Cruise lines are building and upgrading private-island ports of call at a rapid pace, and one, Royal Caribbean, is now building one that’s not in the Caribbean at all, in Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
The logic behind the islands is that as ships get bigger and bigger, holding up to 5,000 passengers, there are fewer and fewer ports that are capable of handling the crowds. Since many cruisers are, it turns out, more interested in a perfect day at the beach than an in-depth city visit, and since private islands direct the money spent back to the company, they consider it a win-win.
Royal Caribbean, in fact, calls its island Perfect Day, a name it will re-use for its Pacific Island. Its selling hook for the new attraction, to open in 2022 and focus on ships sailing from Australia, is that it will be the world’s first carbon-neutral cruise island. Construction cost is pegged at about $260 million.
Other recent island developments, Virgin Voyages is building an island, Disney is adding a second, Royal Caribbean has massively upgraded its Caribbean island, and Carnival is building a second port on the other side of its island.
