Royal Caribbean Megaships to Call Fort Lauderdale Home

Royal Caribbean International will homeport its two 5,400-passenger Genesis-class ships in Port Everglades, making the Fort Lauderdale port home to the two largest cruise ships ever built.

Broward County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the deal between Royal Caribbean and the port. Under the agreement, the first of the 220,000-ton ships will begin sailing year-round from Port Everglades in fall 2009, with the second ship scheduled to enter service one year later.

The Genesis ships, which are under construction in Finland, are expected to add approximately 584,000 passengers per year at Port Everglades, the port said.

Earlier this year, Royal Caribbean was in talks with Port Everglades, the Port of Miami and Port Canaveral about homeporting the mega-ships. Port Everglades said that the agreement would allow it to surpass Miami and Canaveral as the world’s largest cruise port within the next five years.

As part of the agreement, Port Everglades said that Royal Caribbean would reimburse up to $37.4 million in capital expenditures for expansion and related infrastructure needs of Terminal 18, which is already one of the largest cruise passenger terminals worldwide.