Officials will break ground for the brand new $110 million cruise terminal at Galveston Wharves for Royal Caribbean International on Saturday at 10 a.m. local time.
Galveston Wharves will be represented by Port Director and CEO Rodger Rees, who will be joined by Royal Caribbean Group Vice President of Destination Development Joshua Carroll and Ceres CEO Craig Mygatt.
Also expected are Craig Brown, Mayor, the City of Galveston and Albert Shannon, Chairperson, Board of Trustees of the Galveston Wharves.
The new cruise terminal will cover approximately 170,000 square feet on ten acres of land in the southeast section of the Port of Galveston known as Pier 10.
The facility, which is anticipated to open in fall 2022, will feature state-of-the-art technology to enable mobile check-in and facial recognition to create an expedited arrival experience for guests, according to a press release.
The terminal will be designed and developed sustainably to meet LEED certification standards.
Carnival Cruise Line announced today that three more ships will resume guest operations in September, and another four in October, which brings the total number of ships in operation for the Carnival Cruise Line fleet to 15
Carnival said in a press release will continue to operate all its ships as vaccinated cruises through at least October.
The three ships for September are the Carnival Glory from New Orleans, starting Sept. 5, the Carnival Pride from Baltimore, starting Sept. 12, and the Carnival Dream from Galveston, starting Sept. 19.
In October, the four additional ships to restart will be the Carnival Conquest from Miami, effective Oct. 8, the Carnival Freedom from Miami, effective Oct. 9, the Carnival Elation from Port Canaveral, effective Oct. 11, and the Carnival Sensation from Mobile, effective Oct. 21.
“We are very excited about our restart and greatly appreciate the support of our guests, travel agents and port and destination partners,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “By the end of July, we will have five ships in our restart plan, including the introduction of service on Mardi Gras, and we are seeing a great combination of strong demand and strong guest satisfaction scores tied to the positive guest experience onboard.”
Carnival is also notifying guests and travel agents of an extension in its pause of operations through Sept. 5 for the Carnival Pride from Baltimore, Sept. 11 for the Carnival Dream from Galveston, Oct. 4 for the Carnival Conquest from Miami and Oct. 16 for the Carnival Sensation from Mobile.
Cruises on the Carnival Sunshine from Charleston, the Carnival Ecstasy from Jacksonville and the Carnival Liberty from Port Canaveral will be cancelled through Oct. 31.
In addition, a three-day cruise on the Carnival Miracle from Long Beach on Sept. 24 is being cancelled, and then the Carnival Miracle will begin sailing from Long Beach on Sept. 27.
Carnival said will continue to welcome unvaccinated guests onboard, but all unvaccinated guests including children under the age of 12, will be subject to pre-cruise and pre-embarkation testing and testing again prior to debarkation (on cruises longer than four days) along with a $150 per person charge to cover the costs of testing, reporting and health and safety screenings.
Carnival also said it is limiting the operation of its supervised youth programs to vaccinated children and youth 12 years and older. Unvaccinated guests departing from Florida (effective July 31) and Texas (effective Aug. 2) will also need to show proof of travel insurance coverage, based on the itineraries being sailed and the requirements of ports and destinations visited. These additional measures will be in place through at least October but may be extended based on guidance from public health and medical advisors and the requirements of destination partners.
“The decision to sail with vaccinated voyages was a difficult one to make, and we recognize this is disappointing to some of our guests especially the many families with children under the age of 12 who we love to sail, and who love to sail with us,” said Duffy. “It’s important to remember that this is a temporary measure given the current circumstances. In consultation with our medical experts and advisors, we’ve determined this plan is in the best interests of the health and safety of our guests, crew and the destinations that we bring our ships to. It’s very important that we continue to maintain the confidence of our destination partners so that we can provide our guests with the optimal cruise experience and sail our itineraries.”
“Our plan envisions successfully bringing back our entire fleet by the end of the year, returning to full service – most especially for the millions of families who sail with us – and building back our business for the benefit of our guests, employees and the tens of thousands of jobs and local businesses that depend on our company. We will continue to offer exemptions to our unvaccinated guests on a limited, capacity-managed basis within 14 days of sailing as we finalize the vaccinated guest count. The more bookings we initially secure for our cruises with fully vaccinated guests, the more exemptions we can ultimately offer for those unvaccinated guests already booked and those wishing to sail,” Duffy added.
Carnival Corporation today received U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) acceptance of its Phase 2A Port Agreements for PortMiami, Port of Galveston and Port Canaveral – all key homeports for Carnival Cruise Line and the first three homeports that Carnival is focusing on for its return to guest operations this summer, according to a press release.
“These agreements move us one step closer to sailing with our loyal guests,” said Lars Ljoen, executive vice president and chief maritime officer for Carnival Cruise Line.
“We appreciate the support from not just these three homeport partners, but all of our homeports, that are eager to have us back as soon as possible,” noted John.
Carnival has already announced that Carnival Horizon (sailing from Miami) and Carnival Vista and Breeze (sailing from Galveston) will be the first ships to carry guests as the line plans its July return to service.
Port Canaveral has also been identified as a restart priority, and Carnival expects to announce plans for operations from there over the coming days, the company said, in a press release.
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