Okay cruisers, we have a theory, and this one has been bouncing around the Dream World Destinations family for a minute. Royal Caribbean has Discovery Class coming in 2029, and while there is still plenty we don’t know about the ships themselves, we know the new class will be designed to go smaller, reach more intimate ports, and open the door to places their massive ships simply can’t fit. That caught our attention because it puts a very different kind of Royal Caribbean vacation on the horizon.
To be VERY clear before anybody bookmarks this blog and comes back for us in 2029, this is our take. We’ve planned hundreds of cruises, watched dozens of ships launch, and had enough conversations with travelers over the years to know when something is worth paying attention to. Discovery Class is worth paying attention to, because Royal Caribbean taking more of its signature experience into destination rich cruising opens up a very interesting conversation.
And that conversation leads us straight to Princess Cruises.
Royal Caribbean is phenomenal at making the ship itself a whole vacation experience. Icon Class took that idea and ran with it, with neighborhoods, huge entertainment, pools, restaurants, family spaces, and enough happening onboard that choosing the ship can be just as important as choosing the itinerary. Sometimes that is exactly the vacation we want.
Give us the enormous ship, the incredible shows, three restaurants we want to try on the same night, and a family debate over whether we are doing the waterpark or the pool first. Icon Class knows her job, and she does it VERY well.
Princess Cruises has built its reputation around a different strength. We can pull up a Princess Cruises itinerary and get excited before we have even looked at the ship. Alaska, the British Isles, Northern Europe, Japan, the Mediterranean, the South Pacific, and those longer world cruise sailings that have us opening Google Maps because now we need to know everything about a port we learned existed five minutes ago.
That’s where this whole Discovery Class conversation gets interesting.
Princess Cruises, this is your time to show off a little. You’ve already given us elegant ships, signature itineraries, exclusive ports, longer stays, scenic cruising, and some of the most incredible destination focused sailings in the industry. Princess Cruises is already known for taking travelers deeper into the places they came to see, so what happens when another powerhouse starts moving further into your lane?
We think that could be VERY good for cruisers.
If Royal Caribbean starts giving travelers more of that big Royal energy on ships built to explore smaller, more signature places, Princess Cruises has every reason to double down on the thing it already does beautifully. Give us even stronger itineraries, more interesting ports, more time in destination, incredible scenic cruising, and those sailings where the itinerary alone has us sending screenshots to the group chat.
Princess Cruises is already doing plenty of this. Its 2027 Europe season includes more than 200 sailings, 108 destinations, and itineraries ranging from 7 to 46 days, including late stays and overnights in select ports. Their Alaska program remains a true industry gold standard and there is a very good reason Princess Cruises keeps collecting number one titles there . Travel Weekly readers have consistently crowned them the Best Cruise Line in Alaska, which isn’t surprising considering the brand has been navigating those waters for almost six decades.
That’s why we don’t see Discovery Class as bad news for Princess Cruises. We see another powerhouse showing more interest in the kind of cruising Princess Cruises has spent years becoming known for, and we want to see what that brings out of the brand.
Competition can be very cute when we’re the ones getting the better vacations.
This also doesn’t mean we think everyone should stop looking at Icon Class and wait until 2029. Quite the opposite. Discovery Class and Icon Class are shaping up to answer two very different vacation moods, and knowing which one you want matters more than chasing whichever ship happens to be newest.
If you want the ship itself to be a whole vacation experience, Icon Class already does that beautifully. Go for the shows, restaurants, neighborhoods, pools, family experiences, and the vacation where you get to day four and realize there are still places onboard you haven’t seen. Discovery Class doesn’t make that experience old news, because it isn’t trying to tell the same story.
Princess Cruises is where we would be watching the map.
If Alaska has been on your list, or you keep coming back to that British Isles sailing, Northern Europe, Japan, the South Pacific, or a Mediterranean itinerary that checks an alarming number of boxes, those are the cruises we think could become even more interesting over the next few years. Princess Cruises already has the itineraries, and we think more travelers are going to start appreciating just how much the destination can change the entire cruise experience.
We’re not saying that everybody needs to panic book a cruise tomorrow. We’re saying that if one of these sailings has already been sitting on your radar, there may be a very good reason you keep coming back to it.
We also don’t think Discovery Class means the era of giant ships is ending. We think the cruise world is getting better at giving us options.
Sometimes you want the giant ship with so much happening that breakfast requires a family meeting about the day’s agenda. Sometimes you want to open the curtains and see Alaska outside. Sometimes you want to spend the day wandering through a European city, come back onboard for a beautiful dinner, and wake up somewhere completely different the next morning.
We want all of it, just not necessarily on the same vacation.
That’s our real Discovery Class theory. Royal Caribbean doesn’t need to stop being Royal Caribbean to make destination rich cruising exciting, and Princess Cruises doesn’t need to become a floating resort to compete with Royal Caribbean. We think both brands leaning harder into what they do best could create a really fun next few years for cruising.
Royal Caribbean can keep giving us the ships that make us wonder how all of that fits on a boat. Princess Cruises can keep giving us itineraries that make us wonder how we’re supposed to choose only one.
And if Discovery Class makes both of them show off a little more, we’re seated. 😂
The story doesn’t end here. Come hang out with us in our private community, where the conversation is good and the itineraries are even better.
