Despite a smaller terminal footprint, Port Canaveral continues to drive record passenger volumes through operational efficiency.
The port was named the world’s busiest cruise port in 2025, surpassing PortMiami with a record 8.6 million cruise guests—the highest in Port Canaveral’s history and a 13 percent increase over the previous year. In fact, from 2015 to 2025, port revenues have tripled from $77.7 million to $218 million. The port’s strength is in its drive-to market, with 80 passengers of passengers arriving by car.
“We passed Miami slightly last year,” Port Canaveral CEO Capt. John W. Murray tells Recommend. He does add that it’s not a title that will “hold forever,” simply because Miami has 11 terminals as opposed to Port Canaveral’s six terminals. “Our berths are such that we can put multiple cruise lines at the same facility, which enables us to use more days a week than if it’s a single brand. That’s really what drives our utilization.
“What upped our game,” he points out, were the large ships. “We always get new ships from Disney, but now Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line are bringing us new ships. When we got all the new ships, it [meant] a lot of people coming here, which really drove our business.”
Currently, the port serves as the homeport for 18 ships across seven cruise brands operating more than 1,000 sailings annually. And, in fact, the port is on pace for a record 9 million cruise guests in 2026. The port will be welcoming Carnival Cruise Line’s Festivale and MSC’s World Atlantic in May and November 2027, respectively.
“The cruise business is strong right now. The private islands are fantastic; they keep making the private islands. [Cruise lines] have to make sure that the islands don’t get stale and that there’s enough diversity in the product portfolio…. You have to keep things fresh.”
What’s on the Horizon
That momentum is fueling major infrastructure investments, including the expansion of two cruise terminals, plans for a seventh, new technology and expanded parking. A new $93 million, 13-story garage will bring total capacity to nearly 17,500 spaces.
Cruise Terminal 5 will be doubling in size to 170,000 sq. ft., with expanded luggage and passenger seating areas as well as refurbished entrance and interiors and additional areas for passenger security screening and CPB. This project is scheduled for completion in December 2026. Set for completion in November 2027, the Cruise Terminal 10 upgrades include guest experience enhancements, the ability to accommodate the industry’s largest ships and larger security screening and luggage laydown areas.
“The big challenge is if you grow too much or if you grow at the speed that some of the cruise lines would like you to grow, you’re going to end up with traffic situations and a lot of congestion. That doesn’t give anyone a great cruise experience,” says Murray. “It has to be measured growth.” He notes, too, that the biggest challenge is parking. To alleviate the situation, Cruise Terminal 6 garage will add 3,732 new spaces by September 2026.
“We have large-scale garages adjacent to all of our terminals, and when people get off the ship, they go through facial recognition and they’re in their cars generally within 30 minutes of the ship releasing passengers. So, they just go right through the line, right to their car and they leave, and because they leave and get out, there are now spaces in the garages for the incoming guests that arrive in another hour or two. That’s something that we measure, and we also like to talk about.”
Sustainability is Front and Center
Port Canaveral remains at the forefront of LNG adoption, with five ships currently homeported—Disney Wish and Disney Treasure, Carnival’s Mardi Gras and Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas and Star of the Seas—and eight expected by 2027, including Festivale, World Atlantic and Star Princess.
In fact, Port Canaveral was the first homeport in North America to accommodate LNG-powered cruise ships, with Murray noting that when he started at the port 10 years ago, he looked at all the newbuilds coming up and said, “‘A lot of these are powered by LNG. How do we do that? Answer was, ‘Oh, you can’t do that in the United States. We don’t have the facilities to do that.’ I said, ‘Well, we’re not going to build all these ships and deploy them somewhere else, so whoever figures it out first is going to get the LNG ships.’ So, we figured it out quickly. We spent a couple years acclimating the community to what it was, how it worked….”
