After a year-long gap, Royal Caribbean International is returning to New Orleans in late 2024. According to deployment published on its website, the company will operate the Brilliance of the Seas from the homeport during the entire 2024-25 winter season.

Sailing from New Orleans, the Radiance-class vessel is set to offer a series of cruises to the Western Caribbean.

Extending from October 2024 to April 2025, the program features regular week-long itineraries to Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Belize.

Ports of call include Cozumel, Costa Maya, Puerto Progreso, George Town, Falmouth, and Belize City.

The Brilliance is also set to offer a repositioning cruise from Los Angeles in late September 2024. Sailing to New Orleans, the 14-night itinerary includes visits to ports in Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia, in addition to a full transit of the Panama Canal.

Built in 2002, the Brilliance of the Seas is part of Royal Caribbean’s four-ship Radiance Class. With capacity to 2,000 guests, the 90,000-ton vessel underwent a major renovation in 2018.

After cancelling all of its upcoming sailings from New Orleans during the COVID-19 pandemic, Royal Caribbean International returned to the homeport in late 2022 with the Radiance of the Seas.

The vessel spent almost three months sailing from the Louisiana homeport before joining the company’s lineup in Galveston in early 2023.

With the Radiance repositioning to Tampa for the upcoming winter, Royal Caribbean won’t deploy any ship in New Orleans during the 2023-2024 season.

A recurrent homeport for the brand in the past, the Big Easy served as the basis for several of the company’s ships over the years, including the Navigator of the Seas.

One of the largest ships to ever sail from the port, the Voyager-Class vessel spent the 2012-2013 season sailing from Louisiana.