By Wallace Immen/ John Waggoner is taking a Victory lap. The CEO of Victory Cruise Lines says its inaugural season on the Great Lakes was a race run from a literal standing start, but Victory lived up to its name. He’s confident lessons learned this year will make the 2026 season even stronger.
By Wallace Immen/ Riviera Travel is taking a singular approach with one of its European river ships. Beginning in 2027, its MS George Eliot will exclusively sail solo departures on the Danube, Rhine and Moselle rivers, marking the first time a cruise ship has devoted its entire season to solo guests.
By Wallace Immen/ Looks can be deceiving. While Oceania Cruises’ newest ship Allura is a near twin of fleet-mate Vista, she’s got a personality of her own. That’s especially evident in the innovative cuisine on board.
With the return of its refreshed sailing yacht Wind Star, Windstar Cruises is doubling down on Tahiti starting March 2027, when the vessel joins the all-suite Star Breeze to sail year-round in French Polynesia – making it Windstar’s most expansive South Pacific deployment yet.
By Wallace Immen/ In a sign of surging demand for ultra cruising, Emerald Cruises is set to more than double its ocean-going luxury yacht fleet. Parent company Scenic Group has announced the inaugural season of Emerald Kaia, launching in April 2026. Meanwhile, it celebrated the start of construction for another yacht, Emerald Raiya, aiming to debut in June, 2027, and announced there’s another ship on the horizon for 2028 to sail in Asia.
By Wallace Immen/ A long-held secret is out! With open decks and elevated spaces, Celebrity Cruises plans to transform the shape of cruising on the Rhine and Danube rivers. Two new ships due to arrive in 2027 will combine the iconic design of Celebrity’s Edge Series ocean ships with European charm, and feature industry-leading design that offers more space to vacation, all while ensuring a smoother, more relaxing sailing experience, the company revealed.
Viking has welcomed two new ships, enhancing its fleets in both Portugal and Egypt. The cruise line says the additions reflect long-term growth plans as part of a strategy toward maintaining a leadership position in experiential travel. Based on Viking’s committed orderbook, the company expects to take delivery of 26 additional river ships by 2028 and 10 additional ocean ships by 2031. With these orders, Viking will have 112 river ships in 2028 and 23 ocean and expedition ships in 2031.
Talk about a Big Fish Fry! The grill tonight features a grouper so massive it’s almost larger than any of the cooks who are grilling it. But it will somehow vanish like magic into scrumptious filets over the course of a sunset dinner on the Sea Cloud Spirit. It’s just one taste of why dining on the world’s largest fully rigged sailing cruise ship, which carries only 136 pampered guests, is among the most varied and inventive at sea.
By Cindy-Lou Dale/ Burgundy isn’t just a place – it’s a feeling, a flavour, and a memory in the making. And for travellers seeking a week where time slows to walking pace, European Waterways’ L’Impressionniste offers a six-night voyage through the heart of French region’s wine country, gliding from Escommes to Fleurey-sur-Ouche along the tranquil Canal de Bourgogne.
By Wallace Immen/ Dare we say super star? Royal Caribbean’s biggest-ever ship promises even more of the “adventures for all ages” than her sister in the fleet.
Mariah Erkloo remembers as a child watching massive, gleaming vessels glide into her hamlet of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, bringing strangers to her Arctic home for a few hours before vanishing over the horizon. It wasn’t an altogether positive experience, she recalls.
In a fantastic daily choreography, teams of skillful deck hands climb rope ladders to do tightrope walks along spars and unfurl sails by hand. We’re suddenly sailing in stillness, beneath dozens of huge white sails that billow from three tall masts.
By Wallace Immen/ In a significant shift, Costa Cruises has cancelled the Middle East program of Costa Toscana due to ongoing uncertainty in the region, and another line is closely watching the political situation. Meanwhile other cruise lines are avoiding the Red Sea and Suez Canal and it’s creating an unprecedented winter cruise season in the Mediterranean.
Forbes Travel Guide – the only independent, global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants, spas, ocean cruises and ocean cruise restaurants – has announced it will begin rating river cruises, a cruise industry first. The inaugural river cruise ratings will be released in 2027, when the respected publisher unveils its annual Star Ratings in more than 100 countries.
By Wallace Immen/ What to gondoliers do in their time off? I had a unique chance to glimpse behind the scenes of the daily lives of those ultra-fit boat jockeys from my quintessential room with a view in Venice.
Royal Caribbean has opened bookings for the first-of-its-kind beach club experience in The Bahamas. The all-inclusive Royal Beach Club Paradise Island will be available to guests visiting Nassau beginning late December with day passes now available to be purchased on the company’s website.
Cunard has “come together” with Abbey Road Studios to bring a new and exclusive Listening Lounge experience to music lovers on board Queen Elizabeth. The luxury cruise line has partnered with the famed recording studio of The Beatles to create a series of curated playlists packed with iconic recordings, each specially handpicked by the Abbey Road team.
A long-running experiment in green roofs is coming to an end. Like a growing A-list of Hollywood celebrities who have ripped out real grass and gone to synthetic greenery around their homes, Celebrity Cruises is phasing out the half acres of lawn on upper decks of its Solstice Class ships to install a high-tech artificial turf.
A new international study of prospective cruisers reveals the segment’s prioritization of iconic destinations, bundled value and wellness-focused experiences. The comprehensive report examines the attitudes, motivations and behaviours of these travellers from Canada, the U.S., U.K., and Germany – countries that together represent more than two-thirds of the global cruise market.
By Wallace Immen/ U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have removed and apparently plan to deport crew members from at least four ships cruising the Great Lakes and others on ships sailing from U.S. ports, even though they held valid work visas, according to industry sources.
On Saturday, government officials, community leaders and local residents of Grand Bahama received an exclusive preview of Celebration Key, Carnival Cruise Line’s new destination. The special preview event showcased the fun Carnival guests will experience and took place in tandem with the embarkation of Carnival Vista, which will make the first official visit to Celebration Key for its July 19 grand opening.
How’d you like to design your dream cruise ship? Take this simple quiz: Would you rather your surroundings include colorful natural greens and blues or vibrant tropical reds and yellows?
A crowd on shore waves and cheers as we sail out of the Welland Canal into Lake Erie. This ship that’s cruising to all five of the Great Lakes is rare sight in itself. And our Victory1 has the retro lines of a passenger ship that might have plyed these inland seas a century ago.
The French Riviera resort of Cannes is imposing what its city council calls “drastic regulation” on cruise ships, banning any vessels carrying more than 1,000 people from its harbor starting next year. The home of the world’s premier film festival is joining a growing global backlash against overtourism, which recently saw uproar over Jeff Bezos’ and Lauren Sanchez’ Venice wedding last weekend, water-gun protests in Spain, and a surprise strike at the Louvre Museum.
Add Greece to a growing list of destinations charging fees for cruisers to visit on a day in port. Mykonos and Santorini are charging 20 euros per passenger for the summer season from July 1 to Sept. 30. The tax goes down to 12 euros in October and just 4 euros in the winter months.
Margaritaville at Sea says it is implementing a series of “impactful initiatives” designed to strengthen its commitment to the trade, including a full-scale push to reward, engage and empower travel advisors through an expanded Travel Trade team, improved sales tools, and exclusive perks, including FAMs and advisor rates.
“I have a friend who just returned from a month in Thailand, China and Vietnam and she dealt exclusively with cash. Brought a wad of C-notes and paid on the spot. Used safes in the hotels for passport, and a belly bag for the day’s cash. Is this something I should do on my coming river cruise on the Rhine?”
Viewing the vast arrays of food on offer in buffets on Carnival Cruise Line ships, you may not realize the world’s largest cruise company has managed to cut food waste by 44 per cent in the past five years.
Celebrity Cruises is investing more than $250 million to completely modernize a well-loved class of ships. Guests can look forward to eight new experiences, including four new-to-sea spaces, and many redesigned favorites which elevate everything that makes these ships unique.
Viking’s got good news and that could mean you’ll have a tough time finding available space on one of their ships. But there are many more ships on the way and its fleet will soon top 100 ships.