Port Canaveral has passed the PortMiami to become the busiest cruise port in the world, officials announced Dec. 2. With 8,602,047 passengers for this past fiscal year, Port Canaveral surpassed Miami in total passengers for the second time. Miami announced this year it served over 8.5 million passengers.
Port Canaveral previously bested Miami after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Central Florida port was able to rebound more quickly. After a year, however, Port Canaveral returned to second place in 2023.
Port Canaveral this year had 16 home-ported ships. Its growth in passengers this year marked a 13.3% surge over 7.9 million passengers last year.
The Port has $255 million in capital projects planned for 2026 with $912 million in total infrastructure and capital projects planned over the next five years. Eighteen cruise ships will call the Port home next year with about 9 million passengers expected to pass through, making for an estimated increase of 400,000.
Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said when the Brevard County port last surpassed Miami it was likely due to fluctuations in the market resulting from the post-COVID rebound in the industry. This time, however, things are different.
“This past year is a complete representation of what the industry is like today. We’re all sailing at 100%,” he said of the other Florida ports. “It’s a very strong business market right now and we’ve been fortunate to bring in some great numbers,” Murray added.
“We’ve got two great seaports in Florida and we’re competitive with our number of passengers,” Murray said. “The fact that we can all be hitting these numbers is fantastic.”
While Port Canaveral is now busier than its competitor in South Florida, it remains a smaller Port even as plans are underway for expansion.
Murray said the Port has plans to double the capacity of Terminal 5 to accommodate the massive number of passengers coming through. “It’s simply not big enough,” he said.
He said he wants to ensure the Port can get the “highest possible utilization” from its assets, whether that’s terminals or parking structures.
In November, Port Canaveral welcomed the 3,660-passenger Sky Princess, the largest ship from Princess Cruises. Port Canaveral also recently began offering cruises from the 4,800-passenger MSC Grandiosa until next summer.
Tyler Vazquez is the Brevard County Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez.