Bye-Bye, Flagship Hotel: Did Anyone Ever Stay In It?

• Stayed there on our honeymoon in 03 and a vacation in 06. The accomodations were definitely a bit on the cheap and run down side, but the place had its charm, and we pLanned to return again, but the storm changed all that. I think the thing we will miss most is the old rattley groaning elevator.

• I am a BOI and when i was a kid back in the late fifties early 60's It was the Pleasure pier kinda like Kemah boardwalk is now except some of the amusements were inside along with a mini zoo with monkeys and lions it was the coolest place ever I remember going with my parents and sister and Gramdpa, I love the Fact That Tillman Frittia is going to make it nostaglic again, Now I have Grandkids I will love to take them now, as i was taken in my childhood. Very cool!!!!!

• When I was a student at UTMB in the late-60s, my parents used to stay there when they'd come for a visit. It was not particularly swanky, but it was a pretty cool place to look out on the water. It was also easy to reminisce about the earlier Pleasure Pier - with Ferris Wheel, midway and all the other kid-oriented amenities that flourished there in the fifties, while the Balanese Room sparkled just a couple of hundred yards away, with Murdoch's in between. Those were the days when hotel choices were the Galvez and Jack Tar. Looks like most of the responders are simply too young to appreciate the legacy of those old piers. Perhaps Mr. Fertitta will be able to bring some of that charm back to the seawall with the rejuvination of the pier.

• Three-X and I stayed there once in our pre-kid days in the '90's. It wasn't too run-down,then, but the rooms were small and rather spartan. The bar was okay, and I think they even had a piano player/singer, but it was nothing spectacular. My uncle's company bought the lease about this time, but abandoned it when they found out how eroded the piers holding the whole thing up were. Knowing that, I was surprised that it did not collapse into the Gulf during Ike.

• We stayed there in February 2008, not long before the storm hit it. I don't recall the musty smell, although my wife might (as she likes to remind me, women's sense of smell exceeds men's) but it was VERY dilapidated. The first room they gave us had a door lock mechanism that was falling out of the woodwork; the second one had no hot water. I don't mean cold water coming out of the hot water tap -- I mean NO water coming out of the hot water tap. The free "continental breakfast" was skimpy, to say the least. Bar? Restaurant? Long gone. The place was like a grand old lady, once quite pretty but far, FAR past her prime.

• Both my x and current boyfriend spent their honeymoon there w/ their previous spouses. Why? Because they couldn't afford anything else at the time. Obviously their marriages didn't work out either. Glad they're coming up w/ a better use of the property. The idea of listening to the water from your room is kewl, but not when it gets musty and moldy. Hope they plan for good parking too so it doesn't cause more seawall traffic.

• Stayed there once in the early 90's with a girlfriend who had stayed there a lot in the early to mid 70's when she was little. She should have stuck to her memories. The musty smell is what I remember, and everyone else here. I was in the hotel business at the time and thought if someone had the money this could be pretty cool.

• I stayed there once as a kid with the family. This must have been in the 70s. It seemed pretty cool to me at the time. I won't particularly miss it, though.

• Oh why can't we trade this place and get the Balinese Room back?

• I stayed there with my ex and our son about 10 years ago. Musty smell, run-down, management had pretty much visibly thrown in the towel. I remember the guy at the front desk was wearing street clothes and was super-casual, like "Hey man, what's up, thanks bro..."

• It must have been nice at some point, right? All I know is that for at least 30 of its 45 years it's been a dump.

• I stayed there once. It was exactly like sleeping on a pier. (Although, it was funny watching all the rednecks fishing from their 5th floor balconies.)

• Never stayed there but partied in one of the rooms during the Lonestar Rally a few years back. WHAT A DUMP!

• I stayed there with my now ex-wife in the mid 1980's. It was a dump then. I do recall having my window open and right outside was a seagull facing the wind and not really moving, just kind of gliding up and down. He could not have been more than 5 feet from the sliding glass door/window. All I remember is the mildew in the bathroom, how run down it was, and how great it would have been to have sex with the window open. (the window was perpendicular to the shore, so no one could have seen anything) Guess that is one of many reasons why she is an ex. The bar would have been great if it had been clean.

• I actually stayed in The Flagship Hotel in 1978. The room was just like any regular hotel room. There was the balcony and that was nice early in the morning and very late at night. As far as anything magical? I didn't feel anything special at the hotel. I think the novelty of being over the water was supposed to be special but to me it was just a nice view. When driving by with friends no one has ever stayed there but me. I guess I will always have the memory of having stayed in the old Flagship Hotel, a Galveston landmark. Nothing really special.

• We stayed in it a couple of times, probably about 10-15 years ago. It was half price with an entertainment book coupon, so I think it was about $50. I remember it was real musty smelling, but the view and location were nice.

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