Size of Ships

JoeyandDavid · February 6, 2006

Rogue/Howard's story about the new cruise ship that RCCL is building to house 5400 pax lead me to this question. What do you think.

Joanandjoe · February 6, 2006

We've made our thoughts pretty clear: we like small ships, and wish the cruise lines would build new ones. That's apparently not in the cards. Obviously our answer is "YES-way, way, way too big". Heck, we think the HAL Vista class is too big; but once the Noordam is delivered, every ship on order will be bigger than the 1,848 to 1,918 PAX Vistas, mostly much bigger.

KeithnRita · February 6, 2006

We prefer the passenger count around 1,200 to 1,500. That being said, our next cruise is on a 3,100 passenger ship. It was the best fit Princess cruise we could find to fit our schedule.

DaCruzNut · February 6, 2006

I think the "perfect" size for a ship is in the 45,000-50,000 grt range (Carnival's "Holiday"). It's large enough to offer a large variety of things to do and yet is small enough to still be 'cozy.'

I don't need to ice skate, rolloerblade, rock-wall climb, etc; on a cruise. I can do that elsewhere.

jacketwatch · February 6, 2006

:cool: That is certainly too large for me. However there must be a market for it or else it'll be a costly failure. We will be on a smaller ship this summer, the Tahitian Princess which has a capacity of just

TheSkipper · February 6, 2006

Yes, I think this trend is getting way out of hand! How do you get on and off a ship this size?? Way too many folks for a single ship to dump into a port of call at one time!

It is all about $$$. The more we can cram aboard the more money we can make per trip.

SueC · February 7, 2006

Can you imagine being in port the same day as that ship? And how many of the islands actually have docks that will handle that size? NOPE...I'll stick with the smaller ones thank you.

Shari2 · February 7, 2006

I do think they're building the ships too big today. I don't think that I'd want to go on a ship that's 220,000 GRT. The "Infinity" is around 92, 000 GRT, and that was big enough for me. I don't know how you would avoid lines and usually the service and food is better on a smaller ship.

cruisetarp · February 7, 2006

I feel that this is definately not the case of "bigger is better". I think they have gone way overboard on this. Can you imagine the crowds? No thanks - not for us.