You're going to have to wait a little bit longer for new Royal Caribbean cruises to be released for 2026-2027.
The deployment schedule has been quietly updated this week and the cruise line has added new offerings, while pushing everything back.
The deployment schedule refers to when Royal Caribbean will put new sailings on sale for the first time, and each release is tied to a region of the world for sometime between 2026 and 2027.
Royal Caribbean already released some new cruises in the fall, but took a break over the winter holidays.
Here's when that the new deployment schedule looks like and what to expect.
Updated 2026-2027 deployments
According to the updated schedule that has been distributed to travel agents, there's now a new offering for Singapore that will come first, followed by others a bit delayed.
- Week of February 3, 2025: Singapore
- Week of February 10, 2025: Europe 2.0
- Week of February 17, 2025: Short Caribbean & West Coast
- Week of February 24, 2025: Seasonal Caribbean
- Week of March 10, 2025: China
- Week of March 31, 2025: Australia
Updated schedule
Original deployment schedule
What's different is Singapore is now coming up first. Previously Singapore was listed as "TBD".
"Europe 2.0" refers to a follow-up deployment to the European sailings already released for 2026 that occurred in October.
One other change is the addition of China. Like Singapore, it had a "TBD" distinction, but now is added for early March.
Short Caribbean & West Coast, Seasonal Caribbean, and Australia remain unchanged.
What's been released already for 2026-2027
In case you missed it, there have been some cruises already released and ready to book that came out in the fall.
The deployment schedule could change again
Royal Caribbean systematically puts out new cruise sailings each year, and it usually occurs in the fall and spring.
But this schedule could change again if they need more time to align offerings.
Something else to be aware of is that the releases occur at some point during the week specified. It could be any day of that week and is rarely, if ever, the actual day listed.
Cruise fans will commonly mistake that and assume the new sailings come out on February 10, instead of some day that week.
Something else to be aware of is the sailings get loaded into Royal Caribbean's system slowly, so it's not uncommon to start seeing some sailings pop up on the Royal Caribbean website before others. Or for travel agents to see new sailings in their backend system before the website.
Often new sailings start appearing on the website around midnight GMT, and usually fill out the schedule by the next morning.
What's missing
If you're thinking big picture, you would remember that in 2026 Royal Caribbean is going to launch a new cruise ship and wonder where that fits into this.
Royal Caribbean's third Icon Class cruise ship will launch sometime in 2026 and her arrival will impact where other ships are sailing from too.
We have very few details about Icon 3. We don't even know the ship's name or where it will sail from.
Formal construction of the ship began in October 2024, and you can't book cruises yet for it.
Historically, Royal Caribbean does not include new ships as part of its regular deployments. New ships typically have their own deployment release that's independent of the others.
So that means if Icon 3 were to sail in Europe in summer 2026, I would not necessarily expect it to be part of the Europe 2.0 release in February.
What I would expect is a special announcement of Icon 3's name, homeport, and what date the public can start booking sailings.
What you should be doing now while you wait for new deployments
With just a few weeks left until Royal Caribbean releases the rest of its deployments, there are some things you could do now to prepare.
My advice is let your travel agent know what sort of sailings you're interested in and the time frame so they can jump on it when it becomes available.
We don't know which ship will sail from a particular port or dates, but you can make educated guesses and then your agent knows what you're looking for so you can book it quickly.
One of the top reasons to book a cruise as soon as they become available is to get one of the highly desirable cruise cabins that sell out quickly.
Plus, booking a cruise as early as possible is one of the best ways to save money on a cruise.
In general, cruise prices are lowest when they are first put out and then get more expensive as cabins get booked up.
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