GALVESTON — Nannette Metoyer has been running a cruise booking agency, Cruise Cats, out of her neon-blue Galveston bungalow for 25 years. She has weathered market fluctuations due to global pandemics, economic recessions and soaring oil prices.

So when the U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory Sunday warning people with underlying health conditions against traveling by cruise ship due to the increased risk of infection from the new coronavirus, Metoyer knew to brace herself for an increase in calls from her clients.

“There’s not been a lot of new bookings, it’s slowed down a little bit,” Metoyer said. “(My clients) are more concerned about getting confined on a cruise ship for 14 days. They’re not afraid of getting sick. My older clients with respiratory issues …yeah, they’ve got a little more worry.”

As of Tuesday, the Galveston cruise industry was still grappling with how to deal with an anticipated slowdown in bookings out of the nation’s fourth-largest cruise port due to widespread concerns about the coronavirus, which has already stranded and quarantined travelers on several cruise ships across the globe.

On Monday, the Grand Princess cruise ship, which had 21 people aboard who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, was finally cleared to dock in Oakland, Calif. Another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, was quarantined off the coast of Japan after a coronavirus outbreak infected 700 people on board. A dozen Houston-area residents tested positive for the new coronavirus after traveling on a Nile River cruise ship later quarantined in Egypt. The operator has canceled all Niles River cruises through May 31.

Cruise shops are still routinely coming in and out of Galveston’s port, but travel agents are noticing more customers rescheduling trips.

Amid the concerns, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the world's largest cruise industry trade association, presented a plan Tuesday to Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the White House coronavirus task force, on how it will deal with such infections going forward.

Roger Rees, the executive director of the Port of Galveston, said CLIA plans to hire an outside contractor, Global Rescue, to handle future coronavirus cases on board cruise ships, including evacuations.

“The real issue is the safety and security of all the passengers,” Rees said. “This new wrinkle that (CLIA) will introduce today will also take care of some of that idling of the ships not being able to go to ports. This way they will be able to go onto the ships themselves and take the people off and lessen the exposure (to the virus).”

‘Going out full’

The Galveston Wharves recently hosted a “tabletop exercise” meeting with 55 officials representing a number of agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, the University of Texas Medical Branch, the Galveston County Health District, and cruise line officials.

Objectives for this exercise included reviewing coordinated communications procedures in the first 24 hours of any infectious disease being reported by vessel crews in the Houston-Galveston area. A second meeting is scheduled for later in March.

“We’re ready, we’ve had a series of conference calls with federal, state, and local (officials) to get ready for any kind of outbreak that would come to Galveston,” Rees said.

Rees struck an optimistic tone when discussing the virus’s impacts on Galveston’s cruise industry, which makes up 60 percent of the port’s business and continues to grow. Royal Caribbean Cruises recently agreed to invest about $100 million in a 150,000-square-foot terminal, which is slated to open in November 2021, to accommodate the cruise company’s largest ships.

Cruise ships leaving Galveston are still “going out full,” with only “a couple hundred” passengers canceling, Rees said, a normal rate for this time of year.

“I couldn’t tell you what the future looks like at this point, but I can certainly say we haven’t seen any significant decrease in passengers this time of year,” Rees said.

Galveston travel agents tell a slightly different story. While there hasn’t been a flood of outright cancellations for cruise travel, many future passengers have rescheduled trips, hoping that the coronavirus outbreak will be contained enough in the coming months to resume normal international travel.

“We’re not having that many true cancellations because the cruise lines are being very generous to help people reschedule for a future date,” said Claire Johnson, who manages Galvestoncruises.com. “As far as new bookings, we’re still booking new people in the future. They’re still paying.”

Indeed, Carnival Cruise Lines, one of the two cruise operators that berth in Galveston, is offering “onboard credits” for passengers who choose to keep their bookings for departures between March 6 and May 31, ranging from $100 per cabin for 3- and 4-day cruises to $200 per cabin for 6-day and longer cruises.

Travelers weigh options

Any Carnival guests who booked prior to March 6 that wish to change their plans will be allowed to move their booking to a new date and receive a future cruise credit.

A Carnival spokesman declined to share how many passengers had chosen to reschedule or cancel bookings.

A spokesman for Royal Caribbean, the other cruise line operating out of Galveston, said that while the company is developing “more stringent boarding procedures,” including taking the body temperature of passengers at embarkation, as of now they are not offering credits to passengers who want to reschedule bookings.

The rescheduling of cruises has not yet hurt merchants who rely on cruise traffic for business. Gino Vaiani, who manages a Galveston parking lot for cruise customers, said travelers have been calling to reschedule future parking reservations, but he is still seeing plenty of business from cruises coming into port.

“I had families and kids and parents going out,” Vaiani said. “I did not see a big difference yet, but we’re feeling it a little bit. We’re waiting on it.”

But the coronavirus panic among cruise passengers has left booking agents like Nannette Metoyer walking her clients carefully through all of their options. She says she is telling first-time cruise passengers not to take their maiden voyage during a viral outbreak and warning clients with health concerns not to go on a cruise.

“I’m not heavy-duty sales, I’m actually a counselor that finds them what they need,” Metoyer said. “I’m not shoving stuff down their throat. You tell me if you want something.”

Metoyer, who has been on more than 150 cruises, hopes the coronavirus will run its course and business will resume as usual. If not, she joked that she plans to eventually throw caution to the wind and get back on a cruise ship herself.

“I do truly believe if this is the end of the damn world, let’s party like it’s 1999. Let’s get on the damn plane, let’s go!”

nick.powell@chron.com