Welcome to Cruise News, your daily update on
everything happening at sea. Visit cruisenews
.io to see today's stories and sign up for email
alerts. It is great to be back. We have a really
packed show today. It feels like we're looking
at the whole industry. In miniature, really.
They really are. We've got three stories that
hit three totally different parts of the business.
Yeah, we're starting with, you know, massive
scale in Alaska. Then we're jumping to a big
strategic move on the Gulf Coast. And then something
really high tech in the expedition world. We're
definitely covering the full spectrum. We're
going to kick things off with Royal Caribbean
International, who have finalized this huge four
ship lineup for Alaska in 2027. Then we're heading
south to talk about Carnival Cruise Line. They're
making a major, and I mean year -round, commitment
to Mobile, Alabama. Which is a huge deal for
that port. Absolutely. And then finally, we are
going to deke out a little bit on some new tech
from Aurora Expeditions that's tackling a problem
most of us don't even think about. Microscopic
pollution. That last one is fascinating. It's
all about that invisible impact of cruising.
But you're right. We have to start with the heavy
metal. Royal Caribbean is making a serious play
for the last frontier. They absolutely are. So
let's unpack this. The battle for Alaska is always
heating up. But for summer 2027, Royal Caribbean's
announced their deployment and it is four ships.
Right. You've got Anthem of the Seas, Quantum
of the Seas. Serenade of the Seas, and Voyager
of the Seas. And just to give you some context
on that, that is a massive amount of capacity.
You combine those four, you're looking at, what,
over 13 ,000 guests a week. It's a small town,
basically. It is. It's a small town moving through
the fjords every single week. But what's interesting
to me isn't just the sheer number. It's the specific
mix of ships they're using. Right, because for
a lot of people, you know, a ship is a ship.
But in Alaska, the actual hardware, it really
shapes the experience, doesn't it? Oh, it dictates
everything. It dictates your route, what you
see, even which ports you can physically get
into. And they're using three different classes
of ships here, really targeting three different
kinds of travelers. Okay, so let's start with
the biggest beast of the bunch. Voyager of the
Seas. Yeah. Voyager. She's a Voyager class ship.
So she comes in at over 138 ,000 gross tons.
And for anyone who doesn't know, that's not weight.
It's a measure of internal volume. So it's just
it's a massive ship. It's the one with the Royal
Promenade, the ice skating rink, all that stuff.
Exactly. It's the resort at sea experience. So
she'll be sailing seven night round trips out
of Seattle. But here's the tradeoff with a ship
that big. OK. To make that seven day loop on
time, these huge ships. they often have to sail
on the west side of Vancouver Island. In the
open ocean. Meaning you're not in the famous
inside passage the whole time. Correct. You spend
a good chunk of time in the Pacific. It's still
beautiful, of course, but you're not seeing trees
and, you know, maybe a bear on the shoreline
24 -7. Voyager is perfect for families who want
the ship to be the destination as much as the
glaciers. Right. And she's hitting the classic
Ports Juno Skagway Andikot arm. Yep. Now, if
Voyager is the floating resort, then Serenade
of the Seas is... kind of the classic explorer
ship. She's a Radiance -class ship, right? Much
smaller. Much smaller. And among cruise fans,
this class is often seen as one of the best for
Alaska. They were built with just acres and acres
of glass. We're talking glass elevators facing
the ocean, floor -to -ceiling windows everywhere.
And the key thing is, she's sailing round -trip
from Vancouver. That's it. That's the whole ballgame.
Because she's smaller and leaving from Vancouver,
she can navigate the true inside passage, you
know, the narrow winding part, much more easily.
If your absolute priority is just scenery, scenery,
scenery, the smaller ship out of Vancouver is
the way to go. So Seattle for the onboard bells
and whistles, Vancouver for total aversion. But
then you've got the quantum class ships, Quantum
and Anthem. They seem to be trying to do both.
The Quantum class is a really interesting design.
They were built for cold weather cruising, so
they have features like the North Star. I love
the North Star. That glass capsule on the big
robot arm. Yeah. It lifts you, what, 300 feet
over the ocean? And in the Caribbean, that's
a fun gimmick. In Alaska, it's a total game changer.
Imagine being suspended over the side of the
ship next to a glacier. You can't get that view
anywhere else. So Quantum is doing the Seattle
run, bringing that high -tech flair to that itinerary.
Right. For the adventure crowd that wants the
skydiving simulator in the glaciers. But Anthem
of the Seas is doing something totally different.
She's running what they call open jaw sailings.
OK, so let's break that down. What does open
jaw mean and why should someone booking a cruise
carry? It's just a fancy term for a one way voyage.
You get on the ship in, say, Vancouver and you
get off in Seward, Alaska. Or you do it the other
way around. A bit more complicated for flakes,
I guess. A little, yeah, you have to book one
-way flakes. But the payoff is huge. A round
-trip cruise spends half its time just going
back to where it started. So the one -way trip
lets you push further north. Much further. It
lets Anthem get all the way up to the Hubbard
Glacier, really deep into the Gulf of Alaska.
And the big news here is that Royal Caribbean
is pairing Anthem with their big land tours.
The cruise tours. Exactly. Because you end your
cruise in Seward, you are physically connected
to Alaska's road and rail system. You can step
off the ship and onto a glass -domed train headed
for Denali National Park. And that's a big deal,
putting one of their newest, fanciest ships on
that kind of itinerary. It is. It shows they're
going after that bucket list traveler who wants
the best ship and the full interior land experience.
It really is all about matching the right ship
to what you want out of the vacation. And just
a quick note for anyone listening, these sailings
are live now. They opened up late last year,
so the inventory is out there. And Alaska inventory
is different. Those prime cabins, like the aft
-facing balconies, they can sell out a year and
a half in advance. Good to know. Okay. Let's
trade the glaciers for the Gulf Coast. Our next
story takes us to Mobile, Alabama, where Carnival
Cruise Line is making a really big move. Yeah,
this is a major development for the whole drive
-to market. You know, mobile has had ships seasonally
for a while. A ship comes through the winter,
leaves for the summer. On again, off again. Exactly.
But starting in May 2027, Carnival is bringing
the Carnival valor to mobile for year -round
service. Continuous. And it's not just a schedule
change, it's a hardware upgrade too, right? It
is. They're swapping out the Carnival Spirit
for the Carnival Valor, which is a larger conquest
class ship. It holds more people. By parking
a bigger ship there for 12 months a year, Carnival
is showing huge confidence in that market. Yeah,
I saw the quote from Christine Duffy. Carnival's
president. She called it a big win for guests
who love cruising from home. And I think we sometimes
forget how big a deal the convenience factor
is. Oh, absolutely. I mean, think about it. If
you're a family of four in Nashville or Atlanta,
flying everyone to Miami can add a thousand,
maybe two thousand dollars to your vacation.
Well, so it's the stress. Right. Driving to Mobile
might cost you a tank of gas. That's real savings
that can go right back into your vacation. And
the local impact is huge. We saw quotes from
residents who are just thrilled. A year -round
ship means steady business for hotels and restaurants,
not just seasonal bumps. For sure. But the thing
that really stood out to me was the itineraries.
Most of the time, the Valor will be doing, you
know, the standard six to eight night runs to
the Bahamas. The bread and butter, hitting Celebration
Key Half Moon K. Yep. But they are also mixing
in some of their carnival journey sailings. I
saw that. And that's their brand for the longer,
more exotic trips. It seems really unusual to
see those out of a smaller port like Mobile.
It is super rare. They've got two 14 -day voyages
scheduled, one in September 2027 and another
in January 2028. And that September one is a
monster. It goes to Ocho Rios, Cartagena in Colombia,
Panama, Costa Rica, Cozumel and the ABC Islands.
It's basically a grand tour of the entire Caribbean.
And it's a really smart strategic move. September
is, you know, hurricane season. Kids are back
in school. Demand is soft. Right. So by offering
a unique. bucket list itinerary like this they
attract a whole different crowd retirees empty
nesters people who have two weeks to spare and
love the convenience of driving to the port it
keeps the ship full Instead of sailing half empty
on a short Bahamas cruise, they fill it with
people paying more to go to Panama. Precisely.
It's just very, very smart scheduling. Speaking
of specialized experiences, let's pivot to our
last story. This one's a little more technical,
but it's so important for where the industry
is heading. We're talking about Aurora Expeditions
and their new ship, the Douglas Mawson. Yeah,
this is... This is a story about responsibility,
really. The Douglas Mawson is getting ready for
its first Antarctic season later this year. But
the big news isn't what's on the pool deck. It's
what's happening in the laundry room. The laundry
room? We don't usually cover appliances on the
show. We don't, but this one really matters.
Okay, so think about what you wear on a cruise
to Antarctica. It's all synthetic stuff fleece,
polyester, performance fabric. It's the polar
uniform. It is. The problem is when you wash
those clothes, they shed these tiny microscopic
plastic threads. They're called microfibers.
And those just go out into the ocean. With a
standard system, yeah. The ship's graywater filters
are designed to catch bigger stuff. Sasha Boock
from Aurora said a single load of laundry can
release hundreds of thousands of these fibers
and they can pass right through and get discharged.
Which in a place like Antarctica is just... Devastating.
It's awful. There is a polar sailor, Lisa Blair,
who has found these microplastics everywhere,
even in the most remote waters. They get eaten
by plankton, then krill, then whales. It gets
right into the food chain from the very bottom.
So Aurora is putting in special filters on the
Douglas Mawson to stop this. They are. They're
partnering with a company called the Cleaner
Seas Group to install these Indicon filters.
They claim they can capture up to 99 percent
of the microfibers. But here's the really important
part. It's a closed. What does that mean, closed
loop? It means they don't just trap the fibers
and then throw the filter in a landfill. That
just moves the problem. They've set up a system
to collect the used filter cartridges, take them
to a special facility, they're planning one in
New Zealand, and have the plastic waste properly
recycled. So the plastic never actually enters
the environment at any stage. Correct. They're
actually managing the pollutant, not just, you
know, hiding it somewhere else. It's a really
high bar for sustainability. And the ship is
also becoming a research tool for navigation,
too. Yeah, this is a separate partnership with
a group called Countercurrent. They're putting
sensors on the ship to measure wind, waves and
currents in real time. Don't we have satellites
and buoys for that? We do, but the Southern Ocean
is what they call data poor. There just isn't
much out there. By using the ship itself as a
moving sensor, they fill in the gaps. And all
that data gets fed into an AI navigation system.
And the AI does what with it? It creates these
hyper -local route predictions. Think of it like
a cyclist drafting behind a truck to save energy.
If the AI can find a current that's already going
the way the ship wants to go, the captain can
steer into it and get essentially a free push.
So it saves fuel. A significant amount of fuel.
Yeah. But it also improves safety and comfort.
If the AI can predict wave patterns better, it
can help the captain find the smoothest path
through the Drake Passage. Less seasickness.
That's a win for everybody. It's a total win
-win. And Aurora is planning to roll this tech
out to their other ships, too. I honestly think
we're looking at what will become the standard
for the whole expedition industry. It really
feels like we're seeing the industry mature on
all fronts. You've got Royal Caribbean fine -tuning
their fleet for specific Alaska experiences.
You have Carnival. leveraging the power of regional
ports like mobile. And then you have Aurora pushing
the definition of what it means to be a responsible
operator. It's the end of the one -size -fits
-all approach to cruising. The lines are getting
so much smarter about using the right ship to
solve a specific problem, whether that problem
is, you know, how do I get 4 ,000 people to see
a glacier, or how do I wash jackets without polluting
an entire ecosystem? So for you, the listener,
I think the takeaway from the Alaska story is
to look past just the word Alaska. Look at the
ship. Do you want the round -trip mega -resort
like Voyager? Or the one -way scenic explorer
like Anthem. The ship really does define the
vacation. Absolutely. And for our listeners on
the Gulf Coast, your options just got a whole
lot better. You've got a solid year -round choice
now that doesn't involve a plane ticket. And
for the adventure travelers out there, I think
it's time to start asking the hard questions.
Ask the cruise lines you sail with about their
wastewater systems. Ask about microfibers. Your
booking is a vote. Here's a final thought for
you to chew on. We talked about Aurora's ship
acting as a real -time sensor, feeding data into
an AI. As that network of ships grows and the
AI routing gets smarter, could we see the end
of the fixed itinerary? What do you mean by that?
Well, imagine you board a cruise in Miami and
you don't actually know the ports in advance.
The captain comes on and says, the AI has found
a pocket of perfect weather and calm seas near
Turks and Caicos. So that's where we're going
today. The ship just hunts for the best possible
experience in real time. That would be a logistical
nightmare for the port authorities, but. As a
passenger who just wants sun and smooth water,
I would book that in a second. The Chasing the
Sun Cruise. The Mystery Smooth Sailing Tour.
I like it. Thanks for listening to Cruise News.
Visit cruisenews .io to catch up on the latest
updates and sign up for free email alerts.