Here’s All the New Cruise Ships On Order as of April 2026

If it feels like cruise lines keep announcing new ships faster than ports can figure out where to park everybody, you’re not imagining things.

This week, Princess Cruises became the latest line to jump into the future with the announcement of three new ships that will eventually become the largest in the fleet. Sounds exciting, right? Sure. Until you realize the first one isn’t expected until late 2035, with the next two following in 2038 and 2039.

Still, Princess isn’t alone here. Not even close.

Cruise vacations are hotter than ever right now, and the industry knows it. Ships are sailing full, demand remains strong, and cruise lines are throwing money at shipyards like there’s no tomorrow.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that while cruise lines are busy building bigger and bigger floating resorts, the ports they sail from are not exactly keeping pace. We’ve already seen what happens when thousands upon thousands of people all try to descend on places like PortMiami and Port Everglades at the same time. Traffic becomes a complete mess, parking garages turn into obstacle courses, and by the time you actually get onboard, the drink package starts feeling less like a bad decision and more like emotional support.

And it’s only going to get worse.

Bigger Ships = More People, Same Roads

The reality is pretty simple. Cruise lines want larger ships because larger ships mean more cabins, more restaurants, more bars, more upsells, and of course more places to separate you from your money. Shipyards are cranking these things out as fast as they can, but the port experience at many ports still feels like it was designed for a very different era of cruising.

That’s especially noticeable in South Florida, where getting to the terminal can sometimes feel like the first challenge of your vacation. PortMiami can be chaos. Port Everglades can be chaos with slightly different scenery. And when these next-generation mega ships keep arriving with five, six, or even more than six thousand passengers, it’s not hard to see where this is headed.

More ships.
More people.
More cars.
Same bottlenecks.

But hey, at least once you make it through the madness, there’s usually a frozen cocktail waiting on the other side.

Every Cruise Line is Building New Ships

Princess Cruises grabbed attention this week because of just how far out these new ships are. The line’s three newly announced vessels are scheduled for 2035, 2038, and 2039, and they’ll each come in at around 183,000 gross tons with room for about 4,700 guests. That would make them the biggest ships Princess has ever built.

That’s a pretty big deal for Princess, but it also fits into a much larger story. Nearly every major cruise line has ships on order, and in some cases, a lot of them, let’s take a look at the major players:

Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival has plenty coming down the pipeline, starting with Carnival Festivale in 2027 and Carnival Tropicale in 2028. After that, the line has even larger unnamed ships planned for 2029, 2031, and 2033. Those later ships are listed at a whopping 230,000 gross tons with room for 6,200 passengers. So if you thought Carnival was done going big, not even a little bit.

MSC Cruises

MSC is basically in permanent ship-ordering mode at this point. World Asia is due in 2026, followed by World Atlantic in 2027, and then a string of additional ships arriving starting in 2029 through 2033. Several of those are listed at 205,700 gross tons carrying 5,400 passengers, while others are slightly smaller at 180,000 gross tons and 4,000 passengers. Slightly smaller, of course, being a very funny phrase when talking about ships that are still absurdly huge.

Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean continues doing what Royal Caribbean does best, which is making ships so large that people on older ships start wondering if they accidentally booked a river cruise. Legend of the Seas is scheduled for 2026, with more unnamed ships on the books for 2027, 2028, 2029, and 2032. Some of those are listed at 250,800 gross tons with capacity for 5,610 passengers.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian has a long list too. Norwegian Luna has just entered service and Norwegian Aura is arriving in 2027. After that, the line has more unnamed ships planned for 2028, 2030, 2032, 2034, 2036, and 2037. The later ships are listed at 227,000 gross tons with room for 5,100 passengers, which puts Norwegian right in the middle of the bigger-is-better club as well.

Disney Cruise Line

Disney may not be going quite as hard as MSC, but the line has a good number of ships in the orderbook too. Disney Believe is expected in 2027, followed by another unnamed ship in 2028, plus additional newbuilds in 2029, 2030, and 2031. Disney’s growth has been a bit slower, but there’s no question the line is continuing to expand in a serious way.

Princess Cruises

And then there’s Princess, which is now ordering ships to be delivered way out into the late 2030s. These three new ships announced this week are a reminder that cruise lines are not just thinking about the next couple of years. They’re planning nearly a decade and a half ahead. That’s a sign of confidence that they believe we will still be in love with cruising as much as we are today when these ships arrive.

The Next 10 Years of Cruising are Going to be Very Exciting!

For cruise fans, this is great stuff. More ships means more choices, more new itineraries, and more cool venues to check out.

But there’s another side to it, and that’s the one happening before you even step onboard.

As ships get larger and passenger counts go up, the pressure on ports keeps building. Roads, garages, terminals, security checkpoints, rideshare areas, and drop-off zones all have to absorb more people than ever before. Cruise lines can build these giant new ships all day long, but unless ports and surrounding infrastructure start catching up, the embarkation-day headache is only going to get worse.

So yes, the future of cruising looks bright.

It also looks crowded.

And if the next ten years bring us bigger ships, bigger terminals, and bigger traffic jams, at least we know the bars onboard will also be bigger.

Check out the chart below for a full look at which new cruise ships are on order and when they’re expected to arrive.