Florida’s Port Everglades is officially in discussions with Disney Cruise Line for a cruise terminal, according to a Broward County Commission Meeting.

Cruise Industry News had previously reported that Port Everglades was widely believed to be the “other” Florida port Disney was considering in February as it also negotiates with PortMiami. In addition, Disney has a dedicated cruise terminal and year-round departures from Port Canaveral. 

Broward County has now approved the port to negotiate with Disney for a cruise terminal and berth usage agreement. 

On April 26, 2021, Port Everglades staff received a request from Disney to negotiate for the use of Cruise Terminal 4 and its adjacent Berth 4 to move its South Florida operation to Port Everglades, starting with one year-round ship capable of carrying approximately 3,500 passengers.

“Adding a major cruise line, such as Disney, to the Port’s cruise business sector will replace and potentially exceed the reduction in Carnival Corporation’s annual guaranteed billable passenger movements included in their amendment, and further diversify the lines within the Port’s cruise portfolio,” said the county commission meeting legislation text, also noting that Carnival Corporation no longer has preferential use of Berth 4.

“The waiver of the competitive selection requirements and authorization to conduct negotiations with Disney Cruise Line will allow Port Everglades staff to negotiate terms and conditions to relocate and expand Disney’s operations in Broward County,” the legislation text said .”Any new agreement negotiated with Disney will be brought back to the Board for approval .The economic impact to Broward County will be in job creation, job retention, the generation of personal income and state and local taxes from both the cruise line’s operations as well as the spending of cruise passengers traveling to the area for their cruise.”