When Royal Caribbean opened Royal Beach Club Santorini this season, it did something unusual for a cruise line’s private destination: it put tickets on sale to the island’s own residents.
Since the start of May, Santorini locals have been able to book the beach club in person, with online booking following at the end of the month (carrying an 8% platform fee).
Resident pricing is fixed for the 2026 season at €118 per adult and €62 for children aged 12 and under, with under-3s free.
The club operates seven days a week, 9am to 5pm, and entry covers an all-you-can-eat Greek buffet, unlimited draft beer and locally sourced house wine, loungers and umbrellas on the black-sand beach, private changing huts, a DJ, and Wi-Fi.
Reading between the lines
The resident scheme is a deliberate gesture.
Santorini has become one of the Mediterranean’s most visible flashpoints for overtourism, with cruise arrivals a regular focus of local frustration, and Royal Caribbean is clearly keen to position the beach club as something the island shares rather than loses: the announcement stresses that locals keep full access to the beach and sea via an improved public road.
It’s also a window into where the industry is heading.
The beach club is part of Royal Caribbean Group’s push to grow its private destinations from three to eight by 2028, spanning the Perfect Day and Royal Beach Club collections — with a Paradise Island club already open in the Bahamas and Royal Beach Club Lelepa in Vanuatu to follow in October 2027.
Increasingly, the destination the cruise line owns is part of the product.
What it means for UK cruisers
If your Mediterranean itinerary calls at Santorini with Royal Caribbean, the “Ultimate Santorini Day” beach club experience will be pitched alongside the traditional Oia-and-Fira shore excursions.
The resident price list gives a useful benchmark for what a day there is worth — food, drink, and loungers included — when weighing a ship excursion against an independent day, a judgement that applies in any port.
Neither is the wrong answer: one is a resort day with the logistics handled, the other is the island itself.
Related: Why more cruise lines are sailing Europe year-round, and what it means for UK travellers
Image: Royal Caribbean
