Two years used to be an absurd amount of time to plan a holiday. Not anymore. And, although cruise lines in particular love to remind you it’s “never too early to book,” this time, their itineraries back up the decision to open entire seasons years in advance
It’s part of a broader shift away from the old cruise model of long sea days and brief stops, backed up by a growing number of overnight stays and late departures – itineraries built around a string of proper visits, not just scenery.
Norwegian Cruise Line, for example has just opened its 2028 season – 450-plus voyages across 20 ships, sailing from 25 homeports to nearly 150 destinations in 51 countries. And the standout number isn’t the ship count. It’s this: guests will spend roughly 80% of every voyage in port, with the average call running past 10 hours. That’s a lot less time staring at the horizon and a lot more time actually being somewhere.
Here’s where they think you’ll be heading in 720-ish days time.
Morocco enters the Mediterranean circuit
For years, Morocco has sat just outside the usual Mediterranean cruise loop – close enough to see on a map, rarely close enough to actually visit. That changes in 2028, with Casablanca and Agadir added to a 12-day Canary Islands route out of Barcelona, alongside first-time stops in Lanzarote and Tenerife. The same region is also picking up new Atlantic coastal routes tracing Spain, France and Portugal – a stretch of coastline still relatively under-cruised compared to the classic Med.
The midnight sun, minus the crowds
Northern Europe in high summer means daylight until nearly midnight, and a 10- to 11-day route between Southampton and Reykjavik is timed to make the most of it – more usable hours ashore than the same itinerary would offer in shoulder season. It also lands two firsts: Grundarfjörður in Iceland, and Vik in Norway, a coastal town that’s never had a cruise call at all until now.
Croatia and Sardinia join the Med staples
Zadar and Cagliari are new additions to Mediterranean routes that already connect Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome and Venice – voyages built with almost no sea days, so a single trip can move from Marseille to Kotor, Montenegro without losing a day to open water.
The South Pacific, actually joined up
Fiji, French Polynesia and Hawai’i are each straightforward enough to visit alone, but stitching them into one trip independently is a logistical headache. 2028 routes homeport across Sydney, Fiji, French Polynesia and Honolulu, linking Bora Bora, Moorea, Rarotonga and Samoa into a single 11- to 13-day itinerary -the kind of multi-island run that would otherwise mean several separate flights.
Alaska, scheduled around a long weekend
Glacier season has typically meant carving out a midweek gap in the calendar. 2028 shifts several departures to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, making a proper Alaska trip easier to slot around annual leave, with glacier sightings included on every sailing.
Bermuda picks up a new East Coast gateway
Alongside the usual New York and Boston departures, Bermuda gets a Philadelphia option for the first time – overnight stays at Royal Naval Dockyard included, extending the window to actually explore rather than just dock and go.
Why the two-year booking window is becoming the norm
The logic holds up: seasons announced this far out sell down the desirable stock first – specific cabin categories, sailing dates tied to events like the midnight sun or peak glacier viewing, first-time ports before everyone else catches on. “It’s never too early to start planning your next holiday,” says Ben Angell, NCL’s Managing Director Asia-Pacific – a line every cruise executive reaches for, but the trend underneath it is real and industry-wide, not specific to one line.
