Key Aspects: A 76-year-old American woman was evacuated from a cruise ship off the Mexican Pacific coast after an onboard injury. The rescue happened on January 1, 2026, during a 17-night Panama Canal repositioning cruise. Mexican naval rescue crews transferred the injured guest from Viking Sky to a nearby hospital. The New Year got off to a
Key Aspects: Royal Caribbean Group will launch its Points Choice rewards program on January 30, 2026. The new program allows guests to apply loyalty points to any of its three brands. A points table shows the exchange rates between the brands. As promised, Royal Caribbean Group has revealed details of its new Points Choice rewards
Key Aspects: The search for a guest overboard from Nieuw Statendam on January 1, 2026 has been suspended. Updates confirm the guest is a 77-year-old woman and the overboard was likely deliberate. Nieuw Statendam has resumed sailing but cancelled her January 2 port visit to Key West due to the delay. The US Coast Guard
Key Aspects: Princess Cruises celebrated the new year with a Star Princess float in the Rose Parade. The float celebrated the debut of the new ship and her inaugural Alaska season. The impressive display featured over 300,000 flowers and other natural materials. Princess Cruises rang in the New Year with a special float in the
Key Aspects: A Carnival guest was caught with illegal videos on his cellphone while disembarking from Mardi Gras. The video depicts adults participating in sexual acts with dogs. He was arrested days later on 15 different counts related to animal abuse. One recent guest of Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras is beginning the new year
Key Aspects: Port St. Maarten began 2026 with two maiden cruise calls on New Year’s Day. Princess Cruises’ Sun Princess and Oceania Cruises’ Oceania Allura will each return for later sailings. The milestone follows a wave of other first-time visits in December 2025. As the world celebrated the start of 2026 with anticipation for what’s to
Key Aspects: Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam is searching for a guest overboard north of eastern Cuba. The cruise line confirmed the overboard incident and that it appears to have been a deliberate act. No details on the guest’s age, gender, or other identifying information has been released. The new year is not starting as
Key Aspects: There were a total of 22 outbreaks on cruise ships in 2025. This is up from 18 outbreaks in 2024 and 14 outbreaks in 2023. However, this is still just 22 sailings out of thousands, so cruisers shouldn’t be too concerned just yet. The last thing anyone wants is to get sick during
It’s been a crazy year for cruise news, with outrageous stories ranging from luggage going on a wild cruise of its own to fights over the silliest things to massive post-cruise bills that could have been avoided. How many of these Top 10 stories do you remember from 2025? Stolen Luggage Takes Cruises of Its
Key Aspects: A Carnival guest feels their New Year’s cruise is ruined because of a cookie confiscation. The guest was bringing homemade cookies to share, but Carnival does not permit homemade treats to be brought onboard. Instead, John Heald will see that there are cookies at the meeting where the guest had hoped to share
Key Aspects: Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas was voted Most Anticipated New Cruise Ship. It was the third year in a row that a Royal Caribbean new-build was chosen for the honor. Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Luna came in second place. For the third consecutive year, a Royal Caribbean new-build was named Most Anticipated
Key Aspects: Norwegian Breakaway has updated its planned visit to Puerto Plata on New Year’s Day. The ship will arrive and depart one hour early to accommodate rough weather on its return to New York. As this is the final port call on the itinerary, no other destinations have been impacted. Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian
