The cruise sector is booming at Florida’s Port Everglades, with first-quarter results pointing toward a record-breaking 2025.

The port, located in the sun-and-fun destination of Fort Lauderdale, posted robust cruise ship and cruise guest arrivals in its first quarter, which began on October 1, 2024 and ended on December 31, 2024.

Passenger arrivals grew by a very respectable 27%, from 1,064,998 during the same timeframe a year earlier to 1,349,313.

These numbers put the port on track to reach a total of 4.4 million cruise arrivals in 2025 and reflect a roughly 3.3% growth over the 4,010,919 guests who transited the port in fiscal 2024.

The 2024 arrivals total represented a nearly 40% jump from 2023, as the port experienced a recovery from the industry’s pandemic pause. 

Also, in the first quarter, cruise ship calls rose 25%, to 235 calls, compared to 188 calls in the same quarter of fiscal 2023.

“While we continue to navigate the year ahead, this strong first quarter is a promising indication of smooth sailing for our customers and the broader economy,” said Joseph Morris, director and CEO of Port Everglades.

“These numbers not only highlight our steady course of growth but also position us to achieve new heights this fiscal year,” Morris added.

The Sunshine State is the cruise industry’s epicenter. Port Everglades is the third-busiest cruise port in the world, based on cruise arrivals, after PortMiami, which is the world’s busiest, and Port Canaveral, the second-busiest.

PortMiami welcomed 8,233,056 million cruise passengers in its 2024 fiscal year, from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.

Read Also: Fort Lauderdale Cruise Port – Piers, Amenities, and Getting Around

Port Canaveral, on Florida’s popular Space Coast, had briefly edged into the No. 1 spot in 2022, when cruise arrivals reached 4,072,396 — a hair’s breadth more than PortMiami’s 4,022,544.

The increase was short-lived, and PortMiami quickly returned to the top spot as the industry got back on its feet, post-pandemic.

Big Ships Mean Big Business for Port Everglades

Port Everglades reaped benefits from the arrival of Princess Cruises’ newest ship, Sun Princess, which began sailing from the port in early October 2024 — just in time to buoy the first-quarter results.

The 4,300-guest ship had entered service in Europe in February 2024, and deployed to the Florida port for seasonal sailings.

Sun Princess is operating 7- and 14-night Caribbean cruises from Port Everglades through late March 2025, before returning to the Mediterranean.

Her 14-night voyages combine Eastern and Western Caribbean port calls into one itinerary, with visits to Amber Cove, Dominican Republic; Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos; Cozumel, Mexico; Belize City, Belize; and Roatan, Honduras. The line’s private destination, Princess Cays in the Bahamas, also is a port call.

Disney Cruise Line’s 4,000-guest Disney Dream began homeporting at Port Everglades in 2023, and has proven to be a big draw for families. The ship sails 4- and 5-night Bahamas and Caribbean voyages.

Other major lines with ships based at the growing port include Celebrity Cruises, Crystal, Holland America Line, Silversea Cruises, Viking Cruises, and Royal Caribbean.

Worth Reading: Top 10 Busiest US Cruise Homeports

Royal Caribbean homeports one of its largest ships at Port Canaveral — Oasis of the Seas. The mega-ship from the popular Oasis class accommodates 5,600 guests, double occupancy, and 6,700 with all berths occupied.

Oasis of the Seas offers 6- and 8-night Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises through mid-April 2026, when she will deploy to New York.

Her 8-night Southern Caribbean & Perfect Day cruise, for instance, calls at Curacao, Aruba, and Perfect Day at CocoCay, the cruise line’s private island destination in the Bahamas.

As the cruise industry to the Caribbean continues to surge, the Cayman Islands are looking to capitalize on this growth by finally expanding its berthing facilities to bring in larger cruise ships.

After months of pressure on the island nation’s government, the opportunity to modernize its ports will now be in the hands of voters as a public referendum has been approved to appear on the April 30, 2025, general elections ballot.

“This is exactly the outcome ACT has worked tirelessly to achieve,” said Association for Cruise Tourism (ACT) Executive Program Manager Ellio Soloman.

“It is a major step toward aligning Cayman’s cruise berthing infrastructure with modern standards, and we are proud that our efforts have ensured the voices of Caymanians will be heard on this critical issue,” he continued.

Worth Reading: Cayman Islands Votes Against Expanding Cruise Infrastructure

Since 2020, the Cayman Islands Ports has revealed plans to build two cruise ship piers in George Town harbor at a cost of $150 to $200 million, with some of the funds coming from committed cruise lines who would utilize the port, including Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean.

The George Town Port Expansion Project’s two ship piers would have the ability to welcome four ships simultaneously, including large Oasis-class vessels, which currently do not call in the Cayman Islands’ current tender-only port.

Read Also: Grand Cayman Cruise Port – Terminals, Tendering and Getting Around

Additionally, the project, which would also entrail dredging, reclamation, revetment, and breakwater projects, would add a new cruise terminal, retail space, and a transportation area in hopes of attracting major cruise lines carrying thousands of passengers.

However, the activist group Cruise Port Referendum (CPR) Cayman has been fighting the project, previously securing enough signatures to postpone the project. In 2020, voters also turned down a referendum supporting the new piers.

In September 2024, one of the CPR Cayman’s founders, Michelle Lockwood, told Cayman News Service the new berthing facility “would impact economic opportunities, the way of life on Grand Cayman, and the natural environment for generations to come.”

The decision to put the project back on the ballot gives islanders a chance to have their voices heard, and ACT is confident the vote will be in favor of the expansion.

Said Deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism Kenneth Bryan, “This bill is more than just a piece of legislation. It is a promise to our people that their voices are valued in guiding future decisions.”

Cruise Traffic Decline Adds Pressure to New Port

Proponents of the expanded cruise port cite the Cayman Islands’ steady decline in cruise passenger traffic as other nearby nations see record-breaking numbers of arrivals.

Some islanders feel the decline is due to the port’s current infrastructure, with large vessels required to drop anchor offshore and tender passengers 5 minutes to shore.

A Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce spokesperson told Cayman Compass, “As cruise lines continue to build larger vessels, they increasingly prefer destinations with fixed piers that offer greater efficiency and safety.”

The spokesperson went on to say the “lack of such infrastructure in the Cayman Islands has disadvantaged the destination, leading to fewer ships choosing to dock here.”

Cayman Islands cruise port saw a peak of 1.8 million passengers in pre-pandemic 2019. However, the number of passengers arriving by cruise ships has dropped year over year.

Passenger arrivals fell to 1.4 million in 2022 and again to 1.2 million in 2023. Last year, arrivals declined to less than 750,000.

Royal Caribbean is a main operator in the Cayman Islands, with Brilliance of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, and Jewel of the Seas currently sailing to George Town.

Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Horizon, Carnival Sunrise, and Carnival Venezia are also visiting in February 2025.

In fact, the destination, while declining, welcomes most major cruise lines, including Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line.