Disney Cruise Line Takes One Step Closer to Finalizing a New Year-Round Port

Disney Cruise Line is not fully back up and running just yet.

Disney Cruise Line Wonder Ship

It has been running staycation cruises in the United Kingdom, and Disney recently ran a test sailing from Florida, but a variety of Disney’s cruises have been canceled through part of this year. But, Disney’s looking well into the future when it comes to cruising and now we’ve got an update on Disney Cruise Line’s potential new homeport!

Back in early May of this year, we shared that Disney Cruise Line was in talks for a new year-round port in Florida, specifically at Port Everglades. This would be their first year-round port outside of Port Canaveral.

Later in May, the Broward County Commission approved the start of negotiations between Port Everglades and Disney Cruise Line about this new opportunity.

Disney Cruise Line Terminal

But, what has happened since that approval of the negotiations and what’s the status on this potential new year-round port now? Well, the Broward County Commission held a meeting on June 15th, 2021 and a motion related to Disney Cruise Line was on the agenda.

According to the legislation details shared on the Commission’s website, on June 15th the Commission considered a motion to authorize the Broward County Administrator to execute a Marine Terminal and Berth User Agreement between Broward County and Disney Cruise Line. This agreement would, however, be subject to final review by the County Attorney’s office.

Disney Dream

The legislation details share how the Board approved the start of the negotiations for this agreement back in May as we discussed above. It also notes how Disney and Port Everglades held a fact-finding meeting on May 20th and negotiations on June 8th.

The legislation details share that prior to the June 15th meeting by the Board of County Commissioners, Disney and Port Everglades were still finalizing the business terms of their agreement based on their prior negotiations. The final version of the agreement is set to be ready for signing before the end of the Broward County Board of County Commissioners’ summer recess.

Disney Dream

The legislation details also state that by authorizing the County Administrator to execute the Agreement with Disney before the end of the summer recess, that will allow the staff at Port Everglades to start getting everything ready to make some terminal and berth improvements before Disney starts conducting any cruise activity from the port.

Let’s Set Sail!

When could Disney start using Port Everglades as a homeport? Well, the legislation details share that allowing the parties to sign this agreement during the summer recess also gives Disney enough time to make decisions about its ships associated with “homeporting from Port Everglades starting in the 2023-2024 cruise season.” So, it seems 2023-2024 could be the cruise season Disney is targeting as the start of its use of Port Everglades as a homeport.

Disney Dream

Again, the motion to authorize the Broward County Administrator to execute the Marine Terminal and Berth User Agreement between Broward County and Disney Cruise Line was brought up at the Board of County Commissioners meeting on June 15th. Upon review of the Board action details you can see that this particular motion was approved by a vote of 9-0. So it seems things are moving forward!