Oh my! Our cruise consultant just called and told me some more info about this Royal Caribbean cruise that sounds great for the 30th wedding anniversary vacation for hubby and me. So i went to cruisereviews.com and read some about the ship.

The cruise we are looking at leaves from Galveston. That would be fine -- EXCEPT -- to get to Galveston, you have to fly into Houston -- and that too would be fine -- EXCEPT -- to get from the Houston airport to Galveston cruise terminal you have to take a shuttle bus for TWO HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES.

Yikes! That's the whole reason we wanted to fly out of the little regional airport near our home -- to avoid having a long drive to and from a cruise terminal.

So we're thinking we don't want to depart from Galveston, but from some other cruise terminal -- such as New Orleans or somewhere in Florida.

Can anyone here tell me more about the different cruise terminals in relation to how long a drive it is from the airport? We do NOT want to have to drive more than say fifteen minutes or so, but is this realistic? We don't mind a long plane flight and having to make connections, but there's no way we want a long drive through city traffic as a way to start our cruise and end it!

Thanks as always for your information, advice, and opinions!
Emily
serious212@yahoo.c

You could do Tampa which is about 20 minutes to the ship, Cape Canaveral less than an hour from Orlando, Fort Lauderdale which is 15 minutes from the pier, or Miami 25-30 minutes depending on traffic. Having lived in Fort Lauderdale for many years, I can recommend that, as they can get many ships in and out in no time flat. Have fun with whatever you decide. The bus rides are rather nice at times. We flew into Lo ndon in August, and a 2-1/2 bus ride to the ship. Results of this is another cruise this Summer, going into London to physically see what we saw by bus.

Thank you Sue! Great info, i really appreciate it!

Happy traveling!

I have taken cruises out of both Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The Miami shuttle may be a little further, but the drive is actually quite nice. From either airport I would not use the Cruise shuttle. Both airports have shuttle services that are much cheaper, run more often and very convienent.