PORT CANAVERAL — Central Florida’s buffet of cruise line options increased this week again with the arrival of Celebrity Cruises for the first time.

The Celebrity Equinox began calling Port Canaveral home on Monday following the arrival of Princess Cruises last month. The ship began its regular winter season of seven-night Caribbean itineraries Saturday.

“We finally convinced them that this is the right move and we’re really happy to have the ship here,” port CEO Capt. John Murray said after a welcome ceremony on board. “It’s one of our most requested brands.”

The arrival of the two lines marks a significant expansion for the port dipping its toes into the premium market along with mainstays Disney, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to do for a long time. The premium product is more diverse,” Murray said. “We have a lot of Floridians that, to be honest, don’t want to drive through the traffic (of South Florida) if they can avoid it. Port Canaveral makes it so much easier to get on and off a ship. So having the premium brands here is seen as a real advantage to the Celebrity cruise guests.”

The ship’s arrival ups the number of homeported ships to 15 for the first time, a number that will grow by one before the end of the year with the arrival of Carnival Venezia.

Murray said the port will have more than 80 days during the busy winter and spring sailing seasons with at least five and many times six ships in port.

Saturday was just such a day, and the Equinox arrival tops off a year of firsts for the port, which saw record passenger traffic near 7.6 million — keeping it just behind PortMiami for busiest cruise port in the world.

Aside from welcoming the two new cruise lines for the first time, the port’s increasing popularity has in recent years meant it, and not South Florida, has been the debut choice for some of the cruise lines’ newest vessels.

That included the arrival this past summer of Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas, the sixth Oasis-class vessel. The port is also on tap to welcome what will be the world’s largest cruise ship when Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas arrives in 2025.

It also has continued to be the home port of choice of Disney Cruise Line’s new ships with Disney Treasure set to begin sailing with passengers later this month. That ship will become part of a three-ship, year-round presence in Port Canaveral for the first time.

Royal Caribbean’s choices from the port also have swelled with the arrival this week of a fifth ship for the brand — Voyager of the Seas.

For Celebrity, though, a sister line to Royal Caribbean, it’s a first foray into what has been a lucrative drive-in market outside of South Florida.

Murray said the Equinox getting one of the prime spots to sail on Saturday should attract a lot of interest.

“It’s good fit because it’s a different brand. It caters to more of an adult audience,” he said. “All of our brands are diverse and each cater to a specific client, but this is just a different type of ship. The ships are smaller, a little more luxurious, not as many children on board. It’s just different design, different feel, different experience.”

The 2,852-passenger, 122,000-gross-ton vessel debuted in 2009.

Part of the line’s Solstice class, it had a multimillion-dollar overhaul in 2019 adding an exclusive area for suite guests called The Retreat. It also has features like Craft Social with a selection of more than 40 microbrews, a reworked open marketplace-style buffet and its popular Le Petit Chef dining experience that combines animated projections that interact with the courses of dinner.

Shipwide, Equinox has 11 food and beverage options, two pools on the open-air deck plus one for the adults-only indoor solarium. A fan favorite of the vessel is the real grass lawn installed on the top deck.

It will sail mostly seven-night Caribbean itineraries through April 19, 2025, with stops including the Bahamas, Belize, Grand Cayman, Mexico, San Juan and St. Maarten. Two of the sailings in March 2025 will also visit Royal Caribbean’s private Bahamas island playland Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Murray said the brand has committed to sail from the port for at least three seasons but has yet to announce just which ships it might deploy in the future.

“I think you’ll find that our drive-in market is a very, very strong market and you’ll learn as we go that you’re going to have to get a bigger ship in here and maybe a few more,” Murray said to Celebrity officials during the ceremony. “But we’ll start with this one and we’ll go from there.”