Costa Cruises cancels Dubai winter season and SA repositioning 2025/26 cruises

Costa Cruises has confirmed that it will cancel all planned winter 2025/26 itineraries in the Arabian Gulf aboard Costa Toscana, including repositioning voyages via Cape Town, citing continued uncertainty in the Middle East.

In a statement released this week, the cruise line said the decision was taken “to provide guests with reliable clarity on their vacation plans for the upcoming winter season as early as possible,” given the “currently fluid situation in the Middle East.”

As a result, Costa Toscana will not operate her scheduled winter itineraries in the Arabian Gulf, including those from and to Dubai. The repositioning cruises to and from Dubai in autumn 2025 and spring 2026 have also been cancelled.

The development comes just under two weeks after AIDA Cruises became the first Dubai homeporting cruise line to cancel its annual 2025/26 winter season, also citing regional geopolitical uncertainty.

The cruise industry has been rattled by a recent spike in tensions between Israel and Iran, that saw the first direct missile. confrontation between the two countries. The so-called missile war lasted 12 days, culminating in Iran launching a limited missile strike on a US military base in Qatar, in relation for US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

Although tensions between Israel and Iran have now dissipated, cruise lines are required to make deployment decisions many months, and often years, in advance due to long-term booking patterns and complex operational planning. 

Itinerary changes, ship repositioning, and port logistics must be confirmed well ahead of time to allow for marketing, sales, and coordination with local authorities. Even temporary geopolitical flare-ups can therefore have a prolonged impact on cruise schedules.

Instead of homeporting in the Arabian Gulf this winter, Costa Toscana will extend her Western Mediterranean deployment through to 13th November 2025, maintaining her current 7-day itinerary programme. 

The departure from Savona on 13th November, bound for Santa Cruz de Tenerife, will proceed as scheduled. The ship will then remain in the Mediterranean for the rest of the winter season, offering a mix of week-long and extended cruises across Southern Europe and North Africa. 

Full details of these revised itineraries are expected to be released shortly.

Costa Cruises said alternative winter options remain available across the fleet. Costa Fortuna will operate Canary Islands cruises, accessible via the line’s Fly & Cruise packages. These itineraries offer guests the opportunity to explore several islands within a single week-long sailing.

Meanwhile, Costa Fascinosa and Costa Pacifica will be deployed in the Caribbean, with itineraries designed for warm-weather escapes. Each vessel will offer a variety of 7-day sailings that can be combined to create a 14-night voyage, also available with Fly & Cruise arrangements.

Guests affected by the cancelled UAE and wider Arabian Gulf cruises will be contacted directly and offered alternative itineraries aboard other Costa ships. 

Costa Cruises has been homeporting in Dubai since the 2006/07 season, when it sailed roundtrip from the UAE with Costa Classica, expanding to two ships the following season. The cruise line has seen steady growth in the regional market since then, with Costa Toscana, its largest vessel, homeporting since 2022.