Cruise lines are very good at telling us what’s coming, but they’re always a little quieter about what’s going away.
If you’re cruising in 2027, a few familiar parts of the experience may already be missing.
Some changes are planned for next year, while others have happened recently or are gradually replacing older habits.
They won’t affect every ship, and a few still depend on your cruise line or cabin category.
But if it’s been a while since your last sailing, these are worth knowing about. Especially before you tell everyone traveling with you how things work.
1. Having to Call for Room Service
Ordering breakfast from your balcony sounds lovely. Actually picking up the cabin phone, waiting for an answer, and repeating your order? Slightly less lovely.
Royal Caribbean has said it is working on room service ordering through its app, with more expected in early 2027.
If the feature arrives as planned, calling the cabin phone could stop being a necessary part of the process.
That doesn’t mean the phone option is being removed. It means you may finally have another way to order.
Just don’t confuse easier ordering with free ordering. Those are two very different things!
2. Labadee Stops on Early-2027 Royal Caribbean Cruises
This is one change that goes beyond a missing cabin perk.
Royal Caribbean has confirmed an extension of its suspension of visits to Labadee, Haiti, through June 2027.
The company cited the safety and well-being of guests and crew.
For anyone who enjoyed its beach day setup, that’s a noticeable gap in the itinerary.
And for passengers who booked specifically looking forward to Labadee, a replacement port may change what they want to do ashore.
There is no guaranteed reopening date to build your vacation around. The announced pause runs through June, but that doesn’t automatically mean ships return in July.
3. Pepsi on Carnival’s North American Sailings
You might think a soda change is too small to matter. Tell that to someone who drinks the same thing every single afternoon.
Carnival started returning to Coca-Cola products across ships departing from North American homeports several months ago.
And by 2027 the change will be consistent across the entire fleet.
For Coke fans, happy days. For devoted Pepsi drinkers, this is the sort of tiny vacation disappointment.
The useful part is knowing before you board. If one particular drink matters to you, check the current beverage selection and the line’s rules for bringing drinks onboard.
Don’t buy a soda package based on the menu you remember from years ago.
4. Twice-Daily Cleaning as a Standard-Cabin Expectation
There was something very cruise-like about leaving your room for dinner and coming back to find it tidied again. The bed looked inviting. The bathroom had recovered from everyone getting ready at once.
On several major mainstream lines, standard cabins now receive one scheduled cleaning a day.
Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian have all moved toward this arrangement, although suites and certain situations can work differently.
Your cabin still gets cleaned. But expecting a full morning service and another full evening service in a regular cabin could leave you disappointed.
5. The Assumption That Room Service Is Included
“Let’s just order something to the room” used to sound like a harmless suggestion.
Now it can mean another charge on your onboard account.
Royal Caribbean currently charges for much of its room service menu, while complimentary continental breakfast remains an exception.
So room service itself isn’t disappearing. The expectation that you can order whatever you want without checking the cost has become much harder to justify.
By 2027, this is one of those details you really should look up for your specific ship and cabin category.
Breakfast on the balcony is still a great cruise moment. It just feels a little different when an unexpected charge arrives with it.
6. The Old Everyone-at-Once Muster Drill on Lines Using eMuster
Nobody books a cruise because they’re excited about the safety drill. Still, it matters, and every passenger needs to complete it.
What has changed on many cruise lines is the format. Guests can watch the safety information through the app or cabin television, then visit their assigned muster station so crew can verify completion.
The old routine of gathering everyone together for the entire briefing has already been replaced on most sailings.
It’s still one of the things you should do on the first day of your cruise. Get it out of the way early, and you can enjoy the rest of embarkation day without that unfinished task hanging over you.
7. Traditional Disposable Plastic Straws
Order a frozen drink, and you may find yourself discussing the straw before you’ve even tasted the cocktail.
Paper. Edible. Something that behaves perfectly well for five minutes and then gets a bit questionable.
Carnival Corporation reports that it has eliminated plastic straws across its fleet, offering paper-based or edible alternatives on request instead.
Reducing disposable plastic makes sense. A straw that gives up halfway through a thick frozen drink is still annoying, though. Both things can be true.
If you have a reusable straw you like, it may earn its tiny space in your suitcase.
Especially if frozen cocktails are a fairly important part of your sea-day plans.
8. Those Little Individual Toiletry Bottles
The tiny shampoo bottles were definitely not luxury skincare. Somehow, people still loved them.
Cruise operators have been replacing individual amenity bottles with bulk dispensers as part of efforts to reduce single-use packaging.
Carnival Corporation’s reporting documents the removal of millions of individual amenity bottles compared with its earlier baseline.
In many cabins, the little collection beside the sink has already given way to a dispenser in the shower.
You may still find individual products in some suites or on other lines. This depends on what you book, so don’t expect every cruise bathroom to look identical.
My advice is boring but useful: bring the products you actually like.
Just stick to travel-size containers. Bringing huge bottles is one of those cruise packing mistakes that are easy to avoid, especially when you see how little bathroom counter space you have.
9. Hunting Through Walls of Printed Cruise Photos
There was a certain ritual to visiting the photo gallery after dinner.
You searched through rows of pictures to find yours.
Digital photo browsing is changing that experience. Royal Caribbean, for example, lets guests purchase and select photographic products through gallery kiosks or its app, with digital files delivered through a download link.
Even though many ships still offer printed products, too.
What is becoming less central is the old setup where browsing meant physically searching through stacks or walls of preprinted pictures.
At least it should be easier to find the one picture where everyone has their eyes open. Whether you’ll like the price is another matter.
Before buying the whole collection, take a look at these things you should never buy on a cruise.
10. Having to Choose Between a Different Cruise Line and Your Loyalty Progress
Finally, something disappearing that we’re happy to see go.
For frequent cruisers, trying another brand could feel like putting their usual loyalty progress on hold.
You might want a Celebrity cruise, for example, while still working toward your next Royal Caribbean status level.
Royal Caribbean Group’s Points Choice changes that for eligible sailings departing on or after January 30, 2026.
Guests sailing with Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, or Silversea can request to apply eligible earned points to another participating brand’s loyalty program, using the relevant exchange rates and conditions.
So by 2027, that particular barrier to trying a sister brand has already been reduced.
It doesn’t connect every cruise line, and points don’t simply transfer one-for-one. You need to check the rules and make the request where required.
And those points can be worth paying attention to. Depending on your status and cruise line, loyalty benefits can include free drinks on a cruise, which makes keeping your progress moving a little more tempting.
But being able to try a different onboard experience while continuing toward a familiar loyalty goal is pretty nice.
