Late last week, cruise industry stocks—part of a broader stock market sell-off—took a deep price dive following the Trump Administration’s imposition of more government tariffs. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings stock dipped 16 percent, while Carnival Corporation stock was down 14 percent. Royal Caribbean Group experienced an 11 percent drop for its stock price, and other cruise companies including Viking were also impacted, as detailed in Seatrade Cruise News.
Exactly how any volatile market conditions or geopolitical moves will impact cruise demand is likely to be a prime discussion topic during Seatrade Cruise Global, the world’s largest cruise industry conference that kicks off Monday at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Attendees will also discuss cruise trends, the latest industry data, new cruise ships, upcoming itineraries, destination development projects, IT enhancements, food and beverage offerings, sustainability efforts and more.
Travel Agent will be on site to cover the annual “State of the Industry” keynote address by Charles “Bud” Darr, recently named as president/CEO, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Check back mid-week for highlights, trends and data from that presentation as well as insight from Jason Liberty, Josh Weinstein, Harry Sommer, Pierfrancesco Vago and other top executives.
One other thing to watch? The recent U.S. federal government layoffs may signal bad news for cruise ship inspections conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Why? As MSN reports, the CDC staff cuts included the agency’s entire Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice. That group oversees the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), which is tasked with inspecting cruise ships at U.S. ports.
Cruise Happenings
Ponant has rebranded as Ponant Explorations Group, following the recent acquisition of a majority stake in Aqua Expeditions. Separately, Albatros Expeditions and Polar Latitudes have joined forces under the same ownership group to coordinate and combine their Arctic and Antarctic expedition cruise business. The combined polar operations fleet for the 2025-2026 season includes Ocean Albatros, Ocean Victory, Seaventure and Ocean Nova.
Just prior to the start of the 2025 Mediterranean season, Princess Cruises’ Majestic Princess has completed a two-week drydock. After a robust revitalization, the ship now has several new venues, refreshed spaces and many upgrades. For example, the former Harmony Restaurant has been transformed into the line’s signature Sabatini’s Italian Trattoria.
Swan Hellenic unveiled two new Africa Grand Voyages, while Oceania Cruises announced the lineup for its tropics and exotics collection for 2026-2027. Celestyal Cruises launched four new 14-night repositioning cruises for its winter Arabian Gulf season. The voyages will visit two new countries for the brand, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Plus, the ship will make inaugural port calls at Aqaba, Jordan; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Muscat, Oman; and Sharm El Sheikh and Ain Sokhna, Egypt.
More Cruise Happenings
AmaWaterways announced a new offer for guests seeking to travel to Egypt. From now through June 30, guests can receive complimentary round-trip airfare on select 2025 and 2026 Egypt river cruise and land journeys. On the sales front, Quark Expeditions named Scott Sloan as area sales director, West. He's now targeted at supporting and expanding Quark Expeditions' travel advisor network throughout Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada and Utah.
Carnival Corporation said that cruise industry veteran Jan Swartz, a 24-year employee who has served in multiple, diverse executive roles, is resigning. She is expected to depart in mid-April. Since mid-2023, Swartz has served as corporate EVP strategic operations, Carnival Corporation. Most recently, she's been responsible for government affairs, communications and global sustainability. Josh Weinstein, Carnival Corporation's CEO, said that losing Swartz will be tough and described her as "irreplaceable." She's perhaps best known to advisors for her seven years as president of Princess Cruises; later, she also served as president of Holland America Group. With Swartz's departure, the company has made several new executives moves.
On Saturday, MSC Cruises announced that it has opened the world's largest cruise terminal at PortMiami. On Wednesday, Travel Agent will board the new MSC World America for a three-night cruise. Stay tuned for a look at the ship and the terminal.
In separate news, last week, several online sites reported that 50 youths had robbed Crystal cruise ship passengers during a Mombasa, Kenya, port call, causing the cancelation of that call. In reality, that's not the case. Crystal tells Travel Agent that no guests were robbed and provides this statement by Bernie Leypold, the luxury line's senior vice president of hotel operations: “During Crystal Symphony’s call in Mombasa earlier this week, there was an incident in which one of our guest entertainers was robbed of his cell phone by a small group of local youths. We worked with local authorities and can confirm we did not cancel our stay in Mombasa as previously reported.”
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