Port Canaveral finances are holding up well as new Disney ship joins the party – Orlando Sentinel

As Disney Cruise Line gears up with its first new ship departing from Port Canaveral in more than a decade, the port is already over budget eight months into the fiscal year.

Disney Wish is set to have its port baptism on Wednesday and begin sailing with customers on July 14. This sailing start date is actually six weeks past what the port originally planned, and cruise revenue through May is actually behind plan.

But cruise berth revenues are booming, alongside rising cargo and leisure revenues.

For the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2021 and ends Sept. 30, 2022, the port took in $78.5 million in operating revenue, $6.1 million more than budget, according to the port’s chief financial officer, Michael Poole.

Revenue from self-parking cruises made up the bulk of it at $59.9 million, $3.9 million above budget. In eight months, the port has seen 548 cruise calls pass through nearly 2.4 million multi-day passengers.

Due to some cancellations in January related to the omicron variant of COVID-19 as well as the Carnival Freedom funnel fire which canceled some sailings, the port’s expected cruise revenue took a hit, a bit. more than $1.9 million less than expected.

But parking went over budget by nearly $6 million in those eight months.

To date, freight has generated $11.8 million, $1.6 million over budget, moving 4.3 million tons of timber, slag, granite, limestone, fertilizer , salt and fuel.

And recreation, particularly driven by the Jetty Park entrance fee, generated $2.8 million, or $634,000 over budget. The only other items that posted losses were rental income of $2.8 million, down $68,000, and miscellaneous income down slightly, but still bringing in $1.2 million.

Expenses also continue to be under budget, costing the port just over $31 million for the year, nearly $1.6 million under budget.

So the port is still on track to top what would be a record year through FY22, which forecast $109.2 million in operating revenue. The previous record high came in fiscal 2019 when the port brought in over $106 million. It was on course to record revenue in 2020 with the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, limping to just $67 million in 2020, followed by a dismal $34.5 million in 2021, the lowest for nearly 20 years old.