Port Canaveral had a banner year with record revenue from cruises and cargo, but its cup is nearly full, so big changes to accommodate future growth are needed.
That’s the message port CEO Capt. John Murray delivered at the annual State of the Port presentation Wednesday. He said a long-term goal is adding a new terminal for the increasing demand of the cruise industry.
“We have six full cruise terminals now. And when I say full, they’re all busy,” Murray said. “Next year we have some schedules where we have a couple of our cruise terminals operating at five and six days a week with the ship alongside. … The challenge with that utilization is that doing any kind of maintenance even as simple as cleaning the terminals after a ship departs is difficult when you’ve got one coming again in 12 hours.”
It’s part of the increased management of limited resources for the port that opened 70 years ago.
“We are a very small port. Trying to get bigger is not easy for us,” Murray said. “It might have been easy back in 1953. But over 70 years, it’s one of the things that we’ve lost. We don’t have that opportunity just to keep going into the river and grow like we did at one time.”
With those limits, optimization and efficiency can only take the port so far.
“We need another cruise terminal. If we had it right now, we could fill it up,” Murray said. “We have significant demand from the cruise lines. … We need a seventh and we need it as soon as we can get it, but in all likelihood, it’s going to be a complicated task to get there.”
Port officials have already identified an area on the south side in the marina district for the project, and the goal is to redevelop the area that supports the smaller boats such as the commercial fishing industry.
The port also is feeling growing pains from an increase in space launches. Murray noted that as many as 10 more launch service providers could join the already busy fleet of SpaceX vessels at the port in the coming years. Port officials have been in talks with Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development agency, in seeking a potential alternative location for all of their ships to dock, with a report from Space Florida due by the end of the year.
“This port can’t handle everything,” Murray said. “We alone cannot accommodate the projected maritime demand. It’s just that simple.”
For fiscal year 2023 that ended Sept. 30, the port saw a record 6.8 million passengers across 906 ship calls. That built on a rebound in 2022 after the pandemic shutdown that saw Port Canaveral’s popularity shoot past PortMiami for the first time and become the No. 1 cruise port in the world. Miami may rebound for that title by the end of this year, but it won’t be for lack of business on Canaveral’s part.
The port hosted 13 ships over the busy winter season, the most ever. Next year is set to see even more, including the arrival before the end of the year of new brands Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises along with mainstays Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian and MSC Cruises.
The year’s parking became a tactical problem having hosted more than 840,000 vehicles over the year for cruise guests alone.
That pushed up plans for two new garages on the port’s north side as well as an expanded 1,000-car lot adjacent to Cruise Terminal 1, from where Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships sail.
“Our biggest innovation right now is our new parking system that we’re rolling out. Cruise guests at Port Canaveral all pay on arrival,” Murray said. “By paying on entry, it allows people to get to the car and then immediately flow out without having to stop.”
The parking projects are among $500 million in capital improvements slated for the next five years, something the port can afford after bringing in $191 million in operating revenue for 2023 and a projection of near similar revenue in 2024.
“Everything that we earn here we pumped back into it, and it just continues to get better and stronger,” Murray said. “I think that’s the important part, is that we put our money back into our infrastructure.”
