Cruising In 2026? Then You Need to Read This!

Cruising This Year Will Be Very Different. Here’s 6 Reasons Why!

If you’re thinking about cruising in the next year, it’s going to feel rather different from what we’ve been used to recently. There are changes affecting who cruises, how we cruise, what we can take on board, and even where we are able to go.

I’m Gary Bembridge, and as many of these changes are flying under the radar, I’m going to unpack six key things you need to know about, and importantly, why it matters and how it may affect you.

Cruising In 2026? More Bans & Rules

In the next year, you’re going to notice more bans and greater enforcement of rules. Let’s talk about the bans first.

The biggest one is around smart glasses, like Meta Ray-Bans.

MSC were the first cruise line to do this, banning their use in many areas of the ship due to privacy and security concerns. This has caused some concern and pushback from cruisers with sight impairments who are using these in increasing numbers to help them move around and navigate spaces.

You can use smart glasses in your cabin and ashore, but they will be confiscated if you use them in public areas like dining rooms, pools, and theatres.

Carnival Cruise Line, at the time recording, is permitting them to be brought on board, but you cannot use them through gangway and security operations. But one to watch. I think this will accelerate.

The second key thing I’m seeing is cruise lines clamping down on bad behaviour and rule breaking this year, with two stand out ones.

First, around the behaviour of unescorted kids running a bit amok on board. Many of the largest cruise lines have introduced curfews, restricting the time that kids under the age of 18 can be around the ship unescorted. These are being enforced with more vigour.

For example, just as I was making this, a cruiser posted on Facebook the letter she had received on board a Carnival Cruise, telling them because their child had broken the curfew once, if happened again, they would receive a $500 fine, and if it happened a third time, they would be disembarked at their own cost.

The second area which is being clamped down on is around mobility scooters.

Most cruise lines are now strictly enforcing a much-ignored rule about mobility scooters being able to fit through the door of your booked stateroom, and for them to be stored in there and never left in the hallway.

If cruisers need a mobility scooter larger than can fit through regular cabin doors, an accessible cabin must be booked.

These days when guests with scooters arrive to check in, if that scooter does not fit within the booked cabin door, they are usually being denied boarding without any compensation.

Cruising In 2026? More From Loyalty Programs

One positive change this year is that loyalty status is becoming more valuable if you like trying different lines.

While status matching has been offered by more lines in the past year, there are even more options this year.

Already in place was Royal Caribbean Group offering status matching across their three main lines, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Silversea. This change benefited me last year and will again this year cruising on Celebrity.

The Norwegian group also introduced status matching across their three brands (Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas), although you do have to apply for it cruise by cruise. I also benefitted last year from this and will again this year cruising on Norwegian Aqua.

Explora Journeys was status matching only ultra-luxury lines last year like Seabourn, Silversea, Regent, Oceania, SeaDream, and Ritz-Carlton, but this year they’ve added some luxury and premium lines like Azamara and Cunard.

Their sister line MSC Cruises has expanded our status match options this year with more hotels, airlines, and cruise lines programs added to the list of who they will match.

This year, although for a limited time, Virgin Voyages is also offering status matching and including a wide range of airlines, hotels, and cruise line programs.

Cruising In 2026? More Adult-Only Options

One of the most appealing changes for many this year is the expansion of adult-only cruising, with more options than ever before.

Carnival will be running more adult-only cruises in the Caribbean. These are casino-focused cruises, but there’s many more after trialing it last year.

The biggest news is that Oceania have announced that they’re now only for adults over 18, though they will honour under 18s on bookings made before the 7 January 2026.

This is a big change, meaning Oceania joins another luxury line, Viking, offering adult-only cruises. Other adult-only cruises this year are available on Virgin Voyages, while in the UK, there’s SAGA, Ambassador, and on selected P&O ships (Arcadia and Aurora), and on selected Marella ships too.

There’s also a new adult-only small ship line launching this year, called VidantaWorld with a 300-passenger ship called Elegant.

However, despite the shift to more adult-only cruising, it is not good news for solo cruisers because at the same time as a Norwegian group is going adult only on their Oceania line, they have backtracked from earlier plans to have more solo cabins on their Norwegian Cruise Line, and they’re going to be reducing numbers.

Also, we’re seeing on some lines, particularly Celebrity, that they’re pricing solos in the next year at more than they’re charging for two people booking a cabin.

It looks to me like lines may be starting to set quotas on how many solo-occupied cabins they have on some sailings now, ramping up the cost for solos above double occupancy when that is reached. Something to watch out for.

The Inaugural Four Seasons Yacht

Cruising In 2026? New Lines And Ships

Cruising will also offer rather different options this year because there’s a wave of new ships and even entirely new cruise lines arriving. Although at the same time, there is a dramatic pullback in one of the more experimental ideas that we were promised. More on that shortly.

New Lines

The new lines launching are mostly at the high end of cruising, but there are several new regional lines.

Four Seasons line is launching with the first of their purpose-build 190-passenger yachts
Orient Express line is launching with their first ship, Corinthian, carrying 108 guests.
The regional lines launching are VidantaWorld I mentioned earlier, with the 300-passenger adult-only Elegant ship starting up in the Mediterranean and Adriatic, and Terra Nova Expeditions using the old RMS St Helena that used to sail to that island from South Africa focusing on the Antarctica and the Polar Regions.

New Ships

But there is a wave of 9 new ships coming into service this year mostly in the mainstream mega-ship resort and luxury segments.

The resort-style ships launching this year are:

The 7,600-passenger Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas, their latest Icon-class ship.
The 7,000-passenger Disney Adventure which will be based in Singapore and will be their largest ship.
The 6,758-passenger MSC World Asia which is part of their World-class series like World Europa and World America.
The 4,000-passenger Mein Schiff Flow, which is a sistership to Relax and part of their InTUItion-class.
The 3,550-passenger Norwegian Luna. The latest of Norwegian Cruise Line Prima-class ships.

The new luxury and ultra-luxury ships this year are:

Viking’s Mira and Libra both with just under 1,000 guests. Libra is the first hydrogen-powered cruise ship, so way more environmental than anything out there, capable of zero emissions, they claim.
Explora Journeys’ Explora III. Their first LNG ship still carrying around 900 guests but with more space dedicated to Kids Clubs.
Windstar’s 224-passenger Star Explorer will join as a sister to Star Seeker launched in 2025.
And finally, Regent Seven Seas Prestige, the first of three Prestige-class ships, carrying 822 guests, making it bigger than ships in their existing fleet is launching this year.

Residential Ships

However, there’s a big pullback on residential ships and lines planned for this year.

Storylines, which had said they would launch a new build called MV Narrative this year have gone rather quiet. Their phone number has been disconnected at the time of making this, although their website is still up. But since the ship is not even commissioned, this will not happen this year. Maybe never?
A surprising pullback is by Crescent Seas who signed leases in 2025 to take over Regent Seven Seas Navigator and Oceania Insignia as residential ships launching this year. But have pulled out of those and claim that they are now going to focus on a new build. So, it’s not happening this year. And one to watch.
VillaVie Residences have said that they will work on a second ship as a sistership to their Villa Vie Odyssey already sailing, which is going to be more up market. Though it won’t be happening this year because no signs of what ship that’s going to be.

Cruising In 2026? Travel Requirement Changes

A key area of change, and a reason cruising is going to feel more challenging, is the growing maze of visas and electronic travel authorizations.

An ever-increasing number of cruising countries require us to get an Electronic Travel Authorisation to enter the country to join a cruise, and sometimes even to enter on a cruise.

The two big watchouts for this year are.

First, Europe is due to introduce the much-delayed ETIAS (European Travel Information Authorization System). At time of making this, their site suggests it will not be in place before this year’s peak Mediterranean and Europe cruising season. But keep an eye on this if you have any European cruising planned for this year.

Second, also at the time of making this, there is potentially a key change happening to the United States ESTA, which is their electronic travel authorization.

They’re proposing to bring it more in line with some requirements of their full travel visa application.

This may entail a move from voluntary declaring your social media accounts into mandatory listing of your past five years activity, more information on family and personal history like emails and phone numbers, and likely shift to a mobile-only application process like the UK and Australia.

Linked to that, like those countries, the App will then likely scan your passport to capture some biometric data and require uploading a photograph.

Some have expressed concerns about the changes proposed to the US ESTA. However, it’s not that different to what some other countries have. But make sure if going to the USA to check the latest on the official ESTA site.

Cruising In 2026? Crisis and Weather

Perhaps a key change to be ready for is that recent times have taught us that itineraries we booked and are expecting this year could get affected by geopolitical tensions or climate issues.

Ports and itineraries are at risk from existing and unexpected unrest and conflicts.

We saw over the last couple of years how quickly the world can shift. The Russian invasion of Ukraine closed off key ports in the Baltic like St. Petersburg, the Israeli-Gaza conflict closed Israeli ports, and dramatically affected Red Sea itineraries, and made transiting the Suez Canal unsafe for cruise ships, forcing many changes to routes and cruises.

And while some lines are offering Red Sea itineraries and Suez Canal transits this year, it’s still looking rather uncertain they will happen.

At the start of 2026 there was the Venezuela issue, which abruptly closed airspace, throwing various routes, ports and people joining ships into chaos.

So, this year like the last few, we must expect the unexpected as geopolitical issues or unrest flaring up almost certainly will change plans in 2026, I am sure.

Also, we need to bear in mind that as we book across the next year to think about key weather activities. Hurricanes in the Caribbean seem to be becoming more frequent and stronger. Cyclones in Asia are the same. So certainly, as we plan, be aware of periods at risk of major weather disruption.