2025 Sailing Report

World map with cruise vacation destinations highlighted as a heatmap with their statistics in labels.

Table of Contents

Information about the dataset

Data Source Disclaimer: The analysis and visualizations in this report are based on publicly available Norwegian Cruise Line sailing data collected from 2023 through 2025. All statistics, trends, and insights represent our independent analysis of this data and are provided for informational and educational purposes only. We make no guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of this analysis. Cruise schedules, prices, and availability are subject to change. This report should not be used as the sole basis for booking decisions. For current sailing information and bookings, always verify directly with the cruise line's official website and/or authorized travel agents. We are not liable for any decisions made based on this information.

The below charts are based on a dataset that consist of:

  • NCL sailings that departed in 2025.
    • Note: rescheduled/canceled itineraries have been removed from the dataset to the best of my ability.
  • Cabin pricing based on:
    • Base fare for solo (1-person) guest occupancy.
    • The lowest prices found for each sailing's cabin type (since prices fluctuate, and CabinSaver focuses on deals).
  • Cruise-only packages (excludes land tours).
  • Non-premium cabins (balcony and below).
  • Publicly available sailing information collected from December 2023 through December 2025.

Cruise destinations

World map heatmap showing popular cruise destinations

The Caribbean was the most popular destination with 213 sailings throughout the year, followed by the Mediterranean with 106 sailings (concentrated in summer months) and Alaska with 99 sailings (primarily May-September). The Bahamas and Hawaiian islands also saw significant sailing volume.

Note: some sailings visited multiple destinations, so the sum of all individual regions exceeds the total sailing count.

Destination popularity by month

Heatmap showing amount of sailings per destinations by month. Color intensity indicates popularity.

Caribbean sailings were available year-round with a spike from November through March. Alaska shows strong concentration from May through September.

Detailed pricing by destination

Box plot showing price distribution by destination across four cabin types (studio, inside, oceanview, balcony). Hawaii shows the highest median prices and widest range, particularly for balcony cabins ($400-650+), while Transatlantic and Panama Canal destinations offer more budget-friendly options. Outliers indicate premium sailings.

Hawaii commanded premium pricing. Transatlantic and Panama Canal itineraries offered budget-friendly options, likely because they are primarily repositioning cruises (non-round-trip).

Destination pricing by month

Heatmap showing median cabin prices by destination and sailing month for each cabin type. Hawaii shows premium pricing ($400+) in balcony category across most months. Color intensity indicates price levels.

Summer months tended to have the highest prices due to high demand in peak vacation season. Hawaii was consistently expensive across all months.

The Sankey diagram below shows the relationship between where cruises departed from and where they sailed to. The thickness of each flow indicates which departure ports served which destinations most frequently.

Sankey diagram showing flow from top embarkation ports to cruise destinations, revealing that Miami, Seattle, and New York are the most popular departure ports, with Caribbean (213 sailings) and Mediterranean (106 sailings) as top destinations. Flow thickness represents sailing volume from NCL 2025 data.

Miami, Seattle, and New York were the most popular departure ports. Miami sailed heavily to Caribbean and Bahamas, New York commonly sailed to Bermuda, and Seattle primarily sailed to Alaska.

Note: some sailings visit more than one destination, so that's why embarkation ports like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil have may have one sailing, but multiple outgoing lines.

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North America

Map of North America showing cruise embarkation ports with statistics including sailing counts, median duration, round-trip percentages, and median cabin prices. Miami leads with 155 sailings, followed by Seattle with 71 sailings.

Miami, Florida led in popularity with 155 sailings, primarily serving Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries. Seattle, Washington followed with 71 sailings, almost exclusively Alaska cruises during summer season. New York ranked third with 60 sailings offering diverse destinations including Caribbean, Bermuda, and Transatlantic routes.

Europe-Mediterranean

Map of Europe and Mediterranean region showing cruise embarkation ports with statistics including sailing counts, median duration, round-trip percentages, and median cabin prices. London, Rome, and Barcelona are prominent ports.

London (Southampton) led in popularity with 26 sailings, followed by Rome (25 sailings) and Barcelona (24 sailings). Most itineraries were 10-12 days in duration.

Asia-Pacific

Map of Asia and Pacific region showing cruise embarkation ports with statistics including sailing counts, median duration, round-trip percentages, and median cabin prices. Honolulu is the dominant port in this region.

Honolulu led in popularity with 55 sailings, primarily serving Hawaiian itineraries. Popular Asian ports included Seoul, Tokyo, and Singapore. Asian itineraries typically lasted 11-12 days.

Other regions embarkation ports

Less popular embarkation ports were in South America, Africa, and Middle East.

Map of embarkation ports similar to the previous maps, but for less popular regions

Detailed pricing by embarkation port

Box plot showing price distribution by embarkation port for the top 30 ports across four cabin types (studio, inside, oceanview, balcony). Miami and Honolulu show the widest price ranges. Outliers indicate premium sailings.

Embarkation port pricing by month

Heatmap showing median cabin prices by embarkation port and sailing month for each cabin type. Seasonal patterns emerge with Miami and New York showing higher winter pricing, while European ports have higher demand summer months. Color intensity indicates price levels.

Honolulu prices were high as expected. Interestingly, Orlando (Port Canaveral) prices spiked higher than most embarkation ports during the summer.

Some ports were visited more frequently than others. Most ports were public, while others such as Great Stirrup Cay and Harvest Caye were privately owned by the cruise line.

Horizontal bar chart showing the top 30 ports of call by visit count in 2025, with Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas leading at 197 sailings, followed by Puerto Plata (105) and Cozumel (103). Caribbean and Alaskan ports make up most of the list.

Great Stirrup Cay (NCL's private island in the Bahamas) led with 197 sailings, followed by Puerto Plata with 105 sailings and Cozumel with 103 sailings. Caribbean and Alaskan ports made up most of the most-visited list.

Heatmap showing popular ports of call by month throughout 2025, revealing seasonal patterns with Caribbean ports (Great Stirrup Cay, Puerto Plata, Cozumel) most active in winter and early spring, while Alaskan ports (Ketchikan, Juneau) peak during summer months. Color intensity represents sailing count.

Caribbean ports were most active in winter and early spring, while Alaskan ports (Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway) peaked during summer months (May-September). Hawaiian ports sailed consistently throughout the year, with a peak in June due to the NCL Sun ship taking one-way trips between Honolulu and Vancouver. Bermuda didn't have any stops during colder months.

Pricing

This section of the article analyzes additional pricing patterns across different months, booking windows, popular embarkation ports, and destinations. All prices shown are median values per night (in USD) and are broken down by cabin type (studio, inside, oceanview, and balcony). Note that sailing prices commonly fluctuate.

Seasonal demand significantly impacted cruise pricing. Summer months (June-August) typically saw higher prices due to vacation season's high demand, while Fall months offered better value for budget-conscious travelers.

Line graph showing median prices per night by cabin type across 2025 months, revealing peak pricing in August ($370+ for balcony cabins) and lowest prices in November ($70-175 range across cabin types). All cabin types show similar seasonal trends with summer peaks and fall valleys.

August saw peak pricing ($370+ for balcony cabins), while November offered the lowest prices ($70-175 per night).

Pricing by ship

Box plot showing price distribution by ship across four cabin types (studio, inside, oceanview, balcony). Pride of America shows the highest median prices across all cabin types, while Bliss, Encore, and Prima offer more budget-friendly options. Each ship shows varying price ranges based on itineraries and seasonality.

Pride of America showed the highest median prices (due to high-demand Hawaii itineraries). Newer ships like Aqua and Viva also generally resulted in premium pricing. Bliss, Encore, and Prima offered budget-friendly options.

Pricing by round-trip & one-way sailings

Box plot comparing price distributions between round-trip and one-way sailings across four cabin types. Round-trip sailings generally show slightly higher median prices, particularly visible in oceanview and balcony categories. Both options show similar price variability with numerous outliers.

Round-trip sailings tended to be more expensive than one-way sailings. If you are used to taking cruises out of your home port, be aware that while one-way sailings offered better prices, they typically require airfare to/from the embarkation/disembarkation port.

Pricing distribution of round-trip & one-way sailings

Histogram showing price distribution comparing round-trip versus one-way sailings across four cabin types. Most round-trip sailings cluster in the $100-150 range for studio/inside cabins and $200-275 for balcony cabins. Round-trip sailings make up the majority of the dataset.

Studio cabins were often more expensive than inside cabins.

Some of the long tail of expensive cabins were due to:

  • Hawaiian sailings in May (around $515, $500, $605, $759 per cabin type per night!)
  • European sailings in late Summer/early Fall
  • Aqua Caribbean sailings during the December holiday

Days-before-sailing booking windows that offered the lowest prices

In this section, the "booking window" is defined as the number of days before the departure date that the lowest price was found. While conventional wisdom suggests booking far in advance, the data revealed otherwise. While it's nice to get great deals, timing your booking for the best prices is a risk; the longer you wait to book, the less likely you'll get your desired cabin on a sailing you're interested in.

Stacked histogram showing cabin availability and median prices by booking window (days before sailing) for each cabin type. Most cabins are available 31-60 days before departure, with median prices rising sharply for bookings made 365+ days in advance. Last-minute bookings (0-7 days) show mixed pricing.

Inside cabins typically had the lowest price within 7 days of sailing while oceanview and balcony cabins commonly revealed their lowest prices between 31 and 90 days before sailing. Studio cabins didn't show much of a pattern for best-time-to-book.

Sailing durations

Histogram showing cruise duration distribution comparing round-trip versus one-way sailings. 7-day cruises lead with 379 total sailings (71.7% round-trip), followed by 10-day and 11-day cruises. Longer durations (14+ days) are less common. Data shows 578 round-trip and 228 one-way sailings from NCL 2025 data.

7 days was the most common sailing duration in 2025. The shorter the duration, the more likely a sailing will be round-trip.

Sailing durations by destination

Heatmap showing sailing counts by destination and cruise duration. Caribbean cruises concentrate at 7 days (160 sailings), Alaska peaks at 7 days (76 sailings), while Extraordinary Journeys offers the widest duration variety (spanning 8-17 days). Color intensity represents sailing count.

Many Caribbean, Alaskan, Hawaiian, and Bermuda sailings were 7 days long, departing from Florida, Seattle, Honolulu, and New York, respectively. European, Mediterranean, and Asian sailings tended to be between 10 and 11 days long.

Sailing durations by embarkation port

Heatmap showing sailing counts by embarkation port and cruise duration. Miami, Seattle, and Honolulu all peak at 7-day sailings, while London and Barcelona offer more variety in duration (10-12 days). Color intensity represents sailing count.

Most embarkation ports commonly offered 7-day sailings. Miami offered many 3-4 day short getaways.

Conclusion

That's all the charts I have to share for now! I hope you found this article interesting and that the insights help in your future cruise planning.

If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas for additional charts, feel free to reach out to me at MikeQDev (at) gmail (dot) com.

If you're interested in cruise deals, feel free to check out my main website at cabinsaver.com.

FAQ

When was the cheapest time to book a cruise in 2025?

Based on 2025 NCL data analysis, the optimal booking window varied by cabin type. Inside cabins typically had their lowest prices within 7 days of sailing, while oceanview and balcony cabins commonly revealed their lowest prices between 31-90 days before sailing. Contrary to common advice about booking far in advance, prices actually spiked significantly for bookings made 365+ days before departure.

For the cheapest month to sail, November offered the lowest median prices across all cabin types, ranging from $70-175 per night. Fall months generally offered better value for budget-conscious cruisers.

Based on NCL 2025 sailing data, the Caribbean led as the most popular destination with 213 sailings throughout 2025, followed by the Mediterranean with 106 sailings, and Alaska with 99 sailings. The Bahamas and Hawaiian islands also saw significant sailing volume.

Caribbean cruises were available year-round with 7-day itineraries being most common, while Alaska cruises concentrated in the May-September window, and Mediterranean sailings peaked during European summer months (June-August).

Which embarkation port had the most cruise sailings in 2025?

For Norwegian Cruise Line, Miami, Florida led with 155 sailings in 2025, making it the busiest embarkation port. Miami primarily served Caribbean and Bahamas itineraries with a median 7-day duration.

Seattle, Washington followed with 71 sailings, almost exclusively serving Alaska cruises during the summer season. New York ranked third with 60 sailings offering diverse destinations including Caribbean, Bermuda, and Transatlantic routes.

What was the optimal booking window for cruises in 2025?

Based on 2025 NCL data, the optimal booking window varied by cabin type:

  • Inside cabins: Lowest prices typically within 7 days of sailing
  • Oceanview and balcony cabins: Lowest prices commonly between 31-90 days before departure
  • Most cabins were available 31-60 days before sailing with competitive pricing and good selection

Booking 365+ days in advance showed sharply rising median prices in this window. Last-minute bookings (0-7 days) could offer deals for inside cabins but showed unpredictable pricing and very limited availability for other cabin types.

Were round-trip or one-way cruises cheaper in 2025?

In 2025 NCL data, one-way sailings generally showed slightly lower median prices compared to round-trip options, particularly in the oceanview and balcony cabin categories. However, the difference was typically modest.

Round-trip cruises accounted for 71.7% of all sailings (578 vs 228 one-way), offering more options and the convenience of departing from and returning to the same port—potentially saving on airfare and ground transportation.

When choosing between them, travelers needed to consider total travel costs including flights, as the savings from a one-way cruise could be offset by additional airfare costs for different departure and arrival cities.

When did cruise prices peak in 2025?

For Norwegian Cruise Line, August saw the highest median prices across all cabin types, with balcony cabins reaching $370+ per night. This peak corresponded with:

  • Summer vacation season (high family travel demand)
  • Alaska cruise season at its height
  • European/Mediterranean cruises in peak season

July and late June also showed elevated pricing. To avoid peak pricing, sailing in November offered the best deals.