What CruiseMigration is
CruiseMigration is an independent record of where the world’s cruise ships go. It follows the fleet’s seasonal migration — the twice-yearly repositioning that moves ships between summer and winter markets — and then the itineraries they sail once they arrive, the ports that receive them, and the rules that decide which ship can be where.
The records span the fleet worldwide, because a ship’s summer only makes sense beside the world voyage or the winter season on either side of it. Alaska 2026 is the anchor: it is the market covered in the most depth, it has its own season dashboard, and it is where most of the editorial goes.
It is not affiliated with any cruise line, port authority or booking platform. It sells nothing, and it takes no affiliate commission on bookings — the outbound links go to the cruise lines’ own search pages, untagged. The longer version of all of this is on the about page.
Where the data comes from — and where it stops
Three streams, kept separate because they fail in different ways and it matters which one you are looking at. Positions come from AIS, the transponder broadcast every ship over 300 gross tonnes is required to make; a background worker ingests a filtered feed continuously and records each fix with the time it arrived, so every position on the site can say how old it is. Schedules — itineraries, sailing dates and port calls — are compiled from cruise lines’ published deployments and public schedule listings. Editorial is written against primary sources: federal registers, permit and concession documents, port and municipal filings.
The gaps are permanent features of those sources rather than bugs waiting to be fixed, so they are stated rather than papered over. AIS goes dark in places. Glacier Bay is the clearest case — a deep fjord whose granite walls block VHF line-of-sight, with no land-based receiver inside it and only intermittent satellite passes, so for most of a scenic day a ship can appear parked at the bay entrance while she is well up the inlet. Tracy Arm and the narrow stretches of the Inside Passage do the same thing more briefly.
Scheduled is not arrived. A port call in these records is a published plan. Weather, mechanical delay, medical diversion and a line’s own re-deployment all change plans, sometimes after the schedule was published and before we next read it. A scheduled call is evidence that a ship intended to be somewhere, not evidence that she was. Where a value was never published at all, the site says so and leaves the space honest rather than printing an estimate. The position pipeline is written up in how we track cruise ships, and the page conventions in how to read this site.
What is on this site
- Alaska 2026 — the season dashboard — which ships are in the region and when the season runs.
- Ships — the register of tracked ships, each with her line, her last reported position and the age of that fix.
- Ports — the Alaska cruise ports, with a ring per port showing which months ships actually call.
- Itineraries — published sailings, filterable by corridor, month, length and line, as a table, list, map or calendar.
- Unique voyages — the rare routings — world cruises, grand voyages and the one-way crossings that rarely repeat.
- Migrations — the repositioning voyages themselves, grouped by corridor: the twice-yearly move between seasonal markets.
- Articles — editorial written against primary sources — permits, passenger caps, the Passenger Vessel Services Act.
- Glossary — the vocabulary, defined: repositioning, corridor, tender port, dark period.
- Port webcams — which cruise ports publish a camera, and a link to each operator's own feed.
Latest articles
- Which Alaska Cruise Sees Which Glacier: Glacier Bay to Tracy Arm
Alaska cruise glaciers split four ways — Glacier Bay, Hubbard, Endicott Arm, Tracy Arm — and route, ship and a federal permit decide which one you see.
- Bear Spray Can't Board: Alaska's Most Confiscated Packing Mistake
Alaska hiking guides say carry bear spray; cruise prohibited-items lists bar aerosol self-defense sprays. Both are right — here's how to solve it in port.
- Cruise Shareholder Onboard Credit, Explained: Up to $250 a Voyage
Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian give shareholders holding 100 shares up to $250 in onboard credit — typically $100 on a 7-night Alaska sailing.
- Cunard Leaves Alaska: Queen Elizabeth's Short, Grand Second Act
Queen Elizabeth departs Seattle on September 17 for Cunard's last scheduled Alaska round-trip. The line published the numbers, but never a reason.
- Juneau's 2026 Glacial Outburst Flood, Explained for Cruise Visitors
Juneau's 2026 glacial outburst flood crested at 14.7 feet on August 13, below last year's record. The barriers held and no cruise itinerary changed.
- Juneau vs Ketchikan: The Closest Race in Alaska Cruising
Ketchikan was projected to pass Juneau in cruise passengers for the first time. Forecasts say it won't — but the gap is down to about 90,000 people.