Adora Cruises

Adora Cruises is China's first homegrown ocean cruise line and is part of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), headquartered in Shanghai. The brand launched in early 2024 with the Adora Magic City, a ship reflagged from Costa Atlantica to the Chinese brand. In parallel, CSSC is building in Shanghai the first entirely Chinese-built large cruise ship (Adora-class, ~135,000 GRT), an industrially and politically significant project of the Chinese government.

The onboard concept is tailored exclusively to the Chinese domestic market: Chinese cuisine as the main dining offering, karaoke lounges, mahjong rooms, large casinos, and live entertainment featuring Chinese performers. The onboard language is Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and the onboard currency is the Chinese Yuan (RMB). Routes are currently limited to Chinese waters — departing from Shanghai, with stops in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Adora Cruises is politically celebrated as proof that China can achieve independence from Western brands (Royal Caribbean, MSC) in the cruise tourism sector as well. With additional CSSC-built vessels of the Adora-class planned throughout the 2020s, the fleet will be gradually expanded.