The largest and most advanced cruise ships will be arriving in Macaronesia this coming winter. Both the ports of Tenerifeand Gran Canariaare actively preparing for the 2026-2027 cruise season, which will begin in September 2026, although it will reach its peak a few weeks later, well into autumn.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 78 – September 2026
This coming season, if the forecasts hold true, will be characterized by a maintenance of the number of port calls, but with an increase in the size of the ships stationed in the Canary Islands, to the point that several of the largest currently afloat will be present next winter.
Another fact to consider is the age of the fleet stationed in the Canary Islands, especially on the part of the German shipping companies: the most modern ships in the world will be present in Macaronesia.
This increase in size, and the modernity of the vessels themselves, places the Canary Islands at the highest logistical challenge in their role as a home port. For example, for the first time, there will be three LNG-based vessels, including bioLNG, which will require fueling throughout the 2026-2027 season. This will generate an unprecedented increase in commercial activity for the ports.
It will also put a stress test on the customs and service infrastructures in the two home ports, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas, in a scenario that is marked as the most demanding in terms of planning.
Are any cruise lines missing from the Canary Islands?
The Canary Islands in particular, and Macaronesia in general, are experiencing one of their best periods in cruise tourism. However, a brief review of the port calls reveals some key takeaways:
Two of the four major cruise lines, Royal Caribbean Group and NCL Holdings, are not planning to base ships in the Canary Islands. Royal Caribbean Group's presence in the Canaries is limited to transit stops by the Celebrity Infinity every two weeks on its winter cruises departing from Barcelona. NCL Holdings only offers four transit stops in Tenerife with the Norwegian Star this coming autumn, with its home ports being Barcelona and Lisbon. Given the increasing saturation of the Caribbean in winter, and the impossibility of sending ships to other destinations such as the Persian Gulf, the option of Europe in general and Macaronesia could be considered.
Luxury and premium cruise lines do not base their ships in the Canary Islands during the winter. Virtually all cruise lines with a presence in the Canaries are from the standard segment, with a clear absence of lines from the premium, upper premium, and luxury segments. In the 2025-2026 season, Windstar offered thirteen homeport calls in Las Palmas on 10-day cruises between November 19, 2025, and March 1, 2026. Having increased its fleet this past summer with the Star Seeker, it will only offer two transit calls this coming season with the Wind Spirit. However, it has doubled its deployment in French Polynesia. Regent Seven Seas will offer its first season in the Mediterranean next winter, and Viking Cruises has been offering Mediterranean cruises in winter for many years.
Most cruise ships that call at homeports in the Canary Islands ports have shore power outlets (OPS). However, they cannot use these outlets to shut down their diesel engines while in port because the ports themselves lack the necessary infrastructure. Providing this infrastructure for cruise ships would contribute to the zero-emissions goal that several shipping companies operating in the Canary Islands have set as a strategic objective.
P&O Cruises: A Historic Cruise Line That Has Always Been Committed to the Canary Islands.
P&O Cruises is one of the cruise lines that has traditionally offered stops in the Canary Islands for decades. However, its cruise model has changed; in the past, its flagship product related to the Canary Islands was cruises departing from English ports, lasting two weeks or more, and including several full days at sea. This model included historic ships such as the Canberra, the Oriana, etc., which are no longer in the P&O fleet.
Although P&O maintains this offer for the more traditional British market, it also began, starting in the 2022-2023 season, to base one of its ships in the Canary Islands and sell it as a "fly cruise." The selected ship was the Azura, which that season offered nine cruises from Santa Cruz as its home port. Since then, it has offered cruises every winter, further increasing the number of cruises from ten in 2023-2024 to 21 in 2024-2025 (more than five months based in the Canary Islands). The winter season in the Canaries is the ideal complement to the summer season in the Mediterranean, which also features "fly cruises" from Malta. These repositioning cruises, always difficult to sell, are thus shorter in duration and have attractive itineraries, full of interesting ports of call.
The Azura offers several alternative seven-night itineraries from Santa Cruz de Tenerife: one to Funchal; another combining Funchal and Agadir; and another with stops in Casablanca and Agadir. All of these can be combined into 14-day cruises. To facilitate embarkation and disembarkation, the Azura makes an overnight stay in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
For the following 2027-2028 season, P&O Cruises will keep the Azura based in the Canary Islands, with some new additions to its itineraries including Madeira and Morocco, with stops in ports such as Agadir and Casablanca, but without a significant increase in its offering.
Marella Cruises. The inventors of the home port in the Canary Islands.
Marella Cruises began offering “fly-cruise” in the 1998-1999 season with the Island Breeze, and since then has not missed a single winter season in the Canary Islands.
This coming winter, Marella Cruises is sending the Marella Discovery 2 and the Marella Explorer to the Canary Islands, one based in Las Palmas and the other in Santa Cruz, maintaining the same itineraries as in the previous season.
These are sister ships to those deployed in the 2025-2026 season, with a capacity of around 2,000 passengers each, so there is no significant increase in the company's capacity. Regarding the number of departures, there is a slight increase, because in January 2026, the Marella Explorer 2 underwent dry docking; and this year, such maintenance is not planned for the two Marella Explorer ships.
The Marella Discovery 2 is the only adults-only ship based in the Canary Islands this 2026-2027 season.
Another British cruise line, Saga, offers around ten cruises, all departing from the UK, with transit stops in the Canary Islands, though never as a home port. Ambassador offers only three cruises with transit stops in the Canaries.
MSC Cruises
This coming winter 2026-2027 MSC Cruises will offer its third consecutive season in the Canary Islands with the deployment of the MSC Fantasia, with an itinerary with “interporting” in which you can embark at several of the stops, and which offers to visit the ports of Las Palmas, Santa Cruz De La Palma, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Funchal, sailing, Arrecife, and return to Las Palmas.
The MSC Fantasia is scheduled to return to the Canary Islands for the winter of 2027-2028, following the same itinerary.
In addition, MSC Cruises ships regularly make transit stops in the Canary Islands. Their flagship, the MSC World Europa, will call at Santa Cruz de Tenerife this November and again in April 2027 on its two repositioning cruises to the Caribbean, a destination to which it has been relegated after canceling its 2026-2027 season in the Persian Gulf.
Costa Cruises
In the coming winter, Costa had initially planned a gradual growth by replacing the Costa Fortuna (which leaves its fleet in September), with the Costa Pacifica, which was going to offer 19 departures from the Canary Islands home ports.
But the cancellation of the upcoming winter season in the Persian Gulf by its flagship, the Costa Smeralda, has prompted Costa Cruises to up the ante in the Canary Islands by deploying its largest ship to these waters. Its itinerary includes an overnight stop in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, followed by Funchal, a cruise to Arrecife, Las Palmas, La Palma, and a return to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A second itinerary also includes a two-day stop in Tenerife and, after a day at sea, stops in Agadir, Las Palmas, Puerto del Rosario, and a return to Santa Cruz.
The Costa Smeralda has a capacity of 5,200 passengers in lower berths. This represents a 73% increase in Costa's capacity compared to the previous 2025-2026 season. In terms of infrastructure, this will pose no problems for the Canary Island ports, which have already been hosting its near-twins, the AidaNova and Aida Cosma, for several years. This increase coincides with a decline in Italian tourism to the Canary Islands, a very important market for Costa (and also for MSC Cruises), as well as the uncertainty generated by the current suspension of the Schengen Area between Spain and Italy.
In any case, Costa has announced that the Costa Smeralda will return to the Canary Islands in the 2027-2028 season.
Aida Cruises:
German cruise lines are currently the most important players in the Macaronesia destination: they account for the lion's share of passengers and also use their largest and most modern ships. Although the number of German tourists in the Canary Islands has decreased this year, the cruise offerings in the islands for this source market remain virtually unchanged.
The German cruise giant, Aida, is a loyal customer of the Canary Islands and its ports. This coming winter, Aida will celebrate its 25th consecutive season offering cruises from the Canaries, since 2002-2003. It has only missed one season (2003-2004), and in those years its flagship has always been a highlight. From the 2010-2011 season, when the AidaBlu and AidaBella sailed to the Canaries, Aida has always had two ships in Macaronesia. And from the 2012-2013 season, it featured three ships in the Canaries, generally from the "Sphinx" series of seven sister ships, all around 70,000 GT and with a capacity of 2,100 passengers, which proved ideal for Canary Island cruises.
2018 marked a turning point for Aida and the Canary Islands' home ports. Aida was the first shipping company to bring a ship with more than 5,000 passengers, the AidaNova, to the Canary Islands for an entire season. Its inaugural cruise departed from Santa Cruz de Tenerife on December 19, 2018. Its arrival also led to the establishment of the entire LNG bunkering logistics network, generally using barges from the Huelva plant, making Santa Cruz de Tenerife a pioneering port in this sector.
Following the pandemic, Aida added the AidaCosma to its Canary Islands fleet for the 2023-2024 winter season, replacing the AidaNova, and reduced its Canary Islands deployment to two ships: one Helios-class and one Sphinx-class. Including the upcoming winter, the AidaCosma has led the Canary Islands fleet for the last four seasons. Based in Palma de Mallorca/Barcelona during the summer, the winter deployment in the Canary Islands is ideal for Aida, minimizing repositioning cruises. Unlike its sister ship, the Costa Smeralda, the AidaCosma's itinerary does not include overnight stops, offering six islands in a week: Gran Canaria; sailing; Funchal; Santa Cruz de La Palma; Tenerife; Puerto del Rosario; Arrecife; Gran Canaria; with departures on Saturdays from Las Palmas and on Wednesdays from Santa Cruz.
Aida's second ship in the Canary Islands typically offers two different 7-night itineraries, one with a stop in La Gomera, and the other visiting Madeira. This coming season (and also in 2025-2026), this second offering will be shared between two ships: this winter, the AidaBlu will sail in the Canary Islands until January 2027, at which point it will undergo a mid-life refurbishment in Marseille; between January and March 2027, its sister ship, the AidaMar, which has already undergone its refurbishment, will take over.
The proximity of the Canary Islands to major ship repair centers, such as Cadiz or Marseille, is also a highly valued advantage for shipowners.
Aida also offers transit stops in the Canary Islands, although not as frequently as British cruise lines. For example, this coming October, the AidaPrima will offer a cruise from Hamburg to Las Palmas, followed by a short stay in the Canary Islands in November, and another Las Palmas-Kiel voyage in December.
CroisiEurope
is the only premium cruise line that will base one of its ships in the Canary Islands this coming winter. For the sixth consecutive year, the Alsatian shipowner is highlighting its La Belle des Oceans, a former luxury exploration vessel that previously sailed for companies such as P&O and Silversea. It is the antithesis of mega-cruise ships and offers a different way to experience the Canary Islands. It has a capacity for only 120 passengers in sixty outside cabins, and only eight of these are suites with balconies. The Canary Islands once again provide the perfect complement after a summer season on the French Riviera. Furthermore, this ship typically undergoes its annual refit at ASTICAN in Las Palmas, which is an added advantage.
It offers a unique pendulum itinerary that provides stops only in the Canary Islands, without sailing days, and with overnight stops in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Arrecife de Lanzarote.
TUI Cruises
has been offering cruises from the Canary Islands continuously since the 2010-2011 season, with the sole exception of 2012-2013, pandemic aside. This coming winter will therefore be its fifteenth season in the Canaries. Furthermore, since the 2018-2019 season, TUI Cruises has always deployed two cruise ships in the Canaries. And to compete on equal footing with Aida, these ships were also the largest and most modern in its fleet.
This coming winter, TUI Cruises has planned to cover the Canary Islands destination again with two ships: Mein Schiff Relax and Mein Schiff 7.
The first belongs to the InTUItion class. It has around 2,000 cabins and can carry more than 4,000 passengers. The Mein Schiff Relax offers numerous innovations within the TUI fleet. For example, 85% of the cabins have balconies. There are exclusive suite areas, such as the X-View restaurant and the X-Bar, one of the largest spas afloat (with the first barrel sauna afloat), spacious outdoor decks, a burlesque bar, and more. The Mein Schiff Relax was also the first ship in the TUI fleet to use LNG, and it could potentially use e-LNG and bio-LNG in the future.
The InTUItion class marks a milestone in premium LNG cruises, combining advanced environmental technology with a sophisticated cruise experience. The Mein Schiff Relax is undoubtedly a benchmark among the fleet of ships competing in the Canary Islands destination.
Unlike its competitors in the mega-ship segment, the Mein Schiff Relax offers two alternative itineraries in the Canary Islands: one that includes Funchal, and another that includes Agadir in Morocco. After a successful first season, the Mein Schiff Relax will return in 2026-2027 for a nearly six-month stay, sailing every Sunday from Las Palmas. TUI has also scheduled it to be based in the Canary Islands again in the 2027-2028 season.
TUI's other ship in the Canary Islands is the Mein Schiff 7, delivered in 2024, which was the first ship equipped to run on ethanol when it becomes available. It offers the 25-meter swimming pool found on all TUI ships, a wide variety of dining options, and is the fifth largest ship in the Canary Islands fleet for next winter. Between November 2026 and April 2027, it will offer two alternative one-week itineraries, one with a stop in Funchal and the other with a stop in La Gomera. TUI has also announced that it will be present in the Canary Islands destination for the 2027-2028 season.
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