Cruise Ships

The port will attempt to work with the state and other agencies to decide how to move forward and balance the needs of the booming cruise and space industries.

A new 25-year lease will allow longer, wider ships with a deeper drafts at the harbor just inside Florida's reef tract. The deal comes amid growing evidence that sediment churned up by ships damages reefs.

Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas is leaving South Florida on Saturday for its first seven-day island-hopping voyage through the tropics.

It's the most norovirus outbreaks over the first six months of a year since 2012. The reports come from ships under Carnival and Royal Caribbean brands, according to the CDC.

Speakers at the Tampa Tiger Bay Club pushed back on the idea that the land the port occupies would be better suited for residential and commercial development.

Cargo traffic at Florida’s 16 seaports is slightly ahead of pre-pandemic numbers, while the cruise industry is expected to return to pre-pandemic passenger counts this year.

Cruise ship delays are expected to increase as the space industry hopes to double and triple the number of launches from the cape.

The U.S. Travel Association estimated that international travel to the U.S. was 34 percent below pre-pandemic levels.

In December, the port will see 29 cruise ships, with each averaging about $350,000 in economic impact. Over the course of the year, the port estimates it will have served 1.2 million cruise passengers.

Florida’s pristine waters are its calling card for tourists, who are now returning to the state in record numbers. But what happens when crushing numbers of visitors harm the natural environment that draws them?

Port Tampa Bay, PortMiami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral, and Port of Jacksonville collectively recorded 6.1 million cruise passengers in 2021.

The cruise company would not confirm how many people tested positive for COVID but said there were a number of positive cases on the Carnival Spirit.