Even More Cruise Options Coming to Major Florida Homeport

Broward County’s Port Everglades, the third busiest cruise homeport in the world, will host five new cruise ships for the 2024 summer season. Whether you’re looking for family fun or a party atmosphere, these ships offer a lot of variety for all different types of cruisers.

More cruising options are coming to Port Everglades

In Summer 2024, Port Everglades, which is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will house ships from Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, and Princess Cruises.

Royal’s once-largest ship in the world, the Freedom of the Seas, will call the new port home along with newer ships, Celebrity Beyond and Enchanted Princess. Ships sailing on shorter itineraries, including Celebrity Reflection and Disney Magic, will also be docked at Port Everglades.

The Edge-class Celebrity Beyond will be offering cruises to Royal Caribbean’s Private Island of Perfect Day at CocoCay, along with Caribbean ports, on a mixture of six and eight-night Caribbean sailings out of Fort Lauderdale.

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Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, which is a Freedom-class ship, will offer sailings beginning in June 2024 through the Summer and feature stops at Coco Cay, Bahamas, and other Caribbean ports on six and seven-night itineraries.

“We have been extremely successful in meeting the cruising public’s expectations by attracting ultra-high-luxury and premier brands, further developing our summer offerings, and expanding popular short cruise options,” Jonathan Daniels, CEO and Port Director explained. “These new additions to our summer 2024 portfolio are a direct result of us putting the customer experience first.”

Crystal Cruises, which is relaunching this summer, will call the Everglades port home as well in November 2024 with its refurbished Crystal Serenity. The ship will call at a number of ports throughout the Caribbean.

Port Everglades is currently home to Celebrity Equinox, Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess, and Royal’s Adventure of the Seas for the summer season.

A bustling port of cruisers, container ports, and fuel

The Everglades port is used by hundreds of cruise ships a year, which adds up to a lot of cruise guests. In fact, the port saw 3,826,415 cruisers come and go in 2022. But Port Everglades isn’t just a cruise port. It’s also one of the county’s top container ports.

In addition, it’s South Florida’s main seaport for receiving energy products such as gasoline, jet fuel, and other fuels. The value of economic activity at the port is over $33 billion a year.

Port Everglades currently hosts cruise ships from Balearia Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Cunard, Disney Cruise Line, Holland American Line, Princess Cruises, Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection, Royal Caribbean International, Silversea Cruises, and Viking Ocean Cruises.

Other popular ports in Florida

Florida is home to many popular cruise ports thanks to the state’s prime location to the Caribbean. There are six cruise ports in Florida, including Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Palm Beach, Tampa, and of course, Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale.

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The Orlando port, which is located at Port Canaveral, is the busiest port in the country, with 4,072,396 guests in 2022. The port will soon be expanded, costing $175 million, so they can accommodate 6.4 million cruisers a year.

Miami is the second busiest port, spanning 518 acres. In 2022, Miami saw 4,022,544 cruisers pass through its doors, just shy of Orlando’s expansive guest count.