Every cruise ship due at Liverpool in September 2026, with arrival and departure times, what each ship is, and where the published listings disagree.
If you want to see a cruise ship on the Mersey this September, the useful question is not whether one is coming. It is which day, and what time it leaves, because departures are usually the better watch.
Seventeen calls are scheduled across sixteen days in September 2026, by eleven different ships. They range from the 596-guest Silver Dawn up to Majestic Princess, which has room for 3,560. Below is the full schedule, what each ship is, and the two places where published listings disagree.
Times come from the published schedule and are not a promise. Ships move for tides, weather and pilot availability. Check the Liverpool Cruise Port schedule again on the day before making a special trip.
| Date | Ship | Line | Arrive | Depart | Capacity | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 1 Sep | Mein Schiff 2 | TUI Cruises | 07:45 | 17:45 | 2,894 | Transit |
| Tue 1 Sep | Viking Sky | Viking | 03:30 | 22:30 | 930 | Transit |
| Wed 2 Sep | Bolette | Fred. Olsen | 06:00 | 17:00 | 1,338 | Turnaround |
| Thu 3 Sep | Viking Jupiter | Viking | 08:00 | 23:00 | 930 | Transit |
| Mon 7 Sep | Viking Saturn | Viking | 07:00 | 18:00 | 930 | Transit |
| Tue 8 Sep | Viking Vela | Viking | 08:00 | 23:00 | 998 | Transit |
| Wed 9 Sep | Disney Dream | Disney | 08:45 | 18:45 | 2,500 | Transit |
| Thu 10 Sep | Majestic Princess | Princess | 10:00 | 20:00 | 3,560 | Transit |
| Fri 11 Sep | Mein Schiff 2 | TUI Cruises | 09:45 | 20:00 | 2,894 | Transit |
| Sat 12 Sep | Bolette | Fred. Olsen | 06:00 | 17:00 | 1,338 | Turnaround |
| Sun 13 Sep | Silver Dawn | Silversea | 08:00 | 21:00 | 596 | Transit |
| Tue 15 Sep | Viking Jupiter | Viking | 07:00 | 18:00 | 930 | Transit |
| Sat 19 Sep | Viking Vela | Viking | 07:00 | 18:00 | 998 | Transit |
| Sun 20 Sep | Viking Mira | Viking | 08:00 | 23:00 | 998 | Transit |
| Mon 21 Sep | Seven Seas Grandeur | Regent | 08:00 | 18:00 | 750 | Transit |
| Tue 22 Sep | Bolette | Fred. Olsen | 06:00 | 17:00 | 1,338 | Turnaround |
| Wed 23 Sep | Viking Saturn | Viking | 08:00 | 23:00 | 930 | Transit |
Capacity is the port's expected figure for planning, not a headcount. Ships often sail below their maximum.
Two entries are worth double-checking rather than trusting.
September starts with the month's only two-ship day.
Mein Schiff 2 is scheduled at the main Cruise Berth from 7.45am to 5.45pm. It entered service in 2019, carries 2,894 passengers and sails mainly for the German market, so a good share of the people coming ashore that morning will be German speakers.
Viking Sky is due much earlier, at 3.30am, and stays until 10.30pm. That is a long day even by cruise standards, and it gives its 930 guests more time in the city than most transit calls allow.
One detail matters if you were hoping to photograph both together: the port data puts Viking Sky at Liverpool North Auxiliary Berth S6 rather than the Cruise Berth at Princes Parade. The two ships will not be side by side.
Bolette is due on Wednesday 2, Saturday 12 and Tuesday 22 September, and all three are full turnarounds. That means one set of passengers disembarks and another boards, rather than the ship stopping for a day.
It is the practical difference for anyone living here. On a turnaround, Liverpool is where the cruise starts or finishes, so these are the only three dates in September when you could join a ship from Princes Parade rather than travel to Southampton.
Turnaround days are also the busy ones on the ground. Baggage, stores, coaches, taxis and cars all arrive within a few hours, so Princes Parade is heavier going than during an ordinary day call.
Bolette is 238 metres long and the port lists 1,338 guests. Longer-standing cruise passengers may recognise the shape: it entered service in 2000 as Amsterdam for Holland America Line, and Fred. Olsen bought it in 2020 and renamed it.
Viking Cruises accounts for close to half the month. Five ships make eight calls between them:
The similar names are not a coincidence. Viking's ocean fleet is built as a run of near-identical sister ships, all much smaller than something like Majestic Princess and all designed around fewer than 1,000 guests.
Sky, Jupiter and Saturn each carry about 930 passengers. The newer Vela and Mira take 998. Vela was delivered in 2024 and Mira in 2026, which makes Mira the newest ship calling at Liverpool during the month.
Four of the eight Viking calls are scheduled to leave at 11pm. Those late departures are the ones to aim for if you want the ship lit up against a dark river rather than flat afternoon light.
Viking Mira is new enough that no freely licensed photograph of it exists yet, so there is no picture of it here. It is a sister to Vela and will look much the same from the Pier Head.
Sail-away gathering: music starts at the Pier Head from approximately 6pm on Wednesday 9 September. Culture Liverpool lists the ship leaving its berth at 6.45pm, with a farewell in mid-river around 7pm and a brief fireworks finale weather permitting. Organisers recommend the Pier Head because of roadworks on Princes Parade. The gathering is free, with no public access to the ship. Read our Disney Dream farewell guide for timings, travel and facilities.
Disney Dream is the call the port itself expects to draw a crowd. Liverpool Cruise Port named its return on 9 September as a highlight when it published the 2026 season.
It is the easiest ship on the list to identify from a distance: dark hull, two red funnels, and Disney detailing along the sides. On the top decks is AquaDuck, a water coaster with 765 feet of clear tube that loops around the funnels and out over the side of the ship.
The Liverpool stop is part of a seven-night British Isles cruise out of Southampton, calling at Liverpool, Greenock, Cobh and Portland. It is a transit call, so you cannot board here.
Majestic Princess is due at 10am on Thursday 10 September and leaves at 8pm. Princess lists 3,560 guests and 1,346 crew across 19 decks, on a hull 330 metres long. It entered service in 2017 and was named by the basketball player Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li.
Its stand-out feature is the SeaWalk, a glass-floored walkway on Deck 16 that juts about 28 feet out beyond the side of the ship, high above the water.
The 10am arrival is the friendliest in the month if you want to watch a big ship come up the river without setting an alarm for the small hours.
Silver Dawn arrives at 8am on Sunday 13 September and leaves at 9pm. At 596 guests it is the smallest ship of the month, and Silversea staffs it with 411 crew, a ratio far above anything else on the September list.
It was built in 2021 and carries Silversea's Otium wellness programme and its S.A.L.T. food programme, short for Sea and Land Taste.
It is worth seeing next to the numbers three days earlier. Majestic Princess has space for almost six times as many passengers.
Seven Seas Grandeur is in port from 8am to 6pm on Monday 21 September. It entered service in 2023 and carries around 750 guests in an all-suite layout.
The unusual part is inside. The ship carries Journey in Jewels, which Regent and the House of Fabergé describe as the first Fabergé egg to reside permanently at sea. It was made in southern England in 18 carat white gold, with the shell enamelled in shades of blue, and it was unveiled at the ship's christening in Miami in December 2023.
Fourteen of September's calls are transit visits. Passengers come ashore for a few hours, walk the waterfront or take a coach trip somewhere in the city region, then reboard before the ship leaves.
Bolette's three visits are turnarounds, where the terminal has to handle check-in, baggage and a complete change of passengers.
Liverpool could not run turnarounds at all when the modern terminal opened. A £9.2 million government grant came with a condition limiting it to port-of-call visits, after objections from Southampton. Liverpool City Council offered to repay part of the money, the government agreed in March 2012, and full turnaround services began on 29 May 2012.
The terminal changed hands again in 2024, when the council ended its control and handed the facility to Peel Ports Group. Peel then signed a 50-year partnership with Global Ports Holding, which now operates it.
Across the whole of 2026 the port expects 118 ship calls, roughly 250,000 passengers and 100,000 crew.
Most ships berth at Liverpool Cruise Port alongside Princes Parade. The public spaces around the Pier Head and the northern waterfront give you views across the river, but the terminal itself is a working port. Do not walk into passenger, baggage or operational areas.
The terminal address is Gate 2, Princes Parade, Liverpool L3 1DL. James Street is the nearest Merseyrail station. Lime Street is about a 20-minute walk. If you would rather build the trip around the river, the Mersey Ferry from the Pier Head to Seacombe gives you a view of the berth from the water, and our waterfront walk covers the same stretch on foot.
The easiest movements to plan around:
Ships are not trains. Times move at short notice for tides, weather, pilot availability or delays earlier in an itinerary. Check the port's live schedule on the morning if you are making a special journey, and see what else is on in Liverpool in September if you want to build a day around it.
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