Port Canaveral breaks $100M in revenue over 6 months after record cruise month

Yahoo

23-04-2025

Port Canaveral's nearly 926,000 cruise passengers in March fueled a record month that saw operating revenue halfway through the fiscal year top $100 million for the first time.
'It wasn't that long ago that we were excited about a half a million guests, breaking the 500,000 mark, and 926,000 is crazy in one month,' port CEO Capt. John Murray said during the port authority commission meeting Wednesday.
For the six months from October 2024 through March 2025, the port had 544 ship calls with more than 4.4 million multiday passenger movements. At this point last year, the port had only 480 ship calls and 3.9 million passenger movements. The fiscal year runs through September.
And more passengers means more parking fees: The port set a one-day record in March of more than 11,000 cars.
'It's even stronger demand this year than it was last year during spring break,' Murray said. 'We've been predicting it, and we're ready for it, so it's been successful.'
For the six months, cruise-related operating revenue topped $102 million while cargo, leases and recreation added nearly another $10 million. Overall operating expenses were near $67 million, which gives the port around $43 million to pay off debt and invest in projects.
During the same six months of 2019, operating revenue was around $52 million while expenses left it with only around $9 million.
Port Canaveral 'doing more with less' but pursuit of new terminals not dead
It's been busy at all six terminals as Canaveral was homeport for a record 16 ships over the winter sailing season. That includes the first time both Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises called it home as well as the debut of Disney Cruise Line's newest ship Disney Treasure.
'We're pretty much at capacity right now, unless we start doing some odd rotations on midday sailings and that sort of thing,' Murray said. 'And that's been a challenge for us.'
Numbers will drop off, though, as ships redeploy to Europe and Alaska for summer. December and March are historic highpoints of the port's fiscal year, but cruise demand is expected to drive record revenue and passenger totals for the remainder.
Passengers are projected to top 8.4 million from more than 1,000 ship calls, feeding the majority of the budgeted $211 million in operating revenue. That's up from 7.6 million in 2024 as it trails only Miami for busiest cruise port in the world.
Commissioner Wayne Justice said he was happy with the numbers but wondered what the future holds.
'Where does this end?' Justice asked. 'I mean, at some point the ships are all sailing full. They're all full.'
'Bigger ships are coming,' replied Murray. 'Tough problem.'
That includes the August arrival of what will be the world's largest cruise ship when Royal Caribbean's Star of the Seas debuts. Meanwhile, the port still will have what is currently the No. 2 largest ship in the world (which will become No. 3) in Utopia of the Seas, which arrived last summer.
Also new this year is this week's debut of Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship and first in the Prima Plus class, the Norwegian Aqua. And MSC Cruises is bringing one of its largest ships to the port this fall with the arrival of the MSC Grandiosa.
In 2027, the port is slated to get the next Carnival Excel class ship, Carnival Festivale, as well as the MSC World Atlantic, which will be the biggest in the MSC Cruises fleet when it arrives in 2027.
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Murray told the Sentinel earlier this month during an interview at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami Beach that budget projections are pretty close, but demand has still been growing.
'We still get surprised from vehicle parking and new ships come in, and all of a sudden the parking ratios change because we've got more drive-in audience, because of the asset that's alongside the berth,' he said.
Port Canaveral traditionally has not always been first for cruise line deployment choices, but that has shifted.
'We'll have number one and three in the Royal Caribbean fleet, which is quite a bit different from 10 years ago, when usually we got the leftovers from the South Florida ports,' he said.
Until the port can pursue new terminals, which are still years in the making, it has to make do with solving the complicated parking puzzle.
Although right now Murray said the port offers something places like Port Everglades and PortMiami cannot — a smoother vacation for drive-in customers.
'One of the things we pride ourselves on is easy access in and egress out of Port Canaveral,' Murray said. 'Some other ports to the south will say they're having significant traffic issues now that were not generated by the ports themselves.
'It was generated outside of the ports, and it's causing significant heartburn right now.'