Welcome to Cruise News, your daily update on
everything happening at sea. Visit cruisenews
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alerts. And a very warm welcome to this deep
dive. It is Tuesday, January 20, 2026. I hope
your week is off to a really good start. It is,
yeah. We've got a stack of stories today that,
um... On the surface, they look completely disconnected.
We're talking new taxes in Hawaii. We're talking
shipbuilding in Chile and then a wine award in
London. Right. But when you actually line them
up, they tell a really specific story about where
the cruise industry is headed. They really do.
I was thinking about this and it feels like a
snapshot of the industry's evolution. It's all
about. Intentionality. Intentionality. How so?
Well, you have governments being intentional
about who they tax and why. You have engineers
being really intentional about how they power
a ship. And then you have sommeliers being intentional
about what they pour. I mean, the whole one size
fits all model of cruising seems to be, you know,
fading away. That is a perfect way to frame it.
So let's start with the one that's going to hit
people's wallets. Anyone thinking about a trip
to the Aloha State in 2026? Well. The price just
went up. Significantly, yeah. And this isn't
just a rumor. The notifications are actually
going out to guests right now. We're talking
about Norwegian Cruise Line. They've started
telling guests about a new tax. And usually,
you know, when we talk taxes and fees, my eyes
kind of glaze over a port fee here, a customs
fee there. Standard stuff. Exactly. But this
feels different. This feels like a fundamental
shift in how a state sees a cruise ship. It is.
It's a huge shift. And to get it, you have to
understand this acronym TAT. Cat TAT, right.
It stands for Transient Accommodations Tax. For
years, if you flew to Honolulu and booked a hotel
on Waikiki. You paid it. You paid the TAT. Or
if you rented a condo on Maui. It's a lodging
tax. The logic was always you're staying here.
You're using our infrastructure. You pay. But
if I was sleeping on the cruise ship docked right
there, I didn't pay it. Exactly. The ship was
seen as what? Transportation. Yeah. A self -contained
bubble. But Hawaii has just flipped that logic.
As of January 1st, 2026, they're saying a cruise
passenger is effectively a transient guest. Just
like the person in the hotel. And they want their
cut. They want their cut. So let's get into the
numbers because this isn't some small fee. I
was looking at the breakdown and it's not like.
$10 a day. It's a percentage, right? It is, yeah.
It's an assessment of approximately 14 % of the
cruise fare. 14%. That's massive. If you're in
a suite that costs thousands, that is a huge
chunk of change. It's huge. And the breakdown
is fascinating. You've got the base state tax.
That's 10 .25%. And then on top of that, there's
a 0 .75 % green tax. Okay. I want to pause on
that green tax. That's not just a buzzword they
threw in there, is it? Not at all. Governor Josh
Green has been very clear about this. He's linking
this. money directly to climate resilience. And
he's specifically referencing the, you know,
the awful Maui wildfires in 2023. For a specific
purpose. A very specific one. They think that
little slice alone, the 0 .75%, is going to generate
$100 million a year. Wow. So this is for protecting
the islands. Okay, so state tax, green tax, but
you said 14%. There's another layer. There is.
The individual counties in Hawaii can add their
own surcharge of up to 3%. So you stack all three
of those, and yeah, you're hitting that 14 %
mark. Okay, here's the part that I found really
confusing. The reports say the tax is... Pro
-rated. How do you pro -rate a cruise fare? Do
they just slap 14 % on my whole $2 ,000 ticket?
That's the million -dollar question for the cruise
line accountants right now. And no, they don't
tax the whole ticket. They only tax the portion
of the fare that corresponds to the time the
ship is physically in Hawaiian ports. Okay, so
let's walk through that. If my cruise is from
Vancouver to Tokyo and we stop in Honolulu for,
what, eight hours? Right. I'm not paying 14 %
on that whole two -week vacation cost. Correct.
Your tax would be tiny because your time in port
is minimal. Yeah. And this is where a Norwegian
cruise line gets hit so hard. And think about
the pride of America. Ah, right. The only big
U .S.-flagged ship that stays in Hawaii all year
round. Exactly. Its entire business is sailing
between the islands. It's almost always in Hawaiian
waters. So for that ship, the proration captures
nearly the entire fare. That is so ironic. The
one ship that's contributing the most to the
local economy year -round is the one that gets
hit the hardest, tax -wise. That's the irony.
And the numbers, they're just staggering. The
reports show that guests on a normal seven -night
Norwegian sailing are seeing an extra $250 to
$500 added per person. Wait, wait. Up to $500
per person? Per person? For a family of four,
that's $2 ,000? That's another vacation right
there. It's a serious line item. It totally changes
the value calculation. You compare that to a
repositioning cruise like the Norwegian Spirit
from Tahiti. The tax on that is maybe 60 or 70
bucks. So the whole system kind of discourages
the really immersive local itineraries. It definitely
puts financial pressure on that model. And just
to be clear for everyone listening, this tax
is on the fare. It doesn't apply to your onboard
spending. Oh, well, that's a small mercy, I guess.
Your spa treatment, your dinner, those are safe.
But surely Norwegian isn't just taking this lying
down. Oh, no. Their lawyers are very busy. Norwegian,
along with CLIA, the Cruise Lines International
Association, they're challenging it in court.
They're calling it unconstitutional. What's their
main argument? It's basically about jurisdiction.
They argue you can't tax a moving ship that's
involved in interstate commerce the same way
you tax a fixed building on land. They're saying
we are not a hotel. But in the meantime, the
passengers are paying. Yep. It's a collect now,
maybe refund later strategy. They're charging
it to be safe, but they've said if the law changes,
they'll issue adjustments. And it's not just
them. Disney Cruise Line has also started sending
out notices. It really feels like a turning point.
Instead of just limiting ships, Hawaii is saying
you can come, but you have to pay for the upkeep
of Paradise. It's changing the narrative from
tourism as a gift to tourism as a transaction.
And other places are watching this very, very
closely. I bet they are. If Hawaii wins this,
you can expect to see these kinds of taxes everywhere.
Absolutely. All right, let's leave the accounts
for a minute and talk about where that money
is supposed to go protecting the environment.
Because down in Chile, a new ship is trying to
solve that problem with engineering instead of
taxes. Yeah, this is a much more hopeful story.
We're heading down to Valdivia, Chile. This is
the Magellan Discoverer. And the big news is
that it has officially floated out. Now, for
anyone who isn't a ship nerd, explain what a
float -out actually is. It's a huge milestone.
It's the moment they flood the dry dock and the
ship touches water for the very first time. So
it's a test, really. It's a giant stress test.
It proves the hull is watertight. It means all
the heavy steel work is about 90 % complete.
From here on, it's all about outfitting the wires,
the furniture, the tech. And this ship is for
a company called Antarctica 21. The first thing
that struck me was the size. It's only 94 meters
long. I think that's tiny. It's tiny. Maximum
capacity is just 96 passengers. But then the
notes say they only sell 76 spots. Why would
you build a ship for 96 people and then not sell
20 of the tickets? It sounds a little counterintuitive,
but it's actually a brilliant solution to a very
specific problem. Antarctica 21 does these fly
cruises. Right, for people who want to skip the
Drake Passage. Exactly. They fly you over the
Drake Shake, that notoriously rough water, and
you land on an island in Antarctica where the
ship is waiting for you. Ah, so the bottleneck
isn't the ship, it's the plane. Precisely. The
plane they use to land on that... gravel runway
has a strict passenger limit. So the ship's capacity
is actually dictated by the aircraft. That is
fascinating. An air -sea bridge. So what about
the ship itself? What's under the hood? This
is where it gets really cool. It's a hybrid electric
propulsion system. It uses M engines with something
called ABB azipods. Okay, break that down. What's
an azipod? So a normal ship has a propeller out
back and a rudder to steer. An azipod is an electric
motor in a pod that hangs under the ship. The
whole pod can rotate 360 degrees. It pulls the
ship instead of pushing it. It's way more efficient
and makes the ship... incredibly maneuverable,
which you really need in the ice. And the hybrid
part means batteries, I'm guessing. Big ones.
A Corvus energy storage system. Basically huge
marine grade lithium batteries. So it can run
silently like an electric car. For short periods,
yes. But the main benefit is something called
peak shaving. So if the ship needs a burst of
power to get through some ice, instead of firing
up another diesel engine, it just draws from
the battery. It smooths out the power usage.
Exactly. And that makes it drastically quieter.
And in Antarctica, that really matters. You're
trying not to disturb the whales and the penguins.
It's about being a polite guest. This is the
second ship Asanoff has built for them, right?
It seems like this small, high -tech, Chilean
-built model is really working for them. It is.
It proves you don't need the massive European
shipyards to build these world class expedition
ships. You know, speaking of high tech, I have
to ask about this other ship in our notes, the
Captain Arctic. Sounds like something from a
movie. It really does. It's being built for a
2027 launch. And if the Magellan Discoverer is
like a hybrid car, the Captain Arctic is, I don't
know, a futuristic sailboat. It has sails. It
has five rigid aluminum sails with solar panels
built right into them. Solar sails. That's amazing.
They're aiming for a 90 percent CO2 reduction.
And get this. It uses recycled wooden waste pellets
for its boiler. So it's running on sun, wind
and recycled wood. It feels like a new kind of
space race. But instead of the moon, everyone's
racing to get to the poles with the smallest
possible footprint. That's the new currency in
expedition cruising. It's not just I went to
Antarctica. I went and I didn't mess it up. The
luxury is the clean conscience. Well, speaking
of luxury, let's pivot from the icy ends of the
earth to the absolute pinnacle of comfort. Let's
talk about the world. Ah, yes. The world. The
floating city. For anyone who doesn't know, this
is the ship where people actually own their apartments.
They live on it full time as it sails the globe.
And apparently they are very thirsty. Frogs chuckles.
Let's say they have very refined palates. The
world just won Best Ship Wine List from the World
of Fine Wine magazine. And this isn't a new thing
for them, is it? No, this is their 11th consecutive
year winning this award for over a decade. 11th
year. What does it take to win that award? 11
times in a row. It can't just be having a few
good bottles on board. It's about the scale,
first of all. The ship has a cellar with a 15
,000 bottle capacity. 15 ,000. That is a serious
cellar. It is. Over 1 ,200 different labels from
22 countries, plus sakes, plus spirits. But the
real wow factor isn't just the size of the collection,
it's how they source it. What do you mean? Well,
most cruise lines stock up from a giant warehouse
in Miami. They load the same wine on every ship.
But the world is always moving, so they source
locally. Ah, so if they're sailing around Japan.
The beverage manager is on the ground, buying
rare sakes directly from the brewers. If they're
in the Mediterranean, they're picking up local
vintages you'll never find anywhere else. The
wine list literally changes with the map. It's
a living document. The ultimate souvenir. You
get to drink the place you're visiting. But they're
taking it even further now. I read about the
World Barrel Program. They're not just buying
wine anymore. They're making it. They are. This
is that trend of vertical integration hitting
the luxury space. Their first vintage is called
The Journey. Very appropriate. It's a 2022 Bordeaux
blend. And they didn't just whip this up themselves.
They partnered with Venuef. And who are they?
They're owned by the Cazais family. If you know
wine, you know that name. They own Chateau Lynch
Bages. This is serious. Blue chip winemaking.
It's incredible. It's not about the money. It's
about having access to something nobody else
has. I'm drinking a winemade just for my home.
That's exactly. And they just hired a new beverage
manager, Lubo Stoyanov, who used to be the head
sommelier for all of Oceania. The pedigree is
just off the charts. There was one other detail
I found really interesting. Even on this ultralux
ship, what they're drinking is changing. You
saw the wellness angle. I did. Non -alcoholic
wines. On the world. The wellness trend comes
for us all. They brought in a whole curated list
of non -alcoholic wines, plus a lot of biodynamic
and organic options. I think even the super rich
want to live longer. They want the fine dining
ritual, maybe without the hangover. You know,
it actually connects all the way back to the
Magellan discoverer. How do you figure? Well,
whether it's the fuel going into the engine or
the wine going into the glass, the trend is cleaner.
It's about removing the impurities, whether that's
sulfur in the wine or noise pollution in the
ocean. That's a brilliant connection. And if
you layer the Hawaii story on top, it's about
paying the true cost of that purity. Cleaner
fuel costs more, better wine costs more, and
maintaining a pristine island costs tax dollars.
That feels like the big takeaway for 2026 so
far. Cruising is maturing, it's getting more
specialized, more responsible, and yeah, more
expensive. The cheap... Generic vacation might
be fading in favor of these very curated, very
intentional experiences. I think you're right.
It's becoming about the privilege of access.
And that privilege now has a very clear price
tag attached. I want to leave our listeners with
a thought on that Hawaii tax. We talked about
how it's prorated based on time and port. If
other places start doing that, taxing ships based
on how long they stick around, could we see a
really weird incentive created? What do you mean?
Could we see cruise lines designing itineraries
to actively avoid land? That's a very provocative
thought. Like, if it costs you $100 ,000 in tax
to dock for two days, but zero to just stay at
sea just outside their waters. The ships could
just become these floating resorts that barely
touch the destinations they're supposedly visiting.
And then the local shops and restaurants lose
out on all that business anyway. The law of unintended
consequences. It's a delicate balance for sure.
We will definitely be watching to see how the
itineraries start to shift. We certainly will.
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