Cruising has long been a global travel option with ships leaving from Europe, Australia, Singapore, Israel, and a number of other spots around the world. Royal Caribbean even recently shared that it plans to return a ship to China for the first time since the covid pandemic in the coming months.
But, while there are cruises that originate all over the world, it’s fair to call Florida the industry’s home base, specifically three ports on the state’s east coast – Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Port Canaveral. In fact, Port Canaveral recently passed Miami as the busiest cruise port in the world, but all three east coast Florida ports are bustling.
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Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival have generally based their newest ships in either Miami or Port Canaveral. Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s flagship and Carnival Celebration, that cruise line’s newest (and largest) ship has sailed (mostly) out of Miami and Port Canaveral.
MSC has also been stepping up its commitment to Florida sailing multiple ships out of Miami and Port Canaveral. Like its rivals, that includes one of its newest ships, MSC Seascape, sailing out of Miami.
That trend will continue as the next two Royal Caribbean ships, the soon-to-be largest ship in the world Icon of the Seas, and the next Oasis-class ship, Utopia of the Seas will sail out of Miami and Port Canaveral respectively. Utopia will actually sail 3-4 day itineraries out of Port Canaveral, taking over from Allure of the Seas, the first ship in that celebrated class to sail short itineraries while Icon will be used for weeklong sailings out of Miami.
That’s a massive commitment from the cruise line to put its newest hardware into those ports while also sailing multiple ships from each of the east coast Florida ports. Now, Royal Caribbean is making a similar commitment to Florida with its higher-end Celebrity brand.
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Celebrity cruise line brings more ships to Florida
Celebrity has generally rotated one or more of its ships through Miami, Port Canaveral, and Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades). Now, for the winter 2024-2025 season, the Royal Caribbean-owned brand intends to base four of its ships in Florida for an extended period.
Two ships – Celebrity Apex and Summit – will sail out of Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades. From October 23, 2024, to March 8, 2025, Apex will sail 6-7-night itineraries making stops in destinations including St. Maarten, San Juan, Grand Cayman, and Mexico, as well as select sailings to Perfect Day at CocoCay. Summit, the smaller and older of the two ships, will sail 5-9 night itineraries from February 25, 2025, to April 10, 2025 the Western and Eastern Caribbean.
Celebrity will also bring a ship to Port Canaveral for the first time as Celebrity Equinox will call the port home from November 21, 2024, to April 19, 2025. During this time, the ship will sail 20 new itineraries (most lasting 7 nights) with stops in Caribbean destinations including the Bahamas, Belize, Grand Cayman, Mexico, San Juan, and St. Maarten. Equinox will also have two March sailings, March 1 and March 15, 2025 that will visits Royal Caribbean Perfect Day at Coco Cay private island.
And, while Royal Caribbean’s largest commitment has been to Florida’s east coast ports, it is not ignoring the west coast. The cruise line will bring more sailing on Celebrity Constellation to the port in Tampa Bay.
“The new program expands the brand’s offerings with four new itineraries and a total of 14 sailings for the season from January 2, 2025, to April 6, 2025. These itineraries will visit destinations like Belize, Honduras, Key West, Mexico, and New Orleans during Mardi Gras, scheduled for March 1, 2025,” the cruise line shared.
These changes essentially reposition some of Celebrity’s ships from sailing in Europe – including the Edge Class Apex – to Florida. The cruise line’s newest ship, Celebrity Ascent, will call Miami its home port when it begins sailing in December.
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