Celestyal Cruises announces major expansion in Arabian Gulf with two ships for 2025

Celestyal Cruises is increasing its Arabian Gulf deployment to two ships for the 2025/26 Middle East cruise season, with roundtrip itineraries out of Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Doha in Qatar.

The deployment of Celestyal Discovery and Celestyal Journey comes amid a push by Celestyal Cruises to become known as a Middle East cruise specialist, and reflects intensifying competition in the regional cruise sector.

MSC Cruises, the current market leader in the region, is deploying its brand new ship MSC Euribia to Dubai for the 2024/25 season, while Resorts World Cruises is entering the Middle East market for the first time, with itineraries specifically targeting the local source market.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian cruise start-up AROYA will launch in December, becoming the first homegrown cruise brand in the Arab world, and the first cruise line ever to exclusively target regional passengers.

This coming winter cruise season, which runs from November to March in the Arabian Gulf, Celestyal Journey will homeport in Doha, Qatar sailing a ‘Desert Days’ itinerary, of 7-nights, visiting Khasab, Dubai, Sir Bani Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

Celestyal Journey will sail her first cruise in the region on November 9th, 2024, with special sailings on offer including Christmas and New Year cruises, as well as Qatar and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix departures.

The season is the first in a three-year partnership with tourism authorities in the region, with Celestyal Journey joined next year by Celestyal Discovery, which will homeport in Abu Dhabi from November, 2025 to March, 2026, sailing roundtrip 3- and 4-night ‘Iconic Arabia’ itineraries.

The 3-night version calls at Doha along with Sir Bani Yas Island, UAE, while the 4-night version goes to Fujairah, UAE, and Muscat and Khasab, Oman. These sailings may be combined into a 7-night ‘Gulf Icons’ cruise.

“86% of our guests tell us they want to come back to Celestyal, so we’re delivering on our commitment to broaden our programmes,” said Lee Haslett, Chief Commercial Officer at Celestyal.

“We’re renowned as the cruise specialists of the Greek islands and Mediterranean. Thanks to the commitment of the region and this overwhelming support from our customers and trusted partners, we are now confident in becoming the go-to cruise specialists of the Arabian Gulf,” Haslett added.

“Across our network we offer two types of cruising. Destination-intensive three- and four-night itineraries are perfect to combine with a land stay and as a bolt-on to a beach or touring holiday, while our classic seven-night cruises are ideal as a holiday in themselves.”

Celestyal Cruises’ ambitious Middle East plans put it head-to-head with Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises, both of which have homeported in Dubai and other Arabian Gulf ports for more than ten years.

It will also be a significant test of market penetration for Celestyal. The last time a cruise line homeported two ships in the region simultaneously was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when MSC Cruises typically deployed two vessels.

Celestyal Journey and Celestyal Discovery joined the Celestyal Cruises fleet in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Both vessels carry around 1,200 passengers and are in a similar class size.

Journey formerly sailed with Holland America Line as Ryndam, before being transferred to P&O Australia, where she sailed as Pacific Aria prior to Carnival’s fleet consolidation, which also saw AIDA Cruises’ ship AIDAura acquired by Celestyal to be renamed Celestyal Discovery.