Baltimore&rsquo;s new status as a year-round cruise ship port sounds great to the state&rsquo;s economic boosters, but port officials say accommodating the new addition will be a juggling act. <p>&nbsp;</p><p>Carnival Cruise Lines announced Thursday that it would begin weekly, year-round trips between Baltimore and the Caribbean in the fall of 2009. As part of the deal, more than a year in the making, the port agreed to make minor renovations to its sole cruise ship terminal in south Locust Point.</p><p>But in two years, that building will have to handle nearly twice as much traffic as it does now.</p><p>&ldquo;The challenge here in the port is we only have one cruise building over there, and we can&rsquo;t handle two cruise ships there simultaneously,&rdquo; said James White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration. </p><p>This year, 27 Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line cruises are expected to leave and return to Baltimore, according to port spokesman Richard Scher. During Carnival&rsquo;s first full year of operations in 2010, that number will jump to 52 for Carnival alone. Negotiations are under way to determine the number of Royal Caribbean and Norwegian cruises for that year, Scher said.</p><p>The current plan is to have each of the three cruises depart and return on a different late-week or weekend day, White said. </p><p>&ldquo;We can stagger [arrivals and departures], but that doesn&rsquo;t always work because a storm might throw a ship off schedule,&rdquo; White said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to have to figure out a way [to] handle more people through the facility, or possibly add a building that we don&rsquo;t have money in the budget for.&rdquo;</p><p>White estimated a new building would cost about $100 per square foot to construct, and would need to be between 500,000 and 600,000 square feet in size, for a total cost of $5 million to $6 million. </p><p>In a release, Carnival said it expects to carry more than 115,000 passengers annually from Baltimore, and company executives highlighted the port&rsquo;s accessibility by car as one reason for its decision to begin service there. </p><p>The port has completed work on its fiscal 2009 budget, which does not include an expanded or new cruise terminal. About 60 percent of the port&rsquo;s annual budget is dedicated to offshore dredging operations, leaving little for pierside capital improvements.</p><p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s more likely not [going to be] building a new building. I think it&rsquo;s more likely that we&rsquo;d look at additions to the [existing] cruise building,&rdquo; Scher said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re still years away from that.&rdquo;</p>