The Key West cruise ship ban that voters approved in November 2020 is not in effect. Florida’s legislature preempted all three charter amendments in 2021 through a law that retroactively voided any local port restriction conflicting with it, and cruise ships continue to dock in Key West today. The city has since built workarounds that reduce traffic at the piers it controls, but it cannot stop ships from arriving at the port’s privately owned facility.
What Key West Voters Approved in 2020
Three separate referendums amended the city charter during the November 2020 general election. One capped daily cruise passenger disembarkation at 1,500 people across all docking facilities. Another prohibited any vessel carrying more than 1,300 people, passengers and crew combined, from docking at city ports. The third required the city to give docking priority to cruise lines with the best environmental and health records.
The size and passenger-cap measures each cleared 60 percent of the vote. The environmental-priority measure drew roughly 81 percent support. For an island only about two miles wide whose economy leans heavily on tourism, those margins reflected deep frustration with mega-ships unloading thousands of day visitors at a time.
How Florida Overrode the Vote
The state legislature responded during the 2021 session with SB 426, titled “State Preemption of Seaport Regulations.” Governor Ron DeSantis signed it, and it was codified as Section 311.25 of the Florida Statutes.
The statute is direct. It bars any local ballot initiative or referendum from restricting maritime commerce at ports that have received or are eligible for state funding. It lists the specific kinds of restrictions local governments cannot impose: limits based on vessel size, capacity, or number; restrictions on how many passengers may get on or off; and rules that single out cruise lines based on environmental or health records. Each category tracks one of the three Key West referendums.
The law reaches backward as well as forward. Any local ballot measure conflicting with Section 311.25 that was adopted “before, on, or after July 1, 2021” is declared “prohibited, void, and expressly preempted to the state.”1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 311.25 – Florida Seaports; Local Ballot Initiatives and Referendums That retroactive language stripped the 2020 charter amendments of any surviving legal force. Supporters framed the bill as protecting statewide economic interests from a patchwork of local port rules; critics called it the legislature overriding a democratic vote on behalf of the cruise industry.
Why Cruise Ships Still Dock in Key West
The port is not one facility. It consists of three docking sites, each with different ownership and different legal rules, and that split explains why the city cannot shut cruise traffic down even where it has acted.2City of Key West. Port and Marine
Mallory Square Dock
The city owns and operates Mallory Square directly. Scheduling, maintenance, and access all run through city hall, so municipal policies carry the most weight here.
Pier B
Pier B is privately owned and runs under long-term agreements that predate the referendum fight. The city cannot dictate which ships dock there without risking liability for interfering with private property rights and existing contracts. State preemption reinforces that limit: Section 311.25 forbids local action that restricts maritime commerce at the port. Pier B hosts the largest vessels that visit Key West, and it is the reason big cruise ships keep arriving despite everything the city has tried elsewhere.
The Navy Mole
The U.S. Navy owns the Outer Mole Pier and had leased it to the city for cruise and event use. In May 2026, the Navy terminated that lease. City officials are negotiating a narrower arrangement limited to specific events such as the Race World Offshore Powerboat Championships. Whether the Navy will grant a new long-term cruise lease or hold the pier for its own purposes is unresolved heading into late 2026.
What Limits Actually Exist Today
Unable to enforce the voter-approved bans, the city turned to regulations it could legally defend. In 2022, the City Commission unanimously passed Resolution 22-073, known as the One Ship Policy. It limits city-controlled piers to one cruise ship per day. That cap effectively keeps the largest vessels off Mallory Square, since mega-ships typically need more pier space and scheduling flexibility than a one-ship rule allows.
The policy does not reach Pier B. A privately owned facility operating under its own contracts and shielded by state preemption sits outside the commission’s authority.
The city also uses general administrative powers to shape cruise activity without directly restricting commerce. It sets berthing schedules at Mallory Square around local emergency-service capacity. It charges fees for trash removal, wastewater handling, and security. And it runs a turbidity and water-quality monitoring program around municipal docks, including testing for sunscreen chemicals and sewer discharge evidence. These measures regulate city services and infrastructure rather than maritime commerce, which keeps them on the right side of Section 311.25.1Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 311.25 – Florida Seaports; Local Ballot Initiatives and Referendums
Cruise Traffic in 2026
Ships continue to arrive regularly. Key West recorded roughly 639,000 passenger arrivals in 2025, the highest total since before the pandemic. The June 2026 port schedule showed ships docking nearly every other day, including vessels from Carnival, Celebrity, and smaller lines such as Margaritaville at Sea. The voter-approved ban exists on paper as a charter amendment but carries no legal force.
The picture on the water looks different from the pre-2020 peak even so. The one-ship policy keeps mega-ships off city-controlled piers. The Navy’s lease termination has pulled another berth out of regular rotation, at least for now. The vessels that do arrive tend to be mid-sized ships at Pier B or smaller ships at Mallory Square, rather than multiple large ships unloading simultaneously across all three piers.
The underlying conflict has not been resolved. Residents passed sweeping restrictions by wide margins, the state voided those restrictions within months, and the privately owned pier that drives most of the complaint is the one the city has the least power to touch.