Norwegian Sun, shown here in Vancouver, BC, will
homeport for the winter in Port Canaveral, Florida.
Photo © Aaron Saunders
This October, Port Canaveral is preparing to welcome back a friend who's been absent for eleven years.
Norwegian Cruise Line last homeported a ship in Port Canaveral during the winter of 1999, when the Norwegian Crown (now Fred.Olsen's Balmoral) sailed on week-long roundtrips to Bermuda. In more recent yeas, the volatile economy, along with a pronounced shift in passenger interests, led NCL to redeploy some of their fleet to more in-demand - and profitable -destinations.
The result is that the 2001-built Norwegian Sun was sent across the Atlantic to spend her summers cruising the Baltics, bringing her long-standing service cruising Alaskan waters to an end. This winter, instead of returning to Miami for her Caribbean season, she will call Port Canaveral home, operating week-long voyages that call at a variety of Eastern and Western Caribbean ports.
Located approximately forty-five minutes from Orlando International Airport, Port Canaveral first experimented with hosting cruise ships in the early 1980's by turning a disused warehouse on the waterfront into a cruise terminal. Since then, the terminal has played host to numerous cruise lines eager to offer an alternative to the congestion of Fort Lauderdale and Miami, yet still provide a gateway for ships sailing to the Bahamas and Caribbean.
Port Canaveral's most famous tenant is arguably Disney Cruise Line, which constructed its very own purpose-built terminal in 1998 to serve the then-new Disney Magic and Disney Wonder. Since then, the port has attracted considerable interest from Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and now NCL. In addition, numerous lines include Port Canaveral as an itinerary stop, owing to its close proximity to Walt Disney World and Kennedy Space Centre.
For more information on Norwegian Sun's season of Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages from Port Canaveral, be sure to check out their website.
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