{"id":39866,"date":"2025-11-09T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/39866\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T15:53:10","slug":"cruise-lines-newest-and-biggest-ships-launch-from-florida-port-this-winter-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/39866\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruise lines\u2019 newest and biggest ships launch from Florida port this winter season"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Port Canaveral begins its winter sailing season, several new ships are helping to chart the way for the cruise port to see an anticipated 9 million passenger movements in the next year.<\/p>\n

Celebrity, Princess and MSC are bringing some of their newest and largest ships to Florida\u2019s Space Coast to sail itineraries to the Caribbean and Bahamas now through April. After Celebrity and Princess both had their first season at the port last year, the Edge-class Celebrity Apex and Royal-class Sky Princess, both built in 2019, are wintering in Florida following stints in England.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrincess and Celebrity are two brands that people have been requesting for years because they have traditionally only operated out of South Florida,\u201d said Capt. John Murray, CEO of Port Canaveral. \u201cLast year was sort of an experiment to see how well they would do here. Needless to say, they overperformed. We have two larger vessels coming this year, and we\u2019re really excited about that because it gives a different option to cruisers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Celebrity Apex has the Edge-class favorite Magic Carpet, an exterior platform that can serve as a dock for disembarking or as a dining and entertainment venue. Sky Princess features a mix of fun, elegance and relaxation with an infinity pool, movies under the stars, a large thermal suite and trivia.<\/p>\n

The MSC Grandiosa, the newest and largest of the three ships with a maximum capacity of 6,334 passengers, will sail alongside the MSC Seashore for the winter season beginning in December.<\/p>\n

While Princess and Celebrity both cater to mostly adult audiences, the Grandiosa seeks to capture a multi-generational appeal with water slides, a ropes course, a bowling alley, F1 simulators and an abundance of outdoor activities by the pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cMSC is doing what Carnival, Royal Caribbean and others have been doing. They\u2019re going after that family cruise market,\u201d said Billy Hirsch, the creator of CruiseHabit.com. \u201cCelebrity and Princess answer the people that say, \u2018I want a cruise experience and one that could include my family, but I\u2019m not looking for an extension of a theme park.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In a first, Queen Elizabeth cruise ship is coming to Florida to sail<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to accommodating more passengers per itinerary, the new winter additions help improve the average overall age of the ships homeported at Port Canaveral. This is helping to drive the projected $200 million in cruise-related income expected during the current fiscal year, which began in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the age profile of ships at Port Canaveral, we probably have one of the newest fleets,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any of these companies prior to the pandemic. This is all post-pandemic tonnage being added to Port Canaveral.\u201d<\/p>\n

World\u2019s largest cruise ship docks at Florida port, will embark on trips soon<\/a><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true that a rising tide lifts all ships, port staff are working to keep up with maintenance and expand capacity for the influx of passengers expected in the years to come. This includes building a new 3,700-car parking garage on the north side of the port and keeping up with maintenance of elevators and escalators in cruise terminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the next year, we\u2019ll have some berths that will be used six days a week,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe\u2019re putting a lot more money into our infrastructure and maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In reviewing recent history, Murray said that welcoming Carnival\u2019s Mardi Gras in 2021 was a turning point. That was made possible because of the port\u2019s foresight to add fueling capabilities for ships powered by liquid natural gas (LNG).<\/p>\n

\u201cOne by one, everybody started bringing new ships to Port Canaveral. It started with the Mardi Gras, and it\u2019s been new ships ever since,\u201d Murray said, noting the world\u2019s largest ships now call the port home. \u201cWe have ships number one and two, both in age and size, for Royal Caribbean. That\u2019s a real indicator of our success. This year we\u2019ll have five LNG ships.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the second-busiest cruise terminal in the world, Port Canaveral benefits from its proximity to Central Florida\u2019s theme parks and the 75 million tourists they help attract annually, plus its position for passengers driving in.<\/p>\n

Hirsch said that cruise passengers, especially families, are finding they get a better deal when choosing to sail rather than visit a theme park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sentiment among guests that the value proposition of theme parks is not nearly as good as the value proposition of cruises,\u201d Hirsch said, noting the food, accommodations and entertainment included with a cruise. \u201cWhen people take vacations, they don\u2019t want to feel nickel and dimed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite economic headwinds, Murray said the future looks bright for cruising, especially in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this growth is going to continue for the time being,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got question marks about how the economy is going to work out. Cruising is still a very good value for families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Port Canaveral begins its winter sailing season, several new ships are helping to chart the way for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26836,9410,26835,26837,28,30,29,26833,2973,2975,26834,807],"class_list":["post-39866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-billy-hirsch","tag-celebrity","tag-celebrity-apex","tag-cruise-port","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-john-murray","tag-port-canaveral","tag-royal-caribbean","tag-sky-princess","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}