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It's official. Freedom to Galveston. Conquest to Fort Lauderdale. Magic stays in Gal.

JustMeandTheSea

By JustMeandTheSea,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Tapi Great Review Rare

Tapi

Posted
Posted
That sucks... It really sucks to cruise out of Galveston considering that you have to fly into another city 40 minutes away, car rental is scarse. I can go on... :mad::mad::mad:

 

 

It's really not that bad.

 

Contrary to ports like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale that draw a large percentage of passengers that fly in, Galveston is a strong "drive to" port. It draws millions of passengers that live within driving distance, which is why not only Carnival has increased their presence there, but Princess, NCL and Royal have also upped the ante in the Houston/Galveston market.

 

BTW, I've done the drive from the Houston Intercontinental airport to Galveston and it's not any more tedious than driving from Orlando to Port Canaveral. And Houston Hobby is about half the distance to Galveston which is another good option for those flying in.

 

 

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bazarr2

bazarr2

Posted
Posted
It's really not that bad.

 

Contrary to ports like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale that draw a large percentage of passengers that fly in, Galveston is a strong "drive to" port. It draws millions of passengers that live within driving distance, which is why not only Carnival has increased their presence there, but Princess, NCL and Royal have also upped the ante in the Houston/Galveston market.

 

BTW, I've done the drive from the Houston Intercontinental airport to Galveston and it's not any more tedious than driving from Orlando to Port Canaveral. And Houston Hobby is about half the distance to Galveston which is another good option for those flying in.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

they also do not have car rental offices open on Sundays, so if renting a car and cruising out on sunday you can not drop off car there.

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crazyboutdisney

crazyboutdisney

Posted
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I'm thinking that people who still have the same itinerary but on a different ship will get NOTHING as this is stated in the passenger contract that everybody carefully reads before putting their deposit down! :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I understand what you are saying but that doesnt make it any easier. My husband specifically choose the Freedom for his retirement cruise. He is retired Feb 17th after 29 yrs in law enforcement. We knew the Freedom was receiving upgrades and it was the perfect itinerary. Yes, we are moving to a like ship but it is also a much older ship. Not saying the Conquest is a bad ship, just not what we were planning for

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thomfam

thomfam

Posted
Posted (edited)
I understand what you are saying but that doesnt make it any easier. My husband specifically choose the Freedom for his retirement cruise. He is retired Feb 17th after 29 yrs in law enforcement. We knew the Freedom was receiving upgrades and it was the perfect itinerary. Yes, we are moving to a like ship but it is also a much older ship. Not saying the Conquest is a bad ship, just not what we were planning for

 

I agree with you, we are in the same boat. :) No pun intended!! Have you tried calling Carnival? I was on hold for about 20 minutes then I finally got through, told her the situation and she was "looking it up," all of a sudden my call goes to a voicemail. WTH?? We too, were looking forward to the Freedom on 4/26/15. I think they should give everyone a little something in good faith. I think I would be more irritated if we were moved to the Splendor without the 2.0 upgrades though.

Edited by thomfam
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jabberjaw070596

jabberjaw070596

Posted
Posted
I agree with you, we are in the same boat. :) No pun intended!! Have you tried calling Carnival? I was on hold for about 20 minutes then I finally got through, told her the situation and she was "looking it up," all of a sudden my call goes to a voicemail. WTH?? We too, were looking forward to the Freedom on 4/26/15. I think they should give everyone a little something in good faith. I think I would be more irritated if we were moved to the Splendor without the 2.0 upgrades though.

I did not want to sail on the Splendor so that's why I chose the Glory instead!!

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Sparky2

Sparky2

Posted
Posted
I'm thinking that people who still have the same itinerary but on a different ship will get NOTHING as this is stated in the passenger contract that everybody carefully reads before putting their deposit down! :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

We'll be on the Conquest's 1st cruise from Fort Lauderdale. My email from Carnival says that we are not to report to the cruiseport till 4:30 with sailing at 9 PM. I assume this is because they have pax getting off in Miami & will then relocate to Port Everglades.

 

I hope we get some OBC for this as we are missing most of our 1st day.

 

We'll have to check out of our hotel around 11AM and have free shuttle to the port. Guess we'll be sitting in the terminal for quite awhile. Of course, I know the 4:30 report time is bogus as we always arrive around 10 or so when we're told to arrive at 1:30. Hopefully, we'll be able to board earlier than 4:30.

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klaner64

klaner64

Posted
Posted

Did anyone that is booked for Conquest get an email? I am booked for March 2015 and did not get notified. I will not be happy about having to go back on Splendor. We sailed on Splendor in January and chose Conquest because of the upgrades for our next cruise.

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crazyboutdisney

crazyboutdisney

Posted
Posted
I agree with you, we are in the same boat. :) No pun intended!! Have you tried calling Carnival? I was on hold for about 20 minutes then I finally got through, told her the situation and she was "looking it up," all of a sudden my call goes to a voicemail. WTH?? We too, were looking forward to the Freedom on 4/26/15. I think they should give everyone a little something in good faith. I think I would be more irritated if we were moved to the Splendor without the 2.0 upgrades though.

 

I called Carnival and spoke to someone because we didnt even get an email! My husband saw it online and called me so I called. They did tell me that our price is protected for a different ship, same number of sailing days but I didnt comfirm if that has to be in the same class. So I am going to call back later to see if we could bump up to the Breeze. I think we will be fine with the Conquest but its just the initial disappointment. And it upsets me that some people say... "your not happy with the Conquest, its only 5 yrs older" Its not that I am not happy with it, its just that its not what we planned. We put alot of thought into which ship and specifically what date. We are paying for it after all :)

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BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
Posted (edited)
That sucks... It really sucks to cruise out of Galveston considering that you have to fly into another city 40 minutes away, car rental is scarse. I can go on... :mad::mad::mad:

 

Based on your past cruises listed in your signature:

 

PAST CRUISES:



Carnival Victory 9/05, Carnival Miracle 2/07, Carnival Miracle 1/08, Emerald Princess 2/09,Carnival Dream 2/10,Carnival Miracle 1/11 Carnival Liberty 2/12, Carnival Breeze 1/13, Carnival Legend 1/14

 

 

When did you experience a "sucks" commute to Galveston for a cruise?

 

Something is working in Galveston,Texas. Agree?:)

 

.

Edited by BallFour4
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KITKAT0229

KITKAT0229

Posted
Posted

I'm rather disappointed that it won't be offering any new itineraries. It would be nice if they would at least mix up the ports. We were supposed to go to Key West, Grand Cayman & Montego Bay on our first cruise in 2006 however it got changed because of hurricane Ivan.

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GalvestonBear

GalvestonBear

Posted
Posted
That sucks... It really sucks to cruise out of Galveston considering that you have to fly into another city 40 minutes away, car rental is scarse. I can go on... :mad::mad::mad:

 

Galveston's strength is that it's within a very reasonable driving distance of more than 30 million people (Texas pop = 26 million, Louisiana = 4 million).

 

It's not as easy to fly into but if you fly into Hobby (which, admittedly, fewer flights go in there), then your drive is roughly 45 minutes to an hour. 90 minutes if traffic is bad. That's not horrible. The rental car situation will likely be resolved as more traffic ends up there.

 

The Bayport Terminal was a horrible decision by the Port of Houston and was snuck in on the back of a bond. They simply didn't want to give up the potential revenue. Realistically, it would've been better for the City as a whole to build up Galveston as a port because if you had a state of the art terminal there with Princess, NCL, 3 CCL, and 1 major RCCL ship in a concentrated area, then access (while still not as convenient as Miami) would be better.

 

But, again, a big chunk of passengers out of Galveston are from DFW, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and are driving anyways.

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jimbo5544 "Live from...." Rare

jimbo5544

Posted
Posted
It will be interesting to see how they resolve the fog situation.

 

I do think it is smart to move some ships from Florida.

Carnival will be installing huge fans on the seawall to at least get them out of the harbor area. While it is an inconvenience, they have been doing it for a while now.
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BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
Posted (edited)
Carnival will be installing huge fans on the seawall to at least get them out of the harbor area. While it is an inconvenience, they have been doing it for a while now.

The "horror" of fog has a 5 year average of impacting 10 sailings.

 

Epidemic...

 

.

Edited by BallFour4
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jonbgd

jonbgd

Posted
Posted (edited)

Good job Carnival

I like more ships out of Galveston

More ships, more competition, better pricing on all cruiselines.

 

I wish Freedom was doing the longer itineraries, instead of the Triumph

 

IMHO Galveston is the worst flyin cruise port but great for a drive to port:D

 

The fog has impacted more than 10 sailings this year alone

Edited by jonbgd
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jimbo5544 "Live from...." Rare

jimbo5544

Posted
Posted

The fog has impacted more than 10 sailings this year alone

Nature of the beast. IF they could, they would sail out of Chicago, but the traffic is terrible. Fact is, Galveston has paid off in spades for Carnival.

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KPfromCT

KPfromCT

Posted
Posted
I understand what you are saying but that doesnt make it any easier. My husband specifically choose the Freedom for his retirement cruise. He is retired Feb 17th after 29 yrs in law enforcement. We knew the Freedom was receiving upgrades and it was the perfect itinerary. Yes, we are moving to a like ship but it is also a much older ship. Not saying the Conquest is a bad ship, just not what we were planning for

 

I agree. PLUS, Conquest does NOT have Serenity. Can't you cancel and rebook another ship?

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MissKIA

MissKIA

Posted
Posted (edited)
They did tell me that our price is protected for a different ship, same number of sailing days but I didnt comfirm if that has to be in the same class. So I am going to call back later to see if we could bump up to the Breeze.

 

Sorry to say but Breeze only offers 6 and 8 day sailings so you will probably be out of luck. It's always worth a try though.

Edited by MissKIA
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steph7021

steph7021

Posted
Posted
Did anyone that is booked for Conquest get an email? I am booked for March 2015 and did not get notified. I will not be happy about having to go back on Splendor. We sailed on Splendor in January and chose Conquest because of the upgrades for our next cruise.

 

 

Yes. I got an email today for our March 2015 cruise being switched from Conquest to Splendor. I'm trying to decide how to feel about it

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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PSkinner

PSkinner

Posted
Posted

We are hoping that the prices out of Galveston will come down. Also that Carnival will do some of the 8 day cruises along with 6 day cruise to add some new ports. Even more sea days to fewer ports would be nice. Progresso is not our favorite place to go but if it gets us on a cruise then we will be there; on the ship enjoying our day.

 

We love the convenience of Galveston for driving to save the airfare to other places.

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