What a difference a few months make. Earlier in the year, Cabo San Lucas business owners were panicked over the US $42 cruise tax passed by the national Senate and its potential tourism impacts, given the lingering threat of cruise lines removing Mexican Riviera destinations from their itineraries.
However, now that the tax has been negotiated down to a manageable US $5 per person, at least for the short term, the substantial number of people in the Land’s End city who rely on the cruise industry —can instead focus on the other big cruise news, which is that the destination is on pace for a record-setting year, thanks in part to an unprecedentedly robust summer schedule.
Why the cruise tax was reduced
Cruise ship companies were furious when the US $42 cruise tax was passed, noting that it would make visits to Mexico’s ports 213% more expensive than those in the Caribbean, and thus no longer feasible from a business perspective. Businesspeople in port destinations in Mexico like Cabo San Lucas weren’t happy either, since the estimated one billion dollars annually generated by cruise ship visits helps to sustain local economies.
Given this pushback, negotiations between government officials in Mexico and the cruise ship industry began months before the tax was due to take effect on July 1, and a compromise solution was hammered out. The cruise tax would be reduced to US $5 for every person who takes a cruise with port calls in Mexico, regardless of whether they get off the ship or not.
Of course, the US $5 figure will only apply during 2025 and the first half of 2026. The tax will increase incrementally over the next three years, rising to $10 in August 2026, $15 in June 2027 and finally $21 in August 2028. What’s more, cruise lines will be responsible for collecting the tax — another bone of contention that appears to have been amicably worked out… at least for now.
Record-setting projections for Cabo San Lucas
Cruise ships have been visiting Mexican Riviera destinations since the 1960s, when Princess Cruises pioneered the idea. But there’s no question that cruise ship passengers to Cabo San Lucas are on an upward trajectory and have risen to record heights in recent years.
In 2022, for instance, Cabo San Lucas received 227 cruise ships with 540,773 passengers. Ports of call were in the same range the next two years. Passenger numbers, however, shot through the roof thanks to more consistent visits from bigger ships with expanded carrying capacities. A record 735,686 cruise ship passengers visited Cabo in 2023, and although that number slightly dipped in 2024, to 724,331, more than 800,000 are expected by the end of 2025.
How is cruise ship capacity influencing these numbers? In 2022, each ship brought an average of 2,382 passengers. In 2023, that average jumped to 3,117 passengers per ship, and in 2024 it increased to 3,516. That number likely won’t rise again in 2025: through the first five months of this year, there have been 118 port of call visits bringing 410,648 passengers. That’s an average of ‘only’ 3,480 people per ship.
However, overall passenger numbers are pacing for another all-time high. Through May, cruise ship visitors were up an astonishing 34% over the same period in 2024. Summer ports of call are also more robust than usual. As a local source intimate with the cruise industry commented, “Usually there are about five ships per month in the summer. This year, it’s closer to 20.”
That makes it difficult to come up with an accurate projection for what numbers will look like by the end of 2025. If we take the arrivals through May and project them for the entire year, the total would be about 985,000. But that’s likely an unrealistic figure, since January through May are high season months, while June to September represent the destination’s traditional slow season, bringing fewer visitors.
But given that summer arrivals are headed for uncharted territory, too, anticipating upwards of 800,000 passengers in 2025 seems a safe bet.
Exciting new ships and arrivals
So the cruise ship industry is booming in Cabo San Lucas, with eight cruise companies — Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, Norwegian, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas, Princess, and Royal Caribbean — and at least 24 individual ships scheduled to visit at some point this year. Those ships combined represent a capacity of over 70,000 passengers, and several of them will be making more than a dozen visits. Carnival’s Panorama, for example, has already been a frequent visitor to Cabo San Lucas this year, with more port calls upcoming.
The Carnival Panorama, of course, is a major presence on the West Coast and has been since it launched in 2019. It was Carnival’s first new ship to be permanently homeported in Long Beach, California, in more than two decades, and since it carries up to 4,008 passengers, it’s a welcome arrival at any cruise port in Mexico.
However, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated visitor this year is Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, which since May 28 , has been homeported in Los Angeles for the first time in its history, meaning it’s also making its first trips to Cabo San Lucas. Unusually, overnight stays in Cabo are often included in its three to six-night cruises.
It’s not a permanent assignment for the company’s biggest ever LA-based ship — 168,666 gross registered tons, with over 2,000 staterooms accommodating up to 4,180 passengers at double occupancy — as Ovation of the Seas will be redeployed in September, with Quantum of the Seas replacing it. But it does reflect Royal Caribbean’s increased focus on the West Coast. Voyager of the Seas will join Quantum in Los Angeles in October, and that same month, Serenade of the Seas is set to begin Mexican Riviera cruises out of San Diego, with stops in Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and La Paz.
Cunard, meanwhile, is a far less frequent visitor to Cabo San Lucas, but one of its four ships, Queen Elizabeth, will make a port call on Oct, 3, during its 18-day voyage from San Francisco to Miami. It’s a rare treat in what is turning out to be an extraordinary year for cruises in Mexico.
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
