AAA Projects Record-Breaking Number of U.S. Cruisers in 2025, 2026

The popularity of cruising in the United States continues to grow, with a record year expected for both 2025 and 2026, according to new numbers from AAA.

For 2025, AAA predicts 20.7 million Americans will go on an ocean cruise, a higher number than it original forecast, with 21.7 million projected for 2026. (The original forecast for 2025, made in January 2025, was for 19 million.) That’s an 8.4% increase from 2024 to 2025 and a 4.5% jump from 2025 to 2026.

If accurate, 2026 would mark the fourth consecutive year of record U.S. cruise passenger volume.

U.S. Cruisers: Who, Where, & Why?

While the demographic of cruising continues to lower, AAA found the majority of adult U.S. passengers are still 55 or older. Specifically, 65% are 55 or older, while 27% are 35 to 54 years old, and 7% are 18 to 34 years old.

Who cruisers travel with has remained much the same, with nearly 50% of American cruisers traveling as a couple, while 20% cruise with their kids, and only 7% cruise solo. The rest cruise with a group.

As to where U.S. cruise passengers are choosing to cruise, the Caribbean remains the most popular destination by far, with 72% of U.S. cruisers heading to the Caribbean. According to AAA, the growth in short cruises to the Caribbean is helping drive the popularity of that region.

About 7% of U.S. cruisers are expected to take an Alaska cruise in 2026 and 5% are forecast to cruise in the Mediterranean.

AAA also found that cruising has some of the highest satisfaction rates in travel. In fact, 90% of U.S. cruise passengers rate their experience as very good or good, and 91% of U.S. cruisers have taken multiple cruises.

The 2026 cruise forecast was prepared by Tourism Economics in cooperation with AAA and was based on scheduled cruise itineraries covering virtually all major cruise vessels, the economic outlook, and travel sector trends. This forecast relies on cruise-related analytics from Cruise IP (Tourism Economics’ proprietary database for the cruise industry), economic forecasts prepared by Oxford Economics, and assumptions on the future path of the tourism industry. It includes cruises that depart from U.S. and international ports but does not include river cruises.