GALVESTON - While the Port of Houston's $87 million cruise terminal sits vacant two years after being built, the Port of Galveston on Wednesday said it has snagged the largest cruise ship ever to be based in Texas. The Carnival Cruise Lines vessel Carnival Magic will begin sailing from Galveston on Nov. 14, 2011, Galveston Port Director Steve Cernak said. Cernak said the Magic is so large, with berths for 3,690 passengers, that the port will have to build a new gangway to accommodate it. The new ship is expected to boost Galveston's reputation as a cruise-line home port and add revenues to the city's economy. 'This puts us in the upper echelon of home ports,' Cernak said. The largest cruise ship now based in Texas, in passenger size, is the Carnival Lines' 2,974-passenger Carnival Conquest, one of two Carnival cruise ships based in Galveston. The Carnival Conquest and the 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy will move to New Orleans and be replaced in Galveston by the Carnival Magic and the 2,758-passenger Carnival Triumph. The Triumph moves to Galveston on Oct. 6, Cernak said. A Royal Caribbean Lines cruise ship is based in Galveston part of the year. The 130,000-ton Carnival Magic will boost the number of Carnival passengers coming through the Galveston cruise ship terminal by 28 percent, Cernak said. The two ships are expected to carry more than 450,000 passengers per year once they begin operation. The Carnival Magic is a new ship, and the company's decision to base it in Galveston rather than the prime Florida market shows how important Texas is, Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer De la Cruz said. 'The commitment of a new ship outside Florida is pretty significant and is pretty rare,' De la Cruz said. 'We have built up our presence in Galveston over many years, and we have been able to do that because the Texas and Southwestern market is so strong for us.' De la Cruz said Carnival chose Galveston over Houston because of the cruise line's long-standing relationship with the port and its closer access to the Gulf. The Port of Houston Authority's Pasadena cruise terminal has yet to have a regular cruise service. The facility was built in 2008 and is next to the Port's Bayport Container Terminal. The only time cruise ships called on it was when Hurricane Ike damaged the Port of Galveston. Two Carnival Cruise Lines ships relocated to Houston for more than a month. 'It's a beautiful facility with state-of-the-art everything,' said Chris Matthews, a principal in the Dallas office of A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm. 'The Houston cruise terminal is an example of some mis-estimating. The demand has not materialized for many reasons.' Part of the problem is that the 96,000-square-foot facility is located near industrial plants and about a 45-minute drive from downtown Houston, he said. 'Travelers are looking for an attractive destination on both ends of the cruise,' Matthews said. 'Galveston and New Orleans have much more to offer right there than the Houston cruise terminal.' Ricky Kunz, vice president for origination at the Port of Houston, said the port is continuing to talk to cruise companies about home-porting vessels at the facility. 'Because of required cruise marketing and vessel redeployment, it can take a cruise line up to two, three years before moving into a new port or market,' Kunz said. The chairman of the Galveston Wharves Board, which oversees the Port Authority, said the revenue source of the two port districts may help explain why Houston's terminal remains vacant. Chairman John Eckel said the Galveston port is supported by its own earnings and the Houston port by tax dollars. 'That's why they did engage in a 'build it and they will come' Field of Dreams arrangement,' Eckel said. Norwegian Cruise Line did operate from the Port of Houston's Barbours Cut Terminal from 1997 until 2001 and again from 2003 until April 2007. Cernak said the Galveston port is investing more than $8 million in improvements to serve the Carnival Magic, including more walkways and moorings. The improvements will allow the cruise terminal to handle any cruise vessel in the Western Hemisphere, he said. The increased number of passengers is expected to have a big economic effect on the port and the city, Cernak said. The port gets its income from cruise line and passenger fees, including fees for parking in port-owned parking lots. Cernak couldn't immediately give an estimate of how much the new ships would add to the port's earnings. A state-by-state 2009 economic impact study by the Cruise Line International Association showed $1.1 billion in direct purchases related to the cruise line business in Texas for 2008. The numbers apply to Galveston because it has the only operating cruise line terminal in the state. harvey.rice@chron.com XXX - End of Story3D 