Last Month in Cruise October 2024 Review - Written By Sara Macefield
With this year’s sales riding high, cruise lines are looking beyond the horizon with ever-more ambitious itineraries for 2025 onwards, and even branching on to land with shoreside plans too. In true cruise tradition, they are also ensuring guests will be wined and dined in style.
Distant horizons
Cruise lines are sailing far and wide into 2025 and beyond. Celebrity Cruises unveiled its first world cruise, a 110-night Grand Voyage on Celebrity Solstice departing in September 2026. Cunard is sending newest ship Queen Anne to Latin America on a South America Discovery voyage in January 2027 while Carnival Cruise Line is doubling its presence Down Under in 2026/27 with four ships in the region. P&O Cruises’ Aurora will make its maiden call at Galveston, Texas, on a 75-night Grand Tour departing in January 2027, while MSC Cruises makes its Alaska debut next summer.
River views
AmaWaterways is planning a double whammy on Colombia’s Magdalena River in 2025 with the rescheduled launch of AmaMagdalena in March, followed by AmaMelodia in June. Emerald Cruises is promising the “next chapter” as it unveils new 180-guest Star Ship Emerald Astra for 2026 on the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers, and a string of upgrades across its European river fleet. TUI River Cruises has unveiled four new itineraries in 2026, plus a cruise-and stay, and announced the debut of fourth ship, the refurbished TUI Ria, which starts sailingEurope’s waterways in summer 2026. VIVA Cruises hasunveiled a new premium Viva Boutique arm, with its first ship Viva Beyond launching in 2026 on the Seine.
Land ahoy!
Silversea has turned its attention shoreside by developing a hotel in the southernmost city on earth, Puerto Williams, for guests on the line’s Antarctica sailings that depart the Chilean port. The 150-room property is due to be completed by the end of 2025. Royal Caribbean International is to develop another Perfect Day resort with Perfect Day Mexico on the country’s Caribbean coast at Mahahual, opening in 2027. This will follow the Royal Beach Club Cozumel, which opens in 2026. MSC Cruises’ conservation offshoot, MSC Foundation plans to expand coral research at its soon-to-be-completed Marine Conservation Centre on the line’s private Caribbean island Ocean Cay.
Adventures afar
Hermanus in South Africa, Vaeroy in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, Elmina in Ghana and Ilha Baia dos Tigres in Angola are highlights of Swan Hellenic’s 2025/26 itineraries which feature ports not visited by other cruise ships. Meanwhile, Marella Cruises, Ambassador Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Scenic have joined the growing ranks of cruise lines offering sailings to view the next total solar eclipse over Europe in August 2026.
Eat, drink and be merry . . .
. . . thanks to Explora Journeys’ new Chef Invité series starting with Michelin star chef Thierry Marx and Cunard’s partnership with Michelin star chef Nathan Outlaw. Princess Cruises’ has thirst-quenching tie-ups with Pantalones Organic Tequila (co-founded by American actor Matthew McConaughey and his wife Camila), and Hollywood star Blake Lively’s sparkling tipples Betty Booze and Betty Buzz. Whisky aficionados can now sample Fred Olsen Cruise Lines’ limited-edition single malt, Amplitude, that matured on Borealis’s world cruise, while Holland America Line has unveiled its first own-branded sparkling wine produced in Washington’s Columbia Valley.