Disembarkation in Galveston

Appreciate any insights on disembarkation. We will be on Liberty of the Seas in two weeks arriving Sunday in Galveston. Our flight out of IAH is 2:20 pm. I'm trying to figure out whether we should do the Express Departure (carry own luggage) or whether we would be ok without this. I need to get to a shuttle by 10 am. I understand that there is also a porter service available but that's once you get off the ship. While I don't want to be late, I also don't want to have a stressful morning getting up super early (ship set to arrive 6:30 am and it will be daylight savings time that day so we will be losing an hour of sleep as it is). So:

(1) should we carry our own luggage? If not,

(2) what group should we be in/by what time should we be getting off the ship in order to be done with Customs by 10 am? and

(3) at what point does one "buy" the porter service--once we get off the ship or is it something we sign up for in advance?

[by way of background, we will be taking a shuttle service back to IAH and it looks like the 10 am pick up is what we would choose (with a 2 hour ride, that gives us 2 hours at airport)...should I opt for an even earlier pick up time?]

Thanks for everyone's help!

Aiming for the regular 9am disembarkation is just fine and less stressful. You can have porter service when you get off the ship.

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Appreciate any insights on disembarkation. We will be on Liberty of the Seas in two weeks arriving Sunday in Galveston. Our flight out of IAH is 2:20 pm. I'm trying to figure out whether we should do the Express Departure (carry own luggage) or whether we would be ok without this. I need to get to a shuttle by 10 am. I understand that there is also a porter service available but that's once you get off the ship. While I don't want to be late, I also don't want to have a stressful morning getting up super early (ship set to arrive 6:30 am and it will be daylight savings time that day so we will be losing an hour of sleep as it is). So:

(1) should we carry our own luggage? If not,

(2) what group should we be in/by what time should we be getting off the ship in order to be done with Customs by 10 am? and

(3) at what point does one "buy" the porter service--once we get off the ship or is it something we sign up for in advance?

 

[by way of background, we will be taking a shuttle service back to IAH and it looks like the 10 am pick up is what we would choose (with a 2 hour ride, that gives us 2 hours at airport)...should I opt for an even earlier pick up time?]

 

Thanks for everyone's help!

If you can get 9am or earlier luggage tags, then you should be fine to make a 10am shuttle. You cannot sign up for the porter in advance, they will be all over the luggage area, just say yes when one comes up to you. Our experience has been that the porters have a faster customs line.

Thank you both for such quick responses!

Thank you both for such quick responses!

No problem, and welcome to Cruise Critic.

A tip for Galveston- when you disembark- have someone in your party go wait in porter line and others go to numbered area where your luggage is and start looking for luggage so you can point to it when porter arrives. We have cruised out of Galveston 5 times and always in our car headed home by 930. There are different lines for self carry and porter assist . The porter assist goes much faster

When you get the ship down to the luggage area you will be directed either to the porter line or out in the luggage bay to gather your own luggage and carry it through the customs line yourself. Some try to jump ahead by bypassing the line, getting their own luggage, then trying to divert a porter over to them as they head back to get the next passenger from the porter line. Don't bother trying this as it does not seem to work very well, and people almost come to blows over it. I have even had several try to get me to share my porter. Just get in the porter line or at least have one person wait in it as others posted. In my experience it moves reasonably quickly considering how many people they are out processing.

An oddity about Galveston is that after you clear customs and are heading out the doors there will be TX Alcohol tax agents asking folks if they bought any booze as you walk by. They do not search bags or otherwise stop you. If you fess up and go over to the table they will charge you state tax. Usually the only folks I see over there are the ones carrying booze in the obvious cardboard carriers. They can't get away with saying no and just walking on by cuz its in plain view.

All great info; thanks again!

An oddity about Galveston is that after you clear customs and are heading out the doors there will be TX Alcohol tax agents asking folks if they bought any booze as you walk by. They do not search bags or otherwise stop you. If you fess up and go over to the table they will charge you state tax. Usually the only folks I see over there are the ones carrying booze in the obvious cardboard carriers. They can't get away with saying no and just walking on by cuz its in plain view.

That Texas liquor excise tax is $3.75 per quart or liter and is charged even if you are not a Texas resident and are leaving Texas immediately. Here's the sticker you get for your $3.75.

Maybe this will be good news....it's the END of daylight savings time that's coming, not the beginning.

So...you will GAIN an hour of sleep (fall back) instead of losing one!:D

Judy

Oh that's right--fall back! Here I am thinking I'm getting less sleep instead of more. So glad someone else is actually thinking this through. LOL

Oh that's right--fall back! Here I am thinking I'm getting less sleep instead of more. So glad someone else is actually thinking this through. LOL

LOL - Hey, I look forward to getting that hour back for MONTHS every year! I'd really be happy if I got it back on a cruise, but that hasn't happened yet. I did, however, LOSE that spring-forward hour on a Panama Canal cruise one time and that made me a little mad. I'm going to need to work on my cruise planning and my calendar to get it right next time...:D

Judy

We just got off Liberty Oct 8. We also had a 10-10:15 am shuttle to catch. We departed as soon as our #4 departure tags were called at 9:15. It took over an hour to clear customs, we missed our shuttle. Thankfully, they put us on the 11 am shuttle. We still made our Hobby 2:20 pm flight easily. You might want to do the self walk off to ensure you don’t miss your shuttle.

We did the self carry two weeks ago. They started letting us off the ship at 7:45 and we were in the car heading home by 8:35.

As far as picking up your luggage, you might want to decide after you get your tags to see what time your group disembarks.

We just got off Liberty Oct 8. We also had a 10-10:15 am shuttle to catch. We departed as soon as our #4 departure tags were called at 9:15. It took over an hour to clear customs, we missed our shuttle. Thankfully, they put us on the 11 am shuttle. We still made our Hobby 2:20 pm flight easily. You might want to do the self walk off to ensure you don’t miss your shuttle.

Thanks for the info, did you use the porter service?

I thought that it was possible to go and ask to get assigned an earlier departure tag number--am I wrong on that?

I thought that it was possible to go and ask to get assigned an earlier departure tag number--am I wrong on that?

Guest Services should be able to accommodate you, within limits.

Thanks for the info, did you use the porter service?

No, no porter service.

Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks for the info, did you use the porter service?

No, we were past that point in the line before we realized it. I don’t know how many were waiting for porters but we probably would have made that 10 am shuttle if we had.

No, we were past that point in the line before we realized it. I don’t know how many were waiting for porters but we probably would have made that 10 am shuttle if we had.

Appreciate the insights!

Thought I would do a follow up in case someone reads this in the future. I had provided information at check in for the cruise that we had a 10 am shuttle to catch so when we got our group number, imagine my annoyance that we were group 27 scheduled to leave the ship at 10 am. Makes zero sense right? I immediately went to guest services and was told the earliest they could get me off the ship without self-carry was 9:30 (which obviously didn't work). So we self carried. We went to Deck 4 to exit at about 8:30 am and were actually out in the parking lot at 9 am (took an earlier airport shuttle as a result). A few tips: exits for self carry are on both the front and back of the ship on deck 4 and a very long line formed on one side (the back/restaurant side) but the front (theater) side line was MUCH shorter so check both lines. The porters were very hard to spot (we didn't use them) but if you intend to use them, be on the lookout to your right for guys in Hawaiian shirts in the second room with the luggage being unloaded (not sure how else to describe it...push comes to shove, ask a port employee, they're everywhere). Appreciated everyone's advice on this thread!

Thanks for the follow-up. We are cruising out of Galveston in January. It will be my first time to use a shuttle out of that port. Glad it all worked for you. We're in exactly the same situation as you regarding flight times and shuttle times.

Jenny

Have a great time, Jenny. It's pretty organized in the port and if you are in line to get out of the ship at 8:30, I can't imagine you having an issue.

Nobody should travel with more than 2 pieces of luggage that you can easily carry-on. Traveling is an art!

It is a vacation. Not an international move.

I just got off Liberty today as well. This is my second time on Liberty out of Galveston. Both times in a Jr Suite and platinum, and I've been assigned group 37 (10:45am) both times, even though I've got a 9 hour drive and toddler. We asked for a better group last time and they refused to change us, this time we didn't want to mess with asking. Did self carry both times.

The self carry at the aft end of the ship was a complete cluster. First, they claim they will disembark self carry by deck, not by when you start waiting. We got down there at our assigned disembark time (7:45 for Deck 9), and there were just masses of people everywhere. They grabbed a bunch of us, moved us to the dining room and made us wait forever, while everyone else got off. They were doing nothing to prevent people coming off the elevators from jumping in line with the other people. They just kept telling us "Those people have been waiting since 6am, once they get off then those of you who got here after 8 can." No way a thousand people get down there at 6am.

So I am double annoyed that they keep assigning me the last group despite being in a Jr Suite, Platinum, long drive and having a toddler with us. And then they don't even attempt to follow their own self-disembark guidelines.

Overall, in 9 cruises this was by far the worst disembarkation I've done, took over two hours to get from the lobby of the ship during my assigned time to the shuttle stop.

We did ask our stateroom attendant how they assign groups on this ship, because we've gotten the second to last group twice. I'm thinking it must be alphabetical. He told he didn't know, he has only been on the ship 6 weeks, but has seen a lot of Jr. Suite people get in the last groups, while he said on previous ships he never saw them get higher than 6-7. I've decided from now on I am telling them I have a 12pm flight.

I don't think I've kept the disembarkation group sheets from other ships, but I don't remember any other ship having groups stay on the ship until 10:45, like Liberty does.

/rant

Not that it will keep me from sailing out of Galveston, but both of my experiences with it are 1 and 2 for my worst terminal experiences. At the end of the day, in total, it is 3 hours of a (for me) 10 day vacation.