Yet another giant Royal Caribbean ship is switching to short cruises

28.02.2024 - 19:05 / thepointsguy.com / Royal Caribbean

It's official: Short cruises on giant ships seem to be the flavor of the month in the cruise world.

Royal Caribbean on Wednesday announced it would reassign its massive, 18-deck-high Wonder of the Seas — the world's second biggest cruise ship — to short three- and four-night sailings out of Miami starting in August 2025.

The two-year-old vessel, which can hold up to 7,084 passengers, currently sails seven-night voyages out of Port Canaveral in Florida.

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The announcement comes just four months before the debut of Royal Caribbean's giant new Utopia of the Seas, a sister ship to Wonder of the Seas that also will sail short three- and four-night sailings out of Port Canaveral.

Together, the two deployments will mean that two of the world's four largest and newest cruise ships will sail quickie trips out of Florida — something that is unprecedented in the history of cruising.

Traditionally, major cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean have devoted their newest and biggest ships to longer seven-night sailings out of Florida — a more lucrative market — and placed older and smaller vessels on shorter runs.

Royal Caribbean's moves with Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas is a bold bet that placing two of its latest and greatest vessels in the short-cruise market will drive a surge of new customers.

In an interview with TPG in advance of the Utopia of the Seas announcement, Kara Wallace, Royal Caribbean's chief marketing officer, suggested that Royal Caribbean was specifically going after the "new to cruise" market with such sailings. The term refers to people who have never cruised before.

It's a segment of vacationers that often is wary of booking a cruise longer than three or four days in case they don't love it.

Putting one of Royal Caribbean's newest and most amenity-filled ships on short cruises will let the line "make that first impression, the best impression" with first-time cruisers, she added at the time.

The new short cruises to be operated by Wonder of the Seas out of Miami will be all-Bahamas itineraries with stops at two places: Nassau on the island of New Providence and Perfect Day at CocoCay, Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas.

Fares for the sailings, which will kick off Aug. 25, 2025, start at $321 per person, based on double occupancy, for the three-night sailings. Four-night sailings start at $341 per person, based on double occupancy.

Both Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas are part of Royal Caribbean's enormously popular Oasis Class of ships.

Launched in 2009 with the debut of Oasis of the Seas, the Oasis Class ships have dominated the world of mega-size cruise ships since that year and