Page 5 - 2025 Secondhand Market Report

Intro /

 The Costa Fortuna
heads to Margaritaville at
Sea in 2026.

s this report was published in August 2025, the year had For the four vessel moves, Norwegian’s public filings state
Aso far been highlighted by a handful of transactions. the deals are 10-year charters with a purchase option at the end,
which is believed to be for a symbolic amount.
NCLH Movements Norwegian does not plan on taking 40-year-old ships back.
First, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) found new In the case of the Crescent Seas transaction, Norwegian is also
operators for four older ships in March, working deals to send the staying on as the technical manager of the ships.
1999-built Regent Navigator and the 1998-built Oceania Insignia
to start up Crescent Seas, a residential cruising concept that in Two From Carnival
no way competes with NCLH. In the same time frame, a similar The industry’s biggest player, Carnival Corporation, has dis-
deal went down with Indian operator Cordelia Cruises, which will posed of 29 ships since 2020.
take the 1999-built Norwegian Sky in 2026 and the 2001-built These were older, less competitive ships set to leave the fleet.
Norwegian Sun a year later. In some cases, retirements were accelerated due to the pandemic,
This allowed the Norwegian brand to move some 4,000 older while recent transactions have returned to a historical cadence of
berths off its books to make way for new ships, which will com- older ships heading to non-competing brands.
mand higher ticket prices, have more onboard spending oppor- 2025 has so far seen two transactions from Carnival Corpora-
tunities to generate revenue and be more efficient to operate on tion.
a per guest basis. Of note, Norwegian’s Prima-plus class ships, Seabourn’s Sojourn was sold to Japanese luxury brand Mitsui
including the 2025-built Aqua and the 2026-built Luna, are just OSK, and will move to the Japanese company in 2026. This marks
over 3,500 guests each. the second Seabourn ship sold to Mitsui. 

Cruise Industry News: Secondhand Market 1983 – 2025 5