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Dear reader,

Once again we can present a thoroughly updated edition of our handbook. The structure of the book is nearly the same as before, the fleet lists, statistics and ancillary texts have grown again. New details are included and a lot of photos were exchanged. As usual the tables show the fleets of the owners/operators as up to date as possible and the statistics provide the figures up to 2025. Ships on order for delivery 2025/26 are included in the relevant parts of the book. The chapter AF is included again with estimated figures.

The number of new ships in Europe was 19 in 2020, but only nine entered service in 2021. Until 2023 this figure went down to four and 2025 nineteen new ships are expected. The pandemic has been the reason for the lack of new orders, but now the order books are filling again. A new fact is that many older ships are used as floating hotels for war refugees and asylum seekers all over the year.

In other regions we are watching different development trends. In the Russian fleet no more ships seem to be de-commissioned in spite of the loss of the Western markets due to the Russian agression against the Ukarine. Ukrainian owners have transferred their ships to the Danube. More new ships which were postponed during the pandemic will start service and a few more were newly ordered. In Egypt too, the optimism is back and most ships of the Nile fleet will be active agian. Owners like Viking River Cruises are investing again.  In North America American Cruise Lines has taken over the ships of the defunct American Queen Voyages.  China and Southeast Asia have opened the borders for foreign tourists again.

While in the 18th edition some parts of the book are routine work now, it remains very time consuming to collect the information from every available, more or less reliable, source of information. We took every care in updating the contents but improvements are always possible. As usual I am asking for relevant proposals and news about ships and projects are always welcome.

May 2025

The 18th edition 2025 is available now

The price is € 180.00 for the first and € 90.00 for the second and further copies plus postage & packing. The book is also available per WeTransfer in form of PDFs for EUR 360.

Besuchen Sie auch meine deutsche Website <www.flusskreuzfahrtflotte.de>

Attention new / Achtung: The Coastal Cruise Fleet 2022

siehe unter "Service"