The One Big Thing Cruise Passengers Want – But Will Probably Never Get

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# The One Big Thing Cruise Passengers Want – But Will Probably Never Get

Cruise lines have added countless amenities passengers have asked for over the years. But one popular request is still missing from every cruise ship at sea.

Cruise lines have changed a lot through the years, and they’ve made sure to add plenty of things their passengers have frequently asked for:

• More electrical outlets and USB/USB-C ports in cabins
• More solo cabins
• More connecting and family cabins
• Anytime/flexible dining
• Better coffee
• More adult-only spaces
• More varied dietary options
• Starlink/better internet
• More nonsmoking areas/less indoor smoking
• Water-bottle filling stations

And the list goes on and on.

However, one thing has been on cruise passengers’ wish lists for years and still hasn’t come to fruition on any cruise ship.

A lazy river.

Sure, you can find lazy rivers up the yin-yang at water parks, and they’re even starting to appear at private destinations operated by cruise lines:

• Norwegian is adding a nearly 800-foot lazy river as part of the major redevelopment of its private island, Great Stirrup Cay. It’s scheduled to debut in summer 2026 (read: “any day now!”)
• Royal Caribbean has announced a ginormous, one-mile-long lazy river at Perfect Day Mexico. It’ll even have an optional faster section with waves and rapids. It’s currently scheduled to open in late 2027.

But a lazy river on a cruise ship? How great would that be? Grab a properly chilled adult drink and float around and around, all day long.

But you can’t do it on a cruise ship. Anywhere.

And if you think about it, the absence of a lazy river makes no sense from a “fun” point of view. I mean, they’ve put water slides, roller coasters, go-karts, surf simulators, ropes courses, zip lines, ice-skating rinks, bumper cars and freaking WATER PARKS on cruise ships.

But no lazy rivers.

Why not?

Apparently, a couple of reasons.

The footprint

Deck space on a cruise ship is always a precious commodity. A lazy river would take up a HUGE amount of deck space. It’s probably space none of the cruise companies are willing to give up at this time.

The safety issues

If you’ve ever been on a ship, you’ve seen how much pool water winds up outside the pool. Enough that it’s the job of some crew to squeegee the deck around the pool all day long, so no one slips on a wet floor.

Can you imagine how many people they would need to keep the deck near a lazy river dry?

And that’s just the water outside the lazy river. You’d also have hundreds of people getting in and out of tubes, potentially colliding with each other, trying to stand up in moving water and navigating the attraction while the ship itself is moving.

Suddenly, that’s a whole lot more for the cruise line to manage than a swimming pool.

The weight and stability problem

This is the biggie: the engineering problem.

Remember, water is HEAVY. A gallon of fresh water weighs a little over 8 pounds, and a lazy river would require a whole lot of gallons.

But it’s not just the weight that’s a problem. There’s also something called the “free-surface effect.”

A lazy river is essentially a long, shallow, partially filled channel of water. On solid ground, that’s no big deal. But on a ship that’s rolling from side to side, all that water can move within the channel as the ship moves.

Naval architects already have to account for this phenomenon anywhere liquids can move around aboard a ship. And the higher up on the ship you put all that weight, which is presumably where passengers would want their sunny, outdoor lazy river, the more complicated the stability equation becomes.

Cruise ship pools avoid some of those problems by being relatively small and shallow, and they can be drained or closed when sea conditions warrant.

Now imagine trying to do the same thing with an 800-foot lazy river.

Suddenly, putting one on a cruise ship doesn’t sound quite so simple.

And until engineers can figure out a way to control that problem, I don’t think we’re going to see a lazy river at sea.

So as much as passengers might love to spend a sea day endlessly floating around a cruise ship with a cold drink in their hands, there are some pretty good reasons why no cruise line has built a lazy river yet.

Could some brilliant naval architect eventually figure out a practical way to make one work? Never say never. Cruise ships have attractions today that would’ve sounded completely ridiculous a few decades ago.

But for now, if you want to float around a lazy river during your cruise vacation, you’ll apparently have to wait until you get off the ship.

Which seems awfully ambitious for something with the word “lazy” right in its name. 😉

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