PortMiami Starts Winter Cruise Season with New Daily Record
The 2025-2026 cruise season started with a bang for PortMiami, with the port, which likes to call itself the cruise capital of the world, setting its third record this year for the number of passengers handled in a single day. It is the start of what promises to be a very busy season as the cruise industry continues its dramatic growth.
The port highlights that on November 30, it set a new daily passenger record with 75,201 passengers (embarking and disembarking). It would be impressive in itself, but it follows two records during last winter’s record season. PortMiami handled 10 cruise ships on February 8 and set two passenger records in the early spring. On March 30, it had its busiest yet cruise day with 72,008 passengers, and less than a month later, the record fell. On April 20, PortMiami handled 72,401 passengers in a single day.
November 30 again saw a total of 10 cruise ships with a combined double occupancy of over 35,000. In port that day were: Carnival Sunrise (2,984 passengers), Carnival Horizon (3,960 passengers), Carnival Celebration (5,374 passengers), Celebrity Beyond (3,260 passengers), MSC Divina (3,500 passengers), Norwegian Aqua (3,571 passengers), Symphony of the Seas (5,518 passengers), Independence of the Seas (3,634 passengers), Scarlet Lady (2,770 passengers), and Azamara Onward (684 passengers). It was pointed out that these are not even the highest occupancy cruise ships sailing from PortMiami.
Helping the port to continue its expansion was the opening in the spring of the new AA Terminal that primarily handles MSC’s cruise ships, including the arrival of the ultra-large 215,863 gross ton MSC World America, which entered service in April. Work is currently underway on yet another new terminal as a replacement for an existing facility at the western end of Dodge Island.
PortMiami also highlights that it will add 10 cruise ships to its roster this season. Cunard, for the first time, is homeporting the Queen Elizabeth at PortMiami, as is Holland America with the Zuiderdam, and MSC Grandiosa also made a port call before homeporting in Port Canaveral. In 2026, it will also host Holland America’s Eurodam and Silversea Cruises' Silver Nova. The brand-new cruise ships calling Miami home this season include Virgin Voyages’ Brilliant Lady, Oceania Cruises’ Allura, and, arriving in March 2026, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Luna.
All of this continues to fuel the growth of the cruise business at PortMiami. In the fiscal year, the port reported 4 percent growth in its passenger totals, handling a record 8,564,225 cruise passengers. The prior FY it handled a record-breaking 8.2 million passengers, which was a nearly 13 percent increase.
With the Caribbean remaining the most popular destination for cruises, PortMiami continues to expect growth. However, for only the second time in the modern cruise industry, Port Canaveral topped the passenger totals of PortMiami. The Central Florida port handled 8,602,047 passengers, a better than 13-percent increase over the prior FY.
The same growth is showing at the other large homeports. Port Everglades in Florida reported it welcomed 4,773,873 cruise passengers (preliminary count) in Fiscal Year 2025. Also rising quickly is Galveston in Texas, which expects nearly 4 million cruise passengers this year.