Brisbane v Sydney: Voyager of the Seas arrives and Queensland welcomes 500th ship

• Voyager of the Seas has arrived to kick off its Aussie season, where it will sail 20 cruises out of Brisbane.
• Brisbane’s cruise terminal is also celebrating its 500th cruise ship, after just three years.
• Brisbane has become the second most popular cruise port in Australia next to Sydney.

Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas has made her return to Australia, sailing into Brisbane to begin the first of 20 cruises for the season.

While the ship will only be here for one season, it has drummed up plenty of interest and offers cruisers a different experience with alternative entertainment and dining options.

Voyager of the Seas is a smaller than the Quantum-class vessels which have been so popular in the region.

However, the arrival of Voyager isn’t just a big day for Royal Caribbean and its fans, but also comes at an exciting time for the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, who are marking the 500th cruise ship visit since its opening three years ago. 

The port hit the 500 mark on December 14, with the visit of Carnival Luminosa, making Voyager’s arrival today the 502nd ship to come in, after Carnival Encounter docked yesterday.

Brisbane has quickly converted itself into the number two port in Australia, behind Sydney. The 2025/26 season will see more than 140 cruise calls to Brisbane’s terminal, about double that of Melbourne, which was previously the second most prolific port in Australia.

Sydney’s OPT and White Bay handle 300+ ships a year.

Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd (PBPL) CEO, Neil Stephens, says there’s plenty to celebrate and that the economic benefit to the city has been, and will continue to be extremely significant. 

“Since opening, we’ve hosted some of the largest ships to visit Australia, had over 2.5 million passenger movements through the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, and even weathered a cyclone earlier this year.

“Queensland is Australia’s second-largest cruise market, and 500 calls in just over three years shows how central the BICT is to the state’s cruise tourism industry.

“Every call into the BICT contributes over $1 million in economic value to Queensland; over 10 years from FY24, that could reach around $1.5 billion.”

Brisbane could be set to see even more growth as a cruise port over coming years. Royal Caribbean is currently building a private destination at Lelepa, and Brisbane is the closest Aussie port. 

It’s expected that once the private destination opens, Royal Caribbean will begin sailing year-round in Australia, and these sailings could well be out of Brisbane. It’s also expected that Celebrity Cruises will visit the island, which is owned by Royal Caribbean, and they could well add sailings out of Brisbane to cut distance. 

This would hugely boost sailings for Brisbane, further growing the port.

Then there’s also the reality that Sydney’s cruise capacity is running low, and very little progress seems to have been made towards finding a new terminal location. As Sydney continues to edge towards its maximum capacity, more and more ships will likely start considering Brisbane as an alternative. Brisbane also brings the advantage of cheaper port fees than Sydney, and a location close to the Great Barrier Reef, a hugely popular cruise destination.

In just a few short years, Brisbane’s new terminal has made all the difference, with Brisbane now a world renowned cruise port. While its growth has been stifled by an overall drop in cruise ships visiting Australia, if Australia can get its cruise industry back on track, Brisbane will surely see huge growth over coming years, continuing to bring benefits to the city and local communities. 

But it needs to conquer the fly-cruise market and get year-round ships before it can really challenge Sydney’s numbers.