Departing the ship in Galveston

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scottinseattle

Guest
We have a flight around noon in Houston to get back home from our Rhapsody cruise. I know there are plenty of shuttle services, but what is the earliest we can get off the ship at the conclusion of the cruise in Galveston? I'm hoping we can be on the dock no later than 8 a.m. Any insight?
 
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Mbandy

Guest
=eek =eek =eek That's cutting it way too close IMHO. The ship doesn't dock until 7 and then has to be cleared by local authorities before they can let people off. Then you wait in line for immigration, then customs. Off the ship by 8? That would take some doing but I suppose anything's possible. Then we'll hope for perfect traffic getting back up to Houston. If the airport isn't too crowded you might just make it. Personally I never book a return flight before 1:30 or two even in a port where the airport is much closer.

Good luck :thumb
 
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Lady Jag

Guest
We made it for our noon flight without a problem (except for the inept limo company that didn't show up & then the taxi driver getting lost). The ship part went very well. We walked off with all our luggage and that saved a good 1/2 hr. to 1 hr. Traffic was light getting back into Houston, which also helped. We ended up at the airport 3 hrs. ahead of our flight.

Noon is cutting it a little close, but if everything goes pretty well, you'll be fine. A better flight time would be about 1pm.
 
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scottinseattle

Guest
I'm forced into the 11:45 a.m. flight because we're using airline miles for the two of us -- and as we all know, the choices are pretty limited. But...we're saving about $800 on air. That's a very good thing.

We've now got a friend from Houston who will get us from the ship to Bush; we're going to take a shuttle the other way. Thanks for your help!
 
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scottinseattle

Guest
To add a postscript to my original post: we made our 11:45 a.m. flight out of Houston with NO problem. First of all, Royal Caribbean has an option for early departure off the ship if you're willing to cart your own bags off. No problem. We were told to be ready by 7:00 a.m., and around 7:05 a.m. about 100-200 of us were walking off the ship. After a quick walk through customs/immigration, we were outside to catch our transportation by 7:30. A cakewalk. And of course, Sunday morning freeway traffic was light, so we were at Bush Airport by 8:30.

Taking off your own bags -- and not battling everyone at the dock trying to find their stuff -- was very cool. I'll do it next time I sail on Royal Caribbean.
 
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bots323

Guest
I'm new to Cruise Addicts and taking our first cruise in March 07. I have a question about getting off the ship early although it's not in Galveston. We are going to come into Port Canveral at 7:00am on the Voyager and don't have a return flight until 5:30 pm in Ft Lauderdale. We have rented a car for the day so we can do some shopping or sightseeing. My question is do all RCL ships have an early departure option? Who or how do you notify RCL that you wish to depart early? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
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cusguy

Guest
This will all be explained to you prior to disembarkation. No problem as long as you can carry your luggage off the ship
 
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