Fort Lauderdale Cruise and Tourism Industry

Port Everglades, the Broward County seaport that spans parts of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Dania Beach, counted 4,773,873 cruise passengers in Fiscal Year 2025, a preliminary total and the highest in the port's own eight year table.

Of that FY2025 total, 4,640,146 were multi-day cruise passengers and 133,727 were daily passengers, and the port labels the year Preliminary Results for FY2025 (Port Everglades cruise statistics). The FY2024 total was 4,127,715 and FY2023 was 3,007,358, which puts the Fort Lauderdale port's latest year well above both.

The Port Everglades table shows how hard the shutdown hit: FY2021 fell to 116,946 passengers, marked on the page as the Pandemic Cruise Shutdown year, after 2,529,542 in FY2020 (Port Everglades). The recovery passed the FY2018 level of 3,870,342 in FY2024, the first year in the Fort Lauderdale table above the pre-pandemic count.

Port Everglades calls itself one of the three busiest cruise homeports in the world, a description it ties to its location in the heart of South Florida close to the Caribbean (Port Everglades cruise terminals). The same Port Everglades page notes that every cruise terminal is air-conditioned and fully accessible, with free Wi-Fi, and shows artwork by local artists and by Dale Chihuly through Broward County's Public Art and Design Program.

Port Everglades lists ten operators on its cruise lines page, from Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean International to Viking and Balearia Caribbean, sailing from eight cruise terminals in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

The full Port Everglades list also names Crystal, Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Silversea Cruises, each with a booking phone number, for example Celebrity at 800-647-2251 and Disney Cruise Line at 800-951-3532 (Port Everglades cruise lines). The terminals page gives 954-468-3720 for more information (Port Everglades).

Terminal addresses at Port Everglades split between two cities because the port spans Dania Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and unincorporated Broward County (Port Everglades location). Terminals 18, 21 and 25 carry Hollywood addresses on the port's terminal pages.

Two Port Everglades terminals are tied to one line on the port's own pages. Terminal 4 opened in Fall 2023 as the Disney Cruise Line terminal with a Finding Nemo theme and connects to the 1,818-space Heron Garage (Port Everglades Terminal 4). Terminal 25 is primarily used by Celebrity Edge and Celebrity Xcel (Port Everglades Terminal 25). Terminal 18 is the largest by floor area at 259,370 square feet with 90 check-in stations (Port Everglades Terminal 18), and Terminal 2 offers Carnival Corporation's Ocean Medallion service (Port Everglades Terminal 2).

Port Everglades is run by Broward County, not the City of Fort Lauderdale, under CEO and Port Director Joseph Morris, and the port says it generates more than $48.3 billion in economic activity a year.

The Port Everglades administration page names Joseph Morris as CEO and Port Director and Glenn A. Wiltshire as Deputy Director, lists the main line 954-523-3404 and the cruise contact [email protected], and sends public records requests through Broward County (Port Everglades administration). The six-story administration building is at 1850 Eller Drive in Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades location).

The $48.3 billion figure comes from a commissioned report for Fiscal Year 2025, and Port Everglades says the economic impact rose 72 percent and statewide jobs supported rose 44 percent over the previous report for Fiscal Year 2024 (Port Everglades statistics). The Port Everglades home page puts the job count at more than 13,139 direct local jobs and nearly 295,166 statewide jobs (Port Everglades).

Those Port Everglades totals describe the port as a whole, and they come from a report the port commissioned; the same statistics page offers a fact sheet with FY2025 statistics for cruise, cargo and energy. The statistics page also offers a 2022 to 2023 cruise passenger survey with data points from age and gender to trip origin and spending before and after a cruise (Port Everglades).

The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Sunrise metropolitan division had 97.2 thousand leisure and hospitality jobs in August 2026, a preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics figure, out of 914.5 thousand total nonfarm jobs.

The division is the BLS labor market area named for Fort Lauderdale, and its Economy at a Glance page reports leisure and hospitality jobs each month. BLS lists 98.1 thousand such jobs in March 2026, a high of 98.9 thousand in April, and a slow summer slide to 98.0 thousand in July and 97.2 thousand in August, not seasonally adjusted (BLS Economy at a Glance, Fort Lauderdale).

The sign of the Fort Lauderdale year over year change flipped in July: BLS shows declines of 1.5 to 2.9 percent from March through June 2026, then gains of 0.8 percent in July and 0.5 percent in August, the August figure still preliminary (BLS). BLS marks only August as preliminary, so the July figure of 98.0 thousand is the latest one without that label.

Cruise passengers reach Port Everglades by car through three entrances off SE 17th St., State Road 84 and I-595, by a short ride from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, or by Broward County Transit bus, and port garages charge a $25 daily maximum.

Drivers on I-95 heading south take Exit 26 to I-595 East, and on I-95 heading north Exit 24; from I-75 the exit is 19 and from Florida's Turnpike it is 54, each to I-595 East and the Port Everglades exit (Port Everglades getting here). For drivers already in the Fort Lauderdale area, the port says the SE 17th St. or State Road 84 entrances may be more convenient. Every entrance has a checkpoint where cruise guests and visitors 18 and older show a government-issued photo ID and their cruise documents.

Port Everglades calls itself the only port in the nation located next to an airport. FLL is minutes away on U.S. 1, the average taxi fare from FLL to the port is $18 to $21, and the port suggests leaving at least 45 minutes between a flight's arrival and cruise check-in to collect luggage (Port Everglades). Miami International Airport is 30 to 45 minutes south via I-95, and Miami itself is 23 miles south of the port (Port Everglades location).

At Port Everglades the daily rate starts when the ticket is pulled at the garage or lot machine, and the parking team answers at 954-468-3680 (Port Everglades parking rates). Broward County Transit buses stop at the Northport section on SE 17th St., just north of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, with schedules at 954-357-8400 (Port Everglades getting here).

Three Port Everglades figures need a second look in October 2026: the FY2025 passenger total is still marked preliminary, the terminals page still forecasts 4.4 million guests for 2025, and the economic impact study changed from the FY2024 to the FY2025 report.

The Port Everglades terminals page says some 4.4 million cruise guests are expected in 2025 (Port Everglades cruise terminals), while the statistics page already shows a preliminary FY2025 total of 4,773,873 (Port Everglades cruise statistics). The higher statistics figure is the newer one; the terminals page still carries the 2025 forecast.

As of October 15, 2026 the cruise statistics page still stops at FY2025, so a final FY2025 count and the first FY2026 count are the next numbers to watch (Port Everglades). The same Fort Lauderdale table also prints the FY2019 total as 3892,215, missing a comma, so FY2019 is left out of the table here.

The Port Everglades statistics page now points to the FY2025 report at more than $48.3 billion, which the port says is 72 percent above the FY2024 report in economic impact (Port Everglades statistics). The cruise lines page already advertises a 2027 Cruise Guide for planning ahead (Port Everglades).