Cruise guests will be able to book IV drips and recovery boosts, blood tests with same-day results, and personal health and longevity programmes; leveraging the ship’s medical capabilities and delivered by medical specialists
September 15, 2026, Fort Lauderdale, FL – VIKAND, the global leader in maritime healthcare solutions whose doctors and nurses serve cruise ships worldwide, and wellness pioneer Anna Bjurstam, founder of Wahayla, today announced Marenia, a medical wellness concept created for the cruise industry.
The idea behind Marenia is a new level of wellness at sea. The medical team already on board can do more than treat illness, it can actively raise guests’ wellbeing every day of the voyage, and take those who want more into a full medical longevity programme. Rehydration after a hot day ashore. An immune boost the moment a cold threatens. Blood work, testing and a personal programme for guests who want to understand and improve their health. From everyday wellbeing to healthier ageing, delivered by medical professionals on board.
Wellness at sea is changing quickly. Cruise lines have begun adding IV therapy and medi-spa treatments to their spa menus, reflecting how fast guest expectations are moving toward health, recovery and longevity. Marenia starts from a different place. It is not a spa adding clinical services. It is the ship’s medical operation, with doctors, nurses, an equipped medical centre and a laboratory, opening its doors to wellness.
Marenia runs inside that operation, under VIKAND’s clinical governance and protocols. In its simplest form, it adds a Marenia nurse, employed and trained by Marenia, to work inside a medical operation that is already on board — no new licence, no new clinic to build.
That starting point is also a safety statement. Every Marenia service is delivered with a ship’s doctor on board, a certified medical centre, and the equipment and escalation pathways that already protect every guest at sea. For a cruise line, the clinical accountability for every treatment sits in one place: the medical operation that is already answerable for it.
The offer is built as a ladder:
- Everyday care; vitamin shots, IV hydration, energy and recovery, delivered by the medical team.
- Diagnostics; blood panels drawn on board and analysed in the ship’s own laboratory, with results the same day; glucose monitoring worn across the voyage; metabolic and fitness testing.
- A personal health plan; results reviewed with an experienced functional medicine and longevity doctor supporting the programme from shore, and turned into a plan the guest takes home.
A blood panel drawn in the morning comes back from the ship’s own laboratory the same day. That onboard laboratory is what makes real diagnostics possible at sea. Without one, samples travel ashore and results arrive after the guest has gone home. Further services, including regenerative treatments, may follow where clinically and operationally appropriate.
“Cruise ships already carry something extraordinarily valuable: professional medical teams and certified medical infrastructure,” said Peter Hult, CEO of VIKAND.
“Historically that capability has rightly focused on illness, injury and emergencies. Marenia asks a different question: how do we responsibly use it to help guests feel better, recover faster and leave the ship healthier than they arrived with the same clinical governance that has always protected them at sea?”
The ship’s spa remains at the heart of the guest experience. Marenia is designed to work alongside existing spa and wellness partners, taking on only what requires clinical delivery and medical oversight, and referring guests in both directions. Because Marenia uses infrastructure the ship already carries, operators can add a new wellness category, and a new revenue stream, without building a separate facility on board.
“Guests no longer just want to relax. They want to understand their health, improve how they feel, and make changes that last after the journey ends,” said Anna Bjurstam. “A cruise is the perfect place for that, because guests have something increasingly rare in modern life: time. Marenia uses that time to keep guests well, and to help those who want more to truly optimise how they feel and how they age. With VIKAND’s medical expertise behind it, we can do that responsibly, and beautifully.”
The partners will pilot Marenia with selected cruise operators before expanding across the international cruise market.
“The cruise industry does hospitality exceptionally well. VIKAND understands medicine at sea. Anna understands how to turn wellness into an extraordinary guest experience,” Hult added. “Marenia brings those three worlds together.”
ABOUT ANNA BJURSTAM/ WAHAYLA
Anna Bjurstam has spent more than 35 years shaping the modern wellness industry. As owner of Raison d’Être she built the consultancy behind more than 200 spas in 70 countries, founded the Nordic wellness concept LivNordic, and served as Wellness Pioneer at Six Senses from 2013 to 2026, leading the work that made it hospitality’s benchmark in wellness. She has served on the board of the Global Wellness Summit since 2007 and is a partner and investor in leading longevity clinics. Through Wahayla, she works at the intersection of wellness, longevity, human performance and hospitality.
ABOUT MARENIA
Marenia is a medical wellness concept created by VIKAND and Anna Bjurstam, bringing clinically governed wellness, recovery, diagnostics and personal health planning to the cruise industry. It is delivered inside the ship’s existing medical operation — its doctors, medical centre and laboratory — designed to complement onboard spa and wellness partners, and configured to each line’s guests, vessels and brand.
