Carnival Liberty Becomes Latest Cruise Ship at Port Everglades

Carnival Liberty arrived at Port Everglades on last week, the second-largest cruise ship by passenger capacity ever to sail from Broward County.

The 2,974-passenger Carnival Cruise Lines ship will alternate between six- and eight-night Caribbean cruises, after a two-night introductory cruise to the Bahamas.

It marks a trend toward fewer but larger cruise ships debuting at South Florida ports.

For the 2005-2006 winter season, only two new cruise ships are scheduled to debut at Port Everglades, down from four last year and seven in 2003-2004.

Port officials say the trend reflects a decline in cruise shipbuilding, in part because of unfavorable exchange rates for the euro. Almost all cruise ships are built in Europe. A second factor is that cruise lines are sailing from more ports outside Florida.

For the first time since 2003, the port expects multi-day cruise passengers to decline. It had 1.4 million in 2005 and expects around 1.25 million in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. At the Port of Palm Beach, about half a million people cruise annually, most on day cruises.

The Floridian port gets about $25.2 million annually from cruises that aren´t single-day cruises.