It's going to be even easier to hop on a short cruise, as Royal Caribbean is ready to expand its market reach with these types of cruises.
Royal Caribbean has posted its new 2026-2027 deployments for the Short Caribbean, and there are a lot of cruise ships sailing cruises less than a week.
Short cruises have the advantage of being easier to work into long weekends or simply use up less days off from work.
We spotted eight ships added to the calendar to offer cruises between November 2026 and April 2027, and each has short cruise options.
Here's a breakdown of what's been added and what you can expect with a short cruise.
More ships, less nights
Across five homeports in Florida and Texas, there's a few different options if you're looking to add a getaway cruise.
Beginning in Port Canaveral, you'll find three ships offering short cruises here.
Utopia of the Seas broke ground when she became the first Royal Caribbean ship to ever enter service with just short sailings.
Utopia will continue that by offering 3- and 4-night cruises to The Bahamas.
Fellow Oasis Class ship Harmony of the Seas moves back to Port Canaveral, and will sail 4- and 5-night cruises.
Harmony's 5-night cruises combine a visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay with Cozumel, Mexico. The 4-night cruises will visit Nassau, Bahamas and CocoCay.
That combination of going to either Cozumel or Nassau is no coincidence, as those are two ports where Royal Caribbean will have new beach clubs open to book.
Royal Beach Club Paradise Island is set to open December 2025, and Royal Beach Club Cozumel will open in "late 2026 on select Western Caribbean vacations."
There's also one 2-night sailing on Harmony.
Explorer of the Seas will also sail from Port Canaveral, and offer 4- and 5-night cruises.
Explorer's 4-night sailings will remain in The Bahamas, while its 5-night voyages offer different options that can go to the Dominican Republic, Labadee, or Cozumel.
Moving over to Fort Lauderdale, there are new entries to the short game market.
Oasis of the Seas is the latest mega ship to start offering shorter cruises.
Similar to Utopia, Oasis will offer 3- and 4-night cruises out of Port Everglades to The Bahamas, including Royal Caribbean's private island.
With Oasis of the Seas sailing short cruises, that sets Royal Caribbean up with an Oasis Class ship in each of the major 3 ports on Florida's east coast to have this option.
It's clearly a move to dominate the short cruise market by outflanking the competition with the very best ships.
The best budget option for a short cruise might be with Vision of the Seas.
Vision will offer 3- and 4-night cruises from Fort Lauderdale. The difference is Vision will also visit Bimini, Bahamas or Grand Bahama Island.
Grandeur will spend the summer in Fort Lauderdale with 3- and 4-night vacations to destinations across The Bahamas, including Perfect Day at CocoCay, as well as Key West in Florida.
In Miami, you'll find two ships with short cruises from this capital of cruising.
Wonder of the Seas remains in Miami to sail short cruises.
Later in 2025, Wonder will begin the shift from 7-night cruises to short sailings, and Wonder will remain doing that into at least early 2027.
Wonder's itineraries match Utopia and Oasis, with visits to CocoCay or Nassau.
In addition, Freedom of the Seas will depart Miami on 4- and 5-night cruises.
Freedom's destinations include Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Labadee, Cozumel, Dominican Republic, and The Bahamas.
In Galveston, there's a familiar face returning to this port.
Liberty of the Seas is going back to Texas, and will sail 4- and 5-night cruises.
Both itineraries visit Cozumel, while the extra night gets you a visit to Costa Maya.
Mariner of the Seas has 4- and 5-night Western Caribbean sailings to Costa Maya and Cozumel.
Tampa has one ship sailing short cruises, with Rhapsody of the Seas from that port with new 4- and 5-night adventures.
Why are more ships sailing short cruises?
With Harmony and Oasis of the Seas moving to the short cruise market, it's clear Royal Caribbean sees a market need.
Ever since they announced Utopia of the Seas would enter service with short cruises, it's flipped the industry script on its head.
By offering short cruises on really impressive ships with lots to do, Royal Caribbean is hoping to entice the vast pool of people that have never cruised to try a cruise.
The new to cruise market is single handedly the lowest hanging fruit of potential new customers, and it's who Royal Caribbean wants to target to grow their business.
Weekend cruises in particular are very attractive to new cruisers because it's just a few days on the ship, lower cost than a week (with less PTO time needed), and most importantly, is less daunting as a way to try a cruise vacation.
The coup de grâce for this plan is by late 2026, Royal Caribbean should have two beach clubs open in Nassau and Cozumel.
These beach clubs are a brand new endeavor, which are paid excursions available only to Royal Caribbean customers.
Each will be an all-inclusive private enclave, where Royal Caribbean guests can book a spot and enjoy a day splashing in the pool or beach at a place that adheres to the same standards of a Royal Caribbean ship.
More deployments coming soon
There are still more cruises to be announced in 2026-2027.
Seasonal Caribbean cruises will come out sometime next week, which represent primarily ships that move back to North America after spending the summer somewhere else.
Then we'll get China cruises during the week of March 10, 2025, followed by Singapore the week after that.
The final deployment will be Australia during the week of June 2, 2025.
