The Carnival Jubilee sets sail on its inaugural voyage from Galveston on Saturday. The 182,800-ton ship with a length of more than three football fields is the largest Carnival ship to ever dock in the Texas port.
It also marks a milestone for Texan Kyndall "Fire" Magyar.
"I'm Kyndall Magyar but on ships, I go by Kyndle Fire because I bring the heat and the fun," said Magyar, the Jubilee's inaugural cruise director.
Magyar spent a few years in Fort Worth before her family moved to the small Parker County town of Brock. She grew up going on cruises with her family. She took her first one at the age of seven and fell in love with it.
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A tourism management degree from Texas A&M put her back at sea.
"I've been able to kind of travel a lot with the job and meet people. And now I have a couch to sleep on pretty much anywhere around the world," she laughed.
Magyar interned at Carnival in 2016, joined the fun squad in 2017 and soon became one of Carnival's top cruise directors. Now in her seventh year, she's reached another goal aboard the Jubilee.
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She's the inaugural cruise director, the one who leads the fun for the ship's 6,600 passengers.
"You're the one that's kind of directing traffic to the different activities and activations that are happening on the ship, which are constantly going on because we don't want anyone to ever get bored on a cruise ship," she said.
The celebration started Wednesday morning when Carnival Jubilee arrived in Galveston to a water salute as she docked at Galveston Wharves’ Terminal 25 for the first time. It sets sail on its maiden voyage on Saturday, Dec. 23rd. Passengers on the seven-day Western Caribbean cruise will visit Mahogany Bay as well as Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico.
"An inaugural cruise already is so much. Like there's things that don't typically happen on it and then on top of that, we're throwing on a Christmas cruise right into New Year. So all I can say to anyone that is coming in those first couple weeks, maybe first couple of months, just be prepared for a lot of stuff you've never seen before," she said.
One of those things that's never happened before is a ship with a lone star on her bow. Carnival says the star serves as a symbol of its commitment to the port of Galveston and the state of Texas. The first Carnival Jubilee sailed from Galveston in 2002. The new Jubilee is four times the size and the first brand-new cruise ship to debut in Galveston.
"There's gonna be nerves but more than anything, it's gonna be this big sense of overwhelming, like just grateful moment of relief and it's happening. And let's go," Magyar said. "I'm already, like give me the microphone, let's hit the lido deck and, and Merry Christmas to everybody."
