Cruise News

Carnival Cruise Line has retired the VIFP Club in favor of Carnival Rewards, a spending-based program that launched September 1, 2026 and grants three redeemable points and three qualifying stars for every eligible dollar across Red, Gold, Platinum and Diamond tiers, with members who reached Diamond by August 31, 2026 keeping that status for life and the first earning window running through December 31, 2028. In Washington state, the Port of Anacortes is canceling 17 American Cruise Lines calls beginning September 7 amid a dispute with ILWU Local 25 over who handles mooring lines at Curtis Wharf, a cutoff that touches roughly 50 day calls per season on a service...

Three stories from across the cruise industry. HM Coastguard airlifted a passenger from Carnival Legend on the morning of August 29, after a medical evacuation request came in at 9:40 a.m. with the ship about eight nautical miles south of Lizard Point, Cornwall; the passenger was flown ashore and handed to the ambulance service at Newquay, and neither age nor condition was disclosed. Carnival Legend had sailed from Dover on August 20 on a British Isles itinerary taking in the Isle of Man, Cork, Holyhead, Dublin, Liverpool, Greenock and Belfast, and was due back into Dover on August 30. Princess Cruises has confirmed...

Carnival Firenze reshuffled the back half of a four-night Long Beach sailing after a critically ill guest was evacuated near the Long Beach Sea Buoy on August 25, with Long Beach Fire Department Marine Safety crews taking the patient ashore for hospital treatment; the ship's Catalina Island and Ensenada calls each moved back a day and it still returned to Long Beach on schedule August 28. Norwegian Escape opened its fall season from Manhattan on August 19, sailing 10-night Eastern Caribbean itineraries, seven-night Canada and New England runs, and a 16-night transatlantic crossing that ends in Barcelona. And Seabourn named the writers and...

Carnival Conquest interrupted a 14-day Caribbean voyage out of Miami to rescue a lone mariner whose sailboat had been disabled at sea for ten days, taking him aboard before continuing on to Grenada. Also on today's brief: the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial in a $10.3 million case against Carnival Cruise Line, vacating part of the judgment over a 2018 incident aboard Carnival Miracle after finding the district court improperly excluded an FBI report. And at Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard, Oceania Cruises floated out Oceania Sonata, an 86,000-gross-ton, 1,390-guest ship with 695 rooms and suites and 13 dining...

Philadelphia has opened a $60 million cruise terminal on the Delaware River, backed by a berthing agreement that keeps Norwegian Cruise Line sailing from the region through March 2033 with a minimum of 41 departures a year. Carnival Cruise Line opened sales on 144 Long Beach departures for 2028-29, with Carnival Radiance and Carnival Panorama running three- to eight-day Baja California and Mexican Riviera itineraries from May 2028 through April 2029. And Holland America Line added Nootka Sound to select 2028 Alaska sailings, part of a six-ship season built around its Great Alaska Explorer and Great Bear Rainforest routes. Today's episode looks at how cruise lines are...

Today's brief covers three stories from across the cruise world. A cruise passenger died after falling from an upper deck while the ship was docked at PortMiami; Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded at 3:30 a.m. and the sheriff's homicide bureau opened what it classified as an unclassified death investigation, with the passenger's identity, the ship, and the operator not disclosed and the medical examiner's findings pending. Carnival revised 11 Bahamas itineraries across Carnival Conquest, Carnival Spirit, Carnival Legend and Carnival Elation for departures between November 2026 and April 2028, largely swapping or adjusting call days and times at RelaxAway, Half Moon Cay and Celebration...

Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Getaway returned to Miami on August 24 after a passenger fell from a stateroom balcony onto a lower exterior deck on the final night of a three-night Bahamas cruise; crew provided life-sustaining measures but the guest did not survive, and the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Homicide Bureau is handling the case as an unclassified death investigation. Margaritaville at Sea will begin weekly Galveston sailings in October 2027 under an operating agreement approved August 25, making it the seventh cruise brand operating from the Texas port, with the line already homeporting at the Port of Palm Beach and Port Tampa Bay...

Disney Cruise Line is returning to New York in 2027, with the Disney Wish sailing seven voyages from the city between September 29 and November 5 to Bermuda, Canada and New England, and one-way to San Juan, alongside maiden Panama Canal calls at Fuerte Amador and Colon. A new study from advertising intelligence company Verve finds that 91 percent of U.S. consumers using AI tools research only one cruise brand, with the average shopper considering 1.12 cruise lines, Royal Caribbean drawing 37.1 percent of branded search activity, and price and value guiding 60 percent of consumers. And Ulyssia Residences, chaired by Frank Binder, has signed a...

MSC Cruises has dismissed a lifeguard arrested at PortMiami after a seven-night Western Caribbean sailing aboard MSC World America, where a 17-year-old passenger was allegedly involved in unlawful sexual activity; the line says it contacted law enforcement immediately on discovering the breach of conduct. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has laid out a nearly $20 billion fleet plan running through 2037, adding 16 ships across Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises while five older vessels leave the fleet between 2026 and 2028, among them Norwegian Sky and Norwegian Sun, both bound for Cordelia Cruises. And in Texas, Galveston Wharves directors are weighing...

Low water is still disrupting European river cruises despite recent rain, with Viking, Emerald Cruises, Saga River Cruises, Avalon Waterways, Uniworld and AmaWaterways adjusting sailings on the Danube, Rhine and Main; Saga told guests "We won't turn your itinerary into a coach holiday; the ship will be sailing," while AmaWaterways COO Jon Burrows said the line doesn't "wait until conditions become a problem." In Scotland, a body has been recovered from the North Sea after a man went missing from Ambassador Cruise Line's Ambition roughly 36 nautical miles from Arbroath, in a search involving Police Scotland, HM Coastguard aircraft, coastguard rescue...

Federal agents arrested 11 foreign nationals aboard Holland America Line's Volendam and Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Breakaway in Boston over a three-day operation, part of Operation Tidal Wave, on allegations involving child sexual abuse and exploitation material; all 11 are being processed for removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act. In Pittsburgh, the 150-passenger paddlewheeler American Heritage was blocked from its North Shore berth on Friday morning by two unauthorized moored boats, prompting the Sports & Exhibition Authority to begin the at-risk, derelict and abandoned boat notification process with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission under Act 28. And Fitch Ratings upgraded the Port...

Three stories on passenger safety and health at sea. Carnival Valor briefly listed to starboard on the Mississippi River near New Orleans on August 17, 2026, with passengers describing a sharp turn that sent pool water across upper decks and into indoor dining areas; the ship righted itself, arrived in New Orleans on schedule at 8 a.m. CDT and departed for its next cruise at 3:30 p.m., and Carnival said vessel movements of this nature can occur during normal navigation and that the circumstances are being reviewed. Norwegian Dawn scored 84 on a March 29, 2026 CDC Vessel Sanitation Program inspection, below the minimum passing...

Greenland's government has asked cruise operators to stay out of certain fjords after residents raised concerns about noise, wildlife and local access for hunting and fishing, with more than 20 cruise calls scheduled at Qaqortoq and Nanortalik in the coming weeks. MSC Cruises has switched on progressive blackjack jackpots across 30 tables on seven ships sailing North America, the first phase of a rollout developed with Galaxy Gaming over nearly two years, though jackpot values and game rules have not been disclosed. And in Taranto, Italy, the 150,695-gross-ton Aroya and Tallink's Romantika are serving as a floating athletes' village for the Mediterranean...

Disney Cruise Line has announced a new class of three ships from Meyer Werft, each about 105,000 tons and carrying up to 3,000 guests, with two debuting in 2029 and a third in late 2030; the vessels will use battery systems and shore-power connections and are designed to run on hydrotreated vegetable oil and renewable methanol rather than LNG, slotting between Disney Wonder and Disney Wish for greater deployment flexibility. Norwegian Cruise Line will bring Norwegian Prima to Galveston for its first summer season in Texas, sailing seven-night round-trip Western Caribbean itineraries from April through October 2028 out of Cruise Terminal 16, with calls at Cozumel...

Two Ohio passengers face felony charges after an alleged attack inside a passenger cabin on August 15, 2026, in a case handled at Port Canaveral by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office; authorities did not identify the ship. Disney Cruise Line christened Disney Destiny at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, with Broadway performer Susan Egan as godmother, ahead of a November 20 maiden voyage on four- and five-night sailings to The Bahamas and the Western Caribbean; the 144,000-gross-ton, LNG-powered vessel is the third in the Wish class. And Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady marked five years since her July 1, 2021 delivery from Fincantieri's Sestri Ponente yard...

Norwegian Cruise Line reshuffled two Hawaii itineraries as Tropical Storm Lala approached the islands, cutting short Pride of America's overnight call at Nawiliwili on Kauai and cancelling Norwegian Spirit's stops at Hilo and Kailua-Kona while the Coast Guard set Port Condition Zulu for Hawaii, Maui and Honolulu counties. Disney Cruise Line used its D23 presentation to reveal that Disney Believe, the fourth Wish-class ship now under construction at Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, will center its Grand Hall on a bronze Moana statue flanked by Pua and Heihei, with the roughly 144,000-gross-ton, LNG-powered vessel due in service in late 2027. And...

TUI Group's cruise division absorbed 20 million euros in disruption costs during the third quarter of 2026 as Middle East tensions kept ships from transiting the Strait of Hormuz, trimming underlying EBIT to 133 million euros from 143 million a year earlier even as the average daily rate rose 4 percent to 252 euros and load factor reached 99 percent; CEO Sebastian Ebel pointed to wars, consumer caution and inflation in Europe's core markets, while Mein Schiff 5 prepares to reposition from the Mediterranean in mid-October for a Caribbean winter. National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions unveiled its 2028-29 expedition season, including a French Polynesia route linking six remote islands with...

Coral Expeditions has added an 11-night citizen science voyage aboard Coral Discoverer, sailing 700 nautical miles from Bundaberg to Cairns departing March 31, 2027, with research partners Project Manta and Great Barrier Reef Legacy and calls at Lady Elliot Island, the Museum of Underwater Art at John Brewer Reef, Dunk Island and Port Douglas. Grand Voyages, a cruise docuseries co-created by producers Stacey Parks and Jennifer Scully for Media Sparks Entertainment, began streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the United States and United Kingdom on August 1, 2026, with a first season featuring Uniworld's La Venezia, Holland America Line's Rotterdam and Riverside Ravel, and a...

Today's brief covers three stories. A 76-year-old American guest sailing aboard Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Jewel died after becoming unresponsive while snorkeling at Ely's Harbour in Bermuda's Sandys Parish on Sunday, June 14; the Bermuda Police Service said foul play is not suspected and attributed the death to a pre-existing medical condition. Holland America Line has opened Rotterdam's 2027 Mediterranean program, five 10- and 11-day cruises plus a 14-day Barcelona-to-Fort Lauderdale transatlantic crossing running October 17 through December 8, 2027, with calls ranging from Lisbon and Palma de Mallorca to overnights in Istanbul and Haifa. And CLIA's 2025 Environmental Technologies and Practices Report details the industry's...

Disney Cruise Line has extended its reduced-fare offer to 38 early 2027 departures, with savings of up to $500 per guest on seven-night sailings from San Diego and Port Canaveral and a booking deadline of August 30, 2026. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines reports the strongest single trading day in its history following the July 22 launch of an 87-night Amazon and Antarctica Grand Voyage, with 2027 bookings running more than 40 percent ahead year-on-year and all three ships posting their highest-ever Net Promoter Scores. And Aquafil's Bloom Back R2R carpet, made from ECONYL regenerated nylon, has reached 70,000 square metres across AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises refits, part...

Carnival Legend guests gathered on deck off northern Spain on August 12 for just under two minutes of totality, the first total solar eclipse visible from Europe since 1999, closing out an 11-night round-trip from Dover that also called at Le Havre, St. Peter Port, Vigo, Lisbon, Leixoes, Le Verdon and Zeebrugge. Marella Cruises is widening its alcohol-free range fleetwide from August 2026, adding zero-proof red, white, rosé and sparkling wines, Heineken 0%, Somersby 0% cider and gluten-free Estrella to the standard package, with six Lyre's 0% spirits and 18 new cocktails on Premium All Inclusive. And Silver Endeavour marks five years since its debut as Crystal E...

Australia's Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Chris Evans, is pressing for cruise ships calling at Australian ports to work to conditions on par with Australian standards, as the Section 11 exemption introduced in 1998 approaches its expiry at the end of December; the Maritime Union of Australia has taken crew conditions aboard Carnival vessels, including pay of AU$33 a day across 12-hour shifts and nine-month contracts, to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. Atlas Ocean Voyages has set out the inaugural season for Atlas Adventurer, a 210-meter, 400-guest expedition sailing yacht, led by the 128-night Grand Odyssey Expedition from Kobe to Cape Town departing November 30, 2028, with...

MSC Musica paused a Western Mediterranean sailing to rescue eight men from a disabled boat about 16 miles east of Ibiza, with 27-year-old first mate Roberto de Girolamo leading the lifeboat crew before the men were handed to Salvamento Maritimo and the Guardia Civil and the ship continued to Civitavecchia on schedule. Costa Cruises will extend its Sea Destinations initiative to South America in early 2027, with Costa Serena anchoring off Copacabana for a sunset event in view of Sugarloaf Mountain and staging an ocean-skyline party at Balneario Camboriu. And Aurora Expeditions has opened its 2028 season with 29 departures across 20 countries and 161 ports...

Industrial action at the Port of Broome is threatening cruise turnarounds on Western Australia's Kimberley coast, with the action window running August 7 to 22 and covering calls by Ponant's Le Jacques Cartier and Le Soleal and by Seabourn Pursuit, as the Maritime Union of Australia and the Kimberley Ports Authority head to a Fair Work Commission conciliation conference after nearly a year of bargaining over regional allowances and time off in lieu. In China, Tianjin Oriental has paused Dream's regular sailings to run port-based staycations, with an eleven-day stay at Dalian Port from August 7 to 17 priced from 699 RMB per guest per...

Royal Caribbean is testing digital scratch-off lottery tickets through its onboard app aboard Utopia of the Seas, with tickets priced from $2 to $20 and a top jackpot of $100,000; prizes under $2,000 post automatically to guest accounts, while larger wins require a Casino Royale visit and tax paperwork. The test follows Carnival Millions, launched in February 2026 with daily drawings offering up to $1 million, and an earlier BetMGM trial with Carnival that ended over satellite-internet lag and limited passenger interest. At Port Canaveral, construction has begun on a $95 million expansion of Cruise Terminal 10, a 145,000-square-foot facility roughly 30 percent larger than the existing building and...

MSC Group has named its second private Caribbean destination Catalina Sugar Beach, opening on Catalina Island off La Romana in the Dominican Republic in November 2026, with MSC Opera making the first call on November 17 and Explora III following on November 19. Disney reported record quarterly Experiences revenue of $9.97 billion, up 10 percent, as Disney Cruise Line stateroom capacity rose 50 percent year over year following the debut of Disney Destiny and Disney Adventure. And Carnival Cruise Line appointed Daniela Gargiulo as the first female Staff Captain in its global fleet, in a ceremony aboard Carnival Adventure in Sydney.

Disney Cruise Line has pulled forward the completion of its 13-ship fleet to the end of 2030, moving Ship 12 to late 2029 and Ship 13 to late 2030, with Disney Believe due in late 2027 and a fifth Wish-class vessel arriving for Tokyo Disney Resort in 2029. In Malaysia, Penang's Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal has completed a RM100 million expansion that stretches its quay wall from 540 meters to 840 meters, allowing it to berth two mega cruise ships at once, or up to four mixed-size vessels, and handle roughly 12,000 passengers at a time. And Regent Seven Seas Cruises has opened Seven Seas Voyager's Northern Europe season from...

Norwegian Cruise Line has canceled Norwegian Sky's 21-day farewell repositioning voyage from Piraeus to Dubai, citing ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East, and is offering full fare refunds plus a future cruise credit raised to 50 percent of the voyage fare, valid through December 31, 2027, before the ship transfers to Cordelia Cruises as Cordelia Sky. Port Tampa Bay has started site work on its fourth cruise terminal, a five-acre project at the former Metroport site on the Ybor Channel that is scheduled to open in 2029 and is expected to add more than 200 ship calls a year and roughly $100 million in annual economic...

Azamara Quest enters drydock on October 31, 2026 for the first refit under Azamara's $80 million Azamara Forward program, gaining a Penthouse Suite Deck with 12 new suites, a Chef's Table, updates to the Atlas Bar, Discoveries Restaurant and Cabaret Lounge, an expanded THESANCTUM spa, and a complete refresh of all 352 staterooms before the ship returns to service on November 26. In Ibiza, the MSC Foundation and Asociación Vellmari have launched Shallow Bays of the Mediterranean, a three-year project running from August 2026 to July 2029 that aims to plant 170,000 to 180,000 Posidonia oceanica plants and restore roughly 20,000 square metres of degraded habitat in Talamanca Bay, while r...

A Texas man was arrested at PortMiami's Royal Caribbean terminal as he tried to board Wonder of the Seas, charged with felony battery over an alleged assault on a bartender at Miami's Bayside Marketplace five days earlier. Holland America Line's Nieuw Statendam left Rotterdam on a 28-night "Legendary Solar Eclipse with Greenland and Scotland" voyage that will put guests in the path of totality off Iceland on August 12, with astronomy programming led by Tom Vassos. And TUI Cruises detailed the dining lineup aboard Mein Schiff Flow, the second InTUItion-class ship, where 14 restaurants and bistros include FUGU by Tim Raue alongside...

Today's episode covers three stories from across the cruise world. A negligence lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court for Brevard County, Florida accuses Disney Cruise Line of failing to guard against a fall from an upper bunk aboard Disney Wonder, in which a child fractured both wrists; the suit seeks more than $50,000 and centers on a guardrail that did not span the full length of the mattress. In Alaska, Juneau's cruise calls remain on schedule as water in Suicide Basin approaches capacity, with a glacial outburst flood possible in mid-August and shore excursions near Mendenhall Glacier the most likely to...

Celebrity Cruises has raised its daily gratuities by $1.50 per guest across all stateroom categories, effective July 29, taking standard inside, oceanview and veranda rooms to $19.50 a day, Concierge Class and AquaClass to $20.50, and The Retreat to $24.50. In Greece, Santorini is now routing organized cruise excursion groups to the ferry port at Athinios after a July 27 wall collapse closed the 558-step Karavolades Stairs linking the old port to Fira, a change that adds a 20 to 25 minute bus ride for tour passengers during a month with more than 25 scheduled ship calls. And in Florida, Miami-Dade County has approved a preferential berthing agreement with...

Cruise growth is reshaping the places ships call and the seasons they sail. The Port of Galveston has launched its first mobility study, backed by nearly $5 million in grants, to sort out how passengers, vehicles, transit and goods move between the cruise terminals, the commercial waterfront and Historic Downtown, as sailings climb toward 445 in 2026 and a fifth terminal is planned at Pier 14. MSC Cruises has set an eight-ship European lineup for winter 2027-28, with six vessels in the Mediterranean led by the new LNG-powered MSC World Asia, MSC Preziosa year-round in Northern Europe including two Svalbard sailings a year, and...

Greek authorities are investigating the death of a 62-year-old British woman who died in her cabin aboard a Marshall Islands-flagged cruise ship near Santorini on July 26; the Port Authority of Thira has opened an investigation and an autopsy was ordered at the Forensic Medical Service of Piraeus. In St. Thomas, dredging of the cruise harbor at Havensight begins in September 2026 under contractor Orion Marine Construction, with completion expected by mid-2027 — work that WICO President and CEO Joseph Boschulte says will finally let the largest Oasis-class ships call safely, as the territory projects 362 calls and roughly 1.2 million passengers in fiscal 2027. And Pr...

Virgin Voyages sets its first Scandinavia and Baltic season, basing Valiant Lady in Amsterdam for summer 2028 across a six-sailing program that adds an Arctic Circle crossing and puts at least one first-time port on every voyage, from Oslo and Copenhagen to Tromso and the Norwegian fjords. Royal Caribbean lifts its 2026 adjusted earnings outlook to $17.73 to $17.87 per share after a second quarter that beat estimates, with revenue of $4.83 billion, 2.4 million guests carried and load factors at 110%, even as fuel costs climbed 27%. And Villa Vie Residences prepares to unveil Legacy, a second residential ship targeted for early 2029 with residences roughly 50% larger than...

Today on Cruise News: Cordelia Cruises plans eight seven-night Chennai to Singapore sailings aboard Cordelia Sky between late June and late August 2027, calling at Langkawi and Port Klang in Malaysia with an overnight in Phuket, while Norwegian Cruise Line reworks the ship's farewell voyage into an 18-day cruise ending in Muscat, Oman on September 27, 2026, dropping Dubai and Doha and offering guests a 15 percent prorated refund plus a 15 percent future cruise credit. Margaritaville at Sea brings Halloween back to Paradise and Islander from September 15 through November 1, 2026, adding an interactive Ghostly Game Show, a Halloween bar crawl and themed guest entertainers alongside...

Today's Cruise News brief covers three stories. A Kentucky woman, filing under the pseudonym Jane Doe, has sued Carnival Cruise Line and spa operator OneSpaWorld over an alleged assault by a massage therapist aboard Carnival Vista on July 5, 2025, a complaint that arrives alongside Department of Transportation figures showing 135 sexual assaults reported on Carnival vessels between 2016 and 2025. In Italy, a July 3, 2026 court ruling voided the environmental approval for the 600 million euro Fiumicino Waterfront cruise port near Rome, a project 90 percent owned by iCON Infrastructure funds with a 10 percent stake held by Royal Caribbean Group, leaving Civitavecchia as the region's cruise gateway...

Austrian authorities are investigating after the river cruise ship MS Anna Katharina struck a quay wall and lock gate at Vienna's Freudenau lock on the Danube on July 24, injuring 14 of the roughly 200 passengers and crew aboard; six people were taken to hospital with back, neck and chest pain and were discharged within hours, and police say a possible technical defect is among the lines of inquiry. In Finland, Meyer Turku completed hull assembly on Royal Caribbean's Hero of the Seas, the 250,800-GT Icon-class ship due to enter service in August 2027 from PortMiami carrying about 5,610 guests at double occupancy, with nine...

Today on Cruise News: Carnival Cruise Line's private Bahamian destination, Celebration Key on Grand Bahama, drew 2.4 million guests in its first year after opening July 19, 2025, and Carnival projects 3.5 million in year two following a $600 million initial investment. Fincantieri delivered Explora III to Explora Journeys on July 23, the fleet's first LNG-powered ship at 72,810 gross tons with 463 suites, ahead of an August 1 naming ceremony in Barcelona. And Silversea launched its S.A.L.T. Grape Harvest culinary voyages, seven autumn sailings across Portugal, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom aboard Silver Dawn and Silver Spirit.

Today's Cruise News covers three developments reshaping the cruise experience. Royal Caribbean Group is building out the Mahahual K'iin Community Center in Costa Maya, Mexico, adding sports courts and spaces for education, workshops, and cultural events, even as its larger Perfect Day Mexico project remains unresolved after Mexican authorities rejected the current plan in May. Disney Cruise Line's Disney Fantasy has returned from a rare 10-night Southern Caribbean voyage with calls in St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Antigua, and Puerto Rico, and a repeat sailing is set for July 11, 2027. And Holland America Line has debuted four original productions aboard Oosterdam, headlined...