Cruises out of Baltimore are popular with many in the mid-Atlantic because you don’t have to get on a plane before getting on a ship. But Royal Caribbean, the world’s second-largest cruise line, is discontinuing its cruises out of Baltimore for the 2026-2027 season.
For 2025-2026, Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas has one of the most robust schedules at Baltimore’s cruise terminal. It will sail from Locust Point 45 times by the time this year is over. Its destinations including Bermuda, the Bahamas, the southern Caribbean, and even a handful of cruises to New England and Canada in the summer/ early fall.
In a statement to Chesapeake Bay Magazazine, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson confirms, “In late 2026, Vision of the Seas will shift to offer Caribbean sailings from Ft. Lauderdale through April 2027.”
Is there a chance the cruise line would return to cruise from Charm City in years to come? The company says, “We cannot comment on future deployment, but we look forward to reviewing opportunities to sail from Baltimore in the future.”
The Maryland Cruise Terminal has had a rough go of it in the past five years, first suffering mass cancellationzs alongside the entire cruise industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, the Key Bridge collapse forced several cruises to be canceled or diverted to Sail Nauticus in Norfolk until crews were able to clear a large enough channel in the Patapsco River for cruise ships to pass through.
Vision of the Seas was at the center of the disaster’s impact on cruising. It was the ship that had left Baltimore before the bridge came down, and was unable to return the way it came after the cruise. The ship disembarked in Norfolk and passengers were bussed back to their cars in Baltimore. Then, when the port was finally able to resume cruising two months after the bridge collapse, Vision of the Seas was first to depart, a milestone that took place May 25, 2024.
Norwegian Cruise Line began running cruises out of Baltimore in 2023, but has canceled 2025 sailings on three of its ships, and no Norwegian cruises are scheduled out of Baltimore for this year.
Still, local cruise enthusiasts will have other opportunities to cruise out of Maryland. Carnival, the world’s largest cruise line, will keep Carnival Pride in Baltimore at least through 2027, announcing dates through April 2027 with many of the same destinations as Royal Caribbean, with the addition of a Panama stop and cruises to Greenland.
