Thursday, December 23
From the declining fortunes department: Figures just released show the world's busiest cruise port, the Port of Miami, is a little less busy these days with declines in the number of cruise passengers boarded. The port has been losing cruise business since 9-11 as a result of cruise lines establishing homeports at numerous places around the country outside the traditional South Florida "cruise capital," but this year, as the main culprits, the port cites the loss of Norway's weekly turnarounds at the port and last fall's hurricanes. Even though the number of passengers declined by 12%, the port still handled 3.5 million passengers, a figure most ports would love to have even a fraction of. The port said they expect figures to rebound to about 4 million next year thanks to Carnival Cruise Lines basing the new larger Carnival Valor there.