American Cruise Lines adds Southwest Florida city as a stop on a “wildly popular” series of cruises.
Punta Gorda is reaping the tourism and economic benefits of having American Cruise Lines dock here as part of its itinerary on the cruise line’s Florida Gulf Coast & Keys cruises — which have been so successful that the cruise line is more than doubling the number of cruises in 2025.
While the benefits for tourism and the economy have yet to be quantified, the ships’ visits have been a definite boost, said Sean Doherty, tourism director at the Punta Gorda/Englewood Beach Visitor and Convention Bureau.
“While we don’t have specific numbers as far as economic impact of what they generate,” he said, it’s something they’ll look into with their research company and see if they can get a statistically viable number in the future.
But what Doherty could say is the people the cruises bring in are of a higher income level.
“As you probably know, the starting price for these cruises is not cheap.”
A high percentage of the passengers probably have never been to Punta Gorda before, he said, “So it’s really kind of a free opportunity for us to expose the destination to a lot of potential future visitors.”
The number of tours is increasing, so the number of visits is increasing, and the Punta Gorda stop is extremely popular with passengers, said Alexa Paolella, public relations manager for American Cruise Lines.
“We are always adding and including places where guests can enjoy a variety of shore excursions and experiences, and Punta Gorda checks all those boxes for sure,” she said. “Our guests love it.”
Paolella added that Punta Gorda was always on the list of stops from the beginning.
The remarkable thing is that the Visitor and Convention Bureau didn’t solicit the cruise line to stop here in the first place. It appears to be a gift from the tourism gods.
“I think it was my marketing director just kind of happened to be online, and came across it before they had started,” Doherty said of the cruises. “It was showing that they were going to be coming here, and we didn’t know anything about it at all.
“So, we reached out to them to say, ‘Hey, is there something we can do? How can we help you be successful here?’ And they were very appreciative of that outreach.
“And that’s when we got to talking about kind of setting them up with some of our local attractions. It was a nice, pleasant surprise to us, too, that they selected us without us really having to go solicit that at all.”
The Florida Gulf Coast & Keys cruise is an eight-day, seven-night cruise that starts in St. Petersburg, with stops in Marco Island, the Florida Keys and Punta Gorda on the way back. The ship does not stay overnight in Punta Gorda. The passengers come from all over the United States, with some Floridians, as well as international guests, Paolella said. All their ships accommodate just 90 to 125 passengers.
“One thing that’s kind of interesting about this cruise especially is, first of all, it was like sold out — wildly popular as soon as we introduced it,” Paolella said. American Cruise Lines often has a very high rebooking rate, and they cruise all over the United States, she said.
“So, guests who travel the Mississippi River with us and enjoy it will take 10 more cruises all over the country,” Paolella said. They might try cruising the Snake River, the Hudson River or Alaska. “You know, they might try a Florida cruise.”
The Florida Gulf Coast & Keys cruises began sailing at the end of 2023, with three cruises setting sail that December, Paolella said. In 2024, there were 18 cruises (which included 18 stops in Punta Gorda). In 2025, they will have 39 cruises — including 39 stops in Punta Gorda, she said.
The ship can’t actually dock at Punta Gorda because the water is too shallow at the dock, Paolella said, so the ship drops anchor offshore, and a tender takes the passengers to the Fishermen’s Village shopping, dining and entertainment venue and drops them off.
“The accolades we heard regarding the village, the excursions offered, and the hospitality was remarkable,” said Kathy Burnam, village marketing/events manager. “These first-time visitors to our area have a very positive influence on the economic impact as they represent hundreds if not thousands of people that will hear about our destination once they have visited.”
The visits are particularly important as the Punta Gorda area continues to recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, she said.
“The cruise ship visits will help share our story with the world when guests witness that our area of Southwest Florida is very much open for business and thriving despite experiencing two major hurricanes.”
While in Punta Gorda, there are several places besides the village that the passengers can choose to visit.
An itinerary can include venues such as the Peace River Botanical and Sculpture Garden, Artisan Village at Punta Gorda History Park, the Punta Gorda Military Heritage Museum, an “Iguana Island adventure,” Sunseeker Charlotte Harbor for a “resort pool experience,” or a visit to the Visual Arts Center.
This season began in December 2024 and will operate until mid-March 2025, Paolella said. They will visit Punta Gorda most Wednesdays into Thursdays, as well as Fridays into Saturdays (depending on the boat and its specific departure date).
The cruises will start again in November and December 2025 and continue into 2026. American Cruise Lines has a fleet of 21 small ships and riverboats, Paolella said.
“We have two more new boats coming out in 2025 that are going to sail this cruise specifically.” You can see them in November 2025 when they come online, she said. Beginning at the end of 2025, American has also added a new, longer cruise, the 15-Day Grand Florida Coast & Keys cruise, which will start on the east coast of Florida in Jacksonville and come all the way around to the Gulf Coast up to St. Petersburg, also stopping in Punta Gorda, Paolella said.
“I can tell you that those are all basically being added because people have loved the Florida Gulf Coast & Keys cruise.”
A third cruise has already been offered in Florida for a long time, she said: the 8-Day Great Florida River cruise. It’s a roundtrip from Jacksonville, visits Green Cove Springs and Ocala National Forest, sails along the St. Johns River and stops in St. Augustine.
