2023 was a strong year for cruise bookings, which made it challenging to show that NCL’s program to incentivize more bookings was paying off, they said.

“With everyone doing well, we likely didn’t have the same opportunity to show them disproportionate love. Advisors were simply trying to keep up,” said Alex Sharpe, president of Signature Travel Network. 

Travel agencies have been so busy this year that agents have been more focused on “order-taking” rather than “order-making” to sell particular products, said Matthew Eichorst, president of Expedia Cruises. 

“The perfect storm is we’ve all been so busy responding to the business. The business came back so strongly that agents probably aren’t proactive out there at all,” he said. “It was probably bad timing.” 

Anthony Hamawy, president of Cruise.com, said the program’s staying power faded when NCL’s competitors didn’t follow its lead.  

“The day they started it, we knew it was only a matter of when they were going to stop it,” said Hamawy. “It only took probably a week to figure out that no other cruise line was going to follow. You need everyone buying in to go that way.” 

NCL senior vice president of sales John Chernesky told top advisors gathered in New York for its President’s Club meeting on Dec. 14 the the line would discontinue its program to pay commission on the full cruise fare. The line will reinstate NCFs after March 31, enabling agents to continue making larger commissions until the presumed end of Wave season.  

For the last year, the program rewarded travel advisors with commissions on the full cruise fare when booking sailings at least 120 days in advance. To become eligible, advisors had to earn NCL’s approval for their marketing plan. About 2,500 agencies were admitted to the program. 

While the initiative served the purpose of generating more agency bookings and helping put money in the pockets of travel advisors as they were recovering from the pandemic, the line decided to phase out the program and repurpose the funds used to support it toward marketing or relationships with agencies, said Chernesky.

“It was not generating the interest or the focus on NCL that we would have liked, ultimately,” he said.

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One thing they won’t see is other cruise ships. With a beam of just over 52 feet, the Emerald Sakara is slim enough to slip into the small bay. “It’s quite hard to get in,” Sakara’s captain, Robert O’Leary, said. “It’s a very narrow channel.” 

For travelers who say that modern cruise ships are not for them, Emerald Cruises believes it has an answer. The Sakara is being billed as a yacht rather than as a cruise ship. While not a new concept in the industry, yacht cruising is often overshadowed, literally and figuratively, by the titans of the big cruise lines, and even those yachts are often larger than Emerald’s vessels. 

That leaves an opening with people who might want a cruise, but not one that comes with 5,000 fellow passengers, or even 500. 

“The experience does not get better as the ships get bigger,” said Glen Moroney, founder and owner of the Scenic Group, Emerald’s parent company. 

On a weeklong itinerary to the Puerto Rican islands of Culebra and Vieques; St. Barts; and the British Virgin Islands, I found it easy to indulge my Thurston Howell III fantasies. The ship was low to the water, sleek in design and the opposite of crowded. The wide decks and comfortable outdoor furniture were made for lounging. With 76 crew at our disposal, the passengers got personal attention and never lacked for a beach towel, a piña colada or a pleasant “good morning.” 

Seen from shore, the Sakara is easy to brag about. Its low-slung profile and long, retro bow give it a rakish allure. At 110 meters, it is the same length as a 2008 yacht built in Germany for the Bahraini royal family. On the Sakara, for around $650 a night, a Caribbean cruise aboard a similar vessel can be yours. 

There’s only one real restaurant on the Sakara, but it is a good one, with indoor/outdoor seating and a cleverly designed, four-sided buffet. The three bars include Sky Bar on the top deck, which feels like a South Beach rooftop bar at sea. 

The décor of the ship, designed by Moroney’s wife, Karen, is a modern, neutral gray with just enough color in the pillows and upholstery to provide interest. There is whimsical statuary of cactus in a sort of pop art style on the pool deck that is especially fun. 

The aft marina has water toys like rafts, kayaks, snorkel gear and paddleboards; Emerald officials say customers skew a bit younger than the competitive set for yacht cruising. And the ships are half to a third of the capacity of rivals such as Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection or Ponant. 

To me, the best facet of the Emerald Sakara is the itinerary enabled by such a small ship. We visited the marvelous, secluded Flamenco Beach in Culebra and the bioluminescent Mosquito Bay in Vieques. We went snorkeling at Jost Van Dyke and explored The Baths in Virgin Gorda.

A few fellow passengers reported seasickness one night, but the gentle roll helped put me to sleep, and the temperate weather in the Caribbean of early December was more of a pleasure than a detraction.

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That fan was Jessica Malerman, a travel advisor with North Carolina-based Marvelous Mouse Travels, who was itching to see the pop icon on her sold-out Eras Tour in Miami. These mega-gatherings are not just concerts but also where fans, known as Swifties, exchange friendship bracelets, dress like the pop star, dance and bond over their love of Swift and her lyrics.

When Malerman’s T-shirt struck a chord with a fellow cruiser during a Royal Caribbean Seminar at Sea in late October, it inspired her and a pair of agents who had been eager to host some sort of girls’ cruise to launch a fan cruise for Swifties after the artist’s three-show run in Miami next October. Although Swift wouldn’t be onboard or be affiliated with the cruise, the sailing would include dance parties, trivia, bingo, karaoke — and the bracelet swap.

Less than two weeks after launching the In My Cruise Era sailing, news of the cruise went viral. The first 50-room block sold out, so they doubled down on another 50 rooms, trying to expand while keeping their group size manageable. It kept growing, ultimately stopping at 200 rooms despite thousands of inquiries.

“It’s overwhelming,” Malerman said. “As a travel agent, you’re used to building these intimate connections with people and really making personalized vacations for people. So the fact that we can create a vacation that so many people can relate to and say, ‘You know, this is going to be an amazing experience for me,’ is really awesome.” She added that she hopes to add more cruises that appeal to Swift’s fans in the future. 

And travel advisors who put together themed or group sailings said that Swift-themed sentiment taps directly into the secret ingredient for a successful offering: passion for something, whether it’s an artist, a lifestyle or self-improvement. 

ThemeCruiseFinder.com sweeps the Internet daily for themed cruises. As of mid-November, the site had posted about 670 active sailings, some with multiple sailings. Here are some of the most popular categories:

• Enthusiasts and hobbies: 88 
• Food and wine: 64 
• Music: 61
• Lifestyle: 54
• Active: 40 
• Intellectual pursuits: 36
• Holidays: 30
• Entertainment: 27 
• Nature: 19
• Religion: 13

Travel advisors can leverage that passion in popular culture or niche interests by either booking clients on existing themed voyages or by concocting their own, seizing on something that sparks interest from consumers, said David Bittner, a travel advisor and co-founder of ThemeCruiseFinder.com.

“The theme cruise space in the last 20 years has just exploded,” he said, adding that there is a cruise for just about “anything you can think of.”

That currently includes headbanger music, cats, wine, bridal fashion shows, comic-cons, line dancing, yoga, Zumba, golf, tennis, pickleball, wrestling, running, comedy, magic, Irish music, storytelling, Broadway, antiques, the American Revolution, “Star Trek,” Jay and Silent Bob, “Golden Girls,” art, astronomy, grand prix racing, knitting, poker, murder mysteries, LGBTQ+, photography, baseball history, D-Day, swingers, nudists, country music, politics, rock music and religion, not to mention food, beer and wine — just to name a few.

How theme cruises get done

Theme sailings have become more important to cruise lines. 

Norwegian Cruise Line understood the value of theme cruises early and in 2012 acquired Sixthman Festivals at Sea, which for two decades has built themed cruise and land experiences to bring bands and fans on vacation together. 

This year, parent company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) created the Experiences at Sea division to build unique experiences by blending Sixthman with its charters, meetings and incentives department.

Themed and chartered cruises have become “much more important” to the company, said Neil Brodie, senior director of charters, meetings and incentives for NCLH. Despite still being a small piece of the business overall, its importance grows as the company’s three brands build capacity that needs to be filled, he said.

“We used to focus on just the hardware, and now we’re focusing on what we think people will care about the most, which is experiences,” Brodie said. 

Companywide, NCLH has blocked off at least 100 nights each year for theme, charter and incentives clients, offering them a better rate than if they were booking a regular sailing. 

Sixthman aims to create immersive festival destination experiences by finding the most passionate fan bases, said Jeff Cuellar, vice president of events, marketing and community. He said the group looks for the kind of artists and interests that inspire tattoos and passionate discussions on Reddit and attract people who buy merchandise, attend shows and listen to podcasts about that artist or topic. 

“Our goal at Sixthman is to find these communities and bring to life this destination vacation experience so when you come onboard, you are immediately immersed in everything ‘that,'” Cuellar said. “And from all of the touch points from when we actually go on sale through post-event with videos that we’re sharing with them, we’re building communities.” 

The assumption behind themed cruises, he said, is that the subject is the most popular of its genre. That does not have to be true, he said.

For example, the band 311 enjoyed peak popularity in the mid-1990s but still has a cult following. The rock-rap group, perhaps best known for the song “Down,” has hosted more than a decade’s worth of cruises, with more in the works. 

“They’ve got an extremely passionate fan base that wants to be together, that wants to celebrate the band and everything that they do,” he said. “From Paramore to Kiss to rock and wrestling with Chris Jericho, that’s what we do.” 

To figure out what interests will hit that fan base sweet spot, Cuellar said Sixthman has created a proprietary tool to measure fan engagement and passion for an artist. While Cuellar wouldn’t divulge what goes into its measurement tool, he said the entertainment company isn’t just looking at bands but defines artists more broadly as musicians, comedians, chefs and star athletes.

In 2024, Sixthman plans to sail 24 themed cruises, 14 of which will be new.

One of them is a Hallmark Channel Christmas Cruise out of Miami. The Hallmark Channel approached Sixthman about teaming up for the sailing, which is centered around the holidays and will feature actors from the films — and probably more Christmas trees on one ship than the entire Norwegian fleet combined, Cuellar quipped.

According to NCL, the sailing was fully booked in 12 hours, the fastest sell-out in Sixthman history. A second sailing was added and sold out on the first day of its presale.

“You talk about the ultimate holiday experience and then there is a passion around these ‘Hallmarkees’ that talk about the movies, that know the actors and actresses so well,” he said. “It’s so intimate.”

A ship’s design is a big part of a theme cruise production. Norwegian’s Jewel-class ships are ideal for such cruises because the pool area can accommodate every attendee on the ship at one time. “We can create that community and family moment on the pool deck versus some of the other ships that are just designed differently and do not allow that same type of space,” Cuellar said.

Cruise lines also like theme cruises because they often sail in the shoulder seasons, although those that have what Cuellar calls a “rabid” fan base also sell out peak-season sailings. And, he said, the cruises often attract people who might not otherwise cruise, bringing aboard the valued first-timer.

How to find themed cruises

Bittner and his business partner Howard Moses have put together and sold themed cruises since the early 2000s.

After hosting cruises oriented around politics, religion and lifestyles — such as a cruise for runners — the two travel advisors at The Cruise Vacation and Authority found themselves in 2008 lamenting the difficulty in finding a listing of upcoming themed sailings. Cruise lines put effort into creating these sailings, but there wasn’t much awareness of them, Bittner said.

They created ThemeCruiseFinder.com, enabling cruise lines and travel advisors to list theme cruises for the trade and consumers to find. The site operated for a decade before being hacked shortly before the pandemic and being relaunched this year. 

Moses and Bittner said the site empowers even small agencies to post their theme cruises, making them easier for prospective clients to find. 

Bittner said he’s seeing just about as many themed cruises now as there were before the pandemic. One hurdle, he said, is that cruise business has rebounded so much that it’s more difficult to place a theme sailing now than four years ago. 

“It’s not that the ship is full,” he said, “There’s another group. You can’t have two groups onboard because you’re fighting for space.”

Food and wine sailings are hot right now, Moses said, and are being launched by both private groups and cruise lines.

Princess Cruises is one of those lines. This fall it hosted two Pacific Coast Wine and Food Experience cruises featuring the Wagner Family of Wines, which includes Caymus Vineyards, and Jackson Family Wines, the largest owner of coastal vineyards in California and Oregon. The cruise tapped the line’s relationship with Caymus Vineyards, which currently offers a specialty five-course “winemakers dinner” with a meal designed to complement tasting notes of the vineyard’s wines.

Princess is also leaning into popular culture when devising cruises. Last month it operated a cruise featuring Adam Savage, the original co-host of the Discovery Channel series “MythBusters.” Weeks later, the line hosted an early December sailing led by “Say Yes to the Dress” host and bridal designer Randy Fenoli. 

“People have affinities,” said Carmen Roig, vice president of sales at Princess. “The ’80s-themed cruise we held was so successful out of Galveston” that the line now incorporates at least one ’80s night into every cruise, she said.

Tapping the value of community

Advisors can also tap into demand for clients who may not be able to easily travel with the masses for health reasons. 

Or as Maureen Basye, co-founder of Celiac Cruise put it, demand for feeling normal and safe.

Basye’s family long enjoyed cruising but struggled to travel or eat at restaurants after her then-4-year-old son was diagnosed with celiac disease. 

“‘Not trusting’ is how we enter dining situations,” Basye said.

Her son, who would get sick if he ate food containing gluten, had to watch everyone else at the table be served their food while the kitchen carefully (and more slowly) made his. 

The wait, Basye said, was for him “an agonizing reminder that you’re different. ‘Life is not how it used to be’ was in your face.”

That experience inspired her to start Celiac Cruise with travel advisor Connie Saunders, founder and CEO of Total Travel and Events. Together, they have hosted six cruises this year that have a kitchen and dining space exclusively preparing gluten-free food. Being given an entire menu that caters to their dietary restrictions brings guests a sense of normalcy, Basye said.

“We’re essentially selling out on everything,” she said of her cruises, which are hosted by Royal Caribbean International. 

In 2024, there will be seven Celiac Cruise sailings: two full river charters on AmaWaterways and five on Royal Caribbean. Her next cruise, on the Oasis of the Seas in February, will host nearly 700 people, enough to take over an entire deck of the multilevel main dining room. 

In addition to guaranteeing a safe place for guests and their families to eat without fear of accidentally ingesting gluten, Basye said the cruises include speakers lecturing on celiac disease and other events that bring participants together. 

Her advice for travel advisors who are interested in hosting themed cruises is to recognize the value of community and commonality, especially to those with travel limitations that sometimes go unnoticed. In her case, it was people and families struggling to vacation and enjoy dining experiences when they were constantly afraid of getting ill. 

“There’s so much value in community, more than just the food,” she said. 

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Messi, one of the greatest soccer players of all time, has been named the “Icon of the Icon” and will take part in the naming ceremony for the ship on Jan. 23 in Miami. 

Messi is an eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or player of the year award and Time’s 2023 Athlete of the Year. After leading Argentina’s national team to a FIFA World Cup title in 2022, he transferred to Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer in 2023, becoming the highest-paid and most decorated player in that league’s history.

“It’s that ability to make such a widespread impact and change the status quo that the Icon of Icon must personify, and Lionel Messi has proven to be the perfect example of that for years in the world of sports and most recently in introducing a new era of excitement and passion for fútbol in Miami and the U.S,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. 

Royal Caribbean, which launched in Miami more than 50 years ago, became the main partner and official vacation partner of Inter Miami CF in August. Royal has a presence in the team’s stadium through in-game content, stadium LED and social media platforms. Royal and the soccer club plan to announce an evolution of that partnership at a later date. 

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The ship is scheduled to sail a seven-day Barcelona-Rome (Civitavecchia) inaugural voyage on July 1, 2025, with calls at Saint-Tropez, France; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Ajaccio, Corsica; and Alghero and Porto Cervo in Sardinia. 

The Luminara, meaning “light,” will accommodate up to 452 guests and include a signature Ritz-Carlton spa, an extensive wine collection and an expanded marina. The ship will also have a new high-category accommodation called the Residential Suite. 

The Luminara will have notes of soft brown oak and and touches of rich red, navy and green. There will be Calcutta marble and leather accents throughout. 

Inspired by the aesthetics of a private yacht, the ship’s exterior was designed by Helsinki-based design studio Aivan. Interior design comes from Toronto-based luxury design firm Chapi Chap Design, London-based architectural and design firm AD Associates, and lighting designer DPA.

Ilma will sail Northern Europe in 2025

Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection also announced that the Ilma, its second ship, will sail in Northern Europe in summer 2025. 

The ship will sail nine voyages in the North and Baltic seas, with port calls including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Reykjavik, Belfast, Bergen, and Antwerp. 

The Ilma is expected to debut in September 2024, sailing Mediterranean cruises. Then the Ilma will reposition to the Caribbean for the following winter.

Ritz-Carlton Yacht debuted its first ship, the Evrima, in October 2022. The Evrima is in the Caribbean now, will head to the Med in April and return to the Caribbean next November.

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Sarah Fabergé named the vessel as the ship’s godmother, and Regent unveiled the first Fabergé egg to permanently reside at sea — Journey in Jewels, a custom-designed piece on display in the Grandeur’s atrium. 

Sarah Fabergé is the great-granddaughter of Peter Carl Fabergé, the Russian jeweler who founded the Fabergé company. 

The Fabergé egg is the centerpiece of a 1,600-piece art collection on the Grandeur, including works by Picasso. Regent’s first digital art tour of the Grandeur is available on the Regent mobile app. 

The naming ceremony was attended by travel advisors, past guests and other VIPs. Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Kristin Chenoweth performed.

The 746-passenger Grandeur is Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ sixth ship and a sister to the Seven Seas Splendor and Seven Seas Explorer. With a crew of 548, the ship has among the highest staff-to-guest ratios in the industry, Regent said. 

The vessel features Regent’s signature restaurants Compass Rose, Chartreuse and Prime 7 among its eight dining venues, which are serving 130 dishes created exclusively for the Seven Seas Grandeur.

Following the gala event,
guests on the Grandeur embarked on a three-day sailing to the Bahamas. 

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Wilson will spearhead the development and implementation of the company’s first ship, which Aman describes as a luxury superyacht. The ship is expected to enter service in 2027. 

Wilson will work closely with Aman chairman and CEO Vlad Doronin to assemble the onboard and shoreside teams. He will also be in charge of ensuring the ship aligns with the quality of experience guests expect in Aman’s hotels.

Wilson previously oversaw product development of 17 hotels as vice president of customer experience and innovation at Hilton Worldwide from 2019 to 2021. He also had held leadership roles with Princess Cruises and Cunard Line from 2000 to 2015, including vice president positions in hotel operations, product development and food and beverage. 

Wilson authored “Courses: A Culinary Journey,” a Princess Cruises cookbook published in 2009.

Aman at Sea is a joint venture between Aman and Cruise Saudi. It has signed a contract with Italian shipbuilder T. Mariotti for its first vessel.

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PortMiami recorded nearly 7.3 million passengers in fiscal year 2023, shattering the port’s previous record of 6.8 million passengers in fiscal 2019. (A fiscal year stretches from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.) 

Meanwhile, Port Canaveral counted 6.8 million passengers in fiscal 2023, which also was a port record. Port Canaveral’s previous high was 4.7 million passengers in 2019. 

CLIA’s final 2023 ranking has yet to be released. CLIA ranks ports by passengers counted in a calendar year, and PortMiami is expected to top that list.

PortMiami had long held the title as world’s busiest cruise port, but that changed during the pandemic as cruise lines built back their operations. The drive-to market surged in 2022, giving Port Canaveral, about 55 miles from Orlando, an edge in attracting customers driving to the port. 

In 2022, Port Canaveral’s 4.7 million passengers exceeded PortMiami’s 4.03 million passengers.

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The Board of Port Commissioners green-lighted a $676,000 equipment purchase and consulting contract with Watts Marine (formerly known as Cochran Marine). 

The additional connection will be available at its B Street Cruise Terminal to support the port’s goals to significantly reduce pollutants, including nitrogen oxide and diesel particulate matter, and greenhouse gas emissions.   

The design phase of the third shore power connection is scheduled to begin this winter and is expected to be completed in 2024. The port’s first shore power connection for cruise ships went into service in 2010, and a a second connection installed in 2022, allowing two ships to simultaneously use shore power. 

The port’s total shore power investment in infrastructure for its cruise and cargo terminals tallies $24.7 million to date, according to the port. Most cruise ships departing from the port sail roundtrip to Mexico, use San Diego as a turnaround point or call there during repositioning cruises. 

The move to install an additional shore power connection comes as the cruise industry has focused on making its ships more sustainable with the ability to use shore power, along with engines to burn cleaner fuel like liquified natural gas, green methane or biofuels when available. 

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While new ship orders at other premium cruise lines slow, Celebrity has introduced three new vessels in four years, with the last of the Edge class still to come, and is already brainstorming concepts for its next ship class. 

To help fill all that capacity, Celebrity is betting on a new deployment strategy: For the first time, the line will sail year-round in the Caribbean, offering a mix of long and short itineraries on two ships in 2024.

The strategy offers guests a chance to sail on one of Celebrity’s newest vessels, the Celebrity Beyond, on six- and eight-day sailings, or take shorter cruises on the Celebrity Reflection, which Celebrity president Laura Hodges Bethge described as an “on-ramp” for first-time cruisers. 

The line is growing the ranks of new cruisers as well as those new to the line, she said. “We have a tremendously loyal base, but redeploying Beyond into the Caribbean was an absolute home run in terms of being able to attract those new-to-cruise and new-to-brand.” (Hodges Bethge is On the Record with her thoughts on the line’s direction.)

Cruise lines’ orders cool

Cruise lines have debuted a flood of new ships in recent years, but some brands have slowed their orders. Carnival Corp. has its smallest order book in decades, reflected at its two premium brands: Princess Cruises has two ships due out by 2025, but Holland America Line has none. 

Celebrity Cruises parent Royal Caribbean Group isn’t slowing its growth. Royal Caribbean International will launch two ships next year. Celebrity just debuted its fourth Edge-class ship, the Celebrity Ascent, and work has begun on the Celebrity Xcel, the final ship of the class, expected to launch in November 2025 from Fort Lauderdale. 

The Edge-class ships were designed by firms that work mostly on land-based projects, and they are built to feel more like resorts than cruise ships. Their modern design encourages more people to consider a cruise vacation, said Hodges Bethge. 

The Xcel will offer seven products and experiences that are new to Celebrity, some that will be woven into a modernization plan for Celebrity’s five-ship Solstice class, which just turned 15 years old, to add more continuity through the fleet. 

The line is already “dreaming” up plans for its next class, Hodges Bethge said, which will come out in four to five years. She gave no details on what they are planning for the ships or when production may begin.

Focus on the U.S. drive market

While Celebrity has ships in Europe, Alaska, Australia and the Caribbean, its new strategy is to increase its presence in the American drive market. 

That’s a change from this summer, when the line based all three of its Edge-class ships in Europe.

While Europe remains popular, some guests are looking for what Hodges Bethge called an “incremental vacation” that is more convenient to get to. To build on that, the line will homeport a ship in Port Canaveral for the first time next year, with the Celebrity Equinox sailing seven-day cruises in winter. 

Placing ships in a drive market reduces friction and costs from plane travel and hotel stays, said Jason Liberty, CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. 

But it also meets guests where they are, he said. “We want to make sure that we’re bringing the product and meeting them where they want to be,” he said. 

Some of that, Liberty said, is the new opportunity for Celebrity to call at Royal Caribbean private island Perfect Day at CocoCay; Celebrity has 50 calls scheduled there in 2024. Hodges Bethge hinted that the line is considering ways to use the island in a way that is distinctive to Celebrity, but declined to provide details.

Advisors onboard the new Ascent praised Celebrity’s deployment and growth strategies. 

Ellen Foreman-Elkins, manager and travel advisor for Central Travel in Holland, Ohio, said that offering close-to-home sailings on an Edge-class ship gives her clients the “adult” experience that Celebrity offers “right in their backyard so that they don’t have to travel to the Med or Alaska.”

And Mike Estill, COO of the Western Association of Travel Agencies, said that Celebrity’s bet that its young fleet and new features will trump loyalty to other brands, especially if their competition has slowed its pace of new ships, could be a good one.

“The thing that’s actually demanding premium pricing right now is brand-new ships with new features,” he said. “If you stop making new ships, are you as a fleet starting to lose some traction?”

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