As the full moon sank under the horizon, the light of the silhouette palm tree tree of Jetty Park greeted the arrival of the world’s largest cruise ship at its new home port on Florida’s space shore.
Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Sea, the company’s second icon class ship, docked to Port Canaveral on Saturday and will begin sailing on August 16th while on vacation. The giant ship can accommodate 5,610 passengers with twice the residents, and more than 7,000 passengers with full capacity passengers, as well as a crew of 2,350.
Playing both hosts of Royal Caribbean’s newest and second-newest ship, the Oasis class sea, is a sign of Port Canaveral’s growth. This is the second busiest cruise terminal in the world by the passenger movement just behind Port Miami.
“Port Canaveral has recently acquired many new ships. I think Star of the Seas, the crown jewel of the Royal Caribbean fleet, is a great sign of the incredible impact Port Canaveral has on the cruising industry.” “I think passengers love having a ship of this size sailing from Port Canaveral.”
Colonel John Murray, CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority, said growth was driven by the arrival of newer, larger vessels that could accommodate more passengers per itinerary.
“We’ve grown double digits each year over the past few years. It’s driven primarily by large ships. There are calls to the same two royal Caribbean ships at Cruise Terminal 1, but the ship is exponentially larger than it was eight or nine years ago,” he said. “Success creates success. When there is a ship like this, more people want to get off and have a great experience. And they want to go back to Port Canaveral.”
Murray also pointed out that the ship itself becomes a destination as frequent cruisers have visited again and again as they are tired of their port destinations.
“If you want to go to Mardi Gras at Carnival, you might want to have a roller coaster or be on one of the Norwegian cruise line ships with a race track on the top deck,” he said. “If I’ve been to the port 10 times, I didn’t really care about getting off. A lot of people get off, so I’ll lead the boat to myself.”
With so many amenities, passengers have a lot to do. It’s good for business.
“Cruising really makes money from the way people get on board,” McDaniel said. “It’s where you get more benefits for them to participate and more people to spend more people.”
In addition to numerous water slides and pools, Star of the Seas features Crown’s Edge Aerial Adventure Course, Rock Climbing Wall, Miniature Golf Course, Sports Court, Flow Rider Surf Simulator, Laser Tag, Escape Room and Karaoke. The family can also enjoy ice skate shows entertainment for “Back to the Future: The Musical” and other theatrical experiences imagined for the 82-foot-tall 164-foot-wide glass and metal aqua dome.
Like the sea icon currently sailing from Miami, Star of the Seas is organized into eight regions, each designed for different activities and age groups. For example, Surfside caters to younger families, Central Park hosts food and drinking destinations, and Chill Island hosts four of the seven pools on the ship.
McDaniel, who experienced the stars firsthand while sailing, said the ship was accessible to passengers of all ages.
“It’s a beautiful ship, especially for families with a way to set up the ship,” she said. “One of the things that this class of ship does very well is managing the flow of passengers. People droop and find places they want to efficiently move from one place to another without feeling like they have thousands of people sharing the ship.”
The ship will make its debut at Port Canaveral in the summer of 2024 and will alternate between its eastern and western Caribbean itineraries in collaboration with Royal Utopia of the Sea to continue its three- and four-night Bahamas itinerary.
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Original issue: August 9, 2025, 7:40am EDT
