Fort Lauderdale’s Cruise Focus: Port Upgrades, Tour Options

At a time when travel agents need to work harder to earn cruise revenues, Fort Lauderdale is making an effort to make cruise-centered vacations more profitable.

Port Everglades, the destination’s cruise port, has undertaken a host of improvement projects aimed at enhancing the cruise experience.

The port handles more passengers than any cruise port in the world. Currently home to 15 cruise lines and more than 50 ships, Port Everglades (unrelated to Everglades National Park, a short drive away) continues to add new ships.

The most recent is Princess Cruise’s new Royal Princess, a 3,600-passenger vessel to debut October 29 at cruise terminal 2. The terminal—along with three others—recently underwent major renovations. Upgrades included expanded check-in and baggage claim areas, covered walkways and streamlined transportation routings.

Improved cruise terminals
Port Everglades spent $54 million on the renovations, transforming four existing terminals into modern passenger facilities for more than 30 ships. Cruise lines can now process embarking and debarking passengers at the same time from each of the terminals.

According to Joshua Winston, director, domestic sales, for the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, “The entire cruise port is undergoing renovations. It’s all intended to improve the efficiency of boarding passengers, especially with ships the size of the Allure and Oasis in port.

“We have had to continuously streamline things to make it easier for passengers to get on and off.”

Compact and convenient
The initiatives contribute to Fort Lauderdale’s major selling point – its geographic compactness with the airport, cruise terminals, beaches and hotels all within a short ride of each other and with good transportation between them via tram, monorail, taxi or shuttle.

That makes the destination convenient and easy for passengers and also provides them with great options for pre- and post- cruise stays, according to travel agents.

“One of the great advantages of sailing out of Fort Lauderdale is that everything is so convenient,” said Robert Duglin, director, sales and industry relations of the National Association of Career Travel Agents (NACTA).

“We even tell members to tell clients sailing out of Miami to fly into Fort Lauderdale because the airport works so well and fares are frequently cheaper than flying into Miami,” Duglin said. “We have been promoting Fort Lauderdale as a pre-  and post- destination for Miami sailings.”

Vicky White, of Seattle-based Vicky’s Travel, said she has her clients fly into Fort Lauderdale for Miami sailings “because it’s cheaper and easier.”

Dedicated to agents
Fort Lauderdale is continually working to ensure that agents get that message.

“Agents are our bread and butter and we are in constant contact with them for educational and relationship purposes,” Winston said.

“That takes the form of seminars, trade shows, individual appointments and any other way we can reach out to tell them our story and how they can make the most of sending clients to Fort Lauderdale for a cruise.”

A dedicated travel trade section on Fort Lauderdale’s Sunny.org site includes a compass guide providing valuable information for creating itineraries. It includes information on hotels offering shuttle transportation and other logistic details.

Another section contains suggestions for clients who have three hours or less in town before or after a cruise, Winston said. “And many of our hotels offer day rooms where travelers can check their bags and use the hotel facilities.”

Improving the cruise experience
Duglin said NACTA works with Fort Lauderdale and the cruise lines to improve the cruise experience. “One comment that I hear constantly is how efficiently they can board 6,000 people,” he said.

“I remember when Josh [Winston] was making presentations to agents around the country and promising a boarding from curbside to ship in under 15 minutes,” he said. “I did it twice – and he was right.”

“We knew that with the volume we had, that we had to be efficient; there are a lot of moving parts,” Winston said. “Separate from the ships we have the convention center in the cruise port so there is a lot of activity in a small area. But we have been able to facilitate all that and not have congestion as a result of good planning.”