Galveston Disembarkation Train Wreck!!!

[canderson]

Disembarkation on 17 December was an absolute freaking disaster.

Usually, the Celebrity bus transfer to the airport is a fairly safe bet. Not this time. Celebrity contracts to a company to handle their shore transportation. That company, in turn, subcontracts buses for both hotel and airport transfers for embarkation day (they neglected pickups at one hotel) and for transfers after disembarkation. After the initial wave of buses left (they only held guests through baggage tags RED 3), the rest of the buses were NO-SHOWS! Hundreds of folks with tags from about RED 4 and beyond were trying to stay warm (it was windy and about 45 degrees) and as best possible out of the rain under the canopy in front of the terminal area hoping someone would come out and explain what was happening. It wasn't until about noon that we were finally all advised that the original company's 2nd wave were no-shows, that they could not get any answers as to why, and that it would take them one to three hours to find another company to get buses to the pier.

Our time to convene in the lounge was 9:20. We were off the ship at 10:10, and after getting through customs, we saw the first wave of full buses depart, and then waited 1-1/2 hours in the rain for a bus. At this point, everyone had cleared customs and they allowed us all back into the baggage area to try to get warm. We finally gave up after 2 hours of waiting and were lucky enough to land alternate transportation to IAH (only taxi and real limousines were available), barely making our 2:30 flight. I have no idea what happened to the many, many people we left behind. As disembarkations go, this topped even our awful experience on Galaxy in Charleston on Celebrity’s 2nd cruise from that port.

[joramrose]

I too had a bad experience after a wonderfull cruise at the Galveston port in lte October.

 

Altho ?Celebrity had booked my air home, guest Relations was not sure which airport i was to go to. After some consultation, they decided on Bush because, guess what, they had no buses to Hobby!!!

 

Three hours later, after some major immigrtion snafus that held upl everybody, they finally let me off the ship and onto a bus to 'Bush, where guess what? My flight was to leave from HobbyI

 

After some more consultation, American changed my flight to Dallas so i did not have to return to Hobby and then, guess what? Major storm in Dallas and plane was delayed. by the time DFW open for flights, Houston was socked in and more delays.

 

It was after midnight, after they held the last plane for me in Dallas, that I finally got to Tulsa, OK. I could have driven home a lot quicker!!!

 

They need to get their act straight in Galveston.

 

love

joan

[Ericknow32]

That really sounds bad. I hope Celebrity finds out why the busses didn't show up and fires the company that chartered the busses. Did you get a refund for your transfer? It seems to me that you should get one.

[ronhow]

Need to add my two cents to this. We too had a terrible disembarkation in Galveston.

 

We had a 9:10AM blue tag to get off the ship and were off, had gotten our luggage and cleared customs by 10:00AM. As far as getting off the ship went, it was wonderful, quick and smooth.

 

As we exited the terminal, we walked into total chaos. We had hired a private company to pick us up. His pick up time was 10AM but he was nowhere in sight. He then called me on my cell only to say, a semi had jacknifed on the freeway and he was stuck in traffic.

 

After an hour went by of standing in the freezing rain he called again to say he was there at the terminal but the police were holding back the vehicles from entering the pier area. We could see there were no vehicles coming in. After another half hour, the vehicles started coming in and we finally were picked up.

 

Throughout all this time we witnessed people literally fighting with the pier folks who frankly did not have a clue what was going on. Galveston terminal is a MESS!! They really need to get their act together. The folks from Celebrity were visibly shaken by what was going on.

 

The other item of note is that while there were hundreds of people trying to get away from the terminal, there were hundreds of others arriving to get on the ship....WHAT A MESS!!

[canderson]

That really sounds bad. I hope Celebrity finds out why the busses didn't show up and fires the company that chartered the busses. Did you get a refund for your transfer? It seems to me that you should get one.

As this only happened yesterday, it isn't clear how it will all work out in the end. I called from the scene of the crime after the first hour of waiting, and of course, Miami said "We're here in Miami -- we can't do anything". I advised them that at a minimum, they COULD and NEEDED to contact the Pier Coordinator in Galveston, and have that person give those of us standing out on the curb some sort of update.

 

They'll be getting a FAX tomorrow.

[Kansas]

We had Grey 4 tags and experienced one of the smoothest disembarkations ever (we were through customs by 11:00). THEN WE STEPPED OUT OF THE TERMINAL INTO THE RAIN! It was well after 12:00 noon when we finally got a taxi. This was our forth time out of Galveston and we have NEVER seen or experienced anything like this.

 

I too wonder what happened to the poor souls still waiting for transportation when we left. We saw worse than passengers fighting with the terminal personnel, we saw passengers fighting with each other. No one came to blows that I know of, but it was only a matter of time before it would have been a real possibility. We were directed to the designated pick up area for taxis by a Port Authority officer (completely exposed to the elements). Few taxis came by and one or two took their lucky fares off to their destination. While we waited and shivered, we watched people try to cut in line or step in front of the people in the front of the line if they were just a bit slower to move. My wife helped an elderly couple in front of us load their baggage into the taxi while “cab jumper” was trying to load their things in the other side of the car. The cab driver stopped them and locked his doors to prevent that from happening again. The other two cruise terminals were just as bad or worse. Our cab driver had been working one of them prior to coming over to our terminal. She saw a fight break out and had people rush her car. She locked her doors and came over to our terminal and found us waiting there. She received a generous tip for being there to rescue us.

 

We stayed at the Best Western pre cruise and they don’t have a shuttle service. Previously, we have stayed at hotels that did and it would sometimes take longer to wait for the hotel shuttle than it would to grab a taxi back to our car. What we didn’t take into consideration was that there were two other ships in port that day (a rare occurrence for three ships to be in port on the same day at Galveston). According to our taxi driver, three ships in port on the same day happens only once or twice a year.

 

My wife and I enjoyed the cruise, it was one of the best we’ve had. The service on board was great; our embarkation was the smoothest yet and the ship itself was enjoyable. She will be back where she ought to be after dry dock. While we may sail out of Galveston again in the future, our next cruise will certainly not sail from there.

 

To Canderson and Ronhow: My sympathy goes out to you and the rest of the poor folks left to fend for themselves. At least once we arrived at our car a few minutes away from the terminal, we were on our way. I actually laughed at our situation for the first 10 minutes thinking that it couldn’t get much worse than this, well I was wrong. I definitely do not want to go through that again!

[florisdekort]

We had a 9:10AM blue tag to get off the ship and were off, had gotten our luggage and cleared customs by 10:00AM. As far as getting off the ship went, it was wonderful, quick and smooth.

 

As we exited the terminal, we walked into total chaos. We had hired a private company to pick us up. His pick up time was 10AM but he was nowhere in sight. He then called me on my cell only to say, a semi had jacknifed on the freeway and he was stuck in traffic.

 

And how again is it Celebrity's fault that the private car you hired was stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway? :rolleyes:

 

To the original poster: Make sure you get a refund for you transfer... these indeed are Celebrity's responsibility!

 

Floris

[canderson]

And how again is it Celebrity's fault that the private car you hired was stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway? :rolleyes:

 

To the original poster: Make sure you get a refund for you transfer... these indeed are Celebrity's responsibility!

 

Floris

I didn't see Ron blaming Celebrity. He was, however, accurate in noting what a disaster the outbound transportation became generally, even for those not taking the buses.

 

What amused me for about 10 milliseconds were all of the locals talking about how the folks from Houston/Galveston can't drive for crap in even the slightest bit of inclement weather. Send 'em to the Midwest for a winter -- we'll thin out the gene pool a bit for them.

[horselady295]

OMG... that experience sounds just awful... how do I find out if there will be 3 ships in port when we depart Galveston in April?! We are doing Panama Canal on Galaxy out of Galveston in late April. From the little research I've done so far on these boards, we were planning to fly into Hobby and reserve Galveston limo to/from Galveston Pier... is this a bad plan?

[Ericknow32]

http://www.cruisecal.com/dnn/ will give you what ships are in the same port as you.

[TEXASMUNK]

Which saling in April? We are booked on the 13th

 

It is is one of the Thursday departures, you should have no problems....it is very rare that Galveston suffers through a 3 ship departure.

 

The problem is construction plus the fact that to access the terminal requires a LEFT turn into the terminal area, the crossing of major RR switching tracks combined with a three ship day.

 

But you should have fewer problems come April

[Kansas]

OMG... that experience sounds just awful... how do I find out if there will be 3 ships in port when we depart Galveston in April?! We are doing Panama Canal on Galaxy out of Galveston in late April. From the little research I've done so far on these boards, we were planning to fly into Hobby and reserve Galveston limo to/from Galveston Pier... is this a bad plan?

 

 

Try this link to check your sailing date. I don't think this info would have changed my mind when we booked our cruise, but I might have made different plans on where I parked my car.

 

http://www.portofgalveston.com/cruiseinformation/2006cruisecalendar.pdf

 

We loved the cruise and the ship, just not the experience after leaving the terminal. From what I can tell, April 2006 does not have a day with three ships in port on the same day. You'll have a great cruise. There may be some other web sites with better information. I just did a quick google search and found the above link.

[canderson]

OMG... that experience sounds just awful... how do I find out if there will be 3 ships in port when we depart Galveston in April?! We are doing Panama Canal on Galaxy out of Galveston in late April. From the little research I've done so far on these boards, we were planning to fly into Hobby and reserve Galveston limo to/from Galveston Pier... is this a bad plan?

To the contrary, it turns out that this would have been one of the few ways to make your escape that would have proved close to "on time". They rolled in with a number of their vans while we were waiting for the Celebrity 'fleet' to show up. Unfortunately, they were operating on a reservation/prepaid basis only, so they weren't taking any of the rest of us.

[sweetcat]

boy am I glad i picked Ft. Lauderdale. We were whisked off the ship and grabbed by a local driver and int the airport in 10 minutes. Fastest disembarkation ever. Never even stopped to get my breath. There were 6 ships in port as is usual for a Sunday.

 

I did think about some of these other ports but figured the bigger ones wouild have figured out all these details.

[Longboysfan]

Dam.. On February 25th when we sail - there ar 5 ship in port.

The Sensation on the Hurricane relief is sitting there.

Extasy, Elation, Grand Princess and Galaxy.

 

On the way out there is only the Galaxy in that day.

[horselady295]

We are booked on the April 24 out of Galveston to Panama Canal. We will keep checking CC for updates from previous cruisers in/out of Galveston.

[Eagle1]

We were on Royal Carribean in Oct. and the bus company that they used was the worst, both the buses going to and from the pier looked and rode like they were from a salvage yard and the drivers never attempted to comunicate with the pax the whole trip. I don't know if Celeberty has a different company but our experiances have always been positive with there transportation in other cities.

[tuggers]

Five of us used a car service coming out of Galvston to Hobby. Cost $25 each including tip. Great ride and the driver pointed out the sites. We were in the airport in 45 minutes.

[DonLou]

I was just wondering. Was this Galveston "train wreck" a Galveston problem or an X problem? I haven't seen any similar threads on the Princess or Carnival boards for this disembarkation yet.

[mii]

I was just wondering. Was this Galveston "train wreck" a Galveston problem or an X problem? I haven't seen any similar threads on the Princess or Carnival boards for this disembarkation yet.

 

No disrespect but yes there has been problems of disembarkation from Galveston on the Princess board. I read both Celebrity and Princess boards as I sail both and just in the last couple of weeks there have been reports. To do a search just put in "disembarkation Galveston". The Princess ship that leaves out of Galveston is the Grand Princess.

 

marilyn

[DonLou]

No disrespect but yes there has been problems of disembarkation from Galveston on the Princess board. I read both Celebrity and Princess boards as I sail both and just in the last couple of weeks there have been reports. To do a search just put in "disembarkation Galveston". The Princess ship that leaves out of Galveston is the Grand Princess.

 

marilyn

 

Thanks, Marilyn. In this case, I was looking for specific problems on December 17 for the other ships in port.

[canderson]

Thanks, Marilyn. In this case, I was looking for specific problems on December 17 for the other ships in port.

I've been looking at both the Princess and Carnival boards and don't see any references (yet) to disembarkation issues on 12/17.

 

I believe the two ships in question would have been the Grand and the Elation.

[DonLou]

I've been looking at both the Princess and Carnival boards and don't see any references (yet) to disembarkation issues on 12/17.

 

I believe the two ships in question would have been the Grand and the Elation.

 

I was looking at cruisecal.com and it appears those are the two other ships in port that day. So do you think it's a Galveston problem or a Celebrity problem? Did Princess or Carnival have better connections (no pun intended)?

[canderson]

I was looking at cruisecal.com and it appears those are the two other ships in port that day. So do you think it's a Galveston problem or a Celebrity problem? Did Princess or Carnival have better connections (no pun intended)?

As far as I could tell, it was only the complete absence of the 2nd wave of Celebrity buses that caused problems for Galaxy passengers. Many other vehicles were making it to the pier at the Galaxy without incident.

[jeanneful]

We got back yesterday morning on the conquest, and we have NO complaints what so ever. We were off the ship and in our car heading home at 7:30 AM. We did the self assist so it was a breeze!!