The Port of Palm Beach is in active talks with multiple cruise companies as it works to expand a cruise business that already moves more than a quarter of a million passengers a year, Executive Director Michael Meekins told Cruise Industry News.

The negotiations come two years after the port completed a master plan aimed at growing its cruise traffic. "We completed a master plan back in 2023 regarding increasing our cruise business, and that entails going ahead and making the terminal more acceptable to more vessels," Meekins said.

The push lands as the port marks a century in passenger shipping. The Mary Weems, the first passenger ship to call at Palm Beach, docked on January 3, 1926, and made 13 trips to New York between 1926 and 1927.

What does the expansion involve?

The physical work is focused on squeezing more capacity out of a facility that currently operates a single berth. Meekins outlined the scope:

• A lengthened berth with additional moorings
• Terminal upgrades designed to accommodate more passengers
• An upgraded parking area
• New canopies and additional baggage drop-off areas
• Facial recognition technology

The single-berth setup also brings an operational advantage the port intends to keep: little congestion, which translates into shorter lines and faster boarding for passengers.

"We are also concentrating on making the berth a little bit longer, adding some moorings and doing upgrades in the terminal that will allow for more passengers," Meekins said. "All those upgrades are so that we can look towards the future of cruising and make sure that we're a part of it."

The port is not rushing the design. Meekins said Palm Beach is relying on outside experts and engineers to determine the best approach, framing caution as protection for a business already running well.

"The one thing you don't want to do is take a good thing that you've worked very hard on making good and make a mistake," he said. "We'll work on it together (with experts) to make the best possible product."

Why has the passenger count shifted?

The port's biggest cruise client, Margaritaville at Sea, has changed its sailing program, and that shift has affected passenger numbers, Meekins confirmed. The line remains the anchor tenant of the port's cruise operation.

Margaritaville at Sea Paradise has been based at Palm Beach since April 2022, sailing year-round. From 2026, the ship adds four- and five-night Caribbean itineraries to its program — a change that extends the product beyond the short-break format the port has historically handled and could reshape annual passenger throughput in either direction.

Even with the programming shift, the port still handles more than 250,000 cruise passengers a year.

How does the port measure success?

Meekins said management judges cruise calls not by volume alone but by customer service — the speed and ease of the boarding and disembarkation experience.

"You're seeing passengers not have to wait in lines, not be in a congested area, getting in and out just as quickly as they can," he said. "The first thing you remember is your experience getting onto the ship and your last experience is leaving the ship. So, if any of those are bad, it does not help our clients."

The port positions the terminal experience as part of the vacation product itself. "We kind of pride ourselves on the fact that their vacation starts from the moment they pull into the port, because none of it should be a hassle all the way through," Meekins added. "We're always looking to improve upon what we do and get better at it every day."

For sellers and operators watching Florida's crowded cruise distribution market, the message is that a century-old single-berth port intends to compete for more homeport business — with terminal upgrades, new itineraries from its anchor client in 2026, and conversations with additional cruise lines already underway.