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Traveller Awards: Cruising
New ships, new itineraries, new ideas: the cruise world is constantly changing and constantly challenged. Here’s a nod to the movers and shakers.
Change makers
Can we award ourselves for being such valiant cruisers? Why not. A record 1.32 million Australians cruised in 2024, placing us in fourth in the world cruise market.
Australian companies also have an outsized presence in the river and expedition cruise sectors, and it’s about to get bigger. The mouse-that-roared award goes to Scenic Group’s Emerald Cruises, which not only upgraded its entire European river fleet this year and will add new ship Emerald Lumi on inaugural Seine River cruises in 2026, but has announced a major expansion that will see four new 128-guest ocean yachts set sail over the next two years, offering itineraries in the Seychelles, Mediterranean and Caribbean.
Meanwhile this year’s launch of PS Australian Star has enlivened the staid Murray River cruise scene. The joint partnerships between APT and Murray River Paddlesteamers adds long overdue lustre to river cruising in Australia. The $6.75-million paddle steamer carries 38 guests and sails year-round cruises of three, four or seven nights from Echuca in Victoria.
We like cruise lines that keep pushing onwards, so shout-out to Ponant too, which has acquired a stake in Aqua Expeditions, thus extending its reach to the Galapagos Islands and Amazon and Mekong rivers; and to Celebrity Cruises, which has announced the creation of Celebrity River Cruises, with an initial 10 ships, the first to set sail in Europe in 2027.
Sustainability
Talking of change makers, genuine changes are afoot in the once environmentally unconcerned cruise industry as it introduces renewable technologies, battery storage, alternative energy sources and more efficient fuel among other changes to meet a net-zero target for 2050.
A standing ovation should go to Ponant and Hurtigruten Group, which aim to launch ships by 2030 that run on wind and solar power and use low-temperature hydrogen fuel cells. They’re also looking at adding the latest in solid sails to new ships.
Hurtigruten invested €100 million ($180 million) in a fleet upgrade this year aimed mostly at reducing emissions. Both companies also donate cabins to support scientific research, and involve their guests in citizen-science projects.
Meanwhile, applause to Viking, which will launch Viking Libra, the world’s first hydrogen-powered cruise ship, in late 2026.
Dine & Drink
Cunard deserves an award for coming up with its Great Australian Culinary Voyage this year, round-trip from Sydney on Queen Elizabeth 2. Guests were offered special dining experiences, cooking workshops and talks, and culinary shore excursions, with an impressive range of chefs including Matt Moran, Darren Purchese, Julie Goodwin and Nornie Bero.
A downside of cruising is missing out on local food experiences, but that has been changing. To Silversea we award a chef’s hat for the success of its SALT (Sea and Land Taste) concept, which brings destination flavours, ingredients and dishes to the entire SALT Kitchen menu – cocktails included – on five of its ships.
The British menu on my recent sail out of Southampton included watercress soup (with the additional fanciness of crab), poached trout with horseradish sauce, mustard game hen, and sticky toffee pudding. The focus of this ambitious restaurant extends even to local regions, with offerings of Welsh, Liverpudlian, Cornish and Scottish dishes depending on the itinerary.
Meanwhile Oceania Cruises’ tagline of “The Finest Cuisine at Sea” more than delivers on its promise onboard Allura, its latest ship that launched in July. Its new six-course wine and food pairing lunch is an exercise in indulgence, with organic and biodynamic wines from celebrated Languedoc Roussillon winemaker Gerard Bertrand matched to dishes including duck and foie gras pâté en croute, and braised beef short rib. Need a break from fine dining? Check out the relaxed Creperie, which also offers waffles and ice-cream sundaes.
On another note, we’re happy that new ship Norwegian Aqua from Norwegian Cruise Line has an unusual addition among its 18 restaurants: Sukhothai for Thai food. Cruise lines have for too long repeated the same old combination of French, Italian, Japanese and pan-Asian specialty restaurants, so to Sukothai goes our branching-out award.
Cruise-ship bars have improved enormously in the range and quality of their wine, beer, spirits and cocktails, but this year’s bottoms-up award goes to MSC Cruises. Its recently launched MSC World America features no fewer than three specialty bars: Elixy Bar for bourbon and bourbon-based cocktails, a British-style pub with its own microbrewery, and The Gin Project for an indulgence of interesting, who-knew American and Canadian gins.
Style & Design
Cruise lines make big capital investments in ships and have many repeat passengers with set expectations, and so are cautious about change. Kudos therefore to Silversea which, starting with Silver Nova in 2023 and followed by Silver Ray in 2024, not only altered its ship design but challenged the notion that cruise ships should be symmetrical.
The result is better flow, more indoor-outdoor connection and a greater sense of space, plus an oh-so-trendy shift of the swimming pool to starboard. The addition of The Dusk Bar results in a boutique-hotel look for the pool deck, which can tend to look alike on all luxury cruise ships.
APT has a world-first on its two latest European river ships, APT Solara and APT Ostara: a restaurant on a hydraulic system that moves up and down between the third deck to the sun deck in two minutes, providing elevated river views. Gruner Bar & Dining is akin to a wine bar, with shared plates featuring local dishes designed for relaxed dining.
We like that some cruise lines don’t let cookie-cutter ships glide down the slipway. Norwegian Cruise Line had a good thing going with its Prima Class ships, but this year launched Norwegian Aqua, the first of a new, enhanced Prima Plus Class with fresh upscale design, more open spaces, new restaurants and some industry-first entertainment facilities.
We also like it when cruise lines refresh existing ships, with this year’s award going to Celebrity Cruises for its planned overhaul of its Solstice Series ships. Celebrity Solstice is first up in 2026, and isn’t just getting a flick of paint but a transformed top deck and restaurants, new spaces and four new cabin categories. The ship will be in Australia in April and October 2026.
Adventure
Only a small handful of cruise ships has ever visited East Antarctica and the Ross Sea, reached from Hobart or ports in New Zealand. We’re impressed therefore that Scenic is sending its luxury discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse II that way for a 2025-26 season, during which it will sail in the wake of great explorers.
Among the itineraries is Mawson’s Antarctica: Along the East Coast departing on December 13, 2025, during which guests will enjoy an included helicopter flight to visit Mawson’s Huts, currently the only way to access this unique site.
Ponant gets an award in advance too for the ambition of its full circumnavigation of Antarctica, sailing on Le Commandant Charcot from Ushuaia in January 2028, with sales expected to open this December.
No cruise ship has attempted this feat before: nearly 18,000 kilometres of icebound coastline that will take 64 days, plus a two-day stopover in Hobart halfway through.
Hall of Fame
Regent Seven Seas Cruises gets the thumbs up for always providing an excellent line-up of guest speakers whose quality talks far surpass the Wikipedia-like, unchallenging waffle of speakers on many cruise lines.
Among them are former ambassadors, historians, museum directors, theatre stars – and yes, even rocket scientists. Keep up the good work: not all cruise passengers are content to merely quaff cocktails on the pool deck.
Viking is a well-deserved hall of famer not just for its astonishing expansion over the last decade and its continuing ship-launching ambitions on both river and ocean, but for sticking resolutely to its educational ethos and much-lauded, Nordic-influenced ship design. I often think Viking runs the risk of becoming bland and repetitive, but instead it continues to be deeply satisfying.
Finally, a nod is surely due to Egypt for being a destination that has fascinated everyone since Julius Caesar barged up the Nile with Cleopatra. Recently it overcame tourism downturns during the Arab Spring and COVID, yet has since faced down Middle Eastern turmoil with aplomb.
Egypt has renovated ancient sites, developed new river-cruise moorings and has opened most of much-anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum. Nile cruises are booming, with Scenic and Travelmarvel making a return in 2026, Viking increasing its Nile fleet to 10, and other new ships launching. Here’s hoping Egypt weathers Middle Eastern storms: this is one of the world’s most astounding cruise destinations.
