Jumping Cruiser

I think the ‘epic news’ will refer to October 24 - October 25 cruises going on sale, or at least those sailings until April 25. I could very well be wrong though!

The announcement says: ‘The itineraries feature short breaks to Amsterdam and Zeebrugge for Bruges and a longer cruise between Portsmouth and Barcelona via La Coruna, Lisbon, Casablanca, Malaga and Ibiza.’ This suggests to me that the cruise to Barcelona will be a one-way repositioning voyage. It does create a few questions though: When will this be? What will the ship do once she has reached the Med? Is it actually BL or another ship? So many questions and very few answers. 😅

At least we now have a date - September 7th!

Cruise Mapper can be very inaccurate at times. The itineraries and port bookings shown are pulled from whatever is on sale or has been on sale in the past. The data is far from ‘live’ and it can sometimes take months before it is updated to show any changes that have been made. It is port agencies websites that will have accurate information.

It would definitely be more convenient with Southern Europe and Mediterranean, but port bookings indicate that there will be a large presence in Northern Europe, specifically with short sailings between 3 and 5-nights. Whenever VV have home-ported in the UK, the majority of sailings have been shorter. These short sailings seem to be where they make the most revenue and as you say also keep fuel costs lower, which would make them greater profit overall. I actually seen this advertisement and posted it in another thread, but I read it differently. I understood it as the offer included Mediterranean sailings, but not specifically from Portsmouth. “From deep dives into history to island hops across the Med- this is your chance to get 30% off all European voyages and secure next year's summer plans. With $600 in free drinks across our ship and brand-new itineraries out of your backyard in Portsmouth.” In my opinion, if VV come to the UK, there’s no point in them sailing to the Med as they already have a ship based there which would be suitable for fly-cruises. The whole idea of them sailing from the UK is so that they can visit destinations not currently visited, including Iceland, Norway, The Netherlands, Scotland and the occasional visit to the Canary Islands and Madeira. As much as I would love a ship to homeport in Liverpool (closer to me! ☺️), I just don’t think it’s suitable for Virgin over the long-term. The port is also currently not well-equipped for handling full turnarounds of large ships. Liverpool are currently looking at building a new large cruise terminal, which would be capable of handling turnarounds of much bigger ships than those currently based there, but the last I heard was that they wanted a commitment from a line that they would regularly home-port in the city. Until this happens at least, I think chances are very slim.

The only problem with Liverpool is its location within the UK. The fact that it is on the west-coast of the country means that every itinerary heading towards mainland Europe, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands, would require 2 additional sea days (One-day to English Channel and One-day from English Channel) compared to if the ship left from the South coast. I would imagine that the only cruises that would actually be sustainable from Liverpool would be Iceland, as this would remove 2 days due to the port’s closer proximity to Iceland.

Check this out! A new offer seems to point at a ship being based in Portsmouth, UK. I’m guessing this will be Brilliant Lady.

Agreed! They also seem to like showcasing their ships to the UK trade and press, as both SL and VL did some type of launch there. By process of elimination, I presume that this will be BL. This would mean the only ship not to do a UK visit yet would be RL.

VV have just launched a new offer on the UK site, which has mentions of a ship being deployed from Portsmouth, UK in Summer 2024. We must be very close to the itinerary release now.

Given that Ovation already has a TP scheduled in April 2025 and Quantum has nothing currently up for sale, I would say that it would be Ovation to Alaska alongside Anthem. I would presume that as Anthem is leaving Asia, she would be replaced by Quantum, which already has some adaptations for this market.

Liberty would have sent them the one of (if not) the oldest ships in the fleet and charged them a horrendous amount for the privilege! Does this thought remind you of something? I’ll give you a hint… SOUTHAMPTON! 😂

Brilliance looks to be in Northern Europe (Amsterdam) over the Summer, while Jewel looks to be spending some time sailing from Fort Lauderdale. The only two remaining are Serenade and Radiance, so if Royal keeps up with their current pattern it definitely looks like both will be sailing in the region.

Probably lots of factors, including PDCC and even the return to LA, plus the greater QC capacity. Although, if they focus itineraries on Perfect Day then they are getting revenue from both the ship itself and the destination, so it’s a win win for Royal!

This is the deployment from Southampton since 2010. Every year that Independence was homeported in UK after 2012 she was accompanied by another ship, usually Voyager Class. 2010 - Independence 2011 - Independence 2012 - Independence 2013 - Independence & Adventure 2014 - Independence & Adventure 2015 - Anthem & Explorer 2016 - Independence & Navigator 2017 - Independence & Navigator 2018 - Independence & Navigator 2019 - Independence & Explorer 2020 - Anthem (Covid - No Sailings) 2021 - Anthem 2022 - Anthem 2023 - Anthem 2024 - Anthem

Only evidence of Independence at the minute, no sign of a second ship for Southampton. 😢

As far as I know, no major cruise lines sail from Harwich anymore, Dover would probably be more likely if anything. But I would probably say there was more chance of them giving everyone on this forum a free cruise on Icon from Southampton, as stupid as that sounds. 😂 I think myself and @little britain would collapse if that actually happened, they would have to carry me on in a stretcher! 😂

Potentially just have not completed bookings yet, similar to Icon which has just added some more dates.

This was my thinking too! Quantum was the ship home-ported in Asia before Spectrum came on the scene and as a result is already adapted for this market in many different ways. It would make sense for her to do a direct swap with Anthem, when she takes over Australia and Alaska in 2025.

There are 2 possibilities, either Symphony or Utopia, providing that the above aren’t just placeholders. The first thing to consider is does Utopia have retractable funnels? Then, with the amount of marketing that Royal have put into Utopia being the ‘Worlds Biggest Weekend’, I would doubt that she would do this for just one year, especially as profit margins will be higher for short sailings. My gut call is that it will be Symphony again for the 2025 Summer season in NJ. I also doubt that Harmony would travel this far from Galveston, especially as Oasis Class from Galveston has some of the lowest pp prices in the fleet, it just doesn’t seem viable to me. I think it’s important to remember that Harmony was the original placeholder for Icon, could this be the case for Icon 2, especially since bookings don’t appear until August 2025? But would they really have Icon and Icon 2 sailing to the same Caribbean ports? As you can see, there are many many questions but hopefully the picture will become clearer as more ports release their bookings for this season.

St Maarten, Caribbean - Port Schedule (Correct as of 18/08/23) Several additional bookings made throughout the season for Icon. See updated list below: May 2025: 1st May - Vision OTS 1st May - Wonder OTS 5th May - Symphony OTS 5th May - Liberty OTS 6th May - Icon OTS 7th May - Oasis OTS 14th May - Wonder OTS 20th May - Icon OTS. *NEW* 27th May - Rhapsody OTS 28th May - Wonder OTS June 2025: 2nd June - Liberty OTS 3rd June - Icon OTS 4th June - Oasis OTS 11th June - Rhapsody OTS 12th June - Wonder OTS 18th June - Rhapsody OTS 25th June - Rhapsody OTS 26th June - Wonder OTS 30th June - Liberty OTS July 2025: 1st July - Icon OTS. *NEW* 3rd July - Oasis OTS 9th July - Rhapsody OTS 15th July - Icon OTS 16th July - Rhapsody OTS 23rd July - Rhapsody OTS 28th July - Liberty OTS 30th July - Oasis OTS August 2025: 5th August - Icon OTS. *NEW* 6th August - Rhapsody OTS 7th August - Harmony OTS 13th August - Rhapsody OTS 20th August - Rhapsody OTS 25th August - Liberty OTS 26th August - Icon OTS 27th August - Oasis OTS 28th August - Harmony OTS September 2025: 3rd September - Rhapsody OTS 6th September - Jewel OTS 10th September - Rhapsody OTS 16th September - Icon OTS. *NEW* 17th September - Rhapsody OTS 18th September - Harmony OTS 24th September - Oasis OTS October 2025: 1st October - Rhapsody OTS 7th October - Icon OTS 8th October - Rhapsody OTS 9th October - Harmony OTS 15th October - Rhapsody OTS 22nd October - Oasis OTS 28th October - Icon OTS. *NEW* 29th October - Rhapsody OTS 30th October - Harmony OTS November 2025: 9th November - Odyssey OTS

Le Havre, France - Port Bookings (Correct as of 18/08/23) An additional call added for Independence OTS in late September. 10th May 2025 - Independence OTS 14th July 2025 - Independence OTS 23rd September 2025 - Independence OTS. *NEW* 10th October 2025 - Independence OTS

MSC definitely seems to think Asia is performing well. They have recently announced that they’re adding a 2nd ship in the region from 2024. They’ve got Belissima in Baoshan Wusongkou Cruise Terminal, Shanghai and Splendida in Shenzen/Taiwan depending on season.

Thanks! That’s what I meant, just got mixed up with Spectrum! 🤦🏼‍♂️

After the 24/25 Australia season, Quantum is planned to replace Anthem in China and Anthem will replace Quantum in Alaska for Summer 25. Anthem will then move to Australia in time for the 25/26 season.

Voyager OTS out of Athens for Winter 2025 (November/December 25) , according to port bookings. Looks like Celebrity are a year ahead with the Winter Med idea.