Buoyed by a wealth of new inventory and eager, well-off clients, travel agencies say Wave season is off to a strong, satisfying start.
Multiple agencies reported January bookings pacing ahead of 2025. Royal Caribbean Group's Wave "is off to a record start," said CEO Jason Liberty during the company's Q4 earnings call on Jan. 29.
"We experienced the best seven booking weeks in the company's history since the last earnings call," Liberty said.
Overall, Wave season results thus far depict a healthy, growing industry in a time without significant macroeconomic drama from a pandemic, new president or otherwise.
"People are buying, people are traveling," said Michelle Fee, CEO of Cruise Planners, which is No. 24 on Travel Weekly's Power List. "It doesn't seem to be slowing down, knock wood."
David Crooks
Capacity growth from new ships has been good news for advisors. World Travel Holdings, No. 16 on the Power List, is seeing larger booking volume than last year because of a double-digit capacity increase, said senior vice president of product and operations David Crooks.
Multiple agencies reported seeing particularly strong demand for cruises in Europe. Fee said Europe is outperforming the Caribbean at Cruise Planners.
Holland America Line reported a surge in demand for Europe a week into January, saying Europe bookings for 2026 increased more than one-third from the year prior. Agencies and analysts pointed to two reasons for Europe's strength: lower airfares than in recent years and wealthy consumers' willingness to spend.
"That higher-end customer segment is just doing better," said Truist Securities analyst Patrick Scholes. He also said cruise lines have more pricing power in Europe than the Caribbean.
Still, cruise prices haven't grown significantly, even in the luxury segment, because of the increase in capacity, Scholes said. Promotional activity isn't surging more than usual, and it is strategically targeting members of cruise loyalty programs or clients of specific partner agencies, he said.
A longer booking curve
A mutually beneficial trend for cruise lines and agencies is longer booking curves.
Signature Travel Network is seeing future years performing exceptionally well, said vice president of cruise partnerships Julie Howard. World Travel Holdings' booking curve is longer than last year's, Crooks said.
"Advisors are having good success encouraging early commitments by emphasizing overall value and availability," he said. "Travelers are responding well to messages about planning ahead to secure the best experience."
That's particularly true of premium and luxury cruises, he said.
It's helped that cruise lines are including sailings for 2027 and 2028 in Wave promotions, Howard said, "giving travelers added confidence to book early while locking in today's incentives for long-range travel plans."
Michelle Fee
In the last three weeks of January, a quarter of Cruise Planners' bookings were for 2027, Fee said.
"We're doing really well with luxury and longer cruises, and we tend to have a really long booking curve," she said.
Both revenue and total bookings at Cruise Planners are "way over where we were last year," Fee said, but she believes the presidential inauguration last January dampened activity that month.
"I've been in this industry forever, and this is so typical when a new president is being inaugurated," Fee said.
She recalled that bookings rebounded by February, so she is curious how this February will compare. "Are we going to see a big spike like we did? Or are we going to settle in?" Fee said.
Royal Caribbean Group's record start to Wave has meant it is now about two-thirds booked for 2026, Liberty said.
"This sets us up to optimize pricing and yield growth as we continue to build the book of business for the balance of the year," he said.
He highlighted direct bookings as "performing particularly well" but said travel agencies are booking more than last year, too, and at higher prices.
"Our latest research shows that our consumers feel financially secure and continue to prioritize experiences, with 40% planning to increase leisure travel spending in the next year," Liberty said. "The cruise value proposition continues to resonate."