Port Canaveral officials
want to expand cruise-ship capacity with as many as eight terminals.
Port Canaveral officials presented a 30-year plan to the Port Authority that proposes to expand cruise-ship capacity with up to eight full-service terminals.
The plan was approved by the Canaveral Port Authority Board of Commissioners by a 5-0 vote Wednesday. It includes expansion and cost estimates for the port’s cruise, shipping, spaceport and recreation infrastructure.
“The Master Plan is a vision document — a high-level blueprint that looks to the future of the port with information that we know today,” said Port CEO Capt. John Murray.
The port currently has five fullservice cruise ship terminals, but the plan states cruise-passenger traffic, which hit 4.5 million in 2017, could top 8 million passengers before 2040. That 4.5 million total includes 4.23 million from multiday cruises, with the rest coming from one-day passengers from both visiting cruise ships and the port’s resident casino cruise.
The expansion plan, which was created by lead consultant Luis Ajamil of Bermello, Ajamil & Partners, Inc. of Miami, calls for $2.25 billion in expenditures that includes the addition of two terminals on the east side of the port, one in 2019 and one in 2025, along with the expansion of existing Terminal 5 in 2031. A proposed eighth terminal is earmarked for 2045.
The razing and recreation of Terminal 3 is already in the works, and that’s the one targeting a 2019 opening. That is the current terminal for port-of-call ships visiting for the day, but when redone, will have customs and border-control facilities. Adjacent to that is a smaller Terminal 2, where the Victory Cruises gaming ship operates. That is the location targeted for the 2025 revamp. The potential eighth terminal’s location has yet to be determined.
The port is the world’s second busiest cruise port behind PortMiami. A lot of the passenger traffic is from ships that don’t home port at Canaveral, but rather make it a stop from sailings that embark up north. During the winter season, the port does act as home to up to nine ships including three from Disney, three from Carnival, two from Royal Caribbean and one from Norwegian Cruise Line.
While more cruise lines and cruise ships are calling Port Canaveral home, it’s not without challenges.
“Canaveral is somewhat stymied because the cruise lines in every other port, there's really no competition,” said Stewart Chiron, who runs industry website CruiseGuy.com. “In Canaveral, they’re competing with the theme parks. If you sail out of Canaveral, you’re thinking either we spent too much at Disney or we need to save money to spend at Disney, so onboard spending is less. But it continues to grow. You have very forward thinking at the port.”
The master plan is designed to steer that vision — including the creation of what the plan calls “Port Central,” a transportation center for consolidated rental-car facilities and additional parking.
In addition to cruise capacity, plans are outlined to expand the recreation and park space that would run the length of the southern boundary of the port from Jetty Park on the Atlantic to the port’s southwestern boundary at Rodney Ketcham Park.
“The linear park will provide bikeways, jogging paths, connectivity between the two parks and access to the City of Cape Canaveral, as well as offer a gentle buffer between the city and port activities,” reads the master plan.
It also includes the addition of a new centrally based park that would act as the new entrance of the port. The expansion could even see the addition of an aquarium.
The spaceport operations currently utilized by SpaceX and NASA calls for $79 million, with the ability to support more of the needs for launches at nearby Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, such as the barges that bring back reusable first-stage rocket boosters from some SpaceX Falcon 9 launches.
More than $355 million is slated for the port’s cargo operations. That part of the plan calls out the potential for expanded need for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, which would be used by both the cruise lines and space vehicles.
“The plan presents various opportunities over the 30-year planning horizon, but not every project in this plan may become a reality,” Murray said.