Princess & Port Canaveral

[geocruiser]

I just would love to know if any one else would like to see Princess leave out of Port Canaveral?

I woulld just love it. The port is near Orlando and on the Space Coast and great for sight seeing.

[JimmyVWine]

I've sailed out of PC and don't see the attraction. I prefer Port Everglades by a wide margin.

[IECalCruiser]

I've sailed out of PC and don't see the attraction. I prefer Port Everglades by a wide margin.

I have sailed out of both and would choose Port Everglades hands down for closeness to airport, hotels and pre-cruise shopping. I can't think of a more convenient port.

[Pam in CA]

I just would love to know if any one else would like to see Princess leave out of Port Canaveral?

I woulld just love it. The port is near Orlando and on the Space Coast and great for sight seeing.

While that area is interesting, it would limit the itineraries that Princess offers and cruises would cost more because it would take longer and more fuel to reach ports Princess currently sails to. Plus, flights to/from Orlando aren't nearly as frequent nor as inexpensive as flying to FLA or MIA which would limit the market. For instance, there's one direct flight a day from LAX to MCO on AA during the day although there's a red-eye. That's too few options for many people and be very difficult for those flying in from overseas. And, finally, passengers would have to take more time off from work because Princess doesn't do cruises out of FL less than 7 days; they wouldn't have time to visit the area so no point in flying there for a cruise.

[geocruiser]

The port is about one hour from Disney and the other parks. That is nice is you want to spend some time there. It is about 30 minutes from the Space Center. And you have the beaches- Cocoa Beach. There is not much traffic at the port.

RCCL does go to CocoCay, Bahamas; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Philipsburg, St. Maarten Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico & Bahamas; Nassau from there.

 

One cruise being an eastern and the other a western

Also

 

Freeport, Nassau Bahamas, Key West, Cozumel Mexico, Beliez, Roatan, Costa Maya Mexico, St. Thomas and St Maartin are visited by Carnival cruise line from there.

[Pam in CA]

The port is about one hour from Disney and the other parks. That is nice is you want to spend some time there. It is about 30 minutes from the Space Center. And you have the beaches- Cocoa Beach. There is not much traffic at the port.

RCCL does go to CocoCay, Bahamas; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Philipsburg, St. Maarten Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico & Bahamas; Nassau from there.

 

One cruise being an eastern and the other a western

That might be appealing to some people but not repeat cruisers. Princess has much more interesting itineraries. Some of these ports are downright uninteresting and blah. :( What about St. Lucia? St. Kitts? Curacao? Aruba? etc. Far more interesting than Nassau or Labadee.

[JimmyVWine]

Being an hour from WDW doesn't matter if your cruise is already a week long. Any reasonable trip to WDW has to be at least 4 days to be meaningful. And that's pushing it. So if you try to marry a cruise with a Disney vacation, you are looking at a two week trip. Not many will do that.

 

Disney tried to pair up cruising with a WDW vacation and even they couldn't make it work. The best they could do was 3 or 4 day cruises paired with 3 or 4 day Disney visits. The Disney portion was too short and the cruise was limited to the Bahamas, which is universally panned as the worst voyage out of Florida. Who wants a 4 day trip to Freeport and Nassau? Certainly not Princess' clientele. And as Pam points out, venturing further south doesn't make sense either time-wise or money-wise.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Having just done a cruise out of Port Canaveral, I would add my name to those who would like Princess to sail from there. For the many folks who drive to the port from places on the East Coast, the South and the Midwest it saves around 2 1/2 hours driving each way. it looked like the port was being expanded. Royal Caribbean sails a very large ship each week from there, along with Carnival, Disney, NCL and other ships, and on our sailing there were many repeat cruisers.

[geocruiser]

That might be appealing to some people but not repeat cruisers. Princess has much more interesting itineraries. Some of these ports are downright uninteresting and blah. :( What about St. Lucia? St. Kitts? Curacao? Aruba? etc. Far more interesting than Nassau or Labadee.

Ruby Princess still does the St Thomas and St Maartin run with Princess Cay.

Every one has ports that they find interesting. What is good for me, others may not like. But Princess still does some of the same cruises as stated above..

[Pam in CA]

Royal Caribbean sails a very large ship each week from there, along with Carnival, Disney, NCL and other ships, and on our sailing there were many repeat cruisers.

That alone means that it's not going to happen. The market is saturated. No matter how great the desire, Princess follows the money. They cruise where demand is high and they can get higher fares. If it's not, they move ships elsewhere.

 

Supply and demand. Follow the money. That's the bottom line.

[geocruiser]

Looks like they are all most finished building at the port.

 

http://Http://www.portcanaveral.com/general/news/releases/08262011.php

 

The last line of the article leave a lot of thoughts in my mind.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-05-17/New-Royal-Caribbean-ship-Carnival-deal-a-win-for-Port-Canaveral/55035602/1

[Pam in CA]

There's sometimes a disconnect between what a port expects and hopes for and reality. Just because a cruise port is built doesn't mean cruise lines will line up to sail from there. :(

[caribill]

There's sometimes a disconnect between what a port expects and hopes for and reality. Just because a cruise port is built doesn't mean cruise lines will line up to sail from there. :(

 

How true!!

 

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Port-knocked-for-not-getting-public-input-on-3578260.php

[caribill]

The last line of the article leave a lot of thoughts in my mind.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/story/2012-05-17/New-Royal-Caribbean-ship-Carnival-deal-a-win-for-Port-Canaveral/55035602/1

 

It could only mean that Princess might use it as a port of call, not for the start or end of a voyage.

[dmwnc1959]

I'll throw a bucket of gas into the fire by saying I doubt Princess will ever sail from Port Canaveral because of it's proximity to the central Florida theme parks.

 

RCI, Carnival, and Disney all cater to a more family oriented market with ships that have all the bells and whistles associated with an amusement park at sea. I would think that Princess Cruises wants to try and remain a more 'adult oriented' cruise line that just happens to have kids programs.

 

For that reason they'll stay in Port Everglades. Just far enough away from WDW to be inconvenient. ;)

 

.

[geocruiser]

I can't begin to say what the last line might mean in the USAToday write up.

I never thought that Princess would be doing short cruises of 3 to 5 days. I guess things can change. Like Pam said it is about money.

This I found on Princess.

 

Among the new offerings debuting this season are Princess' first-ever series of shorter cruises. These three- to five-day sailings are perfect for a quick break or as a way to sample the Princess experience. In the Caribbean, passengers can enjoy four- and five-day sailings aboard Ruby Princess visiting one to three ports, while on the West Coast three- and four-day cruises aboard Golden Princess head for a variety of Southern California destinations

[dmwnc1959]

I never thought that Princess would be doing short cruises of 3 to 5 days. I guess things can change.

 

I actually nailed that one about a month before the official announcement was made.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1595655

 

But even with as many ships as they will have in their fleet after the new ship comes out in 2014 they still won't be sailing out of Port Canaveral.

[RickEk]

It could only mean that Princess might use it as a port of call, not for the start or end of a voyage.

 

 

Exactly... the Crown Princess, in its inaugural season, sailed a 9-day itinerary from NYC that included Port Canaveral as a port of call. When Carnival's Grand Turk port opened, Princess dropped Port Canaveral.

[srpilo]

I've sailed out of PC and don't see the attraction. I prefer Port Everglades by a wide margin.

 

Me too

 

 

 

Srpilo

[srice]

As a matter of personal preference I would prefer to sail out of Port Canaveral and prefer to sail on Princess.

 

Port Canaveral is smaller than Port Everglades and the people who work there generally are much friendlier.

 

The main reason we sail on Freedom of the Seas is she sails from Port Canaveral. If a Princess ship sailed from there we would be on it instead. :)

 

I do agree with most of the previous posters, though, that we won't see Princess sailing from Port Canaveral. :(

[paul929207]

Another question would be where would the ship come from? Princess seems to have cut back on cruises from Florida and Puerto Rico. They have added one ship to Galveston. However, all of these are winter only.

[fishin' musician]

While that area is interesting, it would limit the itineraries that Princess offers and cruises would cost more because it would take longer and more fuel to reach ports Princess currently sails to. Plus, flights to/from Orlando aren't nearly as frequent nor as inexpensive as flying to FLA or MIA which would limit the market. For instance, there's one direct flight a day from LAX to MCO on AA during the day although there's a red-eye. That's too few options for many people and be very difficult for those flying in from overseas. And, finally, passengers would have to take more time off from work because Princess doesn't do cruises out of FL less than 7 days; they wouldn't have time to visit the area so no point in flying there for a cruise.

 

Interesting as MCO flights from the upper midwest are typically cheaper and more frequent than those to southern FL.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

That might be appealing to some people but not repeat cruisers. Princess has much more interesting itineraries. Some of these ports are downright uninteresting and blah. :( What about St. Lucia? St. Kitts? Curacao? Aruba? etc. Far more interesting than Nassau or Labadee.

 

Since princess isn't sailing to St Kitts, or St. Lucia anymore whats the harm of having a ship in Port Canaveral?

 

Of course it might be more costly for people on the west coast or overseas but it's cheaper for people on the east coast to fly to Orlando than it is to FLL or Miami.

 

Bill

[tarheelmjfan]

It doesn't really matter to me, if Princess sails from Port Canaveral. I suppose it would be good for those who prefer to sail from there. We won't, even thought it's our 2nd closest port. (Port of Tampa is about 10 minutes away from us.) The itineraries for most ships leaving from PC don't interest us at all. I'm great with never returning to the Bahamas & we can drive to Key West for a long weekend any time we feel like it. I'd prefer to skip Jamaica & Haiti anytime possible also. Starting that far north results in cruises that go to the worst of what the Caribbean has to offer, IMO only. For this same reason, I'd never take a Caribbean cruise from NYC. In most cases, the further south you start the better itinerary you get. Of course, this is all JMO. ;)

[AmberTeka]

I would jump for joy if Princess would base a ship out of Port Canerval. A HUGE pool of sailers..retired folks in the Villages..around Orlando..over in Citrus Co..up to Ocala...right now they run buses down to MIA and Fort Lauderdale...they could drive to Port Canerval. Less than a hour.

PLUS...you have the huge base of cruisers in Georgia..Alabama..Mississippi..S.C. N.C. Kentucky..Tennessee.........the same folks who pile on the Old tiny Fascination out of Jacksonville...because they can drive there. No language issues. We just got off of the Fascination...and I bet 90% of the passengers were southern. It was very laid back. A lot of Georgia Grads were cruising as College gifts of grandparents and such..EVEN they were well behaved. Always opening doors for the older women..Yes mam and no sir...

 

Almost all of them cruised exclusively out of Jacksonville and Port Canerval...The Dream or The Freedom of the Seas. Most cruised a lot. Several folks we spoke to had been on the Fascination six or seven times.

We were planning to go on NCL...The Sun..but they pulled it back to Miami..and moved the Dawn to Tampa. The NCL Spirit was getting raves from the committed cruisers.

 

Orlando is not just Disney. It is Sea World. It is Universal. It is Jai Ali during some months. Baseball Spring training. Shopping at the miles of outlet malls. The beaches at Coco....spun sugar sand........

AND..CRUISES TO BERMUDA PERHAPS?