Royal Caribbean Cruise Passengers Return to Their Vehicle and Find It Overrun With Spiders

Most people returning from a cruise come home with a tan, some souvenirs, and a pile of laundry. Two men from West Texas came home with something considerably less welcome.

The pair had just returned to Galveston’s Royal Caribbean Cruise Terminal 10 after a Caribbean sailing, retrieved their car from the parking lot, and discovered that in their absence, the vehicle had been completely overrun by baby spiders. Hundreds of them.

Their Uber driver, Donnie Broussard, was the one who witnessed the aftermath firsthand — and whose Sunday night post in the Galveston Talk Facebook group brought the story to wider attention.

“I thought they might have brought them from where they came from,” Broussard told Chron. “But that wouldn’t explain the other cars.”

That detail is perhaps the most unsettling part of the entire account. The two Lubbock residents in their 20s were not the only returning cruisers to encounter the situation. A handful of other passengers found the same surprise waiting in their vehicles.

What Actually Happened

The spider incident occurred at Cruise Terminal 10 — Galveston’s Royal Caribbean terminal, which opened in November 2022 as a partnership between the Port of Galveston and Royal Caribbean. The parking lots surrounding the terminal are operated by the Port of Galveston.

After discovering what was waiting for them, the two men were — in Broussard’s diplomatically chosen word — “freaked out.” He drove them to a nearby Walmart so they could purchase pesticide before attempting to make the drive home to Lubbock.

Why This Happens (and Why September Specifically)

Before anyone cancels their plans to park at a cruise terminal ever again, the entomological explanation for what happened is actually fairly benign — if not particularly comforting.

September is prime season for spiderling activity, according to pest control experts and several commenters on Broussard’s post who appeared to know their arachnids well. The phenomenon is called ballooning — baby spiders release silk threads that catch the wind and carry them through the air in large numbers, allowing them to disperse widely from wherever they hatched. Cars, buildings, fences, and vegetation are all fair landing targets.

A single egg sac can produce hundreds of spiderlings depending on the species — garden spiders can lay sacs containing up to 1,200 eggs. When those hatch and balloon simultaneously, the result is exactly what these two men found waiting for them at the parking lot.

“September is a prime time for spiderlings,” one commenter explained on Broussard’s post. “Wind catches the silk and carries them away. They can land en masse on fences, buildings, vegetation and even cars.”

Another commenter’s response to that explanation — “thanks for traumatizing me” — likely captured the collective sentiment of anyone reading along.

A Texas Thing

Pest control companies in South Texas note that this time of year brings a general uptick in spider visibility across the region. Webs appear on porches. Wolf spiders cross garage floors. Outdoor lights attract insects, which attract spiders. The particular cocktail of late summer heat, humidity, and the ecological conditions of the Texas Gulf Coast make Galveston an entirely plausible location for exactly this kind of event.

Which does not make it any less alarming to discover when you are trying to load vacation luggage into your car.

What the Port Said

The Port of Galveston, which operates the parking lots around Cruise Terminal 10, had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Royal Caribbean has not issued a statement about the incident.

For the two men from Lubbock — and the handful of other cruisers who encountered the same situation — the spiders were not part of the Royal Caribbean experience they had signed up for. The good news is that none of the creatures reported were dangerous. The bad news is that the mental image of hundreds of baby spiders in your car after a relaxing Caribbean vacation is not one that fades quickly.

That’s Texas for ya.