Cruise News

Japan will use Costa Cruises' Costa Serena to house about 4,000 people at Nagoya Port during the 2026 Asian Games, which open September 19 and run through October 4, after organizers dropped plans for a conventional athletes' village on cost grounds. In Maine, Celebrity Silhouette opened Rockland's larger-ship fall schedule, one of nine calls expected to bring more than 13,000 passengers through October 22, with the city's PortShare program greeting visitors at the public landing. And CroisiEurope opened its 2027 program of more than 170 itineraries across 50 vessels, led by three new 10-night Amazon sailings aboard the 32-passenger Brazilian Dream.

A Maine judge has dismissed Golden Anchor's declaratory judgment action against Bar Harbor, ruling that the company's pending Rule 80B appeal is its exclusive avenue for challenging the town's cruise disembarkation limits under Chapter 52, the ordinance adopted in June 2024 and in effect since that July. Bar Harbor recorded 176 ship calls and 254,546 cruise passengers in 2019 and is now projected to see fewer than 50,000 cruise visitors in 2026. In Northern Norway, the Port of Narvik has added the Ofot Fjord Shipwreck Experience, a two-and-a-half-hour excursion for six to twelve guests that uses a remotely operated vehicle to view wrecks from the 1940 naval battles, alongside an excursion program still led by the 120-year-old Ofoten Railway and ahead of a shore power installation due in the first quarter of 2027. And Riverside Luxury Cruises has scheduled two cycling-focused Danube sailings aboard Riverside Mozart for summer 2027, running Passau to Vienna and Vienna to Budapest, with up to 405 miles of riding available across the combined 14-night voyage.

Disney Cruise Line has set dates for its 2027 Halloween on the High Seas and Very Merrytime sailings across seven ships, with general bookings opening September 8, 2026, and the Disney Wish returning to New York for Bermuda, Canada and New England cruises. Regent Seven Seas Cruises detailed the largest wellness program in its history for Seven Seas Prestige, which debuts December 13, 2026 with a 6,006-square-foot fitness center, ten treatment rooms, the line's first salt room, and a private in-suite gym in the Skyview Regent Suite. And Aroya Cruises added 25 winter sailings from Istanbul's Galataport, running October 10, 2026 through April 24, 2027, on seven-night voyages to Turkey, Greece and Egypt as the port targets 150,000 passengers.

The U.S. Coast Guard evacuated two cruise ship passengers about 12 miles south of Marathon in the Florida Keys on September 4, 2026, with a boat crew from Station Marathon bringing a 78-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman ashore to local emergency medical personnel; both were reported in stable condition, and officials did not disclose the ship's name or the passengers' medical conditions. Royal Caribbean chief executive Michael Bayley announced on September 2 that Hero of the Seas will sail with a Chief Dog Officer named Dolly, making it the fourth Icon Class ship to carry one, ahead of the ship's Miami debut on August 11, 2027. And Holland America Line detailed an Ocean Bar redesign for Oosterdam under Holland America Evolution, a fleet update of more than $500 million covering six Vista and Signature Class ships, with Oosterdam's refurbishment finishing in fall 2027 and post-refurbishment sailings beginning December 2, 2027.

Juneau's Assembly has delayed a proposed five-ship daily cruise limit after the city attorney warned that litigation is unavoidable and legal defense could cost between $1 million and $4 million, with the measure sent back to the Visitor Industry Task Force for recommendations this fall. Norwegian Cruise Line has opened Great Tides Waterpark at Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, a nearly six-acre park with 19 slides, two cliff jumps and a 170-foot Tidal Tower, welcoming its first guests from Norwegian Luna. And Marella Cruises has launched a September sale offering up to 300 pounds off bookings made through the end of the month for sailings between October 2026 and December 2027. This episode looks at cruise crowding, private island entertainment, and whether the current round of cruise deals delivers real value.

Celestyal Cruises has opened bookings on a winter 2027-28 Eastern Mediterranean program aboard Celestyal Journey that returns Egypt to the schedule with an overnight call at Alexandria, alongside four seven-night Athens-Istanbul cruises and three 14-night Three Continents Explorer voyages, with fares starting at $549 per person. Coral Expeditions has widened its solo-traveler program, adding no-supplement cabins on long-lead itineraries, extending the standby booking window from 30 to more than 60 days before departure, introducing hosted group sailings, and cutting the sole supplement 25 percent on 2026 and 2027 Kimberley voyages. And Carnival Corporation has set a new goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity 25 percent by 2029 against a 2019 baseline, after reaching its previous 20 percent target five years ahead of schedule with a 96-ship fleet that is more than 10 percent larger than in 2019 but burns 12 percent less fuel.

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 that began in 2013. And in Sydney, Crown Princess opens Australia's 2026-27 cruise season at the Overseas Passenger Terminal after wrapping a 114-night world cruise, ahead of a 35-night roundtrip taking in Brisbane, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, French Polynesia and Auckland, in a market that generated $7.32 billion in economic output in 2024-25.

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 it will double its New Zealand port calls from the 2028-29 season, growing to nine destinations including Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga, Napier, Lyttelton, Dunedin, Picton, Timaru and Fiordland, with some itineraries running round trip from Auckland; the commitment lands while national deployment sits more than 40 percent below its peak. And P&O Cruises ran a 5 percent bank holiday discount from August 28 to September 1 on Select Price and Early Saver bookings for sailings between January 1, 2027 and October 28, 2028, with Select Price fares carrying up to £350 per cabin in onboard spending money.

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 editors from The Atlantic joining two 2026 Seabourn Ovation voyages under its Seabourn Conversations program, including Megan Garber and Yvonne Rolzhausen on the October 31 to November 13 Atlantic Coast sailing, and David Frum and Evan Smith on the Southern Caribbean Gems voyage from November 20 to 28.

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 venues, now due for delivery in August 2027.