9 Major Cruise Updates That Are Affecting Passengers Right Now

Added: 2026-05-04

[00:00:00]Recent announcements and news will bring some major changes to the cruise industry. Cruising is always evolving and some of these updates could affect your next cruise more than you think.

[00:00:14]Hi there, I'm Elana from the website lifewallcruise.com. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Now, we have a mixed bag of cruise news, cruise changes, and things that you'll want to know about if you enjoy cruising. Some of it is really good news that cruisers have been asking for. Others, well, there is a lesson that especially for new cruisers, you have probably never heard of. And the last one might have you wondering how this happened and if we might see some changes to drink packages because of this. Now, before I get started, I did want to mention that if you like this video, if you find it helpful, informative, or enjoyable in any way, then please do give this video a big thumbs up. I really do appreciate it.

[00:00:55]and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Let's get started. All right, starting off with story number one. We have brand new cruise ships that have been announced by Princess Cruises. Now, what do we know about these cruise ships? Well, first they are going to be called the Voyager class. Now, the Voyager class cruise ships are not going to be the sphere class. So, if you know Princess Cruises, they have Sun Princess and Star Princess that are their most recent cruises.

[00:01:23]Well, this cruise ship class is still going to be built on that same foundation, but it's going to be a completely different design. Now, in terms of the size, the Voyager class is going to be 183,000 tons. And just for comparison's sake, Star Princess, their largest ship so far, is 173,000 tons.

[00:01:43]Now, it's going to accommodate 4700 guests in comparison to Star Princess that accommodates 4,300 guests. Now, the delivery, it's going to be a while, is in 2035 for the first ship, 2038 for the second, and then 20,39 for the third.

[00:02:00]And if you're wondering why does it take so long, it is because there's only I think it might be three um shipyards in the world, to my knowledge, that can actually build these really large ships for the major cruise lines. And you really need to get in there in advance to be able to get a spot. So, that definitely sounds good, but I am wondering, especially if you are a Princess Cruiser, what would you like to see on these ships? Please do let me know down in the comments below. Now, for anybody who doesn't necessarily want to see new cruise ship builds, would you actually have another cruise line that is investing in their current fleet and are renovating them? But I will tell you about that later on in this video.

[00:02:40]Number two, are fuel searchchargers coming to cruising? Now, I've been seeing a lot of reports on this, a lot of rumors about this, and of course, a lot of concern from cruisers who just don't want to see the price of their cruise increasing beyond the actual price of the cruise. Well, no. Right now, fuel stir charges are not happening. We've actually heard from cruise line executives, from cruise line spokespersons, and even though in the cruise contract, by the way, cruise lines do have the right to charge an additional fuel supplement, but they have not done that in many, many years.

[00:03:18]So, that is there just in case. Now, something to remember is that cruise lines have different ways that they are handling that market volatility. Now, according to a report in Travel Pulse, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings told the outlet, "We do not expect any immediate impact on ticket prices or the guest experience due to current market disruptions." And Carnival Corporation spokesperson said, "We have no plans to change our current pricing model." So, while we can't predict the future, at least at this current time, it seems like cruisers do not have to worry. Now, I have one more story that is still on the heavier cruise news side, and then we're going to move on to that lesson that especially first-time cruisers might not know. So, number three, the Middle East situation is having ripple effects beyond just that region. So, we have entire itineraries that have been cancelled due to the situation in the Middle East. So, if you were planning to take a cruise that was leaving from Dubai, well, we have entire seasons that have been cancelled. So, this has meant that we actually have MSC Europa, a very large cruise ship that is moving from the Middle East region and is instead redeploying to the Caribbean. Now, travel updates like these are also a good reminder that when you're cruising, you're usually not just on the ship.

[00:04:36]You're in airports, hotels, cruise terminals, and port destinations, too.

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[00:05:46]and it's risk-free with their 30-day money back guarantee. Number four, the Virgin Voyages itinerary change. Well, there's a little bit of a lesson in this one that firsttime cruisers, but even experienced cruisers should know about.

[00:06:00]So, just to let you know, and you may have seen this on social media, so I'll just sort of sum it up, but basically what happened is there was a Virgin Voyages cruise that was heading to Bermuda and due to weather had to actually reroute to St. John's, New Brunswick. Now, there is a couple who's sharing their story on social media and they shared that only about 2 days before their cruise. They received an email um from the cruise line letting them know about the itinerary change.

[00:06:27]And you can imagine if you're ready for Bermuda, you are ready with, you know, sort of your warm weather clothes and St. John's, New Brunswick during the month of April is going to be cold. So, they were definitely not prepared. Now, they decided to go on the cruise, but they definitely wondered why did they go to St. John's, New Brunswick, and why instead did they not go to Jamaica or maybe another port. Now, one of the reasons is because a lot of people aren't aware, but Bermuda is actually quite far from Jamaica and other Caribbean cruise ports. It's actually not in the Caribbean. Geographically, it's closer to North Carolina, but more like in the middle of the Atlantic. So that would have been logistically too far and this was a short cruise. Now they have documented their entire cruise over on Instagram and I think Tik Tok and it does look like they have actually been having a good time but they actually did get a little bit of snow during their cruise and it definitely wasn't what they expected. Now I am curious about your thoughts. My understanding is they got a $100 onboard credit I guess per person. Maybe it's per cabin. I'm not sure of the detail, but is that enough? Should the cruise line have given them, you know, more compensation? Please let me know what you think down in the comments below. A lot of people on social media seem to think so. Number five. Now, I think this might be my absolute favorite story, and it is because I would love to see more cruise lines do this, but this is good news. Holland America is investing $500 million into fleet enhancements. And for anybody who has been wanting um midsize cruise ships and smaller cruise ships to just be updated, this is really something very good. Now, they are going to be enhancing six of their older cruise ships. They're going to be adding the Grand Dutch Cafe. Oh my goodness, I love that. New guest spaces and solo stateaterooms. Number six, the cruise industry has hit a record number of cruise passengers at 37.2 2 million cruisers in 2025. Now, it's really interesting because the cruise industry is absolutely booming with 90% of passengers saying that they intend to cruise again. Now, there is also growth in the new cruiser segment as well as younger and family cruisers. We have MSE Cruises that has announced an opening of a brand new private island, Sandy Kay, right next to Ocean K, that is coming out in 2028. Now, for anybody who has ever been to Ocean K, you may have seen over the last few months um MSE sort of building that new private island. My understanding, I think, is they actually took some sand from that area and they've really built this private island, which is interesting. Now, this is actually supposed to be more of a luxury style private island that will serve MSE cruises and explorer journey guests. All right, we've got two more stories. They both in a way do have to do with Carnival. The last one, oh my goodness, I want you to let me know what you think because it potentially could affect other cruise lines. All right, number eight, we have Carnival that has introduced more adult-only cruises through their C program, SEA. Now, SEA stands for sailings exclusively for adults, which I do think that a lot of people would love to see on other cruise lines. Now, these are invite-only cruises for guests 21 and older, but they seem to be geared specifically towards Carnival's casino crowd with more casino access, themed parties, and adult focused experiences on board. All right. Now, I don't want to start any rumors here, but there is a lawsuit that does have people talking about the future of cruise line drink packages.

[00:10:20]Now, let me explain. And again, I am not saying that this is what is happening. I will tell you the story and this is just a discussion topic. So this is what happened. A woman has actually taken Carnival to court and won. Now what she says happened is she actually drank and was served 14 shots in a period of a few hours during her cruise. And just to let you know, if you have the Carnival drink package, the alcoholic one, um that caps at 15 drinks. And many cruise lines have that cap of 15 drinks. some have no um limit at all. In any case, she was served her for 14 drinks. My understanding from the story is she fell down the stairs. She sustained some injuries. According to everything that I have seen, um it was not the same bartender who served her those 14 shots.

[00:11:14]It was at several different bars. It was over several hours and it was, you know, under the limit. And my thinking would be that you are still an adult going on a cruise and you know you have to choose how much you drink and unless that person really displayed that they were out of control or they were acting in a way that was dangerous to themselves or other people. I don't think a lot of times that they would be cut off and I think if they were cut off maybe they would complain about that. But it does really beg the question about drink packages. Are unlimited drink packages a bad idea? Are the drink packages that actually have that limit of 15, do they encourage people in some way to sort of get their money's worth? You know, the 15 drink a day challenge. And do you think that it might change drink packages? Let me know either way what you think and if you think that this ruling, by the way, my understanding is Carnival is going to be appealing that.

[00:12:11]So, you know, this might not be over, but what do you think? Are drink packages going to be relooked at because of this? Let me know down in the comments below. Now, I do hope that you enjoyed this video. If you did, please do give it a big thumbs up. I really do appreciate it. And please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. Bye for now and happy cruising.