Key 2025 Cruise Tips: 5 Changes EVERYONE Cruising In 2025 Needs To Know About

If you’ve got a cruise booked in 2025, or thinking of booking one, there are startling changes being made by cruise lines, governments, and the actions of some local port residents that you need to be ready to deal with. Even if you’ve been cruising recently and think you know how things work, these changes could catch you by surprise and throw your cruise plans off course.

Welcome aboard, I’m Gary Bembridge, and here are six changes I think you need to be ready for in 2025.

Entry and Visa Changes

Through 2024 the number of people being denied boarding due to not having the right travel documents and visas increased significantly, and this is likely to get worse in 2025 due to some major changes being made. Some could even prevent you getting to your cruise in the first place.

All cruise lines say it’s up to us to get the right documents and visas. Without having the right ones at check-in, they will deny us boarding.

And your risk of that happening in 2025 has grown as two major cruise regions are introducing new visa requirements.

The UK and Europe are introducing new eVisas this year which will significantly change how you join a cruise in UK or European ports, or if you are visiting ports within the UK or the EU.

Let me talk about the UK first.

At the time of recording, travellers from most countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand need to apply for and get a UK ETA eVisa before arriving in the UK.

And from April it will be extended to travellers from those not yet covered, which are mostly European countries

It takes about three days from applying to receive approval, must be done on the official website or App, costs £10 (about US $12), everyone in your travel party needs one (including babies and children), lasts for two years or until your passport expires, and involves uploading a photo of your passport, and submitting a photograph of yourself.

The European Union is also making changes and is introducing a new entry-exit system, called the EES, and introducing a compulsory eVisa called ETIAS. Introduction has been much delayed but is due launch mid 2025 at time of recording.

So, if you are joining a cruise anywhere in Europe you need to check if it is up and running and required before departing.

In terms of the new entry-exit system, they will now be taking our photograph and fingerprints.

Anyone who is not an EU passport holder will need to apply for and get an ETIAS online before travelling. It will cost seven euros (about US$7).

As the final date is not yet set, make sure you keep checking whether it is launched and build in plenty of time to get them.

And for both the UK and EU eVisas ensure you use the official sites, so you do not get ripped off by bogus sites charging added fees.

I have put links to the official sites in the show notes.

UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta
EU: https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en

Of course, many countries already have eVisas including Canada, USA, Australia, South Korea and so on, so always check if you need these to fly to or join any cruise. I find the best place to check is on your country’s Foreign Office or State Department travel advice site.

Make sure in 2025 you are not denied boarding by not having the right visas.

New Banned Items

Something else that has changed is cruise lines have banned more items popular with cruisers from being brought on board.

There already was a comprehensive list of banned items, that you should always check but this has been expanded.

In 2025 many lines have now banned multi-plug cord and plug adapters (so ones taking more than one plug), wireless Bluetooth speakers to stop cruisers playing music on their balcony and around the ship, bringing a personal Starlink Wi-Fi disc and equipment, as well as routers and equipment to set up personal Wi-Fi hotspots to get around costly Wi-Fi charges.

Some cruise lines have also started denying boarding to guests that have not told them in advance that they need and will be bringing a wheelchair because they have limits on the number of wheelchair passengers requiring assistance in case of emergency they can cope with.

If you want to find out more of those, you can watch read a recent article where I dive into all of this in more detail.

Fares And Availability

Another big change in 2025, particularly affecting you if you haven’t booked your cruise for this year yet is that not only are cruise fares rising fast, and are going to keep rising, but availability is more limited than ever before.

Let me break that down a bit by using some updates from the Carnival Group CEO, Josh Weinstein, who overseas many lines including Carnival, Holland America, Princess, and Seabourn.

He told Wall Street investors at the end of 2024 that a staggering two-thirds of berths across their lines in 2025 had already been booked. Way higher than any year previously at the same stage.

And some fares were on track to be up to mid-teen percentage higher than in 2024 with most demand coming for North America, Caribbean, and European cruises.

He also said bookings for 2026 are coming in rapidly and future bookings are way above anything they’ve seen in the past.

And what he said, and I quote him, is the following, “Passengers should book now while there is still space available”.

So, if you are planning on cruising in 2025 or even 2026, you may want to move soon to lock trips and prices before they rise and rise.

I do have some good news though, I have found and successfully used some techniques and tricks to get fares lower than most people are paying for my 2025 and 2026 cruises that I talk about in a recent article which I will link to at the end of this.

Port Issues

The next critical thing that you need to be ready for is there three developments in 2025 affecting some popular cruise ports and regions.

This includes increased travel warning and safety alerts for many popular cruise ports, rising protests and pushbacks against cruise lines calling in certain ports, and some bans and new passenger fees that may see that itinerary you booked get changed.

Let’s look at those each in turn.

Heading in 2025, the US State Department and UK Foreign Office raised travel advisories against travel or warned of increased risks in some areas, most affecting popular Caribbean islands.

These at the time of recording were Haiti, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Cozumel, Honduras, and Belize.

So, if you’re heading to those have a more cautious approach like going on a cruise line excursion, perhaps avoid self-exploring, and if you do stick with popular and busy tourist areas.

In summer 2024, and likely to be repeated in 2025 season, we saw protests aimed at cruisers in several European ports.

The likely hot spots to be ready for include Palma de Mallorca and their anti-tourism group called Menys Tourism Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), Barcelona with their Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth who targeted cruise passengers on the Ramblas spraying them with water, Amsterdam where environmentalists stopped some ships entering Amsterdam Harbour, Norway, especially Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, and Flåm with protests by the CruiseNOTWelcome group, and in the Canary Islands by the Canarias tiene un límite (Canaries have a limit) group.

The next development which could end up changing your booked itinerary, is where new bans or fees are coming into play.

One of the most important to watch, and at time of writing the effect is unclear, is Mexico. They have passed a law that from 1 July requires every passenger who visits a Mexican port to pay a fee of $42.

The cruise lines are at time of recording are in negotiations with Mexico, but if you have any cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the West Coast or in any of the Mexican Caribbean ports, including Cozumel and Costa Maya, you need to keep an eye on developments as you may find those ports are dropped, or the cost of your cruise may increase.

New bans may also affect you if you are cruising the Greek islands, as the government has this year brought in limits on the numbers visiting Santorini and Mykonos. So, some cruise lines are going to have to change their itineraries in 2025.

Cruise Cancellations

Talking of route changes, you also need to watch out for sudden redeployments of cruises both because of where demand is, and due to ongoing global conflicts.

There has been heading into the year some significant changes to 2025 cruises already, particularly from the Norwegian group who changed 38 cruises towards end of the year affecting Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Star, Norwegian Dawn, Norwegian Jade, Norwegian Encore, Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Bliss.

As I mentioned earlier, with demand so high and so many cruises already full, cruise lines are looking at redeploying ships at relatively short notice to add capacity where demand is greatest.

So, with huge demand in the Caribbean, some are redeploying ships from other areas with lower demand. For example, some of those Norwegian changes were pulling ships out of Africa, South America, and Asia to redeploy to areas with higher demand.

So, it’s possible that more redeployments will be made. So just be aware if you’ve booked cruises to more exotic areas there may be some small risk.

But the biggest thing to look out for is if you have any cruise in 2025 that is due to head through the Red Sea and Suez Canal or relies on your ship moving to or from Europe and Asia before or after your cruse via there. That is unlikely to happen.

It’s extremely unlikely that the trouble in that area will lift in 2025, and the only option that cruise lines are going to have will be to change those ship routes, which could impact your cruise.

So, start looking at your options now.

Is there anything that you think I’ve missed that’s happening in 2025? Leave a comment. And join me over in this article I mentioned earlier where I share 6 tricks I used to book cruises for less than most other cruisers right now that should work for you too. See you over there.