• Cruise lines are increasingly sailing out of Texas’ only cruise port, the Port of Galveston.
• Galveston saw a record 384 cruises and 1.7 million guests in 2024 — half a million more than in 2023.
• The port is located near Royal Caribbean’s next two private resorts in Mexico.

Texas — known for chili, cowboys, and increasingly, cruises.

America’s cruising culture is irrevocably intertwined with Florida. No other state has seven cruise ports, including the three busiest in the world, and an established grip on the nearby leviathan Caribbean cruise market.

What the Sunshine State doesn’t have, however, is Galveston.

The historic and unassuming Texas island is home to the state’s only cruise port. Yet, it’s quickly become a crucial battleground as vacation-at-sea companies compete for travelers’ hearts and wallets.

The Galveston boom

In 2022, Royal Caribbean opened a $125 million cruise terminal in the Galveston. A year later, the port invested $53 million in expanding Carnival’s terminal, which now serves as the homeport for Carnival Jubilee, one of the cruise line’s largest ships built specifically for the Texas market.

In 2024, the port saw a record 384 cruises and 1.7 million guests — half a million more travelers than the year prior.

Not much compared to the world’s busiest Port of Miami, which saw 8.23 million passengers in 2024. However, while Florida’s ports are near max capacity, Galveston’s market is still quickly growing.

The Texas port plans to open a fourth $156 million terminal in November, which MSC and Norwegian will share. The launch would also mark the start of MSC’s Galveston itineraries.

“Florida doesn’t have many more terminals,” Rodger Rees, the port’s director and CEO, told Business Insider. “The market has been somewhat saturated.”

Galveston does, however, have more space to expand — and with it, aspirations to someday surpass Florida’s Port of Everglades as America’s third most popular cruise port.

“These ships are going out of here full every Saturday and Sunday,” Rees said — a significant accomplishment, given that Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, and MSC would all have some of their largest or newest ships sailing out of the Lone Star State this year.

For the port of Galveston, the local cruise boom has meant survival. The company almost declared bankruptcy 15 years ago, unable to generate profit from its aging cargo infrastructure, Rees said.

Now, the future is bright — in 2025, it expects to rake in $84 million, a 6.4% growth from the year prior, thanks to the growing vacation-at-sea business.

Bigger, better, and more convenient in Texas

Travelers in cities like Dallas, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City are a day’s drive from Galveston. Houston and its two airports are only about an hour away — strategic, given that it’s a shorter flight there than to Miami from metropolitans like Las Vegas, Chicago, and Phoenix.

Compared to Florida, “Texas is a similar-sized market that has half the penetration with a very similar propensity to cruise,” Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, told analysts in late October 2024.

As important, Galveston is also close to popular ports of call in east Mexico, eastern Caribbean, and Central America, including Norwegian’s private island in Belize.

The location is similarly crucial for Royal Caribbean, which has two private resorts — Perfect Day Mexico and Royal Beach Club Cozumel — scheduled to open in Mexico in 2026 and 2027.

“Having assets like the Royal Beach Club will allow us to drive more of the Gulf Coast markets that can have an easier fly-cruise experience and lower cost,” Liberty added.

Royal Caribbean’s resorts — in conjunction with its Symphony of the Seas, one of the world’s largest cruise ships, sailing out of Galveston in 2026 — could continue to catapult its popularity.

“We’re getting bigger and nicer ships here,” the port’s CEO said. “Why go all the way to Florida?”

FORT WORTH — All eyes were on the runway at Fort Worth’s Meacham airport Sunday for a very special arrival: two planes filled with passengers—the kind with four legs.

One-hundred seventy-six unowned dogs and cats were flown in from Los Angeles Sunday afternoon thanks to Wings Of Rescue. It’s part of a massive effort by several North Texas animal rescues to ease the burden on animal shelters in California which have had to take in hundreds of pets because of the wildfires.

“These pets were already in the Los Angeles system waiting for adoption so we are pulling these pets from these shelters in order for evacuees and their pets to be reunited,” said Cassie Davidson, of the Humane Society of North Texas.

Shelters in the Los Angeles area are 300-500% overcapacity so by sending these pets to Texas they’re making space for pets who were injured or separated from their families. 

Cassie Davidson with the Humane Society of North Texas has been on the ground in Los Angeles working to help shelters there.

“You’re gonna make me cry because I’m gonna tell you it is gripping,” said Davidson. “So to see that they are so overcapacity and they’re intaking pets that have been burned.”

Before they caught their flight, these dogs and cats received medical care and were temperament tested and groomed. Now they just need their fur-ever homes.

“What we need right now from our community is to really step up; foster, donate, volunteer it all will make a difference in the lives of these pets,” said Davidson.

The Humane Society of North Texas said this will not displace pets already in Texas shelters. That’s because more than 400 people have already stepped up to become emergency fosters for these dogs and cats.

“I just want to remind everybody that California stood in the gap when we had hurricanes here in Texas and so were going to give back,” said Davidson. “At the heart of the Humane Society of North Texas’ mission is pets and people saving each other and we are going to stand in the gap.”

The Humane Society of North Texas, just one of the organizations that led Sunday’s efforts, will be holding an adoption event this coming weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at their Fort Worth location where you can meet and adopt these California pets.