During the March 24th meeting of commissioners, Port Canaveral shared an update on the renovation project at the Disney Cruise Terminal (CT8) during a review of the ongoing capital projects at the port.

The arial image below shows the expanded terminal entrance way and passenger arrival plaza. The roadway was recently been sealed and the lane markers re-painted.

The expanded passenger arrival area is now an indoor, air-conditioned area with a unique ceiling which helps dampen noise to help the Cast Members better communicate with arriving guests.

According to the port, the completion and certificate of occupancy date is slated for April 6, 2021. If you are looking on the bright side of the industry shutdown, the port’s contractors were able to work full steam ahead and complete the renovation of Cruise Terminal 8 without any disruption to cruise passengers and eliminated the need to shift operations to Cruise Terminal 10 during the renovation.

One the waterside of the Disney Cruise Terminal, the renovation included a number of improvements including the filling in various gaps in the pier deck, replacement and additional mooring fixtures and strength the pier deck for the new passenger boarding bridge. These improvements were needed for the new Triton class vessels beginning with the Disney Wish. Additional work on CT-10 includes filling in various gaps in the pier deck, electrical work at the pier and a new mooring dolphin. Disney has a use agreement for CT-10 allowing them to have two ships in port if the schedule dictates. As of today’s meeting, all major items have been completed on this project. The contractor is currently working on the installation of replacement waterline hangers under the CT10 pier, as well as, working on correction of minor punch-list items.

Another improvement at the terminal is the installation of a new passenger gangway to replace the existing many of us have used when boarding a Disney Cruise ship at Port Canaveral.

The new passenger boarding bridge was designed and built by ADELTE in Barcelona, Spain for $2,810,000. The passenger board bridge is a jetway style bridge which features self leveling features and utilizes laser sensors to continually reposition to the bridge to the ship adjusting the the rise and fall of the ships due to the tides and other movement. This was previously a manual adjustment process.

The main support column was installed in February, and the passenger boarding bridge is now structurally complete and assembled. However, it will take a few more weeks to finish the targeting an end of April, early May commissioning date.

The old passenger boarding bridge is being sold to the Port of Palm Beach for $105,000 which in turn saved the port thousands in demolition costs.