Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Carnival Cruise Ships Coming Back To Galveston.

BallFour4

By BallFour4,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

 Share

Recommended Posts

BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
Posted

So you’re coming back to Galveston on a Carnival ship and have seen media reports of the doom and gloom. Your expectations are to find your car totaled, an island that is trashed and a cruise terminal that’s inoperable. Rest your mind, Galveston looks great. Tonight we drove from Houston, past Hobby Airport (which is open as of 4:00 pm and ramping up more flights tomorrow) to the island.

 

Harborside Drive is dry from the freeway all the way to 19th street, shops were open on the Strand, there is no visible damage along Broadway, the terminal is intact, gangways are in place and there are no emergency repairs underway. All the city and private cruise parking lots were debris free and there were no signs of cars that had been flooded. The way to tell is the windshield looks fogged over. Many of the auto dealerships along I-45 had their inventory submerged, so those tell-tale signs are visible along the drive down.

 

The hotels are open, restaurants are serving food and gas is plentiful. The Spot, Gaidos. Bennos, Nicks and a lot more are open. The only attraction we saw down was the Pleasure Pier. There were work crews there and all the structures looked fine from our beach walk.

 

Appreciate the media found some wall material that fell from a 40 year old timeshare condo that was built shoddy from the start and a McDonalds sign that fell, so we had a "disaster" in Galveston. Mix in a few water drops on the webcam lenses and some thought we were the next Atlantis. That just isn’t the case.

 

If your cruise hasn’t been cancelled at this point it looks like your in for a floating vacation. Come down early, spend some time enjoying Galveston.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
riclop

riclop

Posted
Posted
So you’re coming back to Galveston on a Carnival ship and have seen media reports of the doom and gloom. Your expectations are to find your car totaled, an island that is trashed and a cruise terminal that’s inoperable. Rest your mind, Galveston looks great. Tonight we drove from Houston, past Hobby Airport (which is open as of 4:00 pm and ramping up more flights tomorrow) to the island.

 

Harborside Drive is dry from the freeway all the way to 19th street, shops were open on the Strand, there is no visible damage along Broadway, the terminal is intact, gangways are in place and there are no emergency repairs underway. All the city and private cruise parking lots were debris free and there were no signs of cars that had been flooded. The way to tell is the windshield looks fogged over. Many of the auto dealerships along I-45 had their inventory submerged, so those tell-tale signs are visible along the drive down.

 

The hotels are open, restaurants are serving food and gas is plentiful. The Spot, Gaidos. Bennos, Nicks and a lot more are open. The only attraction we saw down was the Pleasure Pier. There were work crews there and all the structures looked fine from our beach walk.

 

Appreciate the media found some wall material that fell from a 40 year old timeshare condo that was built shoddy from the start and a McDonalds sign that fell, so we had a "disaster" in Galveston. Mix in a few water drops on the webcam lenses and some thought we were the next Atlantis. That just isn’t the case.

 

If your cruise hasn’t been cancelled at this point it looks like your in for a floating vacation. Come down early, spend some time enjoying Galveston.

 

.

Hobby said they will open Saturday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Very happy to hear this. So 45 was open the entire way from Hobby?

Yes, and you cannot tell a storm hit us. Baybrook Mall, the big box stores and a few other retail outlets were closed, but the freeway was wide open and dry. We didn't see more than four or five cars left abandoned on the service roads. My wife said it was akin to driving on Christmas night.

 

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
yerdsyerds

yerdsyerds

Posted
Posted

Ballfour4 - yes, thank you for the on the scene information. I will be traveling down next Friday evening to cruise on the 9/10 Breeze sailing and was wondering if you have any insight you might be willing to share. Specifically, is Uber/Lyft being impacted? Currently flying in late friday night, and staying right by IAH. Was planning on just getting Uber or Lyft down to Galveston saturday morning to Moody Gardens where we're staying Saturday night. Do you think that will be possible? Any news on hotel closures/overbookings? thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Ballfour4 - yes, thank you for the on the scene information. I will be traveling down next Friday evening to cruise on the 9/10 Breeze sailing and was wondering if you have any insight you might be willing to share. Specifically, is Uber/Lyft being impacted? Currently flying in late friday night, and staying right by IAH. Was planning on just getting Uber or Lyft down to Galveston saturday morning to Moody Gardens where we're staying Saturday night. Do you think that will be possible? Any news on hotel closures/overbookings? thanks!

 

Call your hotel direct, same with Uber. The routes needed to get here are open on traffic maps. The south side of Houston has much to fix, but the freeways are wide open. Today things will improve in big leaps with the airports being closer to normal operations, and with that so goes transportation.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
yerdsyerds

yerdsyerds

Posted
Posted
Call your hotel direct, same with Uber. The routes needed to get here are open on traffic maps. The south side of Houston has much to fix, but the freeways are wide open. Today things will improve in big leaps with the airports being closer to normal operations, and with that so goes transportation.

 

.

Thanks again!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SeeJennyCruise

SeeJennyCruise

Posted
Posted
Hello, we will be driving down from DFW. What about filling our gas tank? On the way down? Once we get to Galveston?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

To be safe, I would fill up in Huntsville and then you can top again in Galveston. We have stations open inn the area but supply lines are disrupted.

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites
BallFour4

BallFour4

Posted
  • Author
Posted
It's wonderful to get first hand reports like the OP's, thanks Ballfour.

Welcome. It's amazing to see the efforts to help people here. What makes this different is the power is on for most of the areas hit. This was rain and flooding, not high wind and storm surge in Houston. Gas shortages are spotty, grocery stores don't have all the selections back and help us all, the double-dip, chocolate chip, no-fat latte might not be an option for some.

 

Come see us. We're open for business in Texas.

 

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jimbo5544 "Live from...." Rare

jimbo5544

Posted
Posted
Welcome. It's amazing to see the efforts to help people here. What makes this different is the power is on for most of the areas hit. This was rain and flooding, not high wind and storm surge in Houston. Gas shortages are spotty, grocery stores don't have all the selections back and help us all, the double-dip, chocolate chip, no-fat latte might not be an option for some.

 

Come see us. We're open for business in Texas.

 

.

Where is the like button when you want to use it????

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chicchic325

chicchic325

Posted
Posted
Ballfour4 - yes, thank you for the on the scene information. I will be traveling down next Friday evening to cruise on the 9/10 Breeze sailing and was wondering if you have any insight you might be willing to share. Specifically, is Uber/Lyft being impacted? Currently flying in late friday night, and staying right by IAH. Was planning on just getting Uber or Lyft down to Galveston saturday morning to Moody Gardens where we're staying Saturday night. Do you think that will be possible? Any news on hotel closures/overbookings? thanks!

 

Uber is up and running again. Personal thought: some drivers may have been impacted and this may cause delays or longer wait times. But this is just an consideration.

 

I'd call your hotel directly, the roads in and out of IAH flooded. Just to make sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
yerdsyerds

yerdsyerds

Posted
Posted
Uber is up and running again. Personal thought: some drivers may have been impacted and this may cause delays or longer wait times. But this is just an consideration.

 

I'd call your hotel directly, the roads in and out of IAH flooded. Just to make sure.

thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely be calling the hotels, I just wanted to give them a few days to allow things to calm down before I do. I booked the Galveston Express Shuttle from IAH to Galveston for saturday, as plan "a" and if they cancel/no show then I'll shoot for Uber/Lyft.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...