Princess - 2025-26 Caribbean and Panama Canal Program

[Coral]

Princess is thrilled to reveal our Caribbean and Panama Canal programs for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, including the first sailings ever from North America for our newest ship, Star Princess.  

 

Caribbean Highlights include: 

 

• Star Princess and Sun Princess lead this 10-ship lineup sailing from four US homeports including Fort Lauderdale, Galveston, Port Canaveral and New York. 

• Four ships call Fort Lauderdale home this season: 
  • Star Princess and sister Sun Princess sail 7-day Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages with convenient weekend departures. 
  • Majestic Princess sails a brand-new program including 6- and 8-day voyages to the Southern, Eastern and Western Caribbean. 
  • Enchanted Princess sails 10-day voyages to the Southern and Eastern Caribbean visiting the British Virgin Islands and Martinique. 
• Regal Princess returns to the Lone Star State of Texas and will sail roundtrip from Galveston sailing 7-day Western Caribbean voyages. 
• Sky Princess sails for the first time from the Space Coast with 6- and 8-day Western and Eastern Caribbean sailings roundtrip from Port Canaveral. 
• Enchanted Princess sails a Fall 12-day New York to Fort Lauderdale Caribbean Islander voyage visiting Aruba and Curacao. 
• 29 destinations including 23 Caribbean Islands 
• 178 total departures of 25 unique itineraries ranging from 4 to 20 days 
• More Ashore late-night stays on select itineraries in Bonaire, Curacao, San Juan, St. Maarten and St. Thomas 
• Access to 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison in Barbados, Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park in St. Kitts and Belize Barrier Reef

 

Panama Canal Highlights include: 

 

• Caribbean Princess and Island Princess spend their season venturing the Panama Canal, and joined by Coral Princess, Emerald Princess and Sapphire Princess as they transit the region. 
• Two ways to sail the Panama Canal, an engineering marvel completed over a century ago: 
  • Ocean-to-Ocean with full transits of the Panama Canal from either the historic or new Panama Canal locks
  • Partial transits of the Panama Canal including the new locks which opened in 2016 
• 27 destinations in 13 countries throughout Central America and the Caribbean 
• 28 total departures of 8 unique itineraries ranging from 16 to 23 days 
• Voyages departing from Fort Lauderdale (including roundtrips), Los Angeles, San Francisco New York and Vancouver 
• Access to 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the Port Fortress of Cartagena and Antique Guatemala (from Puerto Quetzal)     

 

 

 

CAPTAIN’S CIRCLE LAUNCH PROMOTION 

Princess Past Guests are eligible for a special promotion when they book early!  The special promotion consists of a Captain’s Circle Launch Discount, which may be combined with launch and group promotions.  These discounts do not apply to third or fourth berth guests.  Please refer to the attached fares and itinerary sheets for Captain’s Circle Discount amounts. 

This discount expires on March 31, 2024.

2025-26 America Caribbean and Panama Canal- FaresItin.xlsx

[Coral]

[Geoffa30]

Thank you Coral for sharing.

 

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

 

 

[Coral]

8 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

Thank you Coral for sharing.

 

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

 

 

I honestly had not had time to look at it until now.

 

I don't think it will get any better with a fleet of large ships. Though - I haven't been to the Caribbean for a long time and don't know what the competition is doing.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

9 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

Thank you Coral for sharing.

 

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

 

 

Given that they are focusing mostly on 6-8 day itineraries from Florida or Texas there are so many places that the ships can visit.  Like the rest of the industry they are focusing on weeklong itineraries as that is where the $$$$ is. 

[snoozecrooze]

9 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

I'm genuinely surprised they didn't even cave into the soup of short Caribbean cruises that every other cruise line is diving head-first into. Considering they put in all the effort to transfer Majestic to the Atlantic, I was expecting them to use it on 3-4 day trips or something of the like, to compete against Celebrity. Not that the 6-8 days are any less cookie-cutter against Celebrity either but, it is what it is.

[SCX22]

9 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

 

Princess is trying to change the demographic of their cruises.  It's running too old at the moment and these cruisers don't have much time left to cruise.  The way to attract new cruisers to Princess (younger and/or with kids) is to cruise shorter itineraries (younger crowd doesn't have much vacation time) and to the Caribbean (cheap).  Families want don't to travel long haul to go on a cruise because of cost and the challenges of travelling with children.

 

In addition, Princess is positioning themselves for a recession.  The US economy is supposed to contract at some point due to the Fed interest hikes.  No one can say when and the US economy has proved very resilient, but every one does agree it will happen at some point.  When this does happen, people won't have a lot of money to spend on vacations.  Where can Princess provide cheap cruises?  The Caribbean and North American Coastal Cruises.

 

Why such a focus on the North American Market?  It's the largest market source for cruising.

[candy4040]

12 hours ago, Coral said:

Princess is thrilled to reveal our Caribbean and Panama Canal programs for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, including the first sailings ever from North America for our newest ship, Star Princess.  

 

Caribbean Highlights include: 

 

• Star Princess and Sun Princess lead this 10-ship lineup sailing from four US homeports including Fort Lauderdale, Galveston, Port Canaveral and New York. 

• Four ships call Fort Lauderdale home this season: 
  • Star Princess and sister Sun Princess sail 7-day Eastern and Western Caribbean voyages with convenient weekend departures. 
  • Majestic Princess sails a brand-new program including 6- and 8-day voyages to the Southern, Eastern and Western Caribbean. 
  • Enchanted Princess sails 10-day voyages to the Southern and Eastern Caribbean visiting the British Virgin Islands and Martinique. 
• Regal Princess returns to the Lone Star State of Texas and will sail roundtrip from Galveston sailing 7-day Western Caribbean voyages. 
• Sky Princess sails for the first time from the Space Coast with 6- and 8-day Western and Eastern Caribbean sailings roundtrip from Port Canaveral. 
• Enchanted Princess sails a Fall 12-day New York to Fort Lauderdale Caribbean Islander voyage visiting Aruba and Curacao. 
• 29 destinations including 23 Caribbean Islands 
• 178 total departures of 25 unique itineraries ranging from 4 to 20 days 
• More Ashore late-night stays on select itineraries in Bonaire, Curacao, San Juan, St. Maarten and St. Thomas 
• Access to 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison in Barbados, Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park in St. Kitts and Belize Barrier Reef

 

Panama Canal Highlights include: 

 

• Caribbean Princess and Island Princess spend their season venturing the Panama Canal, and joined by Coral Princess, Emerald Princess and Sapphire Princess as they transit the region. 
• Two ways to sail the Panama Canal, an engineering marvel completed over a century ago: 
  • Ocean-to-Ocean with full transits of the Panama Canal from either the historic or new Panama Canal locks
  • Partial transits of the Panama Canal including the new locks which opened in 2016 
• 27 destinations in 13 countries throughout Central America and the Caribbean 
• 28 total departures of 8 unique itineraries ranging from 16 to 23 days 
• Voyages departing from Fort Lauderdale (including roundtrips), Los Angeles, San Francisco New York and Vancouver 
• Access to 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites including the Port Fortress of Cartagena and Antique Guatemala (from Puerto Quetzal)     

 

 

 

CAPTAIN’S CIRCLE LAUNCH PROMOTION 

Princess Past Guests are eligible for a special promotion when they book early!  The special promotion consists of a Captain’s Circle Launch Discount, which may be combined with launch and group promotions.  These discounts do not apply to third or fourth berth guests.  Please refer to the attached fares and itinerary sheets for Captain’s Circle Discount amounts. 

This discount expires on March 31, 2024.

2025-26 America Caribbean and Panama Canal- FaresItin.xlsx 49.66 kB · 86 downloads

Is there any way you can post this file as a pdf?

[Coral]

7 minutes ago, candy4040 said:

Is there any way you can post this file as a pdf?

Are you go.

2025-26 America Caribbean and Panama Canal- FaresItin.pdf

 

[Coral]

56 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

Princess is trying to change the demographic of their cruises.  It's running too old at the moment and these cruisers don't have much time left to cruise.  The way to attract new cruisers to Princess (younger and/or with kids) is to cruise shorter itineraries (younger crowd doesn't have much vacation time) and to the Caribbean (cheap).  Families want don't to travel long haul to go on a cruise because of cost and the challenges of travelling with children.

So tell us what you think of HAL?

[Steelers36]

11 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

Thank you Coral for sharing.

 

It seriously looks as though Princess has run out of ideas. How many ships do they need doing the same seven day itineraries?

 

 

Agree.  They don't even look to throw in St Maarten as a swap for STT the odd time.  Tons of voyages to the same Western Caribbean ports.  Tons of beach stops.

 

2 hours ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

Given that they are focusing mostly on 6-8 day itineraries from Florida or Texas there are so many places that the ships can visit.  Like the rest of the industry they are focusing on weeklong itineraries as that is where the $$$$ is. 

 

Looks like the Star is the one for beach lovers since half its trips go to Cays, Cove and Turk only.  All three basically beach stops. 

 

You have to take a 10-nighter to get any variety in the Caribbean.  That said, at least our first voyage on Sun or Star would be for the new ship experience and I wouldn't really care where it went for the week. 

 

[SCX22]

4 hours ago, Coral said:

So tell us what you think of HAL?

 

Just my 2 cents...

 

The baby boomers are disappearing.  The tail end of their generation is fast approaching.  Eventually there won't be as many legacy cruisers (euphemism for old people).  In terms of Carnival Brands, they will leave their two legacy brands, Holland America and Cunard, to cater to the legacy cruisers.  (I call them legacy brands because they have history dating back to the 1800s--OLD.)  Three brands catering to legacy cruisers will be too much in the future.  Carnival Corp wants to begin switching the demographic of the Princess brand now, so when the legacy cruisers disappear, there will be someone to take their place.

 

TBH, in my mid-30s, I don't care for the Princess crowd at the moment.  (There are exceptions; it's great when we meet cool older folks that don't mind chatting it up with us younger folks.  Even better when we meet peers in our age group that we jive with.)  I cruise Princess for the price and nostalgia.  It reminds me of cruising in with my grandparents in the 1990s.  It's the brand recall that keeps me coming back.  My favorite mass market line is X followed by RC.  If Princess can capture the brand recall with the young ones, they will be more likely to cruise with Princess when they get older.

 

X has caught up with the trend of catering to a younger generation with their Edge Class ships.

 

What interests me more is what will happen to Viking River and Ocean.  The expanded exponentially over the past decade.  What will happen to their offerings once the legacy cruisers disappear?  There will always be a market for that type of cruising, but I think that they will have to downsize their fleet or change their offerings.

 

CLIA's State of the Cruise Industry 2023 Report states that "the future of cruise is the younger generation."

 

[talkorpi]

Ugh. Princess. Your Galveston offering SUCKS! If you want to be competitive here, you need to offer a DIFFERENT itinerary than the same one that CCL & RC have been doing for years. There are basically zero ships that sail to Grand Cayman and Jamaica from Galveston anymore. Why Princess isn't capitalizing on this market gap I have no idea as Regal isn't too big for tender ports.

 

I have no idea why they don't put Regal doing a 6/8/7 schedule:

- 6 Day to Mahogany Bay, Cozumel, and Costa Maya

- 8 Day to Key West, Princess Cays, and either Grand Turk or Nassau&Freeport

- 7 Day to Falmouth/Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel

 

The same freaking Cozumel/Mahogany Bay/Costa Maya itinerary that happens every single week is getting so old. Princess needs to compete on the itinerary from Galveston, not on the ship. Ugh. Guess I will have to fly to Fort Lauderdale to get something different!

[snoozecrooze]

2 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Ugh. Princess. Your Galveston offering SUCKS! If you want to be competitive here, you need to offer a DIFFERENT itinerary than the same one that CCL & RC have been doing for years. There are basically zero ships that sail to Grand Cayman and Jamaica from Galveston anymore. Why Princess isn't capitalizing on this market gap I have no idea as Regal isn't too big for tender ports.

 

I have no idea why they don't put Regal doing a 6/8/7 schedule:

- 6 Day to Mahogany Bay, Cozumel, and Costa Maya

- 8 Day to Key West, Princess Cays, and either Grand Turk or Nassau&Freeport

- 7 Day to Falmouth/Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel

 

The same freaking Cozumel/Mahogany Bay/Costa Maya itinerary that happens every single week is getting so old. Princess needs to compete on the itinerary from Galveston, not on the ship. Ugh. Guess I will have to fly to Fort Lauderdale to get something different!

Come on, preach it @talkorpi. I'm still manifesting a career in fleet deployment for you at Princess or any other cruise line. I seriously respect your passion for it. Hope you've been doing well!

[Paula_MacFan]

3 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Ugh. Princess. Your Galveston offering SUCKS! If you want to be competitive here, you need to offer a DIFFERENT itinerary than the same one that CCL & RC have been doing for years. There are basically zero ships that sail to Grand Cayman and Jamaica from Galveston anymore. Why Princess isn't capitalizing on this market gap I have no idea as Regal isn't too big for tender ports.

 

I have no idea why they don't put Regal doing a 6/8/7 schedule:

- 6 Day to Mahogany Bay, Cozumel, and Costa Maya

- 8 Day to Key West, Princess Cays, and either Grand Turk or Nassau&Freeport

- 7 Day to Falmouth/Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel

 

The same freaking Cozumel/Mahogany Bay/Costa Maya itinerary that happens every single week is getting so old. Princess needs to compete on the itinerary from Galveston, not on the ship. Ugh. Guess I will have to fly to Fort Lauderdale to get something different!

Agreed! Galveston is our preferred port for Caribbean cruises as we are from the midwest so it's an easy travel destination. We are going on the Regal in 6 weeks, but after that I doubt we'll go again anytime soon. I was disappointed they weren't offering some new itineraries too. Maybe some Eastern Caribbean routes or even Panama Canal with a smaller (non Royal class) ship. Carnival has a Panama Canal cruise from Galveston but we've never been on that line.

 

They are offering the same old thing unfortunately.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Paula_MacFan

[memoak]

We don’t really care for the Royal class ships and have no interest in the new humongous ships. It looks like most if not all ships out of FLL are on those ships so we will probably stick to Panama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and New England cruises and leave the Caribbean alone for a few years

[Coral]

11 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

 

What interests me more is what will happen to Viking River and Ocean.  The expanded exponentially over the past decade.  What will happen to their offerings once the legacy cruisers disappear?  There will always be a market for that type of cruising, but I think that they will have to downsize their fleet or change their offerings.

 

I am not worried about Viking. They have huge name recognition in the US - most people are not aware of other river boat companies even though some are far superior. Plus - river boat cruising is so popular right now, regardless of company. Plus, right now, Viking Ocean has top marks for luxury and popularity. Due to their size, they can get into ports other ships can not. Their pricing is high and they are filling the ships. A lot of people who don't like the mega ships are turning to them. My agent is getting a lot of requests from former Princess/HAL/Celebrity cruisers who are disenchanted with the changes these lines have made in cut backs and they are choosing Viking Ocean.

[SCX22]

4 hours ago, talkorpi said:

Ugh. Princess. Your Galveston offering SUCKS! If you want to be competitive here, you need to offer a DIFFERENT itinerary than the same one that CCL & RC have been doing for years. There are basically zero ships that sail to Grand Cayman and Jamaica from Galveston anymore. Why Princess isn't capitalizing on this market gap I have no idea as Regal isn't too big for tender ports.

 

1 hour ago, snoozecrooze said:

Come on, preach it @talkorpi. I'm still manifesting a career in fleet deployment for you at Princess or any other cruise line. I seriously respect your passion for it. Hope you've been doing well!

 

Might be out of Princess' control.  There ports might have congestion and reached the maximum number of ships.  The Caribbean is a very saturated destination year round.  There was a thread recently about how Princess had to re-arrange ports in the Caribbean.  

 

 

[MacMadame]

Speaking as someone on the tail of the Baby Boomers, I haven't even retired yet, let alone died. Stop trying to kill me off (in marketing)!!! Seriously, I've been hearing about how it's not worth it to market to me for decades. It's annoying. 😄 

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

Speaking as someone on the tail of the Baby Boomers, I haven't even retired yet, let alone died. Stop trying to kill me off (in marketing)!!! Seriously, I've been hearing about how it's not worth it to market to me for decades. It's annoying. 😄 

Amen to that. We are boomers in our early 70’s and cruise 4 times a year on Princess. We are not going anywhere but do not want to sail on humongous ships with amusement parks attached

[SCX22]

40 minutes ago, MacMadame said:

Speaking as someone on the tail of the Baby Boomers, I haven't even retired yet, let alone died. Stop trying to kill me off (in marketing)!!! Seriously, I've been hearing about how it's not worth it to market to me for decades. It's annoying. 😄 

 

32 minutes ago, memoak said:

Amen to that. We are boomers in our early 70’s and cruise 4 times a year on Princess. We are not going anywhere but do not want to sail on humongous ships with amusement parks attached

 

In business, there's the short term, medium term, long term, and lag time.

 

The baby boomers are Princess' customers in the short/medium term.  In the long term, they want to capture the younger crowd.  It will take time for this transition to happen.  

 

Take the photos being used in Princess' advertising as of recent.  It's no longer grey haired couples.  It's younger folks.  There will be lag time from they start this campaign to when it actually comes into fruition.  Princess however, cannot wait for too long because if the baby boomers disappear without replacement cruisers, then Princess will have a very small audience and that's not good for financials.

[Steelers36]

13 hours ago, SCX22 said:

CLIA's State of the Cruise Industry 2023 Report states that "the future of cruise is the younger generation."

Agree with your post, but truly the above statement applies to almost any business that needs an infusion of new customers as children grow into adults and older adults die off.

[memoak]

17 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

 

 

In business, there's the short term, medium term, long term, and lag time.

 

The baby boomers are Princess' customers in the short/medium term.  In the long term, they want to capture the younger crowd.  It will take time for this transition to happen.  

 

Take the photos being used in Princess' advertising as of recent.  It's no longer grey haired couples.  It's younger folks.  There will be lag time from they start this campaign to when it actually comes into fruition.  Princess however, cannot wait for too long because if the baby boomers disappear without replacement cruisers, then Princess will have a very small audience and that's not good for financials.

I have been cruising Princess for over 30 years and have always felt that there is a very good combination of ages, families and singles. 

 

 

[BabsinTX]

Coral, I can't thank you enough for your cruise schedule postings.  I love getting a head's up on new cruises!

[SCX22]

23 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Agree with your post, but truly the above statement applies to almost any business that needs an infusion of new customers as children grow into adults and older adults die off.

 

Unfortunately, many on this board can't seem to grasp that.  Many post about how they don't want to cruise with kids, etc.

 

Remember why they're called Boomers.  The Boomers' parent's generation had access to jobs and money which created the middle class and the population boom.  Never in history did the population grow at such an exponential rate.

 

The problem now is that the Baby Boomers are disappearing faster than they they are being replaced and the fertility rate is down.  In the U.S. there's the ongoing argument that Social Security will fall off a financial cliff because the Boomers depleted the funds and the contributions by the subsequent generations isn't enough to keep the program going.  (Politics that I shall stay out of.

 

I guess my argument is that there will be less passengers in the future for cruise lines to fight over (because of the decrease in population) and it would be in Princess' best judgment to capture them while they are young.

 

It's as if Princess is starting over again.  These many of these older cruisers were young(er) cruisers with Princess at some point.  Their brand has come full circle.