Royal Caribbean opens Lelepa waitlist for first ever Pacific private beach club

• Royal Caribbean has finally started a sales campaign around the first private experience in the Pacific.
• It has also provided more details and a timeline for its private destination at Lelepa.
• Since the announcement, Aussies have been wondering what this could mean for cruising in Australia.

Royal Caribbean has opened a “waiting list” for its first private cruise experience in the Southern Hemisphere in one of the most exciting moves in local cruising.

“The ultimate beach brag hits the serene shores of Vanuatu in 2027. Introducing Lelepa – the first private cruise destination in the southern hemisphere brings a pristine oasis with bold new ways to unwind.

“Bask in the island’s beauty and crystal-clear blue waters for pure relaxation – this is a paradise you can only find with Royal Caribbean,” says the blurb.

The line has already confirmed details and an opening date around its private island in Lelepa.

But the one intriguing thing that hasn’t been revealed is the price.

Royal Caribbean now has eight private “ultimate destinations” around the world. They are an integral part of the line’s big ship policy – as many of the world’s ports protest about the size of cruise ships, these destinations are part of the cruise and don’t have local populations.

In the words of the line: “Go for full-throttle family time at Perfect Day at CocoCay or the newly unveiled Perfect Day Mexico. Escape from it all at exclusive Royal Beach Destinations in Labadee, Haiti and Lelepa, Vanuatu – the first private cruise destination in the southern hemisphere. And if all-inclusive beach days are more your rhythm, kick back in style at Royal Beach Clubs in Cozumel, Mexico and Paradise Island in the Bahamas.”

But what will the effect be on cruising in Australia? The hope is that it will spark a revival.

Royal Caribbean has been changing its Australian deployments over recent years. Pre-pandemic, we had four Royal Caribbean ships homeporting out of Australia, which was cut down to three post-pandemic. Australia and New Zealand now have two ships deployed.

In fact, for the 2025/26 season, Australia won’t see two Quantum-class ships; however, for the 2026/2027 season, we’ll be back with Anthem of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas.

Despite this diminishing presence in Australia, the announcement of Lelepa has brought more hope than Royal Caribbean will look to invest more in its Australian presence, in order to drive more traffic to the destination and rebuild its presence in the region. 

Since the Lelepa announcement, three key issues have been on the minds of Aussie Royal Caribbean fans. 

The first is whether Royal Caribbean might now commit to year-round cruising out of Australia, which would make sense, as otherwise, for six months of the year, the destination at Lelepa will be making no profits.

The next question is whether this could mean bigger and newer ships come to Australia; however, from what we know so far, this isn’t likely.

Then the final consideration is whether this could mean Australia will once again see three or four Royal Caribbean ships throughout a season, rather than just the two we currently have. 

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Year-round cruising

The Royal Caribbean Australia season runs roughly from about November to April or May. Then, as the weather gets cold and cruisers dream of a sunny escape to the South Pacific or tropical North Queensland, Royal Caribbean ships are already far away in Alaska or the Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean having its own private destination in the South Pacific could surely serve as motivation for the cruise line to finally sail year-round in Australia. 

Private destinations also generate more profits for cruise lines, meaning it will be a more attractive proposition for those who crunch the numbers on Royal Caribbean’s profits. 

For example, Royal Caribbean’s already existing private destinations in the Caribbean operate year-round, and Royal Caribbean generally directs as many itineraries as it can towards them.

If Lelepa weren’t to see visitors for almost half of the year, this would make little sense, as the cruise line would need to pay employees to maintain and operate the facilities, without seeing any profits in return. 

When Royal Caribbean reveals its 2027/28 Australia sailings, which will likely be announced about a year from now, many will be expecting the announcement of year-round sailing. 

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Will bigger ships be on their way to Australia?

Many Royal Caribbean fans in Australia often hope that the cruise line will one day bring over bigger and newer ships. The Quantum-class ships are the largest that Australia has seen, and many hope to one day see an Oasis-class or even an Icon-class ship pay our shores a visit. 

However, it appears that this won’t be happening soon.

Royal Caribbean specified that Lelepa would be able to take about 5000 passengers, which is the capacity of a Quantum-class ship.

Oasis-class ships carry around 6400 passengers at full capacity, and Icon-class ships add more than 1000 extra passengers to that. Therefore, given that Lelepa won’t even be able to initially accommodate such large ships, it appears unlikely that this is the moment that Royal Caribbean is going to offer up some of its larger and more modern ships to Aussies. 

It’s of course a possibility that once it’s complete, Lelepa will be able to accommodate more passengers than currently planned, or that it will be upgraded in the future, but for now, it appears that the announcement of Lelepa won’t coincide with big ships coming to Australia.

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Will we see more ships on Aussie shores?

At this point, it can only be pure speculation as to whether the property at Lelepa will mean more Royal Caribbean ships sailing out of Australia, but it does appear to be a possibility. 

At Royal Caribbean’s other private destinations, such as CocoCay, it often even aims to have two ships a day, and as mentioned, they generally try to maximise cruise traffic to the island. 

With just two ships, Lelepa would only be able to see a maximum of two ships a week, and probably even less if Royal Caribbean continues running cruises to other destinations such as New Zealand and Hobart. 

Therefore, it’s possible Royal Caribbean could want to bolster its Aussie fleet in order to have ships visiting the South Pacific destination more frequently. 

Similarly to the matter of year-round sailing, many will be keenly awaiting future Aussie deployment announcements to see if Royal Caribbean will look to throw another ship in the mix.