CHARLESTON — The days are numbered for the floating fun-filled vacation vessels that have been tying up at Union Pier since at least the tail end of the Great Depression.
A schedule posted on the S.C. State Ports Authority’s website for 2026 shows no cruise ships docking at the downtown Charleston terminal beyond the nation’s 250th birthday.
The Oceania Vista is last on the list. The three-year-old, 1,200-passenger luxury ship is scheduled to tie up at the end of Market Street on the morning of July 4 — the second-to-last stop on a 22-day trans-Atlantic voyage from London to Miami.
The city’s 2026 cruise season — the last at Union Pier — got underway last weekend with the arrival of the 2,050-guest Vision of Seas. The 915-foot-long ship, operated by Royal Caribbean, is set to return downtown Jan. 18 for another urban shore excursion. And it’ll make seven more local port calls downtown through mid-April.
The most frequent visitor in 2026 will be Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel. It’s booked 11 Union Pier calls between April 28 and June 30, bringing with it up to 2,300 seafaring vacationers each time.
The SPA calendar shows that eight ships and 26 cruises, all originating in other cities, will swing by the Concord Street terminal by the nation’s semiquincentennial — five more than all of 2025.
The compressed schedule was first disclosed in a progress report that local hospitality investor Ben Navarro wrote in April about his $250 million purchase of Union Pier from the SPA, including the passenger building, that’s expected to close in 2027. Among other goals, his company struck an agreement “to end all cruise ship operations” by this summer, he said.
“Our acquisition of Union Pier includes a clear commitment to end cruise ship activity at this location and move this important property into its next chapter,” a Navarro spokesperson said Friday in a written statement.
Union Pier’s pleasure ship industry has been part of the downtown waterfront since at least April 1937, when the 305-foot-long New Northland made a stop at the terminal on its way to Bermuda with 122 travelers onboard, according to news reports.
The SPA stepped it up after acquiring the existing passenger building from the Navy 60 years ago next month.
Last call nears for Charleston’s Union Pier cruise business
