By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Photos Courtesy of Robert Mihovil, Mihovil Photography
“Carnival gave us their oldest smallest ship,” said Mike Mierzwa, former Galveston Port Director. “They didn’t know what the market would be like and they called us the drive through terminal because you had to drive to Galveston to get on board a cruise ship.”
Mierzwa, a retired Coast Guard captain, was serving as manager of Terminal 25 at the time of the first cruise ship sailing.
“The first ship was 700 feet long and only carried 1500 passengers,” said Mierzwa.
Robert Mihovil, one of Galveston’s longtime professional photographers, and his wife were onboard the Celebration for her first sailing out of Galveston. Not only did he share his photos for this story with The Post Newspaper, but he also spoke about that early voyage.
On its maiden voyage out of Galveston in 2000, the Celebration was detoured due to a hurricane.
“We had to run from the hurricane, and ended up in New Orleans, most of us had a great time we were on the first cruise ship out of Galveston and were excited to be onboard,” said Robert Mihovil.
“My wife and I went to Pat O’Brien’s and the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans, and some of the nice shops were right near where we had docked,” said Mihovil.
They had fun even though they had a small inside room with a shower overhead of the toilet which made grooming time a bit less than ideal.
While Mihovil reported that the Galveston passengers were very content with being on the cruise and heading for New Orleans, the passengers from New Orleans were not as excited.
“Some of the New Orleans passengers talked about getting off the cruise once we docked, but they had cars parked back in Galveston,” said Mihovil.
Just as the cruise officials had said, Galveston was a drive through port with passengers coming to take a cruise in their cars.
One problem that being a drive through port posed was getting passengers from their parked cars to the terminal.
“It was a logistical nightmare getting the cruise passengers from their cars to the ships back then, we wanted to make sure they had a great experience not just on the cruise but boarding and disembarking,” said Mierzwa.
It was all hands-on deck for assisting passengers on those first cruises, the terminal wasn’t built out and everyone who worked for the port including the International Longshoremen were assisting passengers with their luggage.
Mierzwa reported his own excitement each time a cruise ship was coming in.
“When I was terminal manager, we lived in Friendswood and I’d get up at 4:30 to get there. It was a fun environment to work in,” said Mierzwa.
Galveston, without a major airport, was not the ideal place for the cruise industry to launch cruise ships, but something happened that no one fully anticipated, Texans came down by the carload and parking spaces for cruise passengers grew
“I remember the guys from Tampa saying, ‘You guys aren’t going to make it.’ I’d say, ‘We’ll see,’” said Mierzwa. He was moved up from terminal manager to port director just three years after the first cruise sailed.
No sooner had one cruise ship begun—with just three cruises every two weeks lasting less than a week—than other cruise lines were lining up to cruise out of Galveston. The terminal needed to be expanded and funded so Mierzwa explained the port took out loans to expand the terminal and add another terminal.
“The cruise lines were making a lot of money, so they kept giving us bigger and bigger ships,” said Mierzwa.
The port had just spent twelve million dollars to expand the second terminal when Hurricane Ike struck and cruises out of Galveston were diverted up to Houston while Galveston’s terminals were restored to operational status.
“We had been afraid if we didn’t get back up soon enough the industry would stay in Houston,” said Mierzwa. “It was November 1st when we reopened the terminals in Galveston.”
The cruise industry in Galveston has grown by leaps and bounds since the first ship in 2000. The Port now hosts four cruise terminals. In 2025, 415 cruise ships carrying 1.8 million passengers left the Port of Galveston. The ships can hold anywhere from 2500 to 5500 passengers.
Mierzwa has retired from his career as port director and now lives in Galveston. The growth of the cruise industry continues to excite him.
“When you are at the beginning of something which is so impactful on the City you never imagine this kind of success,” said Mierzwa. “It’s taken the efforts of many people over the last 26 years to make this a success and continue to grow this business.”
One day, Scholes International Airport in Galveston could become a commercial airport, but for now, cruise passengers continue to drive to their cruises. Passengers either come on a shuttle bus from one of the Houston airports, drive a car and park in one of the many pay-to-park garages, or, for Galveston residents, get a ride service to the terminal.
Whichever way the passengers get to the terminals, Mierzwa is sure they will have a great vacation. “I’ve always touted cruises as great vacations even before I became so involved with them in Galveston,” said Mierzwa. “The cruise staff treats you well, the food is great as well as the entertainment and of course you only have to unpack once.”
