Cruise Ships

Tests in Key West show sediment stirred up by cruise ships, which can harm marine life, routinely exceed federal standards. Key West has responded by suspending the tests.

Holland America has reported its fourth norovirus outbreak of 2025 on a cruise out of Port Everglades, with nearly 150 passengers and 10 crew members falling ill.

The Holland America Line cruise ship left Port Everglades on Feb. 2 and traveled through the Caribbean, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica over 12 days.

Key West commissioners postponed renewing a contract with the Colllege of the Florida Keys that linked cruise ships to increased turbidity in the island's shallow port.

The study looked at damaging turbidity, which can harm coral and seagrass, and found levels connected to cruise ships equal to hurricanes.

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.