Cruise:
We're sailing to new heights

"Port Everglades fully expects to be the largest cruise port in the world."
- Carlos Buqueras, Director of Business Development


With the cruise industry's largest new megaships set soon to make Port Everglades their home port, the Broward County seaport is poised to become the No. 1 cruise port anywhere in the world.

Port Everglades, where annual passenger counts for several years have risen to between 3 million and 4 million, already is among the world's three busiest home ports - thanks to its position at the doorstep to Caribbean cruising grounds, its superb facilities, renowned customer service and convenient location next to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The scheduled introduction in fall 2009 of Royal Caribbean International's first Oasis-class vessel Oasis of the Seas, which is capable of carrying more than 5,400 passengers on weekly Caribbean cruises - is destined to launch Port Everglades into a new dimension. That dimension will be further extended in fall 2010 with a second Oasis-class ship, Allure of the Seas.
"We're sailing to new heights, with vessels nearly 40 percent larger than the Freedom-class ships that today are the largest in the world," said Carlos Buqueras, Port Everglades Director of Business Development.

"Once we realize the full impact of these two Oasis-class vessels, Port Everglades fully expects to be the largest cruise port in the world."

Port Everglades' Terminal 18 is being "super-sized" to comfortably accommodate the needs of embarking and debarking passengers of the Oasis-class ships. The ships' year-round weekly itineraries call for one of the vessels to sail from the terminal on Saturdays and the other to depart on Sundays.

Royal Caribbean also has chosen Port Everglades as