No dog in the fight, but Carnival (corp) has had HMC before RCCL thought of a private island. Carnival had more private islands (GT, Amber Cove, HMC, Mahogany Bay) than RCCL for years. If you want to count amusement parks on private islands I concede, and would not go anyways. All that said, it is the trend, is it better for money? Yup. Better for me? Nope