We booked this trip a couple of months before sailing, so we took a cat EE guarantee. Because our flight arrived at Houston Hobby after 1pm Princess would not provide transfers. Since the sailing time was to be 4pm we decided to fly in a day early and spent the night at Hotel Galvez (the Princess pre-stay hotel). We bought transfers for $30pp from Galveston Limo Service in the baggage claim area. Just missed their 1:30 shuttle (they would have waited if we had made advanced reservations!) so we had lunch and waited for their 3pm shuttle.

Arrived at the hotel about 4pm - we COULD have made the sailing, even with the wait: Ship departed around 5:30pm. On sailing day we had the hotel call for a taxi (they DO have a shuttle, but you need to make reservations as soon as you check in!) but we waited over 30 minutes due to the limited number of taxis in Galveston.

Embarkation: We are Platinum, so when we arrived at the pier around 11am we quickly checked in, but then waited along with everyone else until the started boarding around 12:45. Went fairly quickly. Found our cabin (P245, NOT an obstructed view) and dropped our carry-ons and headed to Horizon Court for lunch. Bags were at the cabin within an hour!. Unpacked and did the lifeboat drill. Then waited for sailaway. Cabin had bunks for 3-4 pax, so in hindsight we should have had beds configured in twin to give us more floor space. Read more