The cruise business is booming at Port Canaveral with nearly 7.6 million passenger movements recorded in the fiscal year.

From October 2023 through September 2024, the Orlando-area port had 911 ship calls, only five more than it saw in fiscal 2023, but because of bigger ships sailing at more than 100% capacity, the cruise side of the year’s budget blew up by 800,000 passengers year over year.

The line had already expected bigger returns in 2024, but ended the year with nearly $191 million in operating revenue, eking out about $60,000 more than it logged in 2023, according to the unaudited totals reported for Wednesday’s meeting of Canaveral Port Authority Board of Commissioners.

“It’s been stronger than we expected for August and September, so that was positive,” said port CEO Capt. John Murray.

Driving that was $156 million from total cruise revenue including parking, which ended up about $3.5 million more than expected, driven mostly by the 7,592,535 multiday passengers, which is about 288,000 more passengers, or 4%, higher than expected.

That number is notably about nearly 300,000 higher than the numbers recorded by PortMiami in 2023, which reclaimed the title last year as world’s busiest cruise port having surpassed Port Canaveral after its one-year run holding the title in 2022 as the cruise industry came out of its COVID pandemic shutdown.

“FY 22 we started coming back in a big way, and FY 23 and now FY 24 we are really coming back in full force,” said port CFO Jeff Long. “A very successful fiscal year for us, and we’re excited about the future as well.”

Miami has yet to report its passenger traffic, but the numbers could be closer this year with both Miami and Port Canaveral welcoming more and larger ships this year.

PortMiami welcomed the world’s largest cruise ship in Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas in January, but Port Canaveral took on the No. 2 ship with Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas, which sails shorter three- and four-night sailings.

The last sailing season saw 16 ships that either homeported year-round or sailed seasonally, and it expects that number to grow to 19 for the 2024-2025 sailing season.

That includes the debut of two new cruise lines with Princess Cruises arriving in November and Celebrity Cruises in December for the first time.

Also new in the next year will be the arrival of Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Treasure in November, Norwegian Cruise Line’s new vessel Norwegian Aqua in the spring and the arrival of what will become the new world’s largest cruise ship when Icon’s sister Star of the Seas debuts next summer.

With more demand, the port attempted to move forward with constructing a new seventh cruise terminal on the north side of the port, aiming to be finished by 2026, but blowback from the state with concerns about support of the space industry’s footprint at the port caused commissioners to back off that move. A future seventh port still remains a priority, but when and where that happens has yet to be decided.

The port’s other business ventures were close to budget.

Cargo operations saw $23.2 million, slightly below the projected $23.5 million. That was generated from 728 cargo calls bringing more than 6.5 million tons, with granite, slag and fuel on budget, but forest products, salt and limestone among those falling below budget.

Within cargo operations are space recovery efforts. For the year, Port Canaveral had 62 booster recoveries for SpaceX, up from 50 in the previous year. That also includes 150 fairing recoveries, up from 105 in 2023. That’s about to climb as well with the start of Blue Origin’s recovery operations for its New Glenn rocket.

Lease revenue at the port came in at $4.8 million, about $515,000 over budget. Recreations revenue driven by Jetty Park came in at $4 million, which was close to budget and miscellaneous revenue was at $2.9 million, up by $105,000 for the year.

The port’s operating expenses topped $120.3 million, which was $2.2 million below budget with savings in service contracts, computer support and training, promotions, insurance, engineering and utilities.

Nonoperating income and expenses related to grants, loans nearly canceled each other out with $12.3 million coming in and $12.5 million going out, leaving the port with at net position of $70.3 million for the year, about $6 million above budget.

“We use these funds to invest in the port, invest in port projects, invest in the people we have here at the port, employees,” Long said.

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