Marking a Texas-sized milestone, Carnival Cruise Line further solidified its position as the market leader in Galveston, Tex., becoming the first cruise operator to embark 10 million guests from the port. Marsha Taulton of Houston was recognized on Carnival Breeze as the 10 millionth Carnival guest cruising from Galveston.

Taulton and her husband, Paul, were welcomed aboard by Capt. Isidoro Renda and Galveston Wharves Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees, and the ship’s team led an impromptu celebration of the landmark embarkation.

“This is an achievement that speaks to the success of our longstanding partnership with the port and the greater Galveston community,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We are grateful to our guests who have sailed with us from Galveston over the past two decades, continually driving the popularity of this homeport forward. The future is certainly bright, as we’re delighted to welcome more guests aboard than ever before from this great city – next stop, 20 million!”

Perhaps it’s serendipity that Carnival is celebrating this milestone at the same time GalvestonCruises.com is celebrating their own milestone – their 25th birthday!  On a summer day in 1999, Carnival Cruise Line announced that they were coming to Galveston with the MS Celebration.  On that same day, we registered the domain, GalvestonCruises.com and started work on a website.

In preparation for the first cruise from Galveston in September, 2000, I hiked out to the East End jetty to be one of the first to see the MS Celebration enter the Galveston harbor.  As it turns out, Hurricane Keith had other plans for the MS Celebration’s first cruises from Galveston.  The  ship, along with a good chunk of Galveston residents were rerouted to New Orleans and we never made it to Mexico.  Everyone seemed to take it in stride and the Galveston cruise industry took off despite it’s little trip out of the gate.