More than one million cruise passengers passed through the Port’s cruise terminals, as new and larger ships found a home port in the Crescent City, the port said in a statement.
“We set our goal to surpass the one million-passenger-mark a few years ago,” President and CEO Gary LaGrange said. “Well, we did it thanks to our valued cruise partners, a strong marketing effort and continued investment into first-class facilities.”
And those figures could rise again, as Carnival Cruise Line will increase its capacity for its four- and five-day year-round itineraries by 34% in April when the Carnival Elation is replaced by the Carnival Triumph. Port officials will also welcome 19 cruise ship ports of call to New Orleans from seven different ships and five cruise lines over the next year.
“A third cruise terminal at Poland Avenue is expected to be completed in late 2017,” LaGrange said. “That project will free berthing space for additional home-ported cruise ships and allow us to aggressively market New Orleans as a unique port of call.”
River cruising is also growing in New Orleans, as American Cruise Line will add a third sternwheeler to its homeported New Orleans fleet when the America joins ACL’s Queen of the Mississippi and American Eagle in April. ACL’s expansion is in addition to Viking River Cruises plan to establish its first North American homeport in New Orleans by 2017.