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Travel: Southern California to give berth to its biggest cruise ships ever

May 14, 2025

Is bigger really better? When it comes to cruise ships, at least, Southern California is about to find out.

Royal Caribbean International, the cruise line that boasts the seven largest luxury liners in the world — eight come August — is preparing for the news-making arrival of its Ovation of the Seas to the Port of Los Angeles. When the 4,905-passenger, Quantum-class vessel pulls into San Pedro’s World Cruise Center in the early morning of May 31, she will be the biggest ship ever based in the region.

Southern California’s three major cruise ports — Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego — have welcomed plenty of other megaships over the decades, but never has one so titanic been based seasonally or annually in these waters of the Pacific. Royal Caribbean’s decision to go big and go home with the 168,666-gross-ton Ovation of the Seas means that more Southlanders won’t need to stray far from their own homes to enjoy a vacation at sea.

“Southern California is not only a big market for Royal Caribbean, it’s a big drive market,” said Vicki Freed, the company’s senior vice president of sales, using an industry term for a region where a large population lives within driving distance of a cruise port. “It’s easy to get on and off a ship in a drive market, and that’s a big benefit for Royal Caribbean audiences like families and celebrants of weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, birthdays and, especially big on the West Coast, babymoons, bachelorette parties and bachelor parties. We also see a lot of empty nesters saying, ‘The kids are away — they’re in college or they’re grown, and I just want to go away really easy for a few days.’

“Even the gaming market — we have people that are from Southern California who instead of going to Las Vegas they tell themselves, ‘You know, I can drive down to the port in San Pedro and we can cruise on Royal Caribbean and we can gamble if we want to, have great food and entertainment ….’ It’s really like a Vegas-at-sea in many ways.”

ALSO SEE: What it’s like to sail on the world’s largest cruise ship

More Royal Caribbean ships will be passing by Cabo's El Arco over the next few years. (Photo by David Dickstein) — More Royal Caribbean ships will be passing by Cabo’s El Arco over the next few years. (Photo by David Dickstein)

Ovation’s inaugural sail as an Angeleno transplant is scheduled for the same day she arrives from Japan after a 16-day repositioning cruise. That first voyage out of San Pedro isn’t open to the general public, but hours after that one returns to port on June 3, Ovation has another three-day getaway to Ensenada that is. Seven more of those Tuesday to Friday jaunts are part of Ovation’s 2025 season along with eight five-night voyages and as many six-night sails that include an overnighter in Cabo San Lucas.

Looking further into the future, Ovation will say ta-ta to La-la Land in the fall for stints in Alaska and Southeast Asia before returning to serve a second and longer SoCal tour of duty a year later. From September 2026 to April 2027, she will do three-, four- and seven-night sails that go to Cabo, Ensenada and Catalina Island, depending on the duration.

Quantum of the Seas, homeporting in San Pedro in 2026, will offer itineraries to Catalina Island. (Photo by David Dickstein)

Not willing to relinquish regional size supremacy back to the competition — Norwegian Cruise Line’s 168,028-gross-ton Bliss has homeported in L.A. since 2018 — Royal Caribbean is filling Ovation’s salty shoes with a slightly older Quantum sister. While Ovation is doing her thing from Skagway to Singapore, class namesake Quantum of the Seas, built two years earlier, will pretty much take on the junior ship’s schedule from October through September 2026, adding a half-dozen weeklong cruises to the mix next year.

Royal Caribbean, the largest brand in the industry based on annual passenger capacity, is taking more than a Quantum leap during its unprecedented expansion in Southern California. The 4,269-guest Voyager of the Seas, namesake of the fleet’s second-oldest active class, will relieve Navigator of the Seas of her stalwart service to the Southland in October 2026 to make three- to eight-night roundtrips to the Mexican Riviera for at least four months.

Royal Caribbean’s expansion at the Port of Los Angeles means that Navigator won’t be an only child any longer. Since November 2021, when the crown and anchor logo returned to L.A. after a decade-long absence, the 4,000-passenger, Voyager-class Navigator has been the cruise line’s lone ship based not only in San Pedro, but the entire region, San Diego included.

That, too, will change starting in October 2026 when Serenade of the Seas becomes the first Royal Caribbean ship in 16 years to call “America’s Favorite City” home, according to Freed. The 2,476-passenger, Radiance-class ship, coincidentally a sister to the last Royal Caribbean vessel based in San Diego, will make roundtrips of three to seven nights to the Mexican Riviera. Stops will include Cabo, Mazatlán and, for the first time in the cruise line’s history, La Paz, gateway to a unique shore excursion that offers passengers the opportunity to swim with whale sharks.

After watching the likes of Carnival and Princess Cruises make Southern California a stronghold with many ships and sailings over several decades, Royal Caribbean is now flexing as a more competitive swimmer to take on their own sharks. The big question is, why now?

“Why not now?” Freed said. “We’ve had such a great response with Navigator of the Seas that it just made sense to add capacity in California. One ship wasn’t enough. With Ovation coming out in June of this year and Quantum taking over, one of the really strong drivers for us to bring two more ships to San Pedro is that the demand has been so great.”

With demand being yin and yang with supply, Royal Caribbean’s expansion puts added pressure on the Port of L.A. to accommodate projected growth not only in the number of cruise ships making calls, but their swelling girth and passenger capacity.

“We’re going to be at 240 ship calls this year, and we currently have one large berth that can physically handle any cruise ship but one (Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world), and another terminal that can handle ships up to 1,100 feet long,” said port spokesperson Chris Chase. “So, we can handle two ships at a time, but are limited, which is why we’re under RFP for a new Outer Harbor Cruise Terminal that will include berths 46 and 50.”

With a dozen different cruise lines all vying for berth rights in just the next 12 months, alone, it’s going to be as cozy as an at-capacity megaship at the L.A. Waterfront until the new terminal’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, whenever that is. Still, that’s not throwing cold saltwater on Royal Caribbean’s plans that include the landmark and looming arrival of LA’s soon-arriving big kahuna.

“We’re very excited over Ovation of the Seas homeporting here and for Royal Caribbean, a line that hadn’t sailed in Southern California in more than a decade before Navigator of the Seas,” Chase said. “And now having two Royal Caribbean ships sailing out of Los Angeles for the next year or so is amazing, and we’re really appreciative of that. They add to our year-round cruising portfolio, and since they’re the biggest ships ever to be homeported here, the tons of passengers they’ll bring to the city will be above the $1.2 million per ship average we use when estimating the local economic activity.”

Speaking of activity and going beyond the norm, the two Quantum-class ships coming to Southern California are not your usual floating resorts. Ovation and Quantum have an all-star cast of Royal Caribbean exclusives: Flowrider surf simulator, RipCord by iFLY indoor skydiving, North Star glass observation pod that lifts brave guests 300 feet above sea level, and SeaPlex, where a full-size basketball court, roller-skating rink and even bumper cars are housed inside the largest indoor rec center at sea. For the benefit of independence-flexing kids and adult-time-seeking parents, alike, the Adventure Ocean program offers plenty to do for junior cruisers 6 months to 17 years.

Bumper cars is a favorite activity aboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ships. (Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International)

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Bumper cars is a favorite activity aboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum-class ships. (Courtesy of Royal Caribbean International)

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Other amenities from bow to stern include pickleball courts, an outdoor movie theater, casino, solarium, spa, gym, four pools, 10 hot tubs, a robotic bartender, specialty restaurants that augment the fee-free fare (yes, that includes the buffet), Broadway-style production shows, stand-up comedy, live music, shopping, water slides and a host of daily fun and games for all ages.

Of course, much of the above can also be found on megaships of other brands. Carnival, Princess, Norwegian and every other cruise line serving Southern California tout which bells and whistles each has on these vacation homes of several days to several weeks and longer. But, for now, Royal Caribbean and its Quantum-class ships can offer the most expansive oceanfront property on the market.

Fares for a three-night getaway to Ensenada on Ovation of the Seas started at $289 per person at press time on royalcaribbean.com. Five-night sailings on Quantum of the Seas were as low as $512 per person. Weeklong trips on Navigator of the Seas started at $571. All prices are based on double occupancy.

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