Royal Caribbean Group to Spend $3 Billion for 50% of Sandals Resorts
In a surprising move, Royal Caribbean Group announced today that it signed an agreement to partner with Sandals Resorts. The partnership includes a 50% investment from Royal Caribbean Group. Murmurs of the agreement circulated earlier this week, but this morning, Royal Caribbean Group signed it at its Miami headquarters.
What Does the Sandals Resorts Deal Include?
You’ve probably seen commercials and advertising for Sandals Resorts. The company owns and operates 20 all-inclusive beach resorts across 10 islands in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Barbados. The deal includes two brands: Sandals Resorts, which is adults-only, and Beaches Resorts, the family-friendly option.
Sandals properties are relatively small compared to Royal Caribbean’s massive cruise ships, with some properties having as few as 74 rooms, while most have between 200 and 400.
Under the terms of the agreement, Royal Caribbean Group will acquire a 50% equity interest in Sandals and Beaches Resorts for approximately $3 billion. The joint venture will be governed by a board led by executive chairmen Adam Stewart of Sandals and Jason Liberty of Royal Caribbean Group. Stewart will maintain a leadership role in guiding the company’s long-term strategic growth as Executive Chairman of Sandals and Beaches Resorts.
The deal is expected to close in early 2027.
Why Is Royal Caribbean Group Getting Into Resorts?
From an investment perspective, cruises are just a small portion of the travel market; land-based vacations make up a much larger portion. In fact, during investor calls, Royal Caribbean executives have indicated that their primary competition is not necessarily other cruise lines, but land-based vacations. It’s a huge market they can target, but the company only has so many ships.
In the Q2 2025 earnings call, Jason Liberty, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, said Royal Caribbean wanted to close the gap with land-based vacations, discussing ships, private destinations, technology, loyalty, and river cruising as ways to capture more of the $2 trillion vacation market.
According to Liberty, “We have been building a vacation platform that brings joy to millions of people around the world and creates meaningful relationships that last with our guests. Our partnership with Sandals and Beaches Resorts is an important next step on that journey – bringing together two iconic leading vacation companies to further strengthen and grow one of the most admired resort portfolios in the world.”
But the cost here is relatively modest when you consider what Royal Caribbean spends on new ships. Hero of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s ship that’s still under construction, is estimated to cost around $2 billion. This deal, with $3 billion for access to 20 properties, is relatively low in comparison, although the capacity is much less.
What Does This Mean for Cruising?
Royal Caribbean has increasingly looked to control the whole vacation experience. By introducing private destinations and experiences like Perfect Day at CocoCay and Royal Beach Club Paradise Island, they’ve kept guests in their ecosystem much more than before. That allows them to make sure customers get the experience they expect, but also creates more revenue opportunities for Royal Caribbean Group rather than local vendors.
The partnership with Sandals will broaden that. While they have not indicated how they will implement the partnership, Royal Caribbean could add vacation experiences before or after a cruise, use them as excursions during port calls, or just merge loyalty programs. It will be interesting to see.
Could it also mean higher prices? In recent investor calls, Jason Liberty has focused on raising Royal Caribbean prices to better align with traditional land vacations. In Q4 2023, he said, “We are obsessed about…how do we close that gap? How do we compete with land-based vacation?” In Q1 2024, he reported that land-based vacations had a 25-30% premium over Royal Caribbean products. In the Q1 2026 call, he said Royal Caribbean was still trading at about a 15%+ discount to land-based vacations. If Royal Caribbean is now participating in land-based resort pricing too, will it all go up?
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