AIDA Cruises has opened bookings for repositioning cruises to and from Dubai around Africa at the beginning and end of the 2025/26 cruise season on the back of ongoing security concerns in the Red Sea.

AIDAstella and AIDAprima will both cruise around Africa via Cape Town. While AIDAstella will reposition from Europe to Asia in late 2025, AIDAprima will be repositioning to the Middle East, where she will homeport in Dubai for the 2025/26 winter season.

At the end of the season in March, 2026, AIDAprima will reposition back to Europe via South Africa again. 

For AIDAstella, Cape Town in South Africa is both a destination and a starting point for numerous cruises along the southeast coast of Africa, as well as to the islands of Mauritius, Seychelles, and Madagascar.

AIDAprima will set sail from Hamburg on October 3rd, 2025, bound for Dubai in the Arabian Gulf. On the way, the ship will transit the Cape of Good Hope and visit a range of Indian Ocean island destinations.

AIDAprima will then homeport in Dubai until March, 2026, sailing roundtrip week-long cruises in the Arabian Gulf, visiting Abu Dhabi, Sir Bani Yas Island, Muscat, Khasab and other destinations.

In spring 2026, both cruise ships will reposition to Antalya, Mallorca, and the Canary Islands. On these repsitioning grand voyages, the Namib Desert, Lion’s Head and the South African savannah will be featured.

AIDA Cruises decision to continue repositioning its East-West itineraries via the southern coast of Africa rather than through the Suez Canal comes amid ongoing security concerns in the Red Sea as a result of Houthi attacks on international shipping from Yemen. 

All major cruise lines have amended itineraries that featured the Red Sea and are instead sailing their vessels around Africa, providing a boom in cruise calls and turnaround calls to Cape Town.

On previous repositioning voyages around Africa, AIDA, Costa, MSC and other cruise lines homeporting in Dubai have sailed without passengers, but as the Red Sea situation looks to remain unstable for the forseeable future, they have increasingly begun to offer these grand voyages as bookable itineraries.

The circumstances provide South Africa and other destinations on the continent with a rare opportunity to showcase their cruise tourism potential, especially when it comes to larger cruise ships.