Blissful birthday to the Port of Galveston! Established in 1825, Texas’ oldest port is about to have fun its bicentennial in a giant manner in 2025.
The Gulf Coast port introduced it’s going to formally launch its party on Could 22, 2025, to coincide with Nationwide Maritime Day.
The celebration can be adopted by different key occasions like a golf match on October 16, 2025, the Celebration on the Pier public occasion on October 17, 2025, and a bicentennial gala on October 18, 2025.
“We’re planning a full 12 months of actions to share the port’s historical past, highlight the contributions of the port and its companions, and have fun our previous, current, and future,” stated Rodger Rees, Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO.
Along with the enjoyable, Galveston Wharves can also be releasing a e book full of two centuries of tales in regards to the harbor’s naval battles, pirates, and resilience. The e book can be out there in October 2025.
“We invite the Galveston neighborhood and our port companions to hitch us in a 12 months of celebrations,” Rees stated, including that neighborhood companions are inspired to current their very own applications commemorating the Port of Galveston.
Learn Additionally: Galveston Cruise Port: Important Information for Your Cruise
supporters may also sponsor the port’s celebratory occasions whereas additionally funding maritime training scholarships by means of 5 ranges of sponsorship alternatives.
Though the Platinum Degree sponsorship at $100,000 is bought out, 4 ranges are nonetheless out there, beginning at $15,000.
The historical past of Port of Galveston
Based on October 17, 1825, by a proclamation from the Congress of Mexico, of which Texas was then an element, the Port of Galveston has grown massively since its preliminary function within the Texas Navy.
It started providing cruises in 1837 when New York transport magnate Charles Morgan despatched steamships between Galveston and New Orleans weekly. Though primarily industrial, the steamships additionally supplied passage to visitors touring alongside the Gulf of Mexico as Morgan expanded routes to different Texas ports, Florida, and Mexico.
The port’s cruise trade presence expanded in 2000 when Carnival Cruise Line arrived with the 183,521-gross-ton, 5,374-passenger Carnival Celebration as the primary homeported cruise ship in Galveston. The corporate has since featured a year-round vessel from the port yearly following.
As we speak, the Port of Galveston spans 840 acres and ranks because the fourth busiest US cruise homeport, serving almost 1.5 million cruise passengers yearly by means of 5 main cruise traces, together with Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).
This 12 months, the Port of Galveston undertook a number of main initiatives to enhance its choices, together with finishing $53 million price of upgrades to Carnival’s Cruise Terminal 25 and starting development on the $151-million Cruise Terminal 16.
The brand new terminal is predicted to open in 2025 and welcome a sixth cruise line, MSC Cruises, to town. The maritime line will homeport its 5,877-passenger MSC Seascape right here in November 2025, simply as NCL commits its first year-round vessel, the three,099-passenger Norwegian Prima, to the area.
Extra plans embody increasing parking in cruise terminals 25 and 28 and enhancing inside roadways.
The port anticipates it’s going to conclude 2024 with a 14-percent year-over-year improve in passengers, reaching a file of 1.6 million visitors.
This progress has been spurred by the bigger ships using the waterways on the entrance to Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel, together with the brand new 5,228-passenger Carnival Jubilee, which set a brand new file for the port with 390 cruises.
