RCCL ships in Galveston

[blyle]

This morning the Houston Chronicle travel section mentioned that RCCL has not announced plans for Galveston based cruises beyond next winter but there will be a transatlantic from Spain to Galveston in Nov. 2008. They said that RCCL has confirmed no year round Texas presence once the Rhapsody moves to Asia. At this time only a winter presence has been noted.

[BILL-WI]

WRONG! They better check their sources, or the article was written over a week ago...

 

This was released Monday April 23, 2007!

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/royal/Caribbean/Flyers/07007923_VY_Deployment.pdf

 

Voyager will be there in the winter of 2009!

 

BILL

[SheriNtexas]

This morning the Houston Chronicle travel section mentioned that RCCL has not announced plans for Galveston based cruises beyond next winter but there will be a transatlantic from Spain to Galveston in Nov. 2008. They said that RCCL has confirmed no year round Texas presence once the Rhapsody moves to Asia. At this time only a winter presence has been noted.

 

 

I noticed on the port schedule that Grand Princess left yesterday out of Galveston but is not shown again for the rest of the year. I think she is going to Florida. Is this what she does every year? I've never been on her, just curious. Of course Voyager of the Seas is coming in December and leaving again in April but I don't know where she is going after that. I hope they get a year round ship in Galveston. I live in West Texas and drive to Galveston and it would be hard to go anywhere else, at least as much as I want to cruise!;)

[blyle]

WRONG! They better check their sources, or the article was written over a week ago...

 

This was released Monday April 23, 2007!

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/royal/Caribbean/Flyers/07007923_VY_Deployment.pdf

 

Voyager will be there in the winter of 2009!

 

BILL

 

Bill, they will only have a winter presence through winter 2009 but after that no ship here. Sorry my post was not clear on that. Only winter presence here and no year round ships.

[cruisecrazymama]

Thank you for posting. It's sad, I'll miss Rhapsody,as she was our first RCCL ship. At least they are looking at keeping a winter presence. Lucky for us, late Nov. or early Dec. is when we take vacation. Let's hope it's true.

[Aprille]

Bill, they will only have a winter presence through winter 2009 but after that no ship here. Sorry my post was not clear on that. Only winter presence here and no year round ships.

While it is true that there will be no RCCL ships out of Galveston from May through November 2008 until Voyager comes back from Europe, none of RCCL's schedules have been released past April 2009. The 09/10 itineraries won't be out until April of 2008. I am still hopeful that come 2009 RCCL will be back here on a year-round basis. But I don't think we'll know that for sure until the next season's itineraries are released.

 

There has been a rumor going around that AOS will move to Galveston for the 2009 season. I don't really want another Voyager class ship here, would prefer Vision or Radiance class, but I'll take whatever bones they throw our way.

[blyle]

Maybe they are waiting to see what kind of response there is to Voyager before they commit to a year round presence. Let's hope!!!

[Aprille]

Maybe they are waiting to see what kind of response there is to Voyager before they commit to a year round presence. Let's hope!!!

Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part but I dont' think RCCL will completely abandon the Houston/Galveston market. Especially with the new Bayport Cruise Terminal under construction.

 

I think right now with them expanding the European market and exploring Asia and South America they just don't have enough ships to go around for the short term.

 

So, Galveston is without a ship from May to November in 2008. Who wants to cruise during hurricane season anyway?! :p ;)

 

Keeping my rose-colored glasses on...

[firefly333]

I noticed on the port schedule that Grand Princess left yesterday out of Galveston but is not shown again for the rest of the year. I think she is going to Florida. Is this what she does every year? I've never been on her, just curious. ;)

 

No, the Grand left Texas as of this April. When I talked to a Princess rep at a cruise open house she said Princess decided more folks want to go to South America so they were pulling both the Galveston ship and the New Orleans ship (which is also gone if you noticed).

 

I think all Texas cruisers have expressed on these threads how much they want more ships out of Texas for more price competition and more choice.

 

Im going to Florida this fall to cruise RCI, but not willing to do that all the time, its too much trouble and not willing to stay home. In order to cruise 2 or 3 or 4 times a year, will have to consider Carnival. Im not one of the ones willing to stay home and not cruise at all.

[zantedeschia]

Bill, they will only have a winter presence through winter 2009 but after that no ship here. Sorry my post was not clear on that. Only winter presence here and no year round ships.

People were saying the exact same thing about 2008, after April of 2008, no RCI ships would be sailing out of the upper Texas Gulf Coast. Royal has stated they were going to be seasonal out of Texas in 2008, I have yet to hear anything from them about 2009 (other than the Adventure rumour).

 

As Aprille has already mentioned, Adventure is rumoured to come to Texas sometime in 2009. Also the Port of Houston Authority has put millions of dollars into a new state of the art cruise ship terminal that is supposed to open in Spring of 2008. When it opens, I have no doubt there will be cruise ships sailing out of the Port of Houston, including ones belonging to Royal Caribbean.

 

Believe half of what you read, less of what you hear. Newspapers are notoriously unreliable sources. They print stuff to sell newspapers, not to keep people informed, they don't care if it's accurate or not.

[packedandready]

Just returned from the Rhapsody today and booked Voyager while on board. Of course I asked the Loyalty Ambassador about Galveston and she said that RCI hasn't released schedules yet because there is to be a lot of moving around. But, she ASSURED us that RCI was not going to abandon Galveston and to just be patient. But that is hard to do.

[isujim]

WRONG! They better check their sources, or the article was written over a week ago...

 

This was released Monday April 23, 2007!

 

http://www.creative.rccl.com/Sales/royal/Caribbean/Flyers/07007923_VY_Deployment.pdf

 

Voyager will be there in the winter of 2009!

 

BILL

 

Bill maybe I'm misreading something......but isn't this a winter presence after the transatlantic in Dec of 08??