If you want a brand-new cruise ship, your best odds may be on a river. We counted every named ship that Cruise Frog's data lists as coming but not yet sailing, with a build year of 2026 or later. The list has 75 ships, and most of the biggest pipelines belong to river lines.
All counts below come from Cruise Frog's own ship records as of Oct. 25, 2026. They include only ships that have been named and added to our catalog. Lines often have more ships on order than they have named, so the real pipelines can be larger.
The lines with the most new ships coming
| Rank | Line | New ships in our data | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viking River Cruises | 13 | River |
| 2 | AmaWaterways | 8 | River |
| 3 (tie) | American Cruise Lines | 6 | River and coastal |
| 3 (tie) | Celebrity Cruises | 6 | 5 river, 1 ocean |
| 3 (tie) | Uniworld | 6 | River |
| 6 | Viking Ocean Cruises | 5 | Ocean |
| 7 | Emerald Cruises | 4 | Mixed |
| 8 (tie) | Carnival Cruise Line | 3 | Ocean |
| 8 (tie) | Explora Journeys | 3 | Ocean |
| 8 (tie) | Scenic | 3 | Mixed |
| 8 (tie) | Tauck | 3 | River |
Viking is building on both water and sea
Add Viking's river and ocean brands together, and our data shows 18 new Viking ships coming. That is more than any other company on the list.
On the river side, our records include Longships such as Viking Haki, due in late November 2026, plus new ships for the Nile and for India. For more on how fast that fleet is growing, see our story on Viking taking delivery of Viking Rota.
On the ocean side, our data lists five new ships from 2026 to 2029: Viking Libra, Viking Astrea, Viking Vega, Viking Lyra and Viking Leda.
Celebrity's surprise: most of its new ships are river boats
Celebrity Cruises ties for third, but only one of its six new ships in our data is an ocean ship, Celebrity Xcite. The other five belong to its new river brand.
Celebrity River Cruises said in January that it would start sailing in 2027 with Celebrity Compass and Celebrity Seeker. Celebrity Wanderer, Celebrity Roamer and Celebrity Boundless are set to follow in 2028. The line also said it has committed to 10 new ships and plans to reach 20 river ships by 2031. Only the five named ships are in our data so far.
The big ocean lines are building fewer, bigger ships
The mass-market ocean lines rank lower, but their ships are far larger. Carnival's three ships in our data are Carnival Festivale (2027), Carnival Tropicale (2028) and Carnival Destiny (2029).
Explora Journeys, MSC's luxury brand, also has three in our data: Explora IV, V and VI. Other big ships on the way include Royal Caribbean's Hero of the Seas, MSC World Asia and MSC World Atlantic, and Norwegian Aura. For the ships that already top the size charts, see our ranking of the largest cruise ships in service.
Why river lines are building so fast
River ships are much smaller than ocean ships. In our data, many of the new river ships carry fewer than 200 guests. That makes each one quicker and cheaper to build, so river lines can add ships in bigger batches. AmaWaterways, for example, has eight new ships listed from 2026 to 2028.
For travelers, a big pipeline means more new ships, more sailings, and often new routes. For a closer look at the smaller lines, read Uniworld's plans for three new river ships in 2027.
What we left out
Our "coming" list also includes a few older ships that are moving to a new line or getting a new name. We left those out of the counts above, because they are not new builds.
Sources: Cruise Frog ship data, as of Oct. 25, 2026; Celebrity River Cruises news release (Jan. 29, 2026).