With the summer season under way, very few cabins are left meaning agents are either having to persuade their clients to consider holding off until 2027 or 2028, or pay higher prices.

However, several agents told TTG their customers are happy to pay premium fares as cruise is widely considered “the safe option" in the current geopilitical landscape. Agencies also argued ocean cruise lines are being rewarded for sending sales reps on the road and offering travel agent training.

All these factors are helping to create a favourable booking environment for agents to operate in. Dave Palmer, co-owner of 10-branch Perfect Getaways, said: “I feel cruise lines have become a lot more agent friendly – they’re always out and about visiting travel agents.  

“Cruise lines used to expect bookings, but it’s such a competitive market. Our cruise sales our definitely up year-on-year. It’s a really growing part of the market.”

He added: “Cruise is seen as a safe option. We’re selling a lot of P&O Cruises and Royal Caribbean sailings, particularly with Legend of the Seas coming into Barcelona.”

Earlier this year, Palmer had concerns about how comfortable some of his younger staff were about selling cruise. But after they were offered specific training, booking patterns started to shift away from mainstream land-based operators like Jet2holidays, Tui and easyJet holidays towards cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean and P&O Cruises.

He explained: “A lot of our staff were very comfortable selling packages, and quite uncomfortable with cruise lines’ booking systems. They are quite fiddly. Agents really need to know each cruise booking system individually. If you can book a Jet2 holiday, you can book a Tui or an easyJet one too.”

Lucrative bookings focus

Marco Macchieraldo, Paramount Cruises Senior Product Manager, confirmed sales staff are still seeing lates even though the agency tries to attract "higher revenue" bookings. “There are still a few low-margin, lower revenue sailings coming in,” he said. “The lates market is not something that we would want to be involved in.

“We’re a small team. We always look for higher revenue bookings. We’re seeing people looking for cruises going in the next couple of weeks. It’s a price-led decision.”

But he noted: “Customers will go wherever the deal is. Norwegian Cruise Line has got some strong pricing in the Med – £500 for a week, for example.”

My Kind of Cruise founder Sefton Monk revealed 2026 has been another record-breaking year for his app-based agency despite the geopolitical turmoil that has held other agencies back.

“The younger market just does what they want," he said. "So far this month, we’ve nearly brought in nearly three times as much revenue as last June. We’re doing really well."

He said newly launched MSC Cruises and Princess Cruises programmes had generated particular strong sales periods, but noted staff had also seen late bookings for Southampton-based Disney Dream this summer.

“My Kind of Cruise focuses more on the brand than any particular departure,” he said. “We build up the brand with the consumer and then they book the cruise. We’re always growing.”

To emphasise his point, he said the agency had a 50% repeat booking rate, which he claimed demonstrated strong customer loyalty to specific cruise lines.

'Too late to save this summer'?

Like Macchieraldo, Jonathan Howitt, Director at The Cruise Room, has seen enquiries from people wanting to cruise in the “next three or four weeks”.

Howitt believes it is too early to say whether the peace deal signed by Iran and the United States will ease consumer fears and encourage bookings. “Even though they’ve struck a peace deal we don’t think that it offers stability," he explained. It might be too late to save this summer."

However, he believes customers demand will then shift into next year continue next year when cruise lines can command higher prices pricing. “At the moment pricing is more like when we came out of the pandemic,” he continued.

Carol Kirkham, Managing Director at Kirkham Travel, said: “A lot of the ships are now full so I’m looking to book people for 2027. Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is launching its winter 2027 programme today. They’re very late to the market compared with everyone else.”