Tag Archives: Baltic Cruise

AIDA Confident Amid Geopolitical Challenges as Demand Grows

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AIDA Confident Amid Geopolitical Challenges as Demand Grows

AIDA Cruises is seeing strong demand for cruises and a high share of premium bookings and remains positive despite ongoing geopolitical challenges, the company said in a statement.

Current figures show that just over three million German ocean cruise passengers traveled in 2025, growing by nine percent compared to the previous year.

“Cruising in Germany is driving growth in the tourism market. In 2025, AIDA generated profitable growth with unchanged capacity and record-level occupancy,” said AIDA president Felix Eichhorn.

“With around 1.5 million guests in 2025, AIDA is the clear market leader in the German cruise market. This success is driven by strong demand and long-term bookings.”

For summer 2026, AIDA said it seeing an above-average level of advance bookings, a trend which Eichhorn said continues steadily.

“. The disproportionately high number of high-quality, long-term premium bookings also shows that guests place particular value on quality,” he said.

Trips departing from German ports that can operate year-round, such as Hamburg, Kiel, and Warnemünde, as well as routes to Northern Europe remain especially popular, AIDA noted.

Cruises to the United Kingdom, the Baltic states, and classic Northern Europe routes including Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are also said to be experiencing strong demand.

Multi-generational travel is currently in particularly high demand at AIDA.

A YouGov study commissioned by the company found that 66 percent of Germans have already vacationed with multiple generations of their family.

Around 20 percent of respondents believe cruises are especially suitable for multi-generational travel.

The company is also offering 20 Northern Europe cruises this year where shore power is used during port stays at every port.

The first short cruise starts on March 12 from Kiel and takes AIDAbella via Kristiansand, Oslo, and Copenhagen before returning to Kiel.

“In 2023, we had just over 60 shore power connections; last year, that number already exceeded 400. Thanks to the opening of additional facilities in Europe, we expect a further increase to 600 port calls this year. Nevertheless, further expansion of shore power infrastructure in Europe remains necessary,” said Eichhorn.

Princess Ship Completes Drydock in Rotterdam

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The Sky Princess successfully completed a routine drydock at the Damen Verolme in Rotterdam earlier this month.

According to the Dutch shipyard, the Princess Cruises vessel spent a total of 16 days in the facility undergoing regular maintenance, in addition to technical upgrades.

The scope of work included the installation of class-certified parts for a new air lubrication system and a full hull painting program, Damen said.

A total of 1,200 crew members and 700 contractors worked around the clock to complete the project, which the shipyard called a logistical challenge.

Following the successful drydock, the Sky Princess resumed service on May 5.

Spending the summer in Northern Europe, the 2019-built vessel is presently offering a series of cruises departing from Southampton, England.

The program includes itineraries to Western Europe, the Norwegian Fjords, the Mediterranean, the Baltic and more.

In May, for instance, the ship is offering a seven-night cruise to Scandinavia, in addition to a special 14-night cruise to Iceland and Norway.

Also sailing roundtrip from Southampton, the two-week cruise features visits to Akureyri, Isafjord and Grundarfjordur in Iceland, as well as Skjolden, Olden and Alesund, in Norway.

Following its summer program in Europe, the Sky Princess is set to return to North America in November.

Starting on Nov. 25, the vessel offers a series of itineraries to the Caribbean and the Bahamas departing from Princess’ cruise terminal in Port Everglades, Florida.

Fourth in a series of six ships known as Royal Class, the Sky Princess originally entered service in 2019.

Built by the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy, the 141,000-ton cruise ship was followed, in 2020, by the Enchanted Princess – which also completed a drydock recently.

After arriving in Europe in March, the 3,660-guest vessel underwent routine work at a facility of the Fincantieri Shipyard in Palermo, Italy.

A third ship also spent time at a shipyard recently, as the Sapphire Princess visited the Vigor Shipyard on the U.S. West Coast for regular maintenance in April.

Norwegian Cruise Line Confident in Europe 2023 Despite Baltic Limitations

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Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is increasing its capacity by six per cent in Europe in 2023, coming at the expense of the Caribbean, according to Frank Del Rio, president and CEO, speaking on the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

He said that yields on ticket prices and onboard revenue for cruises in Europe were “dramatically better.”

And this is in despite of limitations in the Baltic, with ships not calling at Russia’s Saint Petersburg. 

“If you had asked me what is the single city in the world, port in the world that you cannot live without, I’d tell you it’s Saint Petersburg, and we lost it,” Del Rio said. “Very, very high yields, incredible shore excursion sales. So onboard revenue was just higher than any other itineraries that I can think of, and it’s a relatively long season. You can get (there) in mid-May and you can leave in mid-September.”

That limitation in 2022 sent one Norwegian ship elsewhere, as the Getaway moved to the Caribbean for the summer sailing from Port Canaveral.

“It did affect load factors and no question, it affected pricing. And the impact on EBITDA has to be in the tens of millions of dollars,” Del Rio explained.

But both the Baltic and the Mediterranean look encouraging for 2023, with Del Rio noting that Americans travelling to Europe book the highest cabin categories earliest.

“This revenge travel or pent-up demand that we’ve been talking about for months is really alive and well for Americans going to Europe,” he said.

“We believe that Europe is poised for an incredible 2023 season. That’s why we increased our capacity there by 6 percentage points of occupancy at the expense of the Caribbean. And I’ll take that trade all day long because the yields both on a ticket and on onboard revenue are so dramatically better for European cruises that we’ll take that trade.”