Port Canaveral Nudges PortMiami Out to Become Busiest Cruise Homeport
The rivalry between PortMiami in South Florida and Port Canaveral in Central Florida took a surprising turn with Port Canaveral nudging Miami from its traditional number one ranking in FY 2025. The difference was small between the two ports, just 0.4 percent, but it is a major achievement for Port Canaveral as it continues to see rapid growth in its cruise business.
Port Canaveral topped even its own projections, which had set a target of around 8.4 million passenger movements (counting embarkation and debarkations separately as two movements) for FY 2025. The final number came in at 8,602,047 passengers, a better than 13-percent increase over the prior FY.
It is not the first time Port Canaveral has taken the top honors, as it rebounded in 2022 ahead of PortMiami from the pandemic. The Central Florida seaport, which is close to the theme park attractions in the Orlando area, handled 4.21 million passengers in 2022 compared to just over 4.0 million that passed through Miami. Amazingly, the numbers have doubled again.
Canaveral has traditionally benefitted from ships that do short cruises with turns twice per week, but in recent years has also seen strong growth as a homeport for 7-day cruises. Last summer, it became the home to one of the world’s largest cruise ships, Star of the Seas, which operates 7-day cruises, while its fleet mate, Utopia of the Seas, operates 3- and 4-day cruises from Canaveral.
In March 2025, Port Canaveral set a record with its highest monthly passenger movements. That month, it hosted 925,994 passengers, which was up 16 percent versus March 2024. At the time, port officials said they were on track for 8.4 million passengers for the year, up from 7.6 million in the prior year.
“It wasn’t long ago when we exceeded 500,000 guests in a single month. Now, with numbers like this approaching nearly a million, it’s not just remarkable, it demonstrates the strong demand for sailings from our port. We’ve been predicting it, and we were ready for it,” stated Capt. John Murray, Port Canaveral CEO, in April 2025.
The port moved quickly to establish LNG capabilities and was rewarded with the first LNG-fueled cruise ships in North America. It is now implementing a $912 million five-year capital improvement initiative. The port is expanding two existing terminals and will develop a seventh terminal. Just last week, it received one of Princess Cruises’ largest ships for the first time, and in 2027, Carnival Cruise Line will send its new giant Carnival Festivale to the port alongside the Mardi Gras, while MSC will expand its operations by basing the MSC World Atlantic at the port.
PortMiami was just under 8.6 million passengers as it grew including handling 10 cruise ships in a day (PortMiami)
While the rivalry continues between the ports, it also shows the strong growth in the cruise market, and specifically in Florida. Port Everglades is also seeing strong demand, as is Tampa.
PortMiami reported 4 percent growth in its passenger totals, handling a record 8,564,225 cruise passengers in the just concluded FY between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025. Long known as the Cruise Capital of the World, PortMiami highlights that it will receive 10 first-time cruise ships in this new year, including five newbuilds. It continues the growth for the port, which in the spring saw the opening of the new MSC Terminal (AA), which is billed as the world’s largest cruise terminal. The port has recently handled 10 cruise ships in a single day.
The rivalry will continue as both ports position for continued strong growth. While cruising continues to grow, Florida remains the epicenter of the industry, and in turn, it contributes a key part of Florida's tourist economy.