Locally… 🛳️

As some of you might know, I work a part time job a couple of days a week as a guest services agent for a major cruise line at nearby Port Canaveral, just down the road from busy (almost daily) rocket launch operations at Kennedy Space Center and the US Air Force’s Space Force Station launch pads.

Travel distance from my home to the 2nd busiest port in the world is just minutes away. Five days a week our port is teeming with mammoth cruise ships (“hotel on hulls”), thousands of passengers, workers, luggage, shuttle vehicles, buses, and 18-wheel truck to ship deliveries on the days the behemoths are in port. 🛳️.

And it’s about to get even busier…

Port Canaveral takes steps to prepare for added cruise business, in light of space crunch

Dave Berman

Florida Today

Port Canaveral is taking preliminary steps to address a shortage of cruise terminals, in the light of increased demand from major cruise lines for berth space.

The Canaveral Port Authority Board of Commissioners has approved starting design work on an expansion of Cruise Terminal 5 on the port’s north side. That is the port’s smallest and oldest major cruise terminal, and the expansion would enable it to handle larger cruise ships.

Separately, port commissioners approved initial work on upgrading the waterside area of Cruise Terminal 2 on the port’s south side, which now is used by Victory Casino Cruises for its gambling-ship operations and is too small for most cruise ships. The waterside improvements would help pave the way to tear down the current terminal and replace it with one capable of handling larger cruise ships, if port officials decide to take that approach.

Port Canaveral is the world’s second-busiest cruise part, behind PortMiami. It is the home to 16 multiday cruise ships, representing seven cruise lines — Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, MSC, Norwegian, Princess and Royal Caribbean.

In addition to having more ships based at Port Canaveral, the ships are getting larger, with higher passenger capacities.

Having ships occupy all six of the port’s major cruise terminals at once now is a weekly occurrence at Port Canaveral, and the port doesn’t want to turn away future cruise business because of a shortage of facilities.

Port commissioners last week approved awarding a $3.6 million contract with BEA Architects of Miami for design work in preparation of the expansion of Cruise Terminal 5.

That terminal currently is used primarily by Norwegian and Royal Caribbean.

“As we all know, vessel sizes are growing. The itinerary is really getting packed,” said Bill Crowe, the port’s vice president of engineering and construction. “CT5 is the subject of a lot of that future cruise business. And so we’re strategically taking another look at our oldest facility.”

Crowe said Terminal 5 originally was built in the mid-1980s, and it has been renovated several times, most recently in 2016.

The planned 50,000-square-foot expansion there would provide for additional space for queuing, passenger security screening, general and VIP passenger seating, and luggage processing, as well as a new expanded Customs and Border Protection/Federal Inspection Service area.

Additionally, BEA will advise the port on what will be needed to renovate the existing building infrastructure.

Also under study will be increasing the terminal’s available cruise passenger parking by 1,000 to 1,500 vehicles.

Port Canaveral CEO John Murray said, over the next two years, the passenger volume at Cruise Terminal 5 will more than double.

“So this is a significant project that we really need to ensure we are able to meet the commitments that we’ve already made” to cruise lines, Murray said.

Murray said the project will enable Cruise Terminal 5 to handle ships carrying up to 5,000 passengers, up from the current range of up to 3,900 passengers.

Murray said the cost of the construction project itself will be determined after BEA completes its design analysis.

The work will proceed while the terminal is actively hosting cruise ships. But Crowe said officials will seek to do much of the work during a less busy period for the terminal, June to November.

“So we’re going to hit the ground running,” Crowe said, describing it as a “fantastic project.”

Cruise Terminal 2

Port commisioners approved negotiating a waterside engineering design and permitting services contract with Jacobs Engineering Group of Cape Canaveral for Cruise Terminal 2, which now is used by the Victory 1 gambling ship.

Port officials say the work is the first piece of efforts that could lead to that terminal being demolished and replaced with a new cruise terminal, with the gambling ship’s operations being moved elsewhere in the port.

“This really is a future-planning, forward-thinking initiative for the future disposition of Cruise Terminal 2,” Crowe said, adding that the waterside design and permitting process will take 18 months to two years.

Port officials originally wanted to convert the port’s North Cargo Berth 8 into a new cruise terminal. But those plans were scuttled after Florida Secretary of Commerce J. Alex Kelly and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue sent a letter to port commissioners last August, threatening future state grants to the port if the plan moved forward.

The state officials claimed that the port’s plan to turn the North Cargo Berth 8 site into a cruise terminal and cruise parking garage would negatively affect the space industry. They said that was because of the effect it would have on the commercial space companies’ current and planned future operations to recover and reuse launched rocket hardware like boosters and fairings.

The port also has been looking into building a new cruise terminal in the marina district on the south side of the port. But logistical issues in relocating the marina operations there have complicated that approach.