Flying out of Houston

[ckfred]

We have a cruise out of Galveston way in the future. But, I already have a question. What is the earliest reasonable departure out of Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH)?. We are docking on a Sunday morning, so it there won't be weekday rush hour traffic.

[Clarea]

Cruise line guidelines:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&pnav=2&faqType=faq&faqSubjectId=324&faqSubjectName=Air+Travel&faqId=2724

[ckfred]

I read the guidelines, but I've found that they tend to be pretty conservative. For instance, RC was telling us to book departures out of Boston Logan after 12:30pm. They were a bit skeptical, when we booked a noon departure. Then, our noon flight was discontinued. Rather than cool our heels at Logan until 2:30, we went early with a 10:15 departure. We had no trouble making that flight with early disembarkation.

 

While RC also says not to book a flight before 1pm out of Orlando International, we can easily make an 11:30am flight with normal disembarkation at Port Canaveral.

 

While RC says not to book departures out of IAH before 12:30, is that accurate, or is 11:30 doable, or even earlier?

[myklemire@hotmail.com]

Part of the reason the timing is conservative is due to the cruise line having no impact over customs hours and staffing.

 

You could probably search on this board where others have missed flights due to the above issue.

 

The hours they post will generally guarantee you make your flight. It is up to you the amount of risk you are willing to take. I no longer take much risk due to the few times I have had to sit in the airport all day because I missed an earlier flight.

 

But regardless of your choice I hope you make any flight you book in a timely fashion.

[Cel_cruise]

Galveston is TRICKY. You didn't say when your cruise is - but because of FOG - this matters ALOT.

 

Also - there is a lot of evidence that says that the itineraries that cover Belize/Roatan tend to have seriously long customs lines.

 

We are traveling during the foggy season so we are flying out on Monday. It was also a lot cheaper for us to do that anyway.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[SweetThang0629]

I live in Houston and can tell you that you will probably want to book a mid afternoon flight. Galveston is 70+ miles to IAH airport. That is traversing northward on Interstate 45, through downtown Houston. You have to allot extra time for roadway shutdowns. The last several weeks, parts of the interstate going north towards the airport have been closed due to repairs, mainly an area that is almost dead center of downtown.

 

So I would highly recommend that if you are going to Fly out of IAH I would go for an afternoon flight.

[George C]

We have a cruise out of Galveston way in the future. But, I already have a question. What is the earliest reasonable departure out of Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH)?. We are docking on a Sunday morning, so it there won't be weekday rush hour traffic.

 

If you want to carry your own bags off then you should be off by 8:30 and that should be ok for flight

[kruzerci]

We sailed in May on Liberty so fog was not a concern, but we were able to get somebody in our party on an 11:20 flight out of IAH with no issue. We knew it would be rushed, so we rented a car for about $10 a day on Priceline, parked it at the port (Galveston parking is so cheap compared to FL), and did walk off disembarkation. It was definitely do-able on a Sunday, but it was not relaxing.

 

Galveston can be a nightmare for disembarking and embarkation. It was a trainwreck for us, the roads around the port are not capable of handing the sheer volume of cars and passengers. I would recommend a 12:30 flight from IAH or 11:30 from HOU.

 

Keep in mind this is coming from somebody who regularly books 10:30 flights out of Fort Lauderdale following cruises.

[Scottee25]

I live in Houston and can tell you that you will probably want to book a mid afternoon flight. Galveston is 70+ miles to IAH airport. That is traversing northward on Interstate 45, through downtown Houston. You have to allot extra time for roadway shutdowns. The last several weeks, parts of the interstate going north towards the airport have been closed due to repairs, mainly an area that is almost dead center of downtown.

 

So I would highly recommend that if you are going to Fly out of IAH I would go for an afternoon flight.

 

What SweetThang said! 45 is bad both into and out of Galveston. Weekend traffic may be lighter in Houston but light traffic in Houston is like rush hour in a lot of other cities. Since you'll probably want to avoid the beltway (8) due to tolls, you'll have to take 45 into downtown. There you run the risk of some roadway you need being closed due to weekend construction. You could easily be looking at a 2 hour drive from Galveston to IAH.

[denamo]

Earliest I would probably book a flight would be noon. Doing self-disembark and having your transportation lined up would be necessary.

 

Have flown home twice from Galveston and it was on Southwest. Both times our transportation arrived a bit later than we would have hoped. Just general traffic. We had 1:00 flights, and we felt a little rushed due to the delay.

 

A fairly significant population of the ship that will do self-disembarkation out of Galveston since airports are not close like in Fort Lauderdale. If you do chose not to use self-disembarkation, grab a porter. Haven't cruised out of Galveston since new terminal. Usually had to get in line to get a porter. Husband did that while I went to scout out where our luggage was. They get the porters through customs much quicker.

[MichaelCMTX]

Even though we drive home from Galveston To Fort Worth I would absolutely not want to book a morning flight. Too long of a distance and too many variables with the road construction.

 

This definitelyisn't Ft. Lauderdale where you can see the airport from your balcony. You've been relaxing for a week, don't end that with a mad morning rush.

[jcc1025]

We would agree, we have done this twice and anything prior to 1pm can be a gamble. We took the direct bus offered by the cruise both times.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[SPacificbound]

I read the guidelines, but I've found that they tend to be pretty conservative. For instance, RC was telling us to book departures out of Boston Logan after 12:30pm. They were a bit skeptical, when we booked a noon departure. Then, our noon flight was discontinued. Rather than cool our heels at Logan until 2:30, we went early with a 10:15 departure. We had no trouble making that flight with early disembarkation.

 

While RC also says not to book a flight before 1pm out of Orlando International, we can easily make an 11:30am flight with normal disembarkation at Port Canaveral.

 

While RC says not to book departures out of IAH before 12:30, is that accurate, or is 11:30 doable, or even earlier?

 

I would go with RC suggestion of 12:30PM or after.

 

IAH is my home airport.

[Desert Cruizers]

We will be sailing our first cruise out of Galveston next July and planning on doing carry ons and self disembarking. Our flight is at 2:15 PM back to So Calif.

[ColoradoGurl]

It's been said enough probably, but I will add to it for good measure. I would not book anything before mid to late afternoon out of Houston just in case disembarking takes forever (it took us over an hour) or if traffic is heavy. The airport is over an hour away. We had a late evening flight out which was way too conservative, but I recall thinking that 2-4pm would have been a good time to pick to not feel nervous or rushed. We stayed on the ship though until 10am and went to lunch on the beach before heading to the airport.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[jcross2]

We have a cruise out of Galveston way in the future. But, I already have a question. What is the earliest reasonable departure out of Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH)?. We are docking on a Sunday morning, so it there won't be weekday rush hour traffic.

 

I see you are from Chicago. Southwest has a nonstop at 2:20 p.m. on Sundays that would be very doable. I don't know if you ever fly Southwest, but it is just over 2 hours to Chicago, a short flight ... and their airport, Hobby, is WAY closer to Galveston than IAH.

 

These flights won't show up on most airline booking sites; you have to go to Southwest's site.

 

Just something to consider...

[ckfred]

Too many times, I've followed RC's suggestions and wound up paying for it. RC used to suggest noon as the earliest departure out of Miami. The first time we cruised, we could have easily made an 11am flight, but we were booked on the 1pm flight.

 

The 1pm flight wound up going back to the gate for a mechanical problem. We wound up on the 4:30 flight, but our bags were still on the 1pm flight, which left at 5:30. American didn't deliver our bags until about 9:30 am, the next morning.

 

It was a similar situation at Orlando. The guidelines said noon. The RC bus arrived in plenty of time for the 11:15 flight. Instead, we were on the 3:15 flight, which became the 7:15 flight, because the inbound aircraft diverted to Jacksonville due to multiple lines of thunderstorms between 2pm and 5pm.

 

Considering that our ship docks in Galveston on Easter Sunday, the earlier I can get into O'Hare, the better. American is showing a departure around 11:30 and another around 1:00. I'd prefer the earlier flight, because O'Hare will be terrible after 3pm.

[MichaelCMTX]

Too many times, I've followed RC's suggestions and wound up paying for it. RC used to suggest noon as the earliest departure out of Miami. The first time we cruised, we could have easily made an 11am flight, but we were booked on the 1pm flight.

 

One of the values of this Forum is for the voices of experience to advise if the Cruise Line Recommendations are trustworthy or overly cautious,

 

Galveston's just a weird one in that the port is so far from Houston proper - as I mentioned above this is just not Ft. Lauderdale where you see the airport from your balcony. More like if you dock in Ft. Lauderdale... but fly out of Miami!, Next, road work has been ongoing on I-45 for some time and I think it'd be lucky for it to be completed by time we depart there in Jan 2018. For our last trip in Nov 2015, they had a complete freeway shutdown on debarkation Sunday. There was one scheduled for the morning we travelled down but a light rain cancelled their work for the day, so we got to G-Town 3 hours early. Finally fog is a known issue depending on when you cruise. Jan 2012 we drive up to the port... no ship! They docked around noon and we were able to board around 5. I think more people flying home got their travel plans completely upended that day than not.

 

I'm just no fan of the mad dash once you hit land. I lived that in Vancouver in May 2013 from the back seat of a speeding Prius Cab and still can't believe we made that flight. If I was on this site then and had asked, I'm sure people would have tried to talk me into a later flight time.

 

Proceed as you see fit but personally, I'd take a later flight.

[spookwife]

Our last cruise out of G: we pulled in on time. The rain and wind was so bad it was an hour past schedule before the self disembarkers could even begin. Then it was two hours in line for Customs( we were a suite so in the first group after Self). Then the fog over the bridge to the mainland was so horrendous it was unsafe to drive any faster than 35. Then 60-90 minutes to hit Houston.

 

In other words, erring on the side of f caution is the way to go. Stop off in Texas city for a leisurely brunch or book an excursion with drop off at the airport later

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[spookwife]

Galveston is TRICKY. You didn't say when your cruise is - but because of FOG - this matters ALOT.

 

Also - there is a lot of evidence that says that the itineraries that cover Belize/Roatan tend to have seriously long customs lines.

 

We are traveling during the foggy season so we are flying out on Monday. It was also a lot cheaper for us to do that anyway.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Try that itinerary on a day where wind and rain and flooding was so bad that half the Customs staff couldn't make it over the bridge which made it even more fun..

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Scottee25]

Too many times, I've followed RC's suggestions and wound up paying for it. RC used to suggest noon as the earliest departure out of Miami. The first time we cruised, we could have easily made an 11am flight, but we were booked on the 1pm flight.

 

Sounds like you just had some bad luck with flights being delayed. Miami and FLL are very close to the airport. In fact, you are closer to MIA from the Fort Lauderdale port than Galveston is to IAH (Or even Hobby for that matter). If you look at a map, you'll see there is only one way in and one way out of Galveston. As others have stressed, if it's foggy or raining (storms in Texas make Great Lakes thunderstorms appear as light drizzle), your commute will be delayed. Add in that there were be few thousand others like you trying to work their way back into Houston and that weekends is usually when they are most likely to close lanes for construction and you are playing with fire if you try to book the earlier flight. The planets could align and you could very well make it in plenty of time, however, it would only take one little thing to bring traffic to a standstill.