An expedition cruise ship has an average age of 21 years in 2025, data from the 2025 Expedition Market Report by Cruise Industry News shows.

While numerous newbuilds debuted over the last decade, the market still operates some of the industry’s oldest vessels.

According to the fleet listings in CIN’s report, a significant portion of the expedition fleet is made up of vessels that entered service in the 1980s and 1990s.

Companies with the newest fleets include Seabourn, Swan Hellenic, Viking, Albatros and Atlas Ocean, which have all of their expedition ships built after 2020.

Cruise Industry News data also shows that the expedition ships have an average passenger capacity of just 154 guests.

While most of the ships fall in the 100- to 200-guest range, some are significantly smaller, including Lindblad – National Geographic Expeditions’ Delfina, which carries only 16 guests.

HX Expeditions operates two of the largest vessels in the market: the Roald Amundsen and the Fridtjof Nansen.

Carrying 530 passengers each, the 20,889-ton sister ships have the largest  guest capacity in the expedition niche.

Other larger-than-average ships in the market include Viking’s Polaris and Octantis, which carry 378 guests each.

Seabourn, Silversea and Ponant also operate expedition vessels with capacity for over 250 passengers, including the 264-guest Le Lyrial, the 260-guest Silver Cloud and the 264-guest Seabourn Venture.