Belfast's famous Harland & Wolff shipyard has a new guest: the Margaritaville at Sea Beachcomber, which has arrived in Northern Ireland for a refit worth around £40 million to the regional economy. The 2003-built ship, picked up by Margaritaville at Sea earlier this year, is being transformed ahead of its first season sailing for the brand in 2027.
The Beachcomber started life with Costa Cruises, so this is more than a lick of paint. The yard says the 2,720-passenger vessel will get new venues, refreshed staterooms and updated public areas throughout — a full rebranding into Margaritaville's laid-back, island-hopping style. The project also mirrors the treatment given to the Margaritaville at Sea Islander, which was refitted in Belfast in 2024, and comes alongside work on the Villa Vie Odyssey, making the yard something of a cruise-refit hub.
Once the work is done, the Beachcomber will sail across the Atlantic and greet its first guests at PortMiami in January 2027. Its maiden season covers classic sunny-water territory: the Caribbean, the Bahamas and Florida, all operating out of Miami. Then, in mid-2027, the ship moves to the Port of Galveston — a milestone, since it marks Margaritaville at Sea's first ever Texas homeport.
There's a broader story here too. Harland & Wolff was bought by Spanish shipbuilder Navantia in late 2024 in a deal that saved more than 1,000 jobs, and the yard has been keen to highlight the local economic impact of the Beachcomber contract, pointing to jobs, skills and supply-chain business across Belfast and the wider maritime sector.
For travellers, the practical upshot is a new budget-friendly option in the US short-cruise market. Margaritaville at Sea positions itself as the casual, affordable end of cruising — no formal nights, plenty of beach time — and a second Texas-based ship will appeal to cruisers in the southern US who currently have fewer homeport choices than Floridians. If you're weighing up a 2027 getaway, it's worth watching for the Galveston itineraries when they go on sale, since maiden-season ships often launch with promotional fares.
