Home › Port guides › Jacksonville
Jacksonville: JAXPORT
One terminal, one berth, parking right outside it that never sells out, and a published price you can read before you leave home.
Free, no email required. Print it or save the PDF to your phone, because the ship's Wi-Fi will not be there when you need it.
| Terminal | JAXPORT Cruise Terminal, 9810 August Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32226. Operated by the Jacksonville Port Authority. |
|---|---|
| Berth | Berth 10: 1,289 feet long, 40 feet of water at mean low water |
| Parking | $17 a day standard, $34 a day oversized, Florida sales tax included |
| Airport | Jacksonville International, approximately 12 miles |
Who sails from here
| Carnival Cruise Line | Year-round. Carnival Elation, 2,697 passengers, on four- and five-day Bahamas sailings. |
|---|---|
| Norwegian Cruise Line | Seasonal, November through April. Norwegian Gem, 2,344 guests, on four-day Bahamas plus 11- and 12-day Caribbean sailings, under an agreement running through 2028. |
Parking at the port
Jacksonville is the easiest departure port in Florida to plan, because JAXPORT publishes actual totals rather than hiding them behind a date picker.
| Standard vehicle | $17 a day. A four-day cruise is $68, a five-day cruise $85. Florida sales tax included. |
|---|---|
| Oversized vehicle | $34 a day. Four days $136, five days $170. An oversized vehicle is defined as any vehicle taking up more than one regular space. |
| Reservations | None needed. JAXPORT states space is not limited and spaces sit immediately next to the terminal. |
On payment methods, three official pages disagree: JAXPORT's parking page says major credit card only, its cruise FAQ says cash or credit cards accepted, and Carnival says credit card only. Take a card.
Free parking if you qualify
Free parking applies only when the vehicle is carrying the person with the disability and meets one of: specialised adaptive equipment fitted, a Florida Disabled Veteran licence plate, or a Florida Toll Exemption permit. A standard disabled placard alone does not qualify. JAXPORT does separately provide designated accessible parking spaces.
Parking off the port
There is barely any, and for a good reason: the port's own lot is adjacent, never sells out and needs no reservation, so nobody has built a business next door. The one first-party option we found is the Fairfield Inn & Suites Jacksonville Airport, which advertises a Park and Cruise offer on Marriott's own site but publishes no rate, no parking duration and no shuttle detail on the readable page. Everything else that surfaces is a reselling marketplace.
Getting there
JAXPORT publishes its franchised taxi and shuttle service on 904-222-2222 for travel between the cruise terminal and Jacksonville International, and a general taxi number on 904-999-9999 and shuttle on 800-258-3826. There are no rental car agencies at the terminal. No fares are published for any of these.
Arriving
JAXPORT says to arrive during the scheduled arrival appointment window reserved through Carnival. On the way home, self-assist debarkation starts around 7:15am and general debarkation around 10:15am. Carnival's line-wide rules apply: checked baggage until two hours before published departure, porters for guests arriving before 1:30pm, and a Final Boarding time on your boarding pass.
The terminal has a small shop selling drinks, snacks and sundries. There are no lockers.
Accessibility
The single most useful thing JAXPORT publishes, and the easiest to miss: a dedicated shuttle and special-needs transportation line on 904-338-9595, option 2. Beyond that there are designated accessible parking spaces and the free-parking rule above. Nothing is published about wheelchair assistance inside the terminal, accessible drop-off lanes or accessible restrooms.
About the terminal itself
Worth knowing before you arrive expecting Miami. JAXPORT's own history page records that cruise service began in 2003 and that the port "constructed temporary cruise facilities in just six months" to accommodate it. That word "temporary" is JAXPORT's own, and the building is still in use. It runs 63,000 square feet, with 28,000 square feet of baggage handling and 15,000 square feet of passenger embarkation space.
JAXPORT has published improvements alongside its Carnival extension: a new parking area with enhanced terminal access, an upgraded VIP lounge and an improved boarding platform allowing boarding at the Promenade level. No replacement terminal plan is published anywhere on the port's site.
Where these facts come from
- JAXPORT, cruise
- JAXPORT cruise parking, rates
- JAXPORT, parking and directions
- JAXPORT, cruise FAQ
- JAXPORT, transportation to the terminal
- JAXPORT, cruise terminal berth information
- JAXPORT, port history
- JAXPORT, Carnival agreement extension
- JAXPORT, Norwegian launches from Jacksonville
- Carnival, online check-in and arrival appointment
Ports change their rules and their prices. Check the official pages above before you sail.
Stairs, gangways, tenders, long piers, a cane on bad days. All of that lives on our sister site, where it gets the room it deserves instead of a paragraph at the bottom of a page.
About the "I" on this page. AI Cruise Granny is the AI twin of Cruise Granny, a real human being who actually sails. Every experience written here in the first person is hers. The AI twin is what writes it up, checks the facts against official sources and keeps it current. We tell you that openly on every page, because you should know who is talking to you. More about how this works.