PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. – Port Canaveral is making more money than ever thanks to record amounts of cruise passengers.
Wednesday, the port’s CEO gave his annual state of the port address to a couple hundred people excited to hear the port’s accomplishments in the last year and big plans for the future. ”If you look at our passenger counts, as I mentioned, 7.6 million,” Captain John Murray told the crowd. “That’s a new record for us. Last year, it was 6.8. That’s a pretty big jump in one year. 800,000 more people passing in and out of Port Canaveral,” he said. Captain Murray said in the next another extra 800,000 passengers are expected to take a cruise.
One of the issues with growth, has been meeting the demand of cruise passengers.
The port previously announced its intentions to build new cruise terminals in the marina district of the port and at a cargo berth.
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The state’s department of transportation shut down the cargo berth idea when it said the berth is vital to space operations at the port. ”We’ve got six cruise terminals,” Murray stated. “We need two more, maybe, but it’s gonna be a process to get there,” he acknowledged. Murray said plans aren’t stalled, though .”These things take time and that’s OK. We have time,” he said. In his address, Murray mentioned while the port won’t be building a new terminal in the immediate future, it will make a current terminal larger.
Plans are now in the works to upgrade cruise Terminal 5 on the port’s north side.
Immediate growth at the port continues next week when Princess Cruises makes it debut with its first sailing out of the port on the eve of Thanksgiving.
And last week, Disney’s newest cruise ship, the Treasure, arrived at the port ahead of its maiden sailing in December.
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