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Miami-based travel and leisure company Carnival Corporation has launched a third berth at its pier at Puerta Maya on the Mexican island of Cozumel.

This USD 20 million investment will allow Carnival to more three ships at the terminal at the same time.

To mark the occasion, three of the company’s ships – Carnival Breeze, Carnival Freedom and Carnival Triumph – arrived on October 8 and became the first trio of ships to use the new three-berth pier. The pier will accommodate any ship across Carnival Corporation’s 10 brands, including its next-generation ships.

With 3.3 million cruise guests annually, Cozumel is the busiest cruise destination in the Caribbean. In 2014, about 1.5 million Carnival Corporation guests visited Puerta Maya on 25 different ships originating from eight homeports and two countries across six of the company’s brands, and the company expects this to grow over the years with the added capacity at the port.

While the new berth has been in the planning stages since 2005, work started on the new pier in May 2014. The existing two-berth pier was re-opened in October 2008, following a USD 50 million reconstruction to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 which included destruction of the original pier.

The rebuilt two-berth pier and the all-new arm providing a third berth at the pier have been constructed to withstand a threshold category 5 hurricane, in addition to being able to accommodate any ship in Carnival Corporation’s fleet.