30 I believe, excursion said for those with flights after 4pm.)

 

It's been a year ago so I'm fuzzy on the amount of time we actually had and the amount of time at the airport but at the time we definitely felt that another 1 or 1.5 hours should have been within the allowable time frames even taking into consideration of 2+ hours for 'checkin' at either of the 2 airports.

[senatorgirth]

The "Houston Space Center" is not at the airport. It is, however, not far from Hobby Airport (HOU)

 

 

What??? Johnson Space Center is 18 miles (28 kilometers) from Hobby Airport! I guess distance is relative to everyone, but 18 miles isn't a short walk or brief cab ride to most folks.

[Stevesan]

What??? Johnson Space Center is 18 miles (28 kilometers) from Hobby Airport! I guess distance is relative to everyone, but 18 miles isn't a short walk or brief cab ride to most folks.

 

In Houston, that's a short commute.:D

 

It seems near because it's mostly a straight shot up IH45, @ 20 minute drive in normal traffic (if there is such a thing).

 

BTW - It's actually 15.55 miles, so there!:p