Welcome to Water World!

Florida tourism isn’t just the “House of the Mouse” and 663 miles of beaches.

Floating resorts, each the size of three football fields in length, are propelling an industry that is a bigger moneymaker than the state’s theme parks and recreational offerings. All the hotel rooms in the state cannot generate enough cash to match what the big three cruise lines rake in.

The cruise ship industry dominates large shares of statewide, national and global tourism — with Florida being at the epicenter of it all.

“Our market share is indisputable,” said Doug Wheeler, president and CEO of the Florida Ports Council.

Consider this:

More than 7 million cruisers said “bon voyage” in 2016 from one of Florida’s five ports that welcome cruise ships, according to Cruise Lines International Association’s most recent report, released last October. That accounts for 25 percent of all cruise passengers globally and 61 percent of all U.S. cruise ship travel.

Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, the three biggest cruise lines, all headquartered in Florida, generated $32.4 billion in combined revenue in 2017.

By comparison, Florida’s hotels and motels could only muster $25.7 billion in revenue, with amusements and recreation services only garnering $18 billion.

A fourth company, Disney Cruise Line, will position its four ships — Magic, Wonder, Dream and Fantasy — all in Florida at the same time and is committing to adding three more in the next decade.

Port Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades are three of the world’s most-traveled cruise ship ports.

Cruise lines are planning to unveil six new ships throughout 2018.

The cruise ship industry is responsible for 149,000 jobs in Florida.

Why cruising?

Much like the name of one of Royal Caribbean’s vessels, Allure of the Seas, cruise ships have a special attraction for travelers.

Embarking on a trip on one of the newer models quickly reveals they aren’t your average ocean-faring ships. They are floating vacation resorts where people may dine on upscale cuisine, view Broadway-style entertainment, relax by a pool and, on some ships, ride waves on a surfing simulator or zip line above the decks below them.

All this without driving from one place to another.

It helps that these ships also serve as the car and the hotel. They coast over the ocean while passengers rest comfortably in their staterooms, some of which offer views of the vast open seas through a window or outside from a balcony.

Cruise ships contain an eclectic range of onboard experiences while also providing access to top international vacation spots. A cruise requires passengers unpack only once for their travels.

All those are reasons that cruising is a preferred mode of travel for many Villagers.

Don’t believe it? Ask Dianne Zalewski, who recently gave a presentation to The Villages Worldwide Foreign Travel Club about a monthlong cruise she took to the South Pacific.

“You get in one room, unpack and you can be gone for weeks or months and never have to pack and unpack again,” said Zalewski, of the Village of Sanibel. “That’s a big deal for someone who’s handling the packing of a suitcase for a couple.”

The appeal of this convenience explains why resident lifestyle clubs like the 2nd Honeymoon Club offer group cruise travel as part of their activities, whether it is for two days or two weeks.

It explains why travel agencies in and around The Villages often organize cruises based around the community’s lifestyle, including sailings with popular local entertainers like Scooter the DJ.

Scooter organizes the trips with the help of local agent Jane Ellen Greenwood. He draws up to 110 Villages residents on each cruise.

“The fun for me is I get to meet these guys that I’d regularly just see in the crowd,” said Scooter, whose real name is Michael Miller. “I’d get to have a margarita in Margaritaville in Jamaica with them. I get to be me and they get to be them.”

Interest from Villagers is just one reason cruise travel is a critical component of Florida’s tourism industry.

The Sunshine State is the origin of more than half of all cruise ship embarkations in the nation and more than a quarter of all embarkations in the world, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, a cruise industry trade organization based in Washington, D.C.

It’s an advantage that didn’t come by accident. Florida is home to the most cruise ship departure ports of any state, with five: PortMiami in Miami, Port Canaveral in Brevard County, Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Port Tampa Bay in Tampa and Jaxport in Jacksonville.

A cruise leader

If you’re like the majority of cruise ship travelers leaving from a U.S. port, your trip most likely began in Florida.

With more than half of the nation’s cruise ship embarkations, Florida is “the center of cruising in the U.S.,” according to the cruise lines association.

And the number of cruisers traveling from Florida is growing with the cruise industry.

The more than 7 million who did so in 2016 grew by about 188,000 cruisers from 2014 — CLIA did not issue an economic impact report on cruise travel in 2015 — and more than 1.1 million cruisers from 2011. The trade group is expected to issue its 2017 findings in the fall.

It helps not only to have five cruise ship departure ports, but to have three of the most traveled in the world: 2.5 million passengers at PortMiami, 2.09 million at Port Canaveral and 1.84 million at Port Everglades, CLIA stated.

To date, those three are the only U.S. ports to attract annual embarkations in the millions.

And all passengers departing from the five Florida ports represented more than 25 percent of the world’s 24.7 million passengers in 2016.

“The cruising public is still a small part of people who take a vacation,” said Ellen Kennedy, spokeswoman for Port Everglades.

Perhaps it shows in the numbers of cruise travelers outside the big three Florida ports.

Galveston, Texas — the fourth-largest U.S. port — attracted 869,000 passengers in 2016, 971,000 fewer than Port Everglades.

The fifth, Long Beach, California, drew 591,000 passengers. That’s 278,000 passengers fewer than Galveston and more than 1.2 million fewer than Port Everglades.

Carnival is the only cruise line to position ships in all five of the state’s ports, allowing it to thrive on Florida’s dominance in the industry.

“We have been based in Miami since our inception in 1972 and have a call center in Miramar, so needless to say, Florida has been key to our success,” said Vance Gulliksen, of Carnival.

The more than 7 million cruisers who departed in 2016 from a Florida port accounted for about 61 percent of the more than 11 million cruise ship embarkations from U.S. ports and represented more than 25 percent of the world’s 24.7 million passengers that year.

Who cruises?

Cruise ships attract vacationers of all ages because of the wide range of activities and itineraries offered, as well as the different classes of ships that range from the contemporary to the luxurious.

Royal Caribbean cited such an inherent broad appeal to explain why it markets the brand to couples both young and old, as well as families with children of all ages.

Though interest in cruising tended to skew older, experts see a demographic shift emerging in cruise travel.

In its 2017 State of the Cruise Industry outlook, CLIA anticipated cruise growth among younger generations like millennials and Generation X.

Younger generations viewed cruising more positively than land-based vacations, all-inclusive resorts, tours, vacation house rentals and camping, CLIA spokeswoman Sarah Kennedy said in a statement about the outlook.

European river cruises, traditionally favored by baby boomers, are now becoming just as popular among millennials, according to CLIA’s 2018 outlook.

New itineraries and destination experiences, as well as opportunities for “Instagram moments” while on board, encouraged the spark in interest among millennials.

Conscious of this shift, the Los Angeles-based river cruise line Uniworld introduced a new brand of ships for passengers ages 21 to 45. U by Uniworld, which offers nine itineraries in Europe, boasts amenities that include rooftop yoga and silent discos.

The major ocean cruise lines acknowledged trends among baby boomers and millennials favor big cruise business.

For boomers, it’s their active lifestyles, their desire and means to travel, and interest in multi-generational travel experiences, Carnival officials stated in a report.

For millennials, now the fastest growing demographic segment of the travel industry, it’s their strong desire to travel and willingness to share new experiences with others.

“We believe the cruise industry is well positioned to meet travelers’ desires and has the ability to tailor experiences for each guest based on their unique wants and needs, which should foster growth for the cruise industry,” Carnival’s report stated.

The best gets better

What keeps tourists coming to Florida ports?

The answer might seem obvious: the ships.

Florida’s ports attract the cruise lines’ largest and most innovative ships, and it’s also where they come to up their game.

This year, when Symphony of the Seas eclipses Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class with its 228,000 tons and capacity to carry more than 6,600 passengers, it will sail this winter from Miami for Bahamas and Caribbean cruises. Prior to that, it will sail its maiden voyage in the Mediterranean Sea.

Symphony has 18 decks, seven neighborhoods, a 10-story slide called the Ultimate Abyss, a trio of water slides collectively known as the Perfect Storm, laser tag, and 18 restaurants.

“We set out to create a new level of vacation adventure and deliver the ultimate escape for families of all shapes and sizes,” Royal Caribbean President and CEO Michael Bayley said in a statement. “Symphony will introduce the most cutting-edge, customizable and digitally-enhanced experiences in the Royal Caribbean fleet.”

Symphony is just one of six ships sailing from Florida that will debut in 2018, making up half of the 12 new ocean liners CLIA anticipates this year.

Here’s what else Florida cruisers may expect with new vessels:

• Miami will become the year-round home port for Carnival Cruise Line’s latest ship, the Carnival Horizon, a 133,000-ton ship with a Dr. Seuss-themed water park, a multiplex and a craft brewery. The Horizon will arrive in November following sailings from Barcelona and New York.

• Norwegian Cruise Line will position its new 167,800-ton ship, the Norwegian Bliss, in the winter season in Miami for weeklong Caribbean trips. Prior to that, the ship — which features a go-kart race track and laser tag among its amenities — will sail summer cruises to Alaska from Seattle, starting with its maiden voyage on May 30.

• Port Everglades will welcome the arrival of the Celebrity Edge, the first in the line’s newest class of cruise ships. It is scheduled to undergo a series of preview sailings in November before its Dec. 9 maiden voyage.

• Holland America Line will debut the MS Nieuw Statendam on Christmas weekend in Port Everglades, sailing to the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

• Scenic Luxury Cruises Tours will offer voyages from Miami to Cuba among the itineraries aboard its latest ship, the Scenic Eclipse.

Beyond 2018, cruise lines intend to continue incorporating Florida into their strategies to keep residents’ and visitors’ cruising options wide open.

“We are constantly repositioning our ships to different home ports to keep our product fresh and exciting for our guests and Florida ports will see several new ship deployments over the next year or so,” Gulliksen said. “Florida has been critical to our success for the past 45 years and we’re looking forward to many new and exciting developments going forward.”

How Florida builds cruising business

With more cruises beginning from Florida ports than anywhere else in the world, it makes sense that much of the cruising business also happens in Florida.

And it’s not limited to Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

Luxury ocean liners Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises also call Miami home.

Disney Cruise Line’s corporate offices are in Celebration, the community the Walt Disney Company developed to complement its Orlando-area theme parks. Fittingly, all of Disney’s ships sail from Florida ports.

Just last year, the Los Angeles-based luxury liner Crystal Cruises opened a 40,000-square-foot satellite office in Miami.

And on Feb. 14, Gov. Rick Scott announced Virgin Voyages will create 300 new jobs with the opening of its headquarters in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Plantation. Virgin Voyages, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s foray in the cruise business, is scheduled to debut its first ship in 2020.

“As a top tourism destination, the gateway to Latin America and one of the most business-friendly states, Florida is the best place for Virgin Voyages’ new headquarters,” Scott said in a statement about Virgin Voyages’ impact on Florida jobs.

All this aids Florida’s economy as it reaps the benefits of the business side of cruising as well as the tourism side.

In 2016, Florida generated $7.97 billion in revenue from cruising, an industry responsible for more than 149,000 jobs in the state, CLIA stated.

California was a distant second with $2.37 billion in revenue and more than 47,000 cruise industry jobs last year.

“Florida is not only the center for cruise launches,” CLIA President Cindy D’Aoust said in a statement, “it is the capital of nearly all aspects of the cruise industry.”

And it all started with a car ferry.

The Norwegian Caribbean Line — known today as Norwegian Cruise Line — arrived in 1966 in Miami with cruises to the Caribbean aboard the resort-style accommodations of its Sunward ship, a former car ferry in Europe.

At the time, Miami’s port was little known.

But tourists began to flock there as they became curious about experiencing the phenomenon of a ship that serves as a destination itself, as Norwegian put it in its company history.

Today, cruising is a draw to people who live here as well.

One factor driving Norwegian’s growth is interest from Florida residents, citing how accessible the ports are from their homes, Norwegian spokeswoman Andrea Sugranes said.

“Cruisers from The Villages can start their vacation in less than two hours when departing on one of Norwegian Cruise Line’s sailings from Port Canaveral or Tampa,” she said. “Having port cities so close allows our guests to continue cruising to new destinations with Norwegian year after year.”

It also helps that the port cities are close to other popular destinations, Wheeler said.

“We have areas people want to visit,” Wheeler said. “If cruisers are going to Canaveral, they can go to Disney. There’s people internationally who will go on a cruise specifically to come to Florida.”

The Canaveral Port Authority, which oversees Port Canaveral, touted its location close to Orlando, Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center as one of the reasons for its success over the years.

Port Canaveral generates about $6 million per day for Central Florida, port authority spokeswoman Diane Luensmann said, citing a 2016 report.

Serving as the year-round home port for some of the largest cruise ships in the world, including Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas, also positioned Canaveral for growth, she said.

And Port Tampa Bay, the closest seaport to The Villages, is not far from Tampa’s attractions and airport, port spokesman Greg Lovelace said.

But there is one key accessibility advantage that all Florida ports have, Jenkins said.

“The location of the state is convenient to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and now Cuba,” he said.

Michael Salerno is a senior writer with The Villages Daily Sun. He can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5369, or michael.salerno@thevillagesmedia.com.