Cruise From Texas Oil Rigs to Caribbean

G A L V E S T O N, Texas, Nov. 5 -- — As the cruise ship pulls away from shore, a tropical mood takes over with a band playing island music and waiters handing out rum fruit drinks.

The setting, though, is definitely Texas Gulf Coast. Sticky heathangs in the air. Oil refineries dot the horizon. Throughout theevening the ship sails amid brightly lit offshore drilling rigs andpast big tankers.

A question lingers: Can this really turn into a Caribbeanvacation?

By Day Two an answer arrives.

Only the sea and clouds are in sight. The brownish-green tint ofthe shallower water near shore gives way to the deep blue of themiddle of the Gulf of Mexico.

Soon, the scene is Key West, the Cayman Islands and Cozumel,Mexico. You're hanging out at one of Ernest Hemingway's favoritehaunts or snorkeling beside colorful fish along a coral reef. Theship has reached its exotic destination.

A Car Trip Away

More than 267,000 cruise passengers headed to Caribbean hotspots from Galveston in 2002, a 79 percent increase from 2001. Formany, getting aboard a Texas-based ship requires only a car trip ora quick flight. That's a plus for passengers in the post-Sept. 11era who worry about international trips or who don't want to dealwith tighter airport security. It also means vacationers don't haveto waste a day of their precious time off traveling somewhere elsebefore boarding.

Cruise lines see the demand and are happy to oblige.

"Texas is one of the highest-ranked states, based on ourresearch, for people with a propensity to cruise," said Jenniferde la Cruz, spokeswoman for Carnival Cruise Lines. She attributesthat to a variety of factors, including the accessibility andappeal of Galveston, a historic island town on the Texas coast.

Over the past three years, Carnival Cruise Lines and RoyalCaribbean Cruises have begun offering trips departing fromGalveston. Norwegian Cruise Line, which started service from Texasin 1997, is resuming operations out of Houston this month followinga hiatus.