If we had to sum up 2025 in one word, it would undoubtedly be GROWTH. This was evident on all fronts: spectacular growth again in passenger numbers, the same goes for the seemingly endless flood of new ships, and finally, an increase in the number of destinations managed by the shipping companies themselves to accommodate the measures taken by ports that primarily ban larger ships.
In 2025, the cruise industry reached a record-breaking 37.7 million global passengers, a significant increase from 2024, partly caused by strong demand from Millennial and Gen Z travelers. Major cruise lines achieved record profitability, with Carnival Corporation reporting over $26 billion in revenue and an adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 billion.
In 2025 several noteworthy new ships were introduced:.
- Star of the Seas (Royal Caribbean): Launched in August 2025, she was the second Icon-class ship and immediately secured the title of the largest cruise ship in the world. She features 20 decks, a massive “Category 6” waterpark, and the “Ultimate Family Townhouse.”
- MSC World America: Debuting in Miami, this MSC Cruises ship introduced the “Cliffhanger,” the first over-the-edge swing ride at sea, targeting the North American market with a mix of luxury and high-tech thrills.
- Disney Destiny (Disney Cruise Line), she is a “Heroes and Villains” themed ship.
- Star Princess, Princess Cruises second Sphere-class ship; her focus is on the Mediterranean. She is a sister of Sun Princess (2024).
- Celebrity Xcel (Celebrity Cruises) introduces the first five-star restaurant at sea.
- Viking cruises’ 100th Ship: Viking achieved a historic milestone in October by christening nine river boats simultaneously, bringing its total fleet to 100 vessels including river, ocean, and expedition vessels
- For an overview of new vessels see our Ships delivered in 2025 page.
The constant growth of the cruise industry leads to a discussion on overtourism between popular iconic destinations and cruise lines operating the larger ships.
While the cruise industry only accounts for about 2% of global tourism, its highly visible nature – thousands of passengers disembarking in a single location at once—has obviously made it the primary target for ports trying to cope with crowds and climate activists.
Several major Mediterranean and European ports have reached a breaking point and have started implementing serious measures to protect local infrastructure and resident quality of life:
- Barcelona: Starting in 2026, the city is reducing its cruise docks from seven to five. The goal is to move cruise terminals away from the city center to decrease the immediate “flooding” of the Las Ramblas area a result of the over 30,000 passengers visiting daily. The remaining berths will prioritize ships that start or end their journeys in Barcelona as these passengers are more likely to stay in local hotels, eat at restaurants, and fly through Barcelona airport, providing much higher economic value per person.
- The French Riviera (Nice & Cannes): In a historic move, these cities have implemented serious limitations. Cannes will restrict large ships (3,000+ passengers) to just one per day starting in January 2026, while Nice has sought to limit ships to those carrying fewer than 900–1,300 passengers. However, not everyone is pleased with these initiatives, as a lot of local merchants, restaurants, taxi-drivers etc. see their income plummeting.
- Venice & Amsterdam: Venice’s ban on large ships in the historic Giudecca Canal remains strict, with a 15% decrease in large-ship visits as a result in 2025. Amsterdam is also halving its cruise berths by 2026 to reduce congestion in the city center while at the same time investigating possibilities for a total ban on cruiseships as a new terminal outside of Amsterdam is considered being too expensive.
- In Sydney, the “cap” on cruising has led to a a limited number of berths for “mega-ships,” and the government has resisted building a third cruise terminal at Botany Bay due to environmental and community concerns, effectively limiting the industry’s growth capacity.
- Greek Islands (Santorini & Mykonos): Greece introduced a €20 “overtourism fee” per passenger for those visiting these islands during peak season in 2025, alongside a daily cap of 8,000 passengers for Santorini. Industry
So, cruise lines are now being forced to take measures to cope with these developments;
- The development of private destinations: Lines like Carnival (Celebration Key) and Disney (Lookout Cay) are moving passengers to their own private islands. This allows them to handle thousands of guests without impacting local infrastructure. Cruise lines heavily investing in exclusive land-based destinations are able to control the entire guest experience with all revenues coming their way.
- There is a new development on the horizon however, concerning a shift from Private Islands to Beach Clubs. While lines like e.g. Norwegian (Great Stirrup Cay) still rely on their classic islands, Royal Caribbean is pioneering the “Club” model. Instead of an entire island, they build exclusive enclaves on existing popular islands like Paradise Island in Nassau or Cozumel in Mexico. This allows them to offer a private experience even in non-private ports.
- Ships calling at lesser-known ports like Trieste instead of Venice, or Sarandë, Albania to spread the economic benefit and reduce the pressure on the classic, popular destinations.
- Coordinating of arrival time and dates: Cruise lines are collaborating with port authorities to coordinate arrival slots, ensuring that mega-ships don’t all dock at the same time in the morning, trying to avoid congestion.
- Restrictions have led to a surge in boutique/ niche and expedition cruising. Smaller ships (under 1,000 guests) are often exempt from these new rules, making them the “loophole” for travelers who still want to dock in or close to the heart of cities like Venice or Nice as well as cruise lines being ebale to continue offering these destinations.
- New Zealand is currently the primary driver of changes in the regional cruise industry, primarily due to its aggressive biosecurity laws. They recently introduced strict biofouling regulations requiring ships to have a “clean hull” before entering territorial waters. This is meant to prevent invasive species (like the Mediterranean fanworm) from entering the ecosystem. When because of these rules the number of cruiseship calls dramatically declined, port services were introduced to facilitate vessels to have their hull cleaned before entering eco-sensitive waters, services lines gratefully make use of.
- Introducing the use of low-sulfur fuel. For example, Sydney Harbour Emission Limits effective since 2016, require cruise ships berthing in Sydney Harbour to use low-sulfur fuel (0.1% or less) to reduce air pollution in the city’s densely populated areas.
Climate impact in general is an important point of discussion in the cruise industry. Sustainability has been promoted from a voluntary goal to an operational standard. 2025 saw a record number of ships launched with LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) propulsion, reducing emissions by up to 20% which is seen as a first step in lowering cruising-footprint. Also, the industry saw the first methanol-ready ships and continued testing of hydrogen fuel cells and large-scale battery storage, specifically on ships like Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas.
An additional mesure conerns the introduction of shore power (Cold Ironing) in a growing number of popular ports. A majority of new ships are equipped with plug-in capabilities, allowing them to turn off their engines while docked in busy ports like Barcelona or Miami to eliminate local emissions and lower noise levels.
Technology in 2025, once limited to the introduction of fast onboard Wi-Fi now include a whole range of innovations:
- Several lines introduced AI-powered assistants that use guest data to suggest dining and excursions real-time via the app.
- Biometric Boarding: Facial recognition and express-arrival fast-boarding especially for large vessels, reducing the embarkation process to just a few minutes.
- Smart Staterooms: New ships like the Disney Adventure and Star of the Seas feature integrated IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled rooms where guests control lighting, temperature, and TV via voice commands or smartphones.
While the post-pandemic surge in scrapping has slowed down, 2025 saw the final departure of several iconic vintage vessels and even a “mega-ship” that never even sailed.
The most iconic ships sent to the scrapyards (primarily Alang, India, and Aliaga, Turkey) in 2025:
Song of America (last sailed as Celestyal Olympia), built in 1982, she was the fourth ship of Royal Caribbean and one of the early ships to feature the iconic Viking Crown Lounge wrapped around her funnel. After a long career under various names (including Thomson Destiny), she was retired by Celestyal Cruises. She arrived at the scrapyard at Alang in February 2025 under the delivery name Fortu to be dismantled.
Astoria, the world’s oldest cruise ship,originally built in 1948 as the Stockholm) was finally sold for scrap in 2025 after years of lay up in the port of Rotterdam . She became world-famous when colliding with the flagship of the Italian merchant marine, the liner Andrea Doria in 1956, which sank. After the collapse of Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) in 2020 followed by a failed attempt by a crypto-investment group to turn it into a hotel in Portugal, the ship was deemed beyond repair and sold to a breakers yard in Belgium in July 2025.
Celestyal Crystal: A well-known name in Aegean cruising since 2007, she (originally the cruiseferry Viking Saga of 1980) was retired in late 2024 and beached for recycling in mid-2025 as her owners Celestyal Cruises modernized its fleet with newer acquisitions. She was known as the “ship with nine lives” as she survvied two fires and sinkings.
More and more ships are being forced out of service these days because the set of rules concerning environmental regulation is growing rapidly. Newer “Tier III” emission standards (representing the most stringent international regulations for nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from marine diesel engines) and the forced introduction of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) make it increasingly expensive to retro-fit ships built in the 1980’s or 90’s. In many cases, it is more cost-effective to sell older tonnage and invest in a newbuildings than to technically upgrade a 40-year-old vessel.
The historic ocean liner ss United States left its longtime home in Philadelphia on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, after nearly 30 years docked at Pier 82, beginning its journey down the Delaware River towards Mobile, Alabama. In this case she was not en route to the shipbreakers, but to be prepared as an artificial reef off the Florida coast after years of attempts by the Unites States Conservatory to save her turned out to be unsuccesful. The ss United States, built in 1952 was the fastest North Atlantic liner ever built and the last holder of the the Blue Riband.
In 2025 as usual, several ships changed hands.
The Mykonos Magic, former Costa Magica (2004) was sold to Tianjin Oriental International Cruises, she left Greece in Nov. 2025 under the name Vision, and is expected to be renamed Ideal ahead of a summer deployment out of Tianjin, where it sail alongside the Dream. She was owned by Seajets since 2023 at the time of her sale, who had planned to opeate her as Goddess of the Night, an exclusive party ship in the Mediterranean, but this plan was abandoned when after 5 years of lay up, she was in worse condition than expected. Her new owners will have her extensively refitted.
After buying a number of cruise ships during the pandemic, mostly from Carnival Group brands ferry operator Seajets resold several of them while others were sent to the scrappers. The company now has three vessels left in its laid up fleet: the former Majesty of the Seas of Royal Caribbean, P&O’s former Oceana and the former Holland America vessel Veendam.
Norwegian Sky & Norwegian Sun: Sold by Norwegian Cruise Line to Cordelia Cruises. They are the first ships to leave the fleet since 2009, when the Norwegian Majesty was handed over to Louis Cruise Lines.
Seabourn Sojourn: Acquired by Mitsui Ocean Cruises. Mitsui Ocean Cruises is a luxury cruise brand launched in 2023 by the Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. It blends high-end Western-style cruising with authentic Japanese Omotenashi (hospitality), aiming to offer an immersive experience of Japan’s culture, seasons, and local traditions.
Historic cruise line P&O Australia was integrated in its Carnival Cruise Line fleet in March 2025 by Carnival Corporation. In March 2025, the P&O Cruises Australia brand officially ceased operations after 90 years, with its fleet and operations being absorbed into Carnival Cruise Line.
This move was a strategic decision by Carnival Corporation to streamline operations in the South Pacific, citing high regulatory and operating costs alongside the small population of the region. As already mentioned, Australia and New Zealand have implemented some of the world’s most stringent environmental and biosecurity regulations to manage the impact of the cruise industry leading to considerably higher operating costs.
