Update: The Wharves Board of Trustees voted unanimously to increase the fees charged to parking lots and shuttles. While most rates went up a moderate amount, the amount charged to independent lots soared from $8 per parking spot, per month, to $28.88 (a 261% increase!). With this in mind, it’s almost assured that parking prices across the island will rise in the near future. For more information, we highly suggest this article from The Galveston Daily News.

The next meeting of the Wharves Board of Trustees will likely be a contentious one.

This board, which directs the future of the Port of Galveston, is set to vote on Monday on whether to raise parking lot fees. Our opinion is that the board is likely to vote for an increase.

We have told you before about this issue. Right now the port charges fees to the numerous parking lots and hotels with shuttles to the port. According the Galveston Daily News, the port charges private lots $8 per month and hotel shuttles have to pay $10 per trip to the port. So if a parking lot has a 100 parking spaces, they have to pay the port $800 a month in fees.

The parking lots see these fees as adequate. Of course, the port thinks the fees should be higher.

Right now the Port of Galveston has roughly $50 million in debt that it must pay. In addition, the port has continued to invest, bringing more and larger ships to Galveston.

The port sees the parking lots benefiting tremendously from the increased traffic from the investment into the Galveston cruise industry.

Meanwhile, these lots are also competing directly with the port’s parking lots. Right now the Port of Galveston’s official lots are the most expensive option on the island — usually costing $10-15 more for a 7-day cruise than the independent lots.

All of this adds up to what we think will be a vote for an increase in the charges placed on parking lots.

More evidence toward increased fees was cited by the Galveston Daily News, which stated:

“A port team, created at the behest of the wharves board, last year surveyed policies at other ports and airports and conducted an assessment of fees, including application and renewal fees.

In late November, the study team recommended the board consider raising access rates for hotel shuttles to $11.43 a trip from $10.

The study team also recommended raising rates to private parking lots to $9.14 per space from $8.”

Even that increase, however, was mentioned as not being enough by some members of the board.

We’ll update readers as we hear more information. The board is set to meet on Monday, May 18. You can also check the Galveston Daily News, who has closely followed this story.

For weeks now we have told you about the competition in the Galveston port between Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Each cruise line is trying to “one-up” the other in the race for passengers.

Royal Caribbean heaved the latest blow when it announced a deal with the Port of Galveston for a $10 million upgrade to its cruise terminal in return for porting a larger ship. That ship, the Liberty of the Seas, will be the largest cruise ship ever to sail from Galveston when it arrives next year (more than 4,500 passengers!).

Well, the other cruise line in Galveston — Carnival — isn’t taking this news standing still.

The cruise line has just announced that the Carnival Freedom will join the Carnival Magic and the Carnival Triumph in sailing from the port.

The new ship will start sailing from Galveston in February 2015, going on 7-night trips all around the Caribbean that will depart on Saturdays.

So how big of an impact will this third ship have? According to Wikipedia, the Freedom holds 2,974 passengers. Meanwhile, the Triumph holds 3,143 guests, and the Magic carries 3,270. That means at any one time, Carnival can have nearly 10,000 passengers aboard her ships from Galveston alone.

Of course, we think this is great news for the port and just another sign of how booming the cruise business is in Texas. We’ve told you before about Galveston’s quest to hit the 1 million passengers per year mark. That achievement can’t be far off with the Freedom coming to town.

The rumors had been swirling, not they are official. Royal Caribbean is bringing the largest cruise ship ever to the Port of Galveston.

If you remember, the port and the cruise line made a deal a few months back — the port would make about $10 million in improvements to Terminal #2 (where Royal Caribbean sails) in return for more sailing dates and a larger ship.

Already Royal Caribbean has decided to keep a ship in Galveston year-round. It used to reposition during the summer, leaving a huge gap in sailing dates. Now you can sail on the Navigator of the Seas any week of the year.

But it’s getting bigger and better…

It has now been announced that in the fall/winter of 2015, the Liberty of the Seas will replace the Navigator in Galveston.

This is huge news (and in more ways than one). Take a look at the comparison of the two ships:

Needless to say, this is a major upgrade for the island. The Liberty will be able to carry about 50% more passengers than the Navigator.

As we said, the Liberty will hit our shores in late 2015, so there is still some time before she gets here. Still, it’s never to early to get excited about the largest ship ever sailing from Galveston!

If you’ve followed the Galveston cruising scene for any time at all, then you know that one of the biggest drawbacks in the variety of destinations.

Given the port’s location on the Gulf, a 7-day cruise can only go so far before it has to start the return trip. That means most of them go to the western Caribbean, stop in Cozumel, and then head back to Galveston.

Carnival is adding a little variety, and in the process, differentiating itself from the other cruise lines in the area.

According to USA Today, Carnival has just announced a couple of new itineraries scheduled for October 2015 and January 2016 for the Carnival Triumph. The trips are one-way cruises from Galveston to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The first trip will be an 11-day sailing with stops in Grand Cayman, Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Martinique and St. Maarten. Most of these ports (except for Grand Cayman) aren’t served by any cruise line from the Galveston area.

What’s most exciting is that once this cruise reaches San Juan, it will then depart on a 10-day trip to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Antigua, Grand Turk, and the private Bahamian island of Half Moon Cay before returning to Galveston.

In other words, passengers will be able to cruise these itineraries back-to-back, for a 21-day mega cruise that begins and ends in Galveston. Or they can sail a shorter 11-day trip to San Juan and fly back to Texas.

Given that 11 days (or 21 days) is too long a trip for most families to take, we don’t expect Carnival to make this trip a permanent fixture. But it is definitely exciting to see varied itineraries coming to Galveston… and it’s one more sign that the port is turning into a world-class cruising spot.

There’s a golden rule about cruising: The school calendar decides how much you’ll pay for your trip.

When the kids are out of school, expect prices to be much higher than when classes are in session. And looking at the current schedule, it looks like this year passengers should expect to shell out a pretty penny for a summer cruise.

We’ve taken a look at the upcoming schedules for both Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Unlike past years, both cruise lines will have ships sailing from Galveston this summer. This wasn’t always the case.

If you can hurry up and book a cruise before the summer season or wait until after, then you can still find some pretty good deals. But if you want to sail during June, July, or August, then open up that wallet.

For example, the Carnival Triumph runs a regular 5-day cruise from Galveston to Progreso and Cozumel, Mexico. Book this trip right now for a December 1, 2014 trip and it costs only $279 per person for an interior cabin.

But that exact same trip on June 30, 2014 costs $629 per person for an interior cabin — $350 more! Remember also that those rates are per person. With two people sharing a cabin, the price difference adds up to $700. Of course, the price difference is even greater if you upgrade your cabin to an oceanview or balcony room.

The good news? While prices are higher in the summer, there is a good amount of competition. Royal Caribbean and Carnival both sail from Galveston, but don’t forget about Princess and Norwegian sailing from the Bayport Terminal in Houston.

Currently Princess and Norwegian don’t sail summer routes — choosing instead to move their ships for the summer. But as time goes on, we wouldn’t be surprised to see these cruise lines sail from Houston during future summers.

That would put four different cruise lines all sailing during the more expensive summer months, which would hopefully provide enough competition to lower summer fares. Click here to read our buying guide on finding cheap Galveston cruises.