WESLACO – Thousands of passengers aboard cruise ships out of Galveston are not able to come home.

Harvey caused the port to close, leaving the ships to wait out the storm elsewhere.

Carnival said they have three ships waiting in other ports across the gulf until the port of Galveston reopens.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS spoke with Johnny Ayala from Pharr who is currently on one of the ships.

"We had to detour to New Orleans because of the weather down in Galveston and Corpus so now were here for the next few days provided it's safe enough for us to go back to Galveston," said Ayala.

Ayala was supposed to disembark Sunday.

Wednesday night, instead of being back in Pharr he and his friends were still on board.

"We're a group of six, we all travel together. Overall, the ship had over 4000 people," said Ayala.

To avoid the storm their ship changed course to New Orleans.

"Now we're waiting for it to be clear so that we can go back to Galveston once the port is open," said Ayala.

The unexpected situation added days to their trip.

Ayala said there are many who are worried about missing work, school and most importantly their families, "Like anything else you know they want to go back home."

One thing Ayala said which is keeping everyone's moral high is the ship's staff, "The crew and the ship personnel they are pretty much treating us very well like nothing has changed really."

When stuck on a boat, Ayala added the only thing he can do is stay positive.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to carnival cruise line. They said if the port reopens later this week the ship Ayala is aboard is expected to arrive on Saturday.