These are the new cruise ships arriving in 2021

Next year will be the first in modern cruise history that the highly anticipated crop of new cruise ships will also include the host of vessels that debuted the year before.

The end result is that when ships resume service in 2021, passengers will have a plethora of new ship choices.
Before the global cruise shutdown, 2020 was on tap to set a record for ship deliveries. Many of them were completed, and a few that were delivered to the lines never carried any passengers.

They include the Celebrity Apex and Virgin Voyages’ first vessel, the Scarlet Lady, both delivered in March; Lindblad Expeditions’ National Geographic Endurance, delivered in April; Princess Cruises’ Enchanted Princess, completed in September; and two Silversea Cruises ships, the Silver Moon and Silver Origin. Regent Seven Seas’ Splendor, also delivered in March, was able to squeeze in only its naming cruise before the shutdown. The Mardi Gras, Carnival Cruise Line’s largest ship ever, is expected to be delivered later this month. 

Although many European shipyards shut down due to the pandemic, pushing some 2020 and 2021 deliveries further out, there are still quite a few ships slated to debut in 2021. 

Among them are Royal Caribbean International’s Odyssey, on track for an April delivery; Ritz-Carlton’s first ship, the Evrima, is supposed to arrive in April. Virgin’s second ship, the Valiant Lady, is set for a November launch, MSC Cruises’ Seashore will arrive in June, Holland America Line’s Rotterdam in late July, Silversea’s last Muse-class ship, the Silver Dawn, is expected in October, while Viking Ocean Cruises is slated to take delivery of the Viking Venus in early 2021. 

There are also a handful of expedition ships expected to launch in 2021: the Crystal Endeavor in May; Quark Expeditions’ Ultramarine and Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot in June; Atlas Ocean Cruises’ World Navigator in July; a sister to the National Geographic Endurance, the Resolution, on track to arrive in the fall; and Swan Hellenic’s Minerva in November.

Update: This story was updated Jan. 11 to reflect Carnival Corp.’s decision to delay the deliveries of the Seabourn Venture and the Discovery Princess until 2022.