We’ve said it time and again. The only real complaint about cruising from Galveston is that getting to the cruise port can be a hassle if you are flying in for your cruise. Unlike cities like Miami or Tampa, the cruise port is a considerable distance from the closest airport.

Meanwhile, Houston is served by two major airports: Houston Hobby (HOU) and Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH). That makes it even more confusing for cruisers who aren’t familiar with the area or the airports to decide which they should fly into.

To help out those passengers trying to decide which airport is better for their trip, we have all the details about both as it relates to cruising from Galveston

Distance from the Port

Unfortunately, both Houston Hobby and Intercontinental are located far from the port. Houston Hobby is considerably closer, sitting on the southeast side of Houston, compared to Intercontinental’s location due north of the city.

Houston Hobby
41 miles from Port of Galveston
45 minute ride without traffic

Houston Intercontinental
70 miles from Port of Galveston
75 minute ride without traffic

One thing to keep in mind is that Houston is notorious for its traffic, even at odd hours. That’s why we suggest allowing up to double the “non-traffic” time if you plan to travel directly to your cruise.

Airline Service

There is no doubt that Houston Hobby’s location makes it much more convenient for passengers headed to Galveston. Unfortunately, Hobby is considerably smaller in terms of airlines servicing the airport when compared to Intercontinental.

Houston Hobby is primarily a Southwest destination. The airline dominates service from the airport. However, there are flights from Delta, JetBlue and American Airlines.

Houston Intercontinental is the city’s largest airport, and also offers the most flight service. Here you’ll find nearly every airline available, with the notable exception of Southwest. If you are flying from an international destination, you will have no choice but to fly into this airport. In addition, IAH is a United hub, which serves airports around the country and the world.

Transportation

Both airports will offer similar service for transportation, including taxis, cruise line shuttles, car rentals, and independent shuttles to the Port of Galveston.

The major difference is getting from Intercontinental to the cruise ships takes considerably more time and money than compared to Houston Hobby. For example, the official Carnival shuttle between IAH and the cruise port runs $94 per person roundtrip, compared to $74 from HOU. Other services, including taxis will see an even larger price jump between the two airports.

Final Recommendation

While we live in the area, if we had to fly in for a cruise, then we’d pick Houston Hobby 10 times out of 10. The shorter distance between Hobby and the cruise port makes HOU much more convenient to get to the cruise ship. Also, we like that Hobby is a much smaller airport in general, making it easy to get in and out.

That said, not everyone can fly into Hobby or they might find a cheaper flight into Intercontinental. For us, we would have to save more than $100 per person on a roundtrip flight to make the extra distance and cost of getting to the port worth our while.

For more details on getting from Houston airports to Galveston, click here.

As Galveston has grown as a cruise port, it has gone from dozens of sailings each year to hundreds. Carnival and Royal Caribbean now sail year-round, and Disney offers seasonal service.

This is fantastic for cruisers. The boom in sailings means we have more options than ever on cruise lines, dates, and ships. It also means there is more competition than ever, leading to some pretty good deals. That said, it doesn’t mean every cruise from the island is dirt cheap.

We always knew that prices for cruises varied wildly and that it seemed more expensive to cruise in the summer. What we didn’t know, however, was just how much prices could vary, or when you could find the lowest prices.

That’s why we decided to do some research into prices. Given that there are dozens of different combinations of cruise lines, itineraries, and trip lengths, this was tough. For instance, there might be a Royal Caribbean trip that cruises the same route regularly (which gives us the chance to look at prices each week), but will then shift to a completely different trip.

There was one cruise we found, however, that sails regularly for the next year. This gives us the ability to compare prices week after week.

Carnival offers a 5-day trip that sails from Galveston to Progreso, Mexico and then to Cozumel. This trip runs regularly for at least the next year, giving us a chance to map prices over the course of 12 months. Right now the trip is aboard the Carnival Triumph, but will soon be sailed by the Carnival Freedom and Liberty.

We took at look at every sailing from now until October 2016, which comes out to 45 different trips. Below we’ve charted the prices for a single person in an interior room (this is the lowest rate available). Take a look:

The first thing that jumps out are the huge spikes in prices. We labeled each of these spikes, which correspond with times like Spring Break and Summer Break. This confirms the rule of thumb that it’s most expensive to cruise when kids are out of school and families can sail.

But what about the cheapest time to cruise? For this trip we found six dates that offer a trip for $309, which was the lowest rate for the next year. Those dates were:

January 25, 2016
February 8, 2016
September 5, 2016
September 10, 2016
September 19, 2016
September 24, 2016

As you can see, this list is dominated by September 2016 — right after the end of Summer Break.

Keep in mind that prices can and do fluctuate, so you might not see the exact prices you see in the chart above. That said, the peaks and valleys of pricing will stay the same.

We wanted to share a new page with readers on a very important topic: cruising with disabilities.

For many of you, this post won’t be of importance. However, if you or a loved one has a handicap, then you know that going outside of one’s comfort zone can be a major deal.

Fortunately, cruise lines have made major moves to make cruising accessible whether your disability is being hard of hearing, having mobility issues, or even food allergies or some other condition.

Still we know that people have tons of questions. That’s why we put together a major feature all about the topic. You’ll find helpful information including links, contact information, and what cruise lines have done to help make it easier to cruise. Simply click the link below to read now.

The Complete Guide to Cruising with a Disability

Rules are constantly being tweaked for the cruise lines, and today is no different. A recent announcement by Carnival’s John Heald shared the news that Carnival is making a change to their liberal beverage policy for non-alcoholic drinks.

For years Carnival has been the most lenient about bringing drinks on your cruise. Guests were permitted to bring up to 12 bottles or cans per person (up to 20 ounces per bottle) of water, sodas, etc. Well, many people took advantage of that policy to smuggle on alcohol for their cruise. A quick search of YouTube or this page will show you how easy it can be to replace the contents of a bottle with another liquid.

According to Carnival:

Often times, we find guests transporting alcohol onboard through unauthorized means resulting in unmonitored consumption of alcohol. Unfortunately, this has led to behavioral and safety related concerns.

Of course, it’s easy to tell that the above paragraph was written by a Public Relations team. If you rolled your eyes at it, you’re not alone.

Nevertheless, Carnival’s rules are changing. Starting now, guests can only bring up to 12, 12-ounce cans or cartons of non-alcoholic drinks — not bottles.

Since it’s hard to find cans of water (although they do exist), the new rule essentially means no more bringing water aboard the ship. Even if it’s smaller than 12 ounces, it is still usually packaged in a bottle, which is against the new rules.

Instead, Carnival will start offering packages of water for sale that will be delivered to your stateroom. If bought before the cruise starts, a 12-pack of 500 ml water bottles will run $2.99. If you wait until you are onboard to purchase, the package will cost $4.99. Frankly, we think that’s a fair price.

The rest of the announced beverage policy appears to have stayed the same. Guests 21 and over can still bring one 750 ml bottle of wine or champagne per person. No other alcoholic drinks are permitted.

We’ve read some of the comments floating around about the change (there were more than 1,100 on John Heald’s Facebook post), and the reaction is varied.

Some people see this change as a way for Carnival to squeeze out more money from passengers by making them buy water and forcing them to purchase alcohol on board instead of sneaking it in. Others are excited that lines to board may speed up instead of having to wait behind people lugging big bottles of water.

We think the truth is somewhere in between. This is no doubt aimed at putting an end to an easy way to sneak alcohol aboard the ship (which hurts Carnival’s revenue). At the same time, Carnival is offering bottles of water at a solid value instead of charging a monopoly price.

For those cruisers who follow the rules, this change isn’t that big of a deal. And if you’re someone who sneaks in alcohol in water bottles, you will just have to find a different way to do it. The biggest change is the headaches the new rule is going to cause until everyone gets to know the new rules.

It’s one of the best-kept secrets in Galveston cruising. If you know about it, however, you can save some serious money.

Since Galveston caters to tourism and the cruise industry, many hotels will do everything they can to earn your business. That includes letting you park your car during your trip at a huge discount… or often even for free. To take advantage of this perk, you simply need to stay at the hotel/motel before you leave on your cruise.

While a number of the hotels have “cruise and park” packages (it’s typically the larger chains) that raise the price of the room to include parking, lots of smaller or independent places will just let you park for free. Many will also provide a free shuttle to the port. (If not, the cost of cab fare is still a deal given the discounted parking.)

To give you an idea of where you can find hotels offering this service, we started with all the hotels on Galveston Island. Then, using Kayak.com, we narrowed our list down to those offer 2-star or higher accommodations and positive reviews. Finally, we searched for only those offering cruise parking. The list below should be a good starting point, but keep in mind that it may not list every hotel with the perk.

Also, be sure to confirm the details with the hotels below just in case anything has changed.

Two Star Hotels:
Super 8 Galveston
2825 1/2 B 61st | 409-740-6640 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Howard Johnson Express Inn
8216 Harborside Drive | 409-744-1100 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Rodeway Inn
6107 Broadway Street | 409-740-2491 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Inn at the Waterpark
2525 Jones Drive | 409-740-1155 | Parking Package With Shuttle Offered

Scottish Inn Galveston
928 Ferry Road | 409-762-3311 | Free Parking and Shuttle

Beachcomber Inn
2825 61st Street | 409-744-7133 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Candlewood Suites
808 61st Street | 409-744-4440 | No Cruise Parking Offered

Comfort Suites Galveston
3606 89th Street | 409-741-9977 | Free Parking and $20 Shuttle

Baymont Inn & Suites
2826 63rd Street | 409-744-3000 | Free Parking

Red Roof Inn Galveston
5914 Seawall Blvd | 409-740-1261 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Holiday Inn Express & Suites
8628 Seawall Blvd | 409-740-7900 | No Cruise Parking Offered

La Quinta Inn & Suites (Seawall)
8710 Seawall Blvd | 409-740-9100 | $50 Parking + Shuttle

The Villa Bed & Breakfast
1723 25th Street | 409-766-1722 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Comfort Inn & Suites Beachfront
6302 Seawall Blvd | 409-741-8888 | Free Parking, No Shuttle

Commodore on the Beach
3618 Seawall Blvd | 409-763-2375 | Free Parking (only during low season)

Three Star Hotels:
Hampton Inn & Suites
6431 Central City Boulevard | 409-744-5600 | No Cruise Parking Offered

Victorian Condo Hotel Resort
6300 Seawall Blvd | 800-231-6363 | $21.65 Per Stay, No Shuttle

Gaido’s Seaside Inn
3700 Seawall Blvd | 409-762-9625 | Free Parking

Holiday Inn Resort Galveston On the Beach
5002 Seawall Boulevard | 409-740-5300 | Free Parking and Shuttle

Four Points by Sheraton
2300 Seawall Blvd | 409-974-4796 | $40 Parking, No Shuttle

Four Star Hotels:
Hilton Galveston Island Resort
5400 Seawall Boulevard | 409-744-5000 | Free Parking and Shuttle

Hotel Galvez
2024 Seawall Blvd | 409-765-7721 | $18 Parking and Shuttle

The Tremont House
2300 Ship’s Mechanic Row | 409-763-0300 | $18 Parking and Shuttle

The San Luis Resort
5222 Seawall Blvd | 800-445-0090 | Free Parking and Shuttle

DoubleTree by Hilton
1702 Seawall Boulevard | 409-762-4141 | $50 Parking and Shuttle

We’ve also include the map below to show you where each of these hotels is in relation to the port. Click to enlarge.