End of an era: Miami finally dethroned as world's busiest cruise port

Table Of Content

• Busiest cruise ports worldwide 2019-2022, by passenger movements
• News 6 named Overall Station of the Year by the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists
• Top 20 Cruise Ports Busiest
• Latest News
• Bulgaria and Romania Join The Schengen Border-Free Travel Zone
• Port Canaveral surpasses Miami as world’s busiest cruise port

"We've always aimed to be the best cruise port in the world, but what an achievement to now be known as the busiest," Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said in a statement posted late Friday on Twitter. "This historic milestone is testament to the efforts of our team and cruise partners to provide a best in class experience for all cruise guests sailing from Port Canaveral." Port Canaveral has overtaken PortMiami for the title of the world's busiest cruise port in 2022, welcoming 4,072,396 multi-day cruise passengers throughout the year. Port Canaveral, the world's busiest cruise port set an all-time high with 6.8 million cruise passengers for the 2023 financial year.

Busiest cruise ports worldwide 2019-2022, by passenger movements

In recent years, Port Canaveral has become the home port of choice for some of the world's newest, biggest and most notable new vessels, including Royal Caribbean's recently unveiled Wonder of the Seas — the world's largest cruise ship. For ships that are based at a cruise port, passenger figures count people both when they get on a ship at the beginning of their cruise and when they get off a ship at the end of their cruise. For ships that are not based at a port, but visit there for a port-of-call stop, passengers are counted only once. Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas ― an “Oasis Class” ship with a passenger capacity of 6,780 ― on Oct. 25 will begin twice-weekly sailings from Port Canaveral.

News 6 named Overall Station of the Year by the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists

It handles most of the large cruise ships arriving at Shanghai with its 774m-long dock. In addition to being the fourth-busiest cruise port in the world, it is one of the busiest in the US in terms of cargo handled. More than one million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) are moved at the port each year.

Top 20 Cruise Ports Busiest

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"Many people will still vacation in Orlando or along the Space Coast area and combine that with a cruise, but it really isn't promoted by the cruise lines," Dennis said. Henry Dennis, a leisure travel advisor for Frosch in Charlotte, said Port Canaveral is an easier drive for his local clients compared with the South Florida ports. The drive from Charlotte to Port Canaveral takes eight hours, versus 11 to Miami. Port Everglades was the first home of Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas in 2009, as well as its sister ship Allure of the Seas in 2010. According to its website, the cruise port was voted the Best U.S. Cruise Homeport for three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022. This month, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Port Canaveral's revenue reached nearly $50 million in the first three months of the fiscal year.

Other Florida ports with cruise business include Port Tampa Bay (418,200 passengers in 2022), Port of Key West (198,411), Port of Palm Beach (188,235) and JAXPORT (90,241), all numbers according to Florida Ports Council, citing the ports. Port Canaveral’s cruise arrivals in 2022 made the facility the world’s busiest based on cruise arrivals, ousting PortMiami from the title. The council also noted that Florida ports account for 60.1% of all cruise passenger embarkations in the U.S. The data does not include the relatively small number of passengers cruising on day trips out of the ports. If those numbers were included, Port Canaveral would have moved into an even bigger lead. A just-released report from the organization put Port Canaveral’s passenger totals at 4.21 million for the 2022 fiscal year.

Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas ― an "Oasis Class" ship with a passenger capacity of 6,780 ― on Oct. 25 will begin twice-weekly sailings from Port Canaveral. That will be the first Oasis Class ship in Royal Caribbean's fleet to regularly sail two times a week, which Murray said is an indication of the cruise line's confidence in Port Canaveral and its ability to attract passengers. Port Canaveral has surpassed Miami for the first time as the world's busiest cruise port, according to the Florida Ports Council. Across the four Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain, five cruise ports handled 2.1 million passengers in 2017.

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Nevertheless, the first sailing from Port Canaveral is still a momentous occasion for the vessel as it is the first of such large ships to be offering shorter cruise vacations. Port Canaveral has officially welcomed Royal Caribbean International’s Allure of the Seas as the ship has repositioned to the central Florida homeport to offer short Bahamas getaways for the next nine months. "We have a very active plan for the future," Murray said, with Port Canaveral likely to need to build another cruise terminal in the next three to five years. Murray said he is not concerned about projections in the Florida Ports Council report that Miami will again exceed Port Canaveral in passenger counts by 2027, with 8.40 million passengers that year, compared with Port Canaveral's 6.43 million. Murray said the new ranking is significant because Port Canaveral always has had "a friendly rivalry" with the Port of Miami and Port Everglades, as Brevard County's seaport sought to become the No. 1 cruise port.

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The port overview shows that the facility handled nearly 7 million tons of goods, including lumber, petroleum products, and general product. The port’s capital projects budget includes $78 million in infrastructure upgrades to deal with rising passenger numbers. Carnival Cruise Line homeports the 5,200-guest Mardi Gras, the 2,974-guest Carnival Freedom, and the 2,974-guest Carnival Liberty at Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral's proximity to Orlando also allows vacationers to combine cruises out of the port with stays at the Orlando theme park resorts. Murray said Port Canaveral reached its goal by attracting some of the newest and largest ships in the world and is well-positioned for the future. Explorethe latest travel news, advice, updates, upcoming exclusive deals and more.

Port Canaveral surpasses Miami as world’s busiest cruise port

PortMiami in Florida, US, is the busiest cruise port in the world, handling 5.6 million passengers with 1,185 ships docked in 2017. Port Miami hosts several cruise terminals that serve millions of people. Its website said it saw more than 4 million cruise passengers in 2022 and plans to draw more tourists with its modern cruise terminals. The Florida Ports Council said Port Miami was the Cruise Capital of the World and Global Cargo Getaway. The island welcomes more than two million cruise passengers each year, according to a website for Puerto Maya, which serves as one of the cruise terminals on the island. Port Everglades said it generated $33 billion in economic activity and impacted more than 216,543 jobs across the state in a June report.

Up until recently, Port Canaveral's most famous tenant had been Disney Cruise Line, which has a Disney-themed cruise terminal. The cruise line promotes cruise-stay packages with Walt Disney World in Orlando and operates a fleet of branded buses to make the drive to the parks and airport. The Out Islands includes all of the islands in the Bahamas excluding New Providence and the Grand Bahama and comprises more than 700 islands, but only 14 of them are inhabited. Several cruise lines have bought some of the small islands and have turned them into private resorts.

The nearly 7,000-passenger capacity of Oasis-class ships has given the port some traffic headaches, and with two Oasis-class ships sailing three times a week instead of once, the port plans to address those before Allure’s arrival. Multi-day passengers include those 13 ships but also ships visiting the ports such as those coming in from sailings out of New York that make a stop for the Orlando market as a port of call. They don’t include sailings for things like the Victory Casino ship, which tacked on another 137,864 passengers for the year.

Fort Lauderdale is a popular gateway to the Caribbean, both via sea as well as air. The city has started booming within the last decade, with many cruises launching from Port Everglades. In fact, because of the flourishing cruise industry, the city’s airport sees almost 36 million people each year, up by over a million passengers from a decade ago.

Cruise Ducks: The Whimsical Tradition You Didn't Know About

Table Of Content

• What To Do if You Find a Cruising Duck
• What is the Story Behind Cruising Ducks?
• Hide, Hunt, Smile - The Cruise Duck Way!
• Hotels With Cruise Shuttles For Every Major Port in America
• Etsy Cruising Ducks
• Carnival Cracks Down on Unsanctioned Poolside Gambling During Cruise
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Just be sure you are looking for a peek of bright yellow, although I’ve also found pink ducks. That way, you can post when you find one of these cute rubber duckies, and the hider can see that they have been found. Similarly, Royal Caribbean encourages passengers to hide ducks, as long as it’s done in public areas. If the ducks you buy don’t come with tags, there are plenty of tag templates available online.

What To Do if You Find a Cruising Duck

Imagine stumbling upon a rubber duck dressed as your favorite Disney character in unexpected places like the Walt Disney Theater or nestled in the stairwells on your way back to your stateroom. A delightful chain reaction of discovery that adds a layer of joy to the already magical voyage. Once you find a duck, you have the option to decide what to do with it. However, other stories state that it started earlier on the Carnival Cruise Line. Regardless of its origins, this tradition has become even more popular since the cruise restart in 2021. For example, consider hosting a “duck race” where passengers buy a duck, and all the ducks are placed in a pool.

What is the Story Behind Cruising Ducks?

However, if you are a member of the Cruising Ducks Facebook group, you can scout where members are hiding them to see if you will be onboard any of the same sailings. Many cruise duck hiders often post photos of their flock before they are hidden. You may not want to send your kids on a scavenger hunt unless you know there is something to be found. Cruise ducks can be found on almost every cruise line, including Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruise Line, and the Disney Cruise Line.

Hide, Hunt, Smile - The Cruise Duck Way!

Additionally, the card sometimes explains the gist of the game and suggests where to tag or post a duck photo to spread the good word. Some even have a QR code to scan, which fits a ton more information on such a tiny note. The general principal behind cruising ducks is that you have two choices when you find one. You can either hang onto it as a souvenir or hide it again for someone else to find.

You’ll find all kinds of rubber ducks, from holiday themes like Christmas and Easter to more fun designs like pirates, unicorns, royalty, or ones with wacky hats and accessories. You can also share the excitement of your duck discoveries on social media. Many people share duck stories on other media like Instagram and TikTok. You can use the hashtag #cruisingducks to feature among the rest. What began in 2018 as a cute gesture by a 10-year-old girl named Abby — who simply wanted to make other passengers smile — now spans several Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of members. In these groups, cruisers chat about the ducks they've ordered, the best places to purchase them, clever places to hide them after they've set sail and the best ways to attach the information tags.

If you want a duck to see the world, add a note that suggests a list of the duck’s boat and date of travel. No one really knows how many ducks are scattered across a given cruise ship, but judging from the Facebook page, some people may be carting entire suitcases filled with ducks to hide. Cruise ducks can be a fun game onboard nearly any cruise ship, but guests sailing with Disney Cruise Line will now have fewer opportunities to either hide or find these quirky keepsakes. In response to passenger inquiries, the cruise line has confirmed that they prefer guests not hide ducks around their ships. This might look like a tag or card attached to the duck that normally includes a bit of information about the cruiser or family who has hidden them.

Etsy Cruising Ducks

Some passengers love to re-hide ducks to bring joy to other passengers, while some collect ducks as whimsical vacation souvenirs. They are cute, fun, and if you look hard enough, these ducks can be almost anywhere on a cruise ship. Here’s what you want to know about those little rubber ducks that have invaded cruise ships.

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Cruise Hive was established back in 2008 and among the earliest blogs in the industry. Since the start, it's been our aim to provide the latest cruise news covering all the major cruise lines. If you want to bring your own toy ducks to hide onboard a cruise, where do you buy them? Any small rubber duck will work, such as those found in claw game vending machines or sold as bath toys for young children. The tops of signs, sitting on tables or chairs, atop a piano, in corners, or in a ship’s atrium are other popular places to hide cruise ducks.

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Whether you desire adventure, luxury, or exploration, High Seas Cruising is your compass to unforgettable cruise vacations. Many cruise ships now offer claw games, where the prize is, you guessed it, a rubber duck. Keep reading to learn the ins and outs of hiding and finding cruise ducks. Abby and her father started the Facebook group Cruising Ducks to keep track of the rubber duckies passengers find.

It’s a way for passengers to connect, share smiles, and create lasting memories, all through the simple act of hiding and seeking little rubber ducks. Over time, the hiding of rubber ducks on cruise ships became more than just a playful activity. It evolved into a way for cruisers to connect with one another, create lasting memories, and add a personal touch to their vacation experience. Today, this tradition has expanded to include various types of rubber ducks, each with its own unique design, story, or theme. This cruising trend started when Abby Davis and her father brought 50 rubber ducks aboard the Carnival Breeze, and hid 7 each day.

Cruising Ducks is a fun trend for cruise passengers that’s becoming more popular with every year! Whether you’re cruising on Carnival, Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian or another cruise line, you’ll likely find some cruise ducks onboard. There are so many cute rubber ducks that you can use if you’re bringing cruising ducks. You can even find some for holidays like Christmas, Easter and Halloween!. Many people transfer their rubber ducks from their original cruise ship to a different one when they go on an ocean vacation again. This is a special step that you can implement, too, with your bring-along rubber duck.

Whether you’re adding a bit of bling or going for a more casual look, customizing your duck allows you to express your personality and style in a playful way. I'm a global nomad at heart, and the dedicated editor behind CruiseGear. I want to share everything I've learned and hope to make your next cruise vacation as enjoyable as possible. If you are new to the cruise duck phenomenon, you will probably scratch your head and wonder where people buy these little ducks. Well if turns out that due to their popularity, you can buy them in lots of places.

They then plant these ducks around the ship in little hiding places that can be anywhere from the dining room to a lounge to the pool deck. If it’s a public place on the ship, there’s a chance that a duck is hidden somewhere. One of the most popular ways my fellow cruisers engage with each other is through Facebook groups. Passengers purchase rubber ducks, customize them with mini tags, and discreetly hide them in spots around the cruise ship.

When hiding you want to make it a challenge (so don’t just set it in the middle of a table somewhere), but not so hard that it won’t be found before the end of the cruise. Perhaps the nicest thing to do is to “pay it forward” with the duck. When you find it, grab it and then find a new hiding place for someone else to discover. This keeps the duck in play and the hunt ongoing versus taking it out of circulation. If simply spotting a duck is enough for you, then you can leave it alone and let someone else find it. Some people just take a photo to show they found it and then let it be.

They also include the general rules of rehiding, which are generally, “Keep or hide, you decide. Firstly, never hide ducks in places like pools, hot tubs, shops, or the ocean. For example, someone might get hurt trying to get a duck from a pool or hot tub, or it could look like theft if a duck is found in a shop. Also, accidentally dropping ducks into the ocean is harmful to the environment. Handcrafted ducks are a popular favorite, or basic ducks may be hand-decorated with extra bling.

This means avoiding private spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms, spa areas, and anywhere food is served, to maintain cleanliness and sanitation. Also, the ducks you hide shouldn’t be placed too high or in hard-to-reach areas, so they’re accessible to most passengers without the need to move things around. It was still fun for the kids and a great lesson in doing things for others, with nothing expected in return. Several passengers posted photos of the ducks in a Facebook group we joined for the cruise, and the smiles on their faces were totally worth it. Some even keep ducks until their next cruise, or photograph them on different adventures at different ports of call, even on different ships as they travel the cruising world.