International cruise travel certainly remains popular, but for those clients who would rather leave from a more convenient U.S. homeport, there are many options to choose from. Here’s a roundup of sailings to consider for your clients.
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of every upcoming home-ported cruise, but rather an overview based on recent announcements from a variety of cruise lines. The article was last updated on Jan. 25, 2024.
Anthem of the Seas will sail roundtrip Alaska itineraries out of Seattle.
Credit: 2024 Royal Caribbean International
Alaska
Besides the usual brands sailing into Alaska, Cunard Line recently announced that it will return to the region in 2025, with its Queen Elizabeth sailing roundtrip from Seattle. The ship will offer a total of 11 sailings ranging in length from seven to 11 nights.
Another line that recently opened more bookings to the Last Frontier is Royal Caribbean International (RCI), with 2025 cruises onboard Anthem of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas departing roundtrip from Seattle; onboard Serenade of the Seas from Vancouver, B.C.; and onboard Radiance of the Seas from Vancouver and Seward, Alaska.
RCI corporate cousin Celebrity Cruises will also be back in Alaska in 2025-2026 with three ships: Celebrity Edge (from Seattle), Celebrity Solstice and Celebrity Summit (both from either Vancouver or Seward).
Oceania Cruises is also planning on being in the region for summer 2025, with its Riviera departing from Seattle; Whittier, Alaska; and Vancouver on trips ranging from seven to 12 days.
Plus, Holland America Line will again be in Alaska in 2025 with cruise-tours — which include a land portion highlighting Denali National Park — available onboard Koningsdam, Nieuw Amsterdam, Noordam and Zaandam.
California
Princess Cruises will continue to be a mainstay in California for its upcoming 2025-2026 season. Seven ships will embark in either Los Angeles or San Francisco (or even from Vancouver) to visit the California coast or Mexico: Caribbean Princess, Coral Princess, Discovery Princess, Grand Princess, Royal Princess, Ruby Princess and Sapphire Princess. The line will also offer departures heading from California all the way to the South Pacific, and even to Australia and New Zealand on a 54-day roundtrip voyage.
Clients can also experience a full transit of the Panama Canal between Los Angeles or San Francisco and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., or between Los Angeles and New York.
Clients might also opt for a 14-night Central America
cruise (that ends in Los Angeles) onboard Explora Journeys' newcomer, Explora I, in March and April
of this year. Explora I will head to Vancouver from Los Angeles for a six-night voyage, highlighting San Francisco and Astoria,
Oregon along the way.
Florida
Partial transits of the Panama Canal will alternatively be possible on Princess roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale.
And from Florida to the Caribbean overall, the line will deploy its new Sun Princess and Star Princess on Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) embarkations for the line’s 2025-2026 season. Enchanted Princess and Majestic Princess will also depart from there, while Sky Princess will sail out of Port Canaveral. Seven to 14-day journeys to Mexico, meanwhile, will be handled by Emerald Princess, Royal Princess and Ruby Princess.
Princess’ corporate cousin, Carnival Cruise Line, will sail its recently rededicated Carnival Venezia and Carnival Vista from Port Canaveral to the Caribbean, including visits to the line’s upcoming Celebration Key starting in 2025. Carnival Paradise will leave from Tampa, sailing to the exclusive destination and elsewhere in the Caribbean. And, from the cruise capital of the world — Miami — Carnival Horizon, Carnival Magic and Carnival Sunrise will sail weekend getaways to weeklong trips to the Caribbean and Celebration Key over the next couple of years.
Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas will be based in Miami, as well, in 2025-2026, in addition to Independence of the Seas.
Also going to the Caribbean are Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas (from Fort Lauderdale), Adventure of the Seas (from Port Canaveral), Rhapsody of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas (both from Tampa).
As for Celebrity’s Caribbean plans for 2024-2025, Celebrity Apex and Celebrity Summit will leave from Fort Lauderdale, Celebrity Equinox from Port Canaveral and Celebrity Constellation from Tampa. The line’s upcoming Xcel will depart later in 2025 from Fort Lauderdale, at which point sister ship Beyond will sail to the Caribbean from Miami, Apex will head out of Port Canaveral and Constellation will sail from Tampa. Ascent, Eclipse and Silhouette are slated for additional departures from Fort Lauderdale, as well.
RCI and Celebrity’s luxury sister brand, Silversea, will sail its new Silver Ray roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale as part of its 2025-2026 season.
Meanwhile, MSC Cruises will maintain its presence from Florida to the Caribbean with MSC Divina, MSC Seascape and MSC Seaside out of Miami in 2024-2025, visiting the line’s exclusive Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve. MSC Seashore will depart from Port Canaveral.
And from Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Epic will depart from Port Canaveral to the Eastern Caribbean beginning in October 2024, and Norwegian Jade will showcase the Panama Canal from Miami or Tampa (as well as New York) for the 2025-2026 season.
A unique option to or from Fort Lauderdale are Holland America Line’s Canada and New England repositioning cruises on Volendam and Zuiderdam in 2025.
Hawaii
Other than hosting Norwegian’s Pride of America, Hawaii is not a home-porting state; that said, Princess will again visit the islands from Los Angeles or San Francisco on 16-day roundtrips for 2025-2026.
Oceania will also visit Hawaii in summer 2025 onboard Regatta, with itineraries leaving from Honolulu or finishing in Los Angeles.
Then, following
its time along the West Coast of California, Explora I from Explora Journeys will head
to Honolulu from Vancouver for nine nights and back again for another
nine nights in April and May of this year. The ship will visit Hilo
and Kailua-Kona on Hawaii and Nawiliwili on Kauai.
Louisiana
In New Orleans, Carnival will sail its Carnival Valor, embarking for Mexico and the Caribbean.
And Norwegian will homeport its Norwegian Escape in the Big Easy, its first Breakaway Plus-class ship to do so, as part of its 2025-2026 season in the Caribbean.
But even before then starting in October 2024, Norwegian Getaway will embark on seven-day roundtrips from New Orleans to the Western Caribbean.
Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia
In 2025, Carnival’s Carnival Pride will head to Bermuda from Baltimore, Md., while Carnival Sunshine goes to the island from Norfolk, Va.
And out of Boston, Holland America will offer Canada and New England sailings as long as 25 nights (roundtrip and adding Greenland and Iceland) onboard Zuiderdam or Volendam in 2025, as well.
New York
In addition to Norwegian’s and Princess’ aforementioned Panama Canal transits from New York there are several more upcoming trips from the Big Apple. Looking to 2024 and 2025, Carnival Venezia will embark there to visit Bermuda. Venezia will also navigate to the Caribbean.
MSC will be another to embark in New York onboard MSC Meraviglia as it goes to the Caribbean and the line’s private Ocean Cay, also in 2024-2025. And for 2025, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 will be making its traditional transatlantic runs to and from New York, as well.
Regal Princess will sail to the Caribbean and Mexico from Galveston.
Credit: 2024 Princess CruisesTexas
From Galveston, Texas, in 2025-2026, Royal Caribbean will send Harmony of the Seas to the Caribbean; Princess will head down to the Caribbean and Mexico onboard Regal Princess; and Carnival will send Carnival Breeze, Carnival Dream and its latest Carnival Jubilee to the latter destinations, as well. In the fall of 2025, Carnival Legend will join in sailing from Galveston, including its own Panama Canal transits.
And not to be forgotten is Norwegian’s latest, Norwegian Viva, set to homeport in Galveston for its 2025-2026 season. Before then, sister ship Norwegian Prima will leave from there starting in December 2023.
Also MSC Cruises has just announced that MSC Seascape will deploy from Galveston in late 2025. Expanding MSC's presence to Texas, the ship will sail week-long itineraries to Mexico and Central America, specifically visiting Costa Maya and Cozumel, as well as Isla de Roatan, Honduras. Embarkations will begin on November 9, 2025.
Washington
In addition to many sailings from Seattle to Alaska (mentioned above), Holland America line will offer a particularly unique 53-day roundtrip voyage from the city all the way to Japan onboard Westerdam in September 2024. The route will skirt Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and then head for overnights in Yokohama (Tokyo) and Kobe, with many more day calls in Japan (13 in all).
