Popular US cruise port shares news passengers will love

It’s no secret that the cruise industry has been red-hot for several years. After the Covid pandemic caused sailings to grind to a halt or be highly restricted for about two years, pent-up demand sent passengers scrambling to get back on the sea.

This surge in demand wasn’t unique to the cruise industry. Theme parks, gaming destinations, ski resorts, and other experiential businesses also saw rising demand as pandemic-era restrictions ended.

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However, unlike most other parts of the tourism industry, demand for cruises hasn’t faded. For example, theme park operators like Walt Disney Company have shown a challenging environment for consumer spending in their results. In fact, in Disney’s most recent fiscal quarter, revenue in the “domestic parks and experiences” business declined by 5% compared to the same period a year earlier.

On the other hand, Royal Caribbean’s sales grew by 13% in the same period, just to name one pure-play cruise line example. Carnival Corporation’s revenue is now about 25% higher than its pre-Covid peak. In short, good times aren’t fading for the cruise industry.

Port Canaveral’s record month

In fact, cruise demand is so strong that some ports are seeing record-high levels of passenger traffic. But perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Orlando-area Port Canaveral.

The March 2025 numbers for Port Canaveral were recently released, and to say that they’re impressive would be a major understatement.

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In March, nearly 926,000 passengers boarded or disembarked cruise ships in the popular port. This shattered the previous record, set in December 2024, by about 88,000. The port’s budget year starts in October, so the end of March represents the halfway point, and the six-month period set a record as well, with 4.42 million total passengers.

This is fueled by a combination of high demand for cruising, as well as by more ships choosing Port Canaveral as their homeport. The winter season is seasonally strong for Port Canaveral, as some ships go to cooler areas of the world for summer. And recent launches such as Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas mega-ship, which is homeported in Canaveral year-round, certainly helped boost the numbers.

Could next year be even better?

Assuming that consumer demand stays high, the 2025-2026 season could prove to be even better for Port Canaveral. For one thing, the second massive Icon-class ship from Royal Caribbean, Star of the Seas, will begin sailing year-round from the port in late summer 2025. Norwegian Aqua just recently made its debut at Port Canaveral.

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To be sure, passenger traffic will almost certainly dip during the summer, even with these two launches. At least five of the 16 ships that helped fuel the record-high March numbers are seasonal and will be leaving (or have already left). However, in a recent presentation, Port Canaveral’s VP of cruise business development said that the port could certainly have more than 16 ships home-ported by next winter.

For the time being, Port Miami still holds the title of the world’s busiest cruise port. But Port Canaveral is in second place and could narrow the gap in the years to come. 

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