Sailing out of Houston...

I am doing some ground work for someone who has never cruised...they are looking at Norwegian Dream out of houston....what about ground transportation to the ship? Are there hotels that offer both transportation from airport to hotel and then to ship ( like in FLL?) Thanks!

We sailed out of Houston last November on the Sun. At that time there was no ground transportation from Hobby Airport to the pier, but they did offer it from the ship to the airport.

Your best bet is to either check the NCL website or have your TA call to find out. If there is enough interest they may add ground transfers from the airport to the ship. FYI - taxi was about a 30 minute drive.

A few years ago we took a taxi from Hobby to a local motel and then there was a local cab company to take us to the pier in the morning. We took the ship shuttle back to Hobby at the end of the week.

This was a few years ago and at that time there were not many motels or restaraunts around the pier.

We've sailed out of Houston twice. Both times we flew into IAH (Bush) and stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport. NCL offers transfers from IAH to the pier, but I think you have to fly in on the morning of the cruise in order to prebook the NCL transfer.

I'm pretty sure none of the hotels run shuttle service to the pier, since both Hobby and IAH aren't very close to the pier. I think IAH was about a 45 minute drive. Our first time we were part of a large group, and had arranged to rent a bus to transport our group. The second time, we rented a mini van through Enterprise -- picked it up at the airport and left it at the pier (which was a small additional charge). The office that actually services the pier is in Seabrook, and they will shuttle you back to the pier after you drop the rental car off.

We have friends who went recently, and they ended up booking a van for their family through a private transfer service. The website is: http://www.cruiseshipshuttle.com/

On their return trip, they had quite a bit of time in between disembarking from the ship and needing to get to the airport. They were able to get a 3 hour tour of Houston for about $10 pp more than the cost of the pier-airport transportation. The gentleman who runs this service is also the one that provided the bus transportation on our first cruise, and he does an excellent job.

Just a few options for you to consider. Depending on the # of cruisers, you may find that one option is much more cost efficient than the rest.

We just returned from the 02/18/06-02/25/06 sailing of the Dream from Houston. Rented a car from Enterprise at Bush International Airport as we arrived on Friday and stayed overnight in Houston. On Saturday, we returned the vehicle to Enterprise in Seabrook, TX and they shuttled us to the cruise terminal. Was very nice and convenient. On the return, we again had made reservations with Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Seabrook and they had a vehicle waiting for us at the terminal when we docked on Saturday. We stayed overnight in Houston on Saturday and returned the car at the airport on Sunday on our return home. Everything went smoothly and the total cost for the roundtrip was around $100.00.