Masks for both Uber, Lyft. Cruises from Japan, Taiwan and Australia as well as cruises to Hawaii and French Polynesia through November also are canceled. Los Angeles Times. Join Lyft Pink to unlock perks like 15% off rides, free Grubhub+ membership, exclusive offers, and more. All for $19.99 a month. All for $19.99 a month. Available in the US only. Lyft is an American ride-sharing company based in San Francisco. Lyft's main goal is to connect passengers who need a ride with drivers who have a car. Lyft was founded in 2012 and operates in more than 300 cities. To get a Lyft taxi car, download their Lyft app directly from Google Play or Apple App Store.
Over the past couple of years, there’s been plenty of drama concerning rideshare in Texas. While cruise passengers loved the services because they offered a cheap ride to the cruise port from Houston, cities imposed regulations on the services.
The result of those city rules was that both Uber and Lyft pulled out of the Galveston market and Lyft left Houston as well. This meant cruise passengers had to find alternate (and usually more expensive) ways to get from Houston to the Galveston cruise port.
That’s not the case any longer.
Following recent statewide legislation, rideshare companies operating in Texas are regulated on the state level instead of the local level. That means there is no longer a patchwork of rules for them to follow, depending on the city.
Following the passing of the legislation, Uber and Lyft have come back into many Texas cities. Austin may have received the most fanfare when the companies came back, but more quietly Lyft returned to Houston and both companies returned the Galveston.
That’s great news for cruisers living or flying into the Houston area.
Uber and Lyft offer affordable transportation to the cruise port, typically at a sharp discount to taxi cabs or shuttle services if you travel with a family or group. Estimated fares for Uber and Lyft are $42-56 from Houston Hobby to the cruise port each way. The estimated cost is $73-96 for a ride from Bush Intercontinental to the Galveston port.
Keep in mind that fare is for the car, not per person like many other shuttle services. Up to four people can ride for that price. So a family of four flying into Houston Hobby would spend about $80-110 roundtrip for a ride to/from the cruise port, compared to $240 for the cheapest shuttle service.
Having more options — and cheaper ways — to get to the cruise port is a great thing. Getting from the airport to the cruise ship is without a doubt the biggest hassle of cruising from Galveston. This should make it easier and attract more passengers to the island.
For more on using these services to get to the cruise port, visit our page on port transportation.
Note: If you are a first-time Lyft rider, use our sign-up here to download the app and get FREE ride credits for your first rides. Please note that we receive a small commission for new sign-ups from links on this website.
Like many 70+ peers, a few years before the pandemic I chose to give up driving. I still have my driver’s license, but I would hesitate to get behind the wheel today for anything other than outright emergencies.
Cutting back on my driving was easy. I simply took Lyft or Uber about five times a week. In the evening, my wife, who is ten years younger than me, usually drove. If we planned to consume a bottle of wine in the evening, we racked up more Lyft or Uber trips.
Since I live close to LAX and most of my destinations are in West Los Angeles, a car was seldom more than 10 minutes away or cost more than $15.00. We got rid of our second car, which more than offset the costs of our Ubers and Lyfts.
Cruise For Lyft People
On our last few cruises, we found that even the smallest port towns often had cars and drivers that would take you anywhere you wanted for a fraction of the cost of a ship’s tour. Since most drivers spoke some English and were sociable, we also asked them to suggest restaurants and shops that they frequented.
The pandemic changes all that. We’re both vaccinated, but we have a real-life horror of being in close proximity with those who are not. We have deposits on a cruise that explores Australia in December, and a repositioning cruise from Japan to Alaska in May 2022. Since everyone on international cruises and flights will be vaccinated, we’ll be safer on those cruises than in the United States—where about 20% of the public probably will refuse to get vaccinated for at least the next year.
Why do we care if anyone is unvaccinated if all our friends and we are vaccinated? The wildcards are coronavirus variants that can spread among the unvaxed, potentially endangering us (as well as them).
Cruise For Lyft Driver
When “vaccine passports” are readily available, smartphone apps will be able to be used to prove to passengers that their drivers are vaxed, and have passengers confirm to drivers that they are all vaxed. Proof that children are vaccinated could be added to the parents’ and caregivers’ vaccine passports. This will assure that children can also be carried in the “vaccinated only” cars. As long as “carry everyone” vehicles are also available, this will not be discriminatory, but an additional precaution that vaccinated passengers and drivers may take.
Israel has already warned its citizens that “normal” life will require that everyone be vaccinated.
It was reported Monday that 75 percent of Americans have had their first shot. Also, some authorities predict that the surplus of vaccines will approach 300 million doses by this summer. These factors make it highly unlikely that restaurants, malls, stadiums, hotels and anyone else will lose money by providing “vax-only” services.
Cruise For Lyft Seniors
Adding “green” Uber and Lyft services to their present ones can be an opening salvo in reducing the percent of unvaxed adults below 20%. What’s more, it can be done without any laws or government regulations. All it requires is that Uber and/or Lyft dedicate some cars to the vax-only service. Since these are international corporations, this can improve public health all over the world by “limiting the spread” and by motivating more people to get vaccinated.
Cruise For Life
Dr. Steve Frankel and his wife have cruised on most of the Seabourn, Silversea, Crystal, Azamara, Oceania, Regent, and Windstar ships. He writes a weekly column, Point-to-Point, for Travel Research Online (TRO) that’s read by more than 80,000 travel advisors and industry leaders. Steve is the founder of Cruises & Cameras Travel Services, LLC. He has been recognized as a “2021 Top Travel Specialist” by Conde Nast Traveler magazine and a “Travel Expert Select “by the Signature Travel Network. His specialties are luxury small-ship cruises and COVID-19 safety measures, and has a doctorate in Educational Research with minors in Marketing and Quantitative Business Analysis. He’s also earned a Certificate in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he managed qualitative and quantitative research in the private & public sectors. He’s a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, and has written 13 books and hundreds of articles. His email address is steve@sruisesandcameras.com.