Could this Royal Caribbean ship be making a surprising return to Australia?

• Royal Caribbean will be releasing its 2027/28 deployments next month, with plenty of people waiting to see what the cruise line decides.
• Forward cruise schedules offer some clues, including the surprising return of a ship known to Aussies.
• These new itineraries could also reveal some insight into whether the private destination at Lelepa will be ready for the 2027/28 season.

While most cruise lines have already announced their 2027/28 sailings for Australia, as is the case every year, Royal Caribbean is keeping us waiting a little bit longer. Aussies will be looking on with particular interest to see which ships Royal Caribbean announces for Aussie waters, as recent years have seen plenty of changes.

For the 2022/23 seasons, Aussies had three Royal Caribbean ships on its shores, Ovation of the Seas, Quantum of the Seas and Brilliance of the Seas. For the 2023/24 season we said goodbye to Brilliance of the Seas, and then for the current 2024/25 season, we saw a significant switch up to Anthem of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas.

Voyager is smaller and a bit older than Quantum-class ships such as Anthem, Ovation and Quantum. However, we already know that next season we’ll have Quantum of the Seas replacing Voyager in Brisbane, and Anthem back in Sydney once again, meaning a return to two Quantum-class ships.

As you can see, there’s been lots of shuffling around of ships, leaving a bit of doubt over how Royal Caribbean will handle its 2027/28 deployments. The schedule should be released in March according to Royal Caribbean communications, but they’re known to be delayed, often arriving in April or June.

There’s also been speculation that 2027/28 could be a year of change for Royal Caribbean, as it’s when we’re expected to see the introduction of Lelepa as a private destination in the South Pacific.

While anything apart from an official announcement will have an element of speculation to it, there are some interesting clues as to what ships we might see for the 2027/28 season and these can be found in the forward cruise schedules of Sydney and Brisbane.

These schedules show a return of the ships we currently have, Anthem of the Seas in Sydney and Voyager of the Seas in Brisbane to Aussie waters in 2027/28. The return of Voyager would be a surprise for Aussies given it was only slated to be here for one season and to some, represents something of a downgrade compared to the Quantum ships.

It should be noted that these ship schedules aren’t always necessarily accurate, sometimes ships are booked just as placeholders and shuffled around later. 

Furthermore, the development of geopolitical tension between China and Japan could have surprising consequences for Australia as well. 

Royal Caribbean Blog had previously shared rumours that China could be getting Wonder of the Seas, an Oasis-class ship. However, China is now discouraging travel to Japan, which is where its cruises sail to, leaving uncertainty over where Royal Caribbean will continue sailing out of China at all. For now it appears that Royal Caribbean is rather adjusting itineraries to visit South Korea, instead of pulling out entirely. 

If Royal Caribbean were to scale back its operation in China, this would leave a ship undesignated in the Asian region, which could potentially be redirected to Australia, particularly if Lelepa were going to come into play. 

The same online cruise administrator who shared the rumour also suggested that Quantum would homeport in Singapore for the 2027/28 season, which would corroborate with the return of Voyager to Aussie waters. While Voyager’s season certainly hasn’t brought any complaints, it’s definitely possible that Aussies could be expected more for what has been speculated to be a big season for Royal Caribbean in Australia.

See Royal’s website here.