Celebrity Cruises set sail from Florida’s Port Canaveral for the first time ever this week, setting out on a week-long journey to the warm Caribbean.
The cruise line set sail from its newest homeport on its Celebrity Equinox ship on Tuesday, Celebrity shared with Travel + Leisure. Travelers will now be able to board seven-night voyages from the central Florida port through April 2025 heading to popular destinations like the Bahamas, St. Maarten, Puerto Rico, Belize, and beyond.
The cruise line will also sail from the port to Royal Caribbean’s private island, Perfect Day at CocoCay, which Celebrity started visiting earlier this year. Both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are part of the Royal Caribbean Group.
“At Celebrity we are continually striving to elevate our guests’ vacation experience from start to finish, and are delighted to offer even more ways to relax, unwind and explore the Caribbean,” Laura Hodges Bethge, the president of Celebrity Cruises, said in a statement shared with T+L. “The addition of Port Canaveral offers guests the ultimate flexibility for their perfect Caribbean getaway.”
On board, the Celebrity Equinox welcomes 2,852 guests and features more than 20 food and beverage options along with a seemingly endless array of activities from Pickleball to glass blowing classes, and more.
For its part, Port Canaveral sits along Florida’s Space Coast and offers access to popular destinations like NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and Cocoa Beach. In addition to Celebrity, the port serves several other major cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and MSC Cruises.
Celebrity said it will plan to expand its presence at the port in winter 2025 with 7-night sailings on the Celebrity Apex, a 2,910-guest ship.
In total, Celebrity sails more than a dozen ships from its oldest, the Celebrity Millennium, to the newest Celebrity Ascent, which launched in 2023 as the fourth ship in the cruise line's Edge class.