If you happen to’re new to cruising and seeking to e-book a crusing, it is probably you’ve got thought-about a voyage from Florida — the gateway to most Caribbean and Bahamas locations. As a result of the Sunshine State is the cruise capital of the world, it has a head-spinning variety of ports for newbies to contemplate.
Does Fort Lauderdale have a cruise port? What’s Port Canaveral? And which Florida cruise ports are closest to an airport? This is a information that can assist you discover these solutions and extra.
What number of cruise ports are in Florida?
There are seven Florida cruise ports:
Of these seven, the primary six function departure ports and residential bases for a lot of vessels from standard strains. In cruise lingo, the ports the place ships start and finish their sailings are often called house ports. Some ships shall be primarily based in these Florida ports year-round or seasonally. Different ships will depart from Florida ports on one-off voyages with out being primarily based there.
Not like the opposite ports on the record, Key West doesn’t function a beginning or ending level for cruises. It’s, as a substitute, a port of name — a spot that ships go to for a day.
The primary three ports are accountable for almost all of the world’s cruise ship departures; you may learn extra about them beneath.
Which Florida cruise port is the most important?
Of the large three Florida cruise ports, Miami was the busiest on the time of publication, adopted by Port Canaveral (which is about an hour’s drive from Orlando) and Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades. The titles of “largest” and “busiest” change occasionally as new cruise ship berths are constructed and terminals are expanded.
Miami welcomed greater than 8.2 million cruisers in 2024 by way of 11 cruise terminals. Port Canaveral noticed 7.6 million passengers come via its seven terminals in 2024, and about 4 million passengers transited via Port Everglades’ eight terminals.
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The place is Miami cruise port?
PortMiami’s terminals are positioned on Dodge Island, which runs parallel to the MacArthur Causeway in Miami. Many of the terminals are positioned on Cruise Method on the island. The port is roughly 8 miles — lower than quarter-hour — from Miami Worldwide Airport (MIA).
The place is Port Canaveral?
Port Canaveral is positioned in Cape Canaveral, 45 miles east of Orlando, making it a perfect jumping-off point for Orlando’s theme parks, in addition to Kennedy House Heart. It is positioned on a peninsula accessible from exits 54A and 54B off of State Route A1A, Jimmy Buffett Memorial Freeway. Though some smaller airports supply service to the world, most passengers fly into Orlando Worldwide Airport (MCO), about 45 minutes from the port.
The place is Port Everglades?
Fort Lauderdale’s cruise port is accessible by way of Interstate 595 East. Of Florida’s three largest cruise ports, Port Everglades is the one closest to a serious airport. It is solely about 3 miles from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL), and the drive takes lower than 10 minutes.
What cruise strains sail from Miami?
Miami is the house port of a number of cruise strains, together with MSC Cruises (which has a brand-new terminal), Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages. Different mainstream strains — resembling Movie star Cruises, Disney Cruise Line and Holland America Line — additionally sail from the port sometimes.
The port additionally sees visits from smaller, extra area of interest and generally overseas cruise strains, in addition to luxurious manufacturers. These cruise strains embody Azamara, Crystal, Hapag-Lloyd, Hurtigruten, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Ponant, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Assortment, Sea Cloud Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, TUI Cruises and Windstar Cruises.
What cruise strains sail from Port Canaveral?
Main cruise strains with a house base at Port Canaveral embody Carnival, Disney, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and MSC. Visiting strains embody Costa Cruises, Cunard, Oceania and Regent, amongst others.
What cruise strains sail from Fort Lauderdale?
Lengthy-term resident strains at Port Everglades are Movie star, Disney, Holland America, Princess and Royal Caribbean. Manufacturers that generally go to Fort Lauderdale embody Crystal, Cunard, Ritz-Carlton, Silversea and Viking.
What cruise strains sail from Tampa, Jacksonville and West Palm Seaside?
Port Tampa Bay has three cruise terminals that host cruise ships from 5 totally different strains: Carnival, Movie star, Royal Caribbean, Margaritaville at Sea and Norwegian. Luxurious line Oceania Cruises will also begin sailing from Tampa in 2026.
Jaxport has only one berth that serves as a base for Carnival and, starting in 2025, Norwegian. The Port of Palm Seaside serves just one line: Margaritaville at Sea.
The place are you able to cruise from Florida?
Locations ships go to from Florida departure ports embody the Bahamas, and the Southern, Eastern and Western Caribbean, in addition to most of the cruise strains’ non-public islands. Additionally they sometimes embody Key West.
Ships additionally depart from Florida ports on one-way Panama Canal or transatlantic cruises, and a few journey so far as South America.
Some ships go to Florida ports as a part of longer itineraries that depart from different states. You would possibly discover a cease at Port Canaveral on a weeklong Bahamas cruise from New York, for instance.
Need to know extra about cruising from Florida? Take a look at our different protection right here:
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