Jumping Cruiser

Ponta Delgada, Azores - Port Bookings (Correct as of 05/11/23) A few dates have been updated recently for Brilliance OTS, Independence OTS and Odyssey OTS. May I also point out that the destination port for Brilliance has changed to Cadiz. 21st April 2025 - Brilliance OTS. *UPDATED* 27th April 2025 - Jewel OTS 3rd May 2025 - Odyssey OTS. *UPDATED* 6th May 2025 - Independence OTS 7th May 2025 - Explorer OTS 10th May 2025 - Voyager OTS 8th August 2025 - Independence OTS 21st October 2025 - Explorer OTS 22nd October 2025 - Independence OTS. *UPDATED* 29th October 2025 - Odyssey OTS 6th November 2025 - Explorer OTS

Beyond looks to continue with the longer 6-Night+ cruises throughout Summer 2025. Meanwhile, Reflection/Silhouette will offer short sailings of 3/4-nights, most of which call at Perfect Day.

I knew I forgot something! Thank you for reminding me. 😂 Reflection and Silhouette both are booked into Key West on what look to be short Caribbean sailings. It is difficult to find port bookings for the Northeast and Bermuda, but I would expect either Reflection or Silhouette to take on them routes, as I can’t imagine 3 Summer Caribbean ships myself.

The data provided by Amsterdam Port Authority can be outdated and not regularly updated. The fact that recent bookings for Brilliance have been made in Athens would suggest to me that she is going there, at least from June. However, there is still potential for a short Northern Europe season, or a full one carried out by another ship. I would be highly surprised if they pull out of Amsterdam completely for 2025. Although, I do think they may have moved away from original plans, especially with recent events in Israel.

In my opinion, this will be X’s Summer 2025 deployment, based on current port bookings. As always, subject to change until confirmation by Celebrity, but helps to give some sort of idea. There are duplicate bookings in some port, so there is potential for Eclipse to swap with Equinox for example. Ascent - Western Mediterranean (Barcelona, Rome, Athens) Beyond - Caribbean (Fort Lauderdale) Apex - Southampton, UK Edge - Alaska Silhouette - Caribbean (Fort Lauderdale) Reflection - Short Caribbean (Fort Lauderdale) Equinox - Mediterranean (Barcelona, Rome, Athens) Solstice - Alaska Eclipse - Northern Europe (Amsterdam) Infinity - Eastern Mediterranean (Athens) Millennium - Asia Constellation - Mediterranean (Ravenna / Rome) Summit - Alaska

The slide will be free, but you will have to pay for the water at $50 a gallon! And no, it is not included in the beverage package. 🤣

Hi everyone, Sailing on MSC Euribia this month and looking to get the train at Zeebrugge-Dorp, directly to Bruges. We will be there on a Wednesday, so from what I understand, the service will be running once per hour. Does anyone have any personal experience taking this exact train and if so how did the outbound and return journey go, plus what was the cost? Thanks 🙂

I know, I am scheduled on this cruise! Not too disappointed, but would have been nice.

Independence OTS - Southampton 2025 Itineraries I believe these are the majority of the itineraries for Indy from Southampton in 2025. It’s nice to see them returning to Copenhagen from UK and also calling in Skjolden, Norway. I do think it’s ironic though how they carried out ‘hot’ cruises on Anthem, a cold weather ship, and now are going to run ‘cold’ cruises on Indy, a warm weather ship. But what do we know! 🤔🤷🏼‍♂️ 12th May 2025: 12-night Canary Islands Southampton - Cruising - Bilbao - Cruising - Lisbon - Cruising - Las Palmas, Gran Canaria - Santa Cruz, Tenerife - Funchal, Madeira - Cruising - La Coruna - Cruising - Southampton 24th May 2025: Spain & Portugal (7 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon (Overnight) - La Coruna - Cruising - Southampton 7th June 2025: Bruges Short Break (2 Nights) Southampton - Zeebrugge - Southampton 9th June 2025: Spanish Flair (9 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon - Cadiz - Cruising - La Coruna - Bilbao - Cruising - Southampton 18th June 2025: Bruges Short Break (3 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Zeebrugge - Southampton 21st June 2025: Northern Europe (8 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Oslo, Norway - Copenhagen - Cruising - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Cruising - Southampton 29th June 2025: Norwegian Fjords (7 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Alesund - Molde - Olden - Haugesund - Cruising - Southampton 6th July 2025: Spain & Portugal (7 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon - La Coruna - Bilbao - Cruising - Southampton 13th July 2025: Norwegian Fjords (7 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Molde - Skjolden - Olden - Haugesund - Cruising - Southampton 20th July 2025: Hamburg & Rotterdam Break (5 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Cruising - Southampton 25th July 2025: Spanish Flair (9 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon - Cadiz - Cruising - La Coruna - Bilbao - Cruising - Southampton 3rd August 2025: Spanish Flair (9 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Bilbao - Cruising - Cadiz - Lisbon - Vigo - La Coruna - Cruising - Southampton 12th August 2025: Hamburg & Rotterdam Break Southampton - Cruising - Hamburg - Rotterdam - Cruising - Southampton 17th August 2025: Norwegian Fjords (7 Nights) Southampton - Zeebrugge - Cruising - Skjolden - olden - Haugesund - Cruising - Southampton 24th August 2025: Northern Cities (8 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Hamburg - Cruising - Oslo - Copenhagen - Cruising - Zeebrugge - Southampton 1st September 2025: Spanish Flair (9 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon - Cadiz - Cruising - La Coruna - Bilbao - Cruising - Southampton 10th September 2025: Spanish Flair (9 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Vigo - Lisbon - Cadiz - Cruising - La Coruna - Bilbao - Cruising - Southampton 19th September 2025: Bruges Short Break (3 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Zeebrugge - Southampton 22nd September 2025: Spain & France (7 Nights) Southampton - Le Havre - Cruising - Bilbao - La Coruna - Vigo - Cruising - Southampton 29th September 2025: Hamburg & Zeebrugge Break (5 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Hamburg - Cruising - Zeebrugge - Southampton 11th October 2025: Hamburg & Rotterdam Break (5 Nights) Southampton - Cruising - Hamburg - Cruising - Rotterdam - Southampton

No race track. Replaced by a waterpark, which includes at least 2 slides. Lots of venues are marked as ‘To Come’. If they were the same as Prima/Viva, wouldn’t they just reveal them now?

Just come across the deck plans. The most noticeable difference is the race track is replaced by a water park.

Me! 🙌🏻 Don’t forget the ‘Fresh Itineraries’ too! A lovely 3-night cruise to the industrial port of Zeebrugge in the middle of a rainy European summer sounds very inviting! 😂

Anthem’s TA this year was 15th October and her repositioning next year is 14th October, so to have it this early is not unusual.

Here is an interview with a VP at Royal Caribbean regarding deployment of Indy in UK. https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/tour-operators/independence-of-the-seas-to-homeport-in-uk-in-2025 It is interesting though how they are looking at marketing it. They are not trying to target current Anthem cruisers, but more people who cruised on Indy in the past and new to brand families. “There are two opportunities for agents here: it’s a great chance for people to go on Anthem next summer, and if they are a fan of Independence then they should make two bookings.” Bouldin encouraged agents to revisit their databases of customers who sailed on Independence of the Seas when it previously departed from Southampton, as well as urging fans of Anthem of the Seas to secure a final sailing on the ship next summer. “A change [of ship] is important because we have a number of guests that like to sail from Southampton every year so having a fresh ship, fresh itineraries and fresh entertainment for people to see is key.” The highlighted part of makes me laugh though! Their definition of fresh is definitely different to mine! 😂

Only 1 Canaries cruise and NO MEDITERRANEAN! Oh dear! I suppose at least it’s not copy and paste like it has been over the past couple of years, but this was not what I was hoping for! 😔 Seems to be a huge focus on ‘short getaways’, but what shocks me is the lack of warmer destinations, considering she is more suited to this climate than Anthem. Definitely trying to push people towards fly-cruises rather than ex-UK. Also, I don’t imagine short getaways to attract international guests, which is maybe why the shrink in capacity will be acceptable.

This is what I expect based on port bookings, but recent events in Israel may have changed that. Amsterdam (May to August) Haifa, Israel (August to October)

Port Days: Free - Short Ride (Up and Down) Sea Days: Paid - Longer Ride (Up, Down and Over) Port Days: Free (1 Minute) Sea Days: Paid - Extended Experience (2 Minutes) Yes, cabin service is now once a day. You will be visited by the stateroom attendant on embarkation day who will ask your preference for morning or evening service. In my experience, they are quite good at working around your morning/evening plans. I know that there are Morning Dance Fitness classes at the minute. I believe this is similar if not the same as Zumba. The current cruise director is Danny Turner, who took over on 21st September.

I agree. I am also expecting edge-class sized ships as well over the next 5 or so years. I think this is known internally as ‘Project Discovery’ if I remember right. These will be needed to start to replace Radiance and Voyager class. I wonder though whether they will build 3 Icons then a PD vessel, or just 4 Icons one after the other?

I agree. The late August call could possibly be part of a repositioning between Northern Europe and Israel, similar to what is being offered on Jewel next August.

Leixoes, Portugal - Port Bookings (Correct as of 17/10/23) 2 additional port calls have been made for Brilliance OTS, while one has had the date updated. 24th April 2025 - Brilliance OTS. *NEW* 27th April 2025 - Brilliance OTS 19th May 2025 - Brilliance OTS. *UPDATED* 27th August 2025 - Brilliance OTS. *NEW*

Possibly, but that does limit 7-night options, especially with Norwegian Fjords likely off the table. I would understand Indy being the ‘Hot’ ship if there were two, but not when she’s the only one. Surely they won’t just commit to longer and warmer cruises?

Visited here in the Summer on Anthem. It was a great stop, just like a hot Britain with lots of picturesque scenery. Not to mention…. TAX FREE! 👀😉😂

Le Havre, France - Port Bookings *UPDATE* (Correct as of 17/10/23) 3 Independence OTS calls have now been removed for 2025, so they definitely seem to be having ‘second thoughts’ with lots of their bookings 🤔. This suggests that there will only be one of the usual ‘France & Spain’ 7-nighters, quite a change compared to what we are used to with Anthem. The only remaining call is: 23rd September 2025 - Independence OTS

Gibraltar Port Bookings - *UPDATE* All Independence OTS calls in Gibraltar have now been removed for 2025. There is now no RC ship planned to call here throughout the 2025 European season. However, this is not unusual, as there are no scheduled calls in 2024 either.

There are some port bookings in Australia for Ovation and I would tend to think that these may be placeholders for Anthem, but there are also none showing for Quantum. In my opinion, I think Ovation will go back to Aus alongside Anthem, while Quantum will go to Asia. I highly highly doubt that they will send Ovation anywhere else, especially with a dry-dock looming in early 26. The only place a deployment would make sense other than Aus is LA, but they will likely keep Navigator there.