ORLANDO, Fla. — Port Canaveral is projecting a banner rebound in its financial projections for the 2022 fiscal year.
Port CFO Michael Poole presented the initial operating and capital budget proposal at a port commission meeting Wednesday that projects $85.1 million in cruise revenue for the fiscal period from Oct. 1, 2021-Sept. 30, 2022.
That exceeds the record set for the 2019 fiscal year that topped $81.9 million. The revenues from both the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years were hit by the COVID-19 shutdown leading to more than 16 months without major cruise lines sailing from the port.
The port saw a return to cruise business starting July 31 with the debut of Carnival’s new ship Mardi Gras. The port has since begun sailing three more ships with several more on tap in the next month, but it’s the winter sailing season that will be a record for the port.
“When we get everything in place we’ll have 11 home ported ships in Port Canaveral starting from November,” said Port CEO Capt. John Murray. “We’ve never had that many home ported ships before.”
Murray also said the ships will be larger in size than ever before, with only two under 3,000-passenger capacity.
The spate of vessels leads budget projections to call for 810 dockings from major cruise lines in addition to the 650 dockings planned for the casino line at the port.
That includes three year-round home ported ships from Royal Caribbean and Carnival, two from Disney and one from MSC Cruises as well as an additional seasonal vessel from Carnival and one seasonal vessel from Norwegian Cruise Line.
