CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Ringing in the new year on the open ocean sounded like a pretty good idea to 10's of thousands of people who made their way to Central Florida. Port Canaveral is preparing to move 57,000 passengers on and off cruise ships on New Year’s Eve alone.

Six cruise ships will be in port on Dec. 31, including two of the largest in the world: Royal Caribbean’s Wonder of the Seas and Carnival’s Mardi Gras. At their full capacities, those two ships alone can hold 7,084 and 6,465 passengers, respectively.

The pair will be joined by the Carnival Magic, the Disney Fantasy, the Norwegian Escape and Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas.

The historically large number of passengers coming through on a single day will come a day after the port sees about 39,000 people coming and going off of five cruise ships on Friday.

Heading into the Christmas holiday weekend, Port Canaveral saw 50,000 passengers on Friday, Dec. 23, and 52,000 on Dec. 24.

During the Dec. 7 Port Commission meeting, Port Canaveral CEO Capt. John Murray noted the large volume of expected traffic this holiday season after coming off a record-breaking Thanksgiving week.

“Over the Thanksgiving week period, we did 145,000 passengers in a week. It’s an all-time record for us and I will share that we’re looking at numbers greater than that coming up over the Christmas holiday. So, we are very busy,” Murray said.

Port officials said the primary driver of the record number of people heading on and off ships stems from the fact that the port is home porting and accommodating more ships. The ships there are also larger than the ones sailing in 2019 and can accommodate more people.

During the 2022 State of the Port address on Dec. 1, Murray noted the operational comparison of ships between fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2022 shows a 39 percent increase from a 3.8 million-passenger capacity up to 5.3 million.

Port Canaveral had 11 home ported ships in 2022 and are planning for 13 ships to call the port home in 2023.

The increase in passengers, while good for the port, also comes with additional challenges. Murray said they contract off-duty deputies with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office to help manage traffic on highly busy days.

He added that delays from the cruise ships also can cause disruption across the port.

“Anytime a ship is off-sequence, comes in a different day or arrives late in the afternoon, we’ve got a problem,” Murray said. “And sometimes the communication from the cruise lines to the guests and our communication out from the port conflict.” 

Beyond the potential confusion and some confusion for passengers, Murray said ship delays can also create a rough situation for those trying to park.

“The challenge that we have today is one that we never had in the past. It’s that when a ship comes in, until it has debarked, the cars free up the parking spaces in the garage, there’s no place for new people to arrive to park,” he said. “So, until we get a zero count on that ship and everybody’s off the ship, it’s very, very difficult to accommodate new guests who arrive early. And then that builds the traffic and creates the local situation.”

Murray also noted that the post-COVID influx is significant not only for the port, but for the surrounding economy.

“We’re bringing a lot more people to Brevard County in cruise guests and a lot of these people are staying here,” Murray said. “You heard from the hoteliers at the last State of the Port, this place is busy. It’s not just Port Canaveral. We’re bringing a lot of people here and a lot of economic value to this community.”

Murray made that comment in the context of needing to push forward on a planned expansion project for State Road 528, a major east-west thoroughfare that connects Port Canaveral to Orlando International Airport, which he and others argue is needed to support the increasing traffic to and from the port for both cruises and cargo.

A pair of Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) projects to widen 528 from four to six lanes are in the design phase. The first project runs between S.R. 524 (Industry Rd.) and S.R. 3 (North Courtenay Pkwy.) also includes reconstructing the bridge of the Indian River. The 3.719-mile-long project is still in its design phase, which is estimated to cost $12.2 million. Construction costs currently stand at $349 million.

The second project goes from east of S.R. 3 to S.R. 401 (Port Canaveral interchange and will add a lane in each direction in the median. They will also reconstruct interchanges along with the bridge over the Banana River. Design costs for this 5.091-mile-long project are $10.2 million, with the construction cost estimated at $329 million.

Murray said on Dec. 7 there will be a public meeting in February to talk about the design of a third project, this one focusing on the S.R. 401 bridge.

“They’ve been able to advance funding for that bridge so that it will be, in my view at this point, more in line with the 528 expansion as well,” Murray said.

FDOT noted in its project description that in addition to being a pivotal access point for Port Canaveral it also “serves as the primary access to Cape Canaveral [Space] Force Station, Naval Ordinance Test Unit, facilities for the U.S. Coast Guard, and access to Space Florida operations.”