Happy birthday to the Port of Galveston! Established in 1825, Texas’ oldest port is about to celebrate its bicentennial in a big way in 2025.
The Gulf Coast port announced it will officially launch its birthday party on May 22, 2025, to coincide with National Maritime Day.
The party will be followed by other key events like a golf tournament on October 16, 2025, the Party on the Pier public event on October 17, 2025, and a bicentennial gala on October 18, 2025.
“We’re planning a full year of activities to share the port’s history, spotlight the contributions of the port and its partners, and celebrate our past, present, and future,” said Rodger Rees, Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO.
In addition to the fun, Galveston Wharves is also releasing a book filled with two centuries of stories about the harbor’s naval battles, pirates, and resilience. The book will be available in October 2025.
“We invite the Galveston community and our port partners to join us in a year of celebrations,” Rees said, adding that community partners are encouraged to present their own programs commemorating the Port of Galveston.
Read Also: Galveston Cruise Port: Essential Guide for Your Cruise
Interested supporters can also sponsor the port’s celebratory events while also funding maritime education scholarships through five levels of sponsorship opportunities.
Although the Platinum Level sponsorship at $100,000 is sold out, four levels are still available, starting at $15,000.
The history of Port of Galveston
Founded on October 17, 1825, by a proclamation from the Congress of Mexico, of which Texas was then a part, the Port of Galveston has grown massively since its initial role in the Texas Navy.
It began offering cruises in 1837 when New York shipping magnate Charles Morgan sent steamships between Galveston and New Orleans weekly. Although primarily commercial, the steamships also provided passage to guests traveling along the Gulf of Mexico as Morgan expanded routes to other Texas ports, Florida, and Mexico.
The port’s cruise industry presence expanded in 2000 when Carnival Cruise Line arrived with the 183,521-gross-ton, 5,374-passenger Carnival Celebration as the first homeported cruise ship in Galveston. The company has since featured a year-round vessel from the port every year following.
Today, the Port of Galveston spans 840 acres and ranks as the fourth busiest US cruise homeport, serving nearly 1.5 million cruise passengers every year through five major cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).
This year, the Port of Galveston undertook several major projects to improve its offerings, including completing $53 million worth of upgrades to Carnival’s Cruise Terminal 25 and beginning construction on the $151-million Cruise Terminal 16.
The new terminal is expected to open in 2025 and welcome a sixth cruise line, MSC Cruises, to the city. The maritime line will homeport its 5,877-passenger MSC Seascape here in November 2025, just as NCL commits its first year-round vessel, the 3,099-passenger Norwegian Prima, to the region.
Additional plans include expanding parking in cruise terminals 25 and 28 and enhancing internal roadways.
The port anticipates it will conclude 2024 with a 14-percent year-over-year increase in passengers, reaching a record of 1.6 million guests.
This growth has been spurred by the larger ships utilizing the waterways at the entrance to Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel, including the new 5,228-passenger Carnival Jubilee, which set a new record for the port with 390 cruises.
