Mid-Year Update Shows Healthy Cruise Growth in US Virgin Islands
Midway through 2025, the three main islands of the US Virgin Islands are taking stock of the region’s tourism industry and have found cruising to be quite robust and on the rise.
An update issued by the USVI Department of Tourism shows that cruise arrivals are increasing in St. Thomas and St. John’s, and holding steady in St. Croix.
The latest numbers show that St. Thomas/St. John’s combined will welcome 1,487,753 cruise guests arriving on 414 ship visits in 2025, reflecting a respectable 4 percent increase compared to the previous year.
St. Thomas is the busiest cruise port in the USVI, with some of the industry’s most popular mega-ships calling on a regular basis. These include Carnival Cruise Line’s 4,000-guest Carnival Vista and 5,200-guest Mardi Gras, both based at Port Canaveral, and the 3,700-guest Carnival Magic, sailing from Miami.
Also, the massive cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, calling from her homeport in Miami, and the line’s Oasis of the Seas, based at Fort Lauderdale, include the island on their itineraries. Both have double occupancy capacity of 5,600 guests.
St. John’s, the smallest island known mainly as the home to Virgin Islands National Park, a pristine preserve covering two-thirds of the destination, welcomes smaller ships and has no dock facilities. All ships anchor in the island’s Cruz Bay and tender guests ashore.
Passengers arriving on the bigger ships calling at St. Thomas can visit St. John’s by ferry, enjoying a full-day excursion there if they wish.
Some of the ships currently calling at St. John’s include Silversea Cruises’ 660-guest Silver Dawn and 388-guest Silver Shadow, Seabourn’s 462-guest Seabourn Sojourn, and Holland America Line’s 1,839-guest Volendam.
A few larger ships, such as Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel, with capacity for 2,300 guests, are also slated to call at the destination this summer.
In 2025, St. Croix will welcome 86 cruise ship calls and about 208,000 guests. It also has plenty to recommend it, including another national park, the Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve.
On St. Croix, two Royal Caribbean ships are currently making regular calls, including the 2,400-guest Rhapsody of the Seas, sailing roundtrip from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the larger Adventure of the Seas, accommodating 3,800 passengers, based at Port Canaveral.
Caribbean is Enjoying Huge Growth in Cruise Tourism
The USVI is an archipelago situated in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, about 40 miles east of Puerto Rico. As a Caribbean destination, the Virgin Islands benefit from the region’s overall growth in cruise tourism.
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According to the 2025 State of the Cruise Industry report, recently published by Cruise Lines International Association, the Caribbean as a whole experienced a 17% increase in cruise tourism in 2024. The region welcomed just under 15 million cruise guests, up from 12.8 million the previous year.
The numbers show that 43% of all cruisers worldwide sailed Caribbean voyages in 2024.
The 17% uptick was also the largest increase recorded in any global destination, with the next-largest increase, at 5.8%, seen in the Mediterranean. Even Alaska cruises, which have seen big jumps in popularity, rose just 3.8%, receiving 1.7 million cruise arrivals.
Other tourism sectors in the USVI showed healthy growth. Land stays at hotels grew by 4.3%, the tourism department update shows, while short-term rentals rose by 11%.
Additional air service is ramping up, with new availability planned from Chicago and Boston. Overall, tourism arrivals by air are estimated to be lower than in 2024, perhaps because more vacationers are choosing to visit by cruise ship.
Mid-Year Update Shows Healthy Cruise Growth in US Virgin Islands