Is big now the right and perfect way to go cruising?
Based on what cruise lines are doing, introducing bigger and bigger ships, it seems they think
so.
Even premium and luxury lines that had smaller ships like Princess Cruises, Holland America
Line, Silversea and Seabourn are shifting from smaller ships and are going bigger.
Having been on a series of cruises close to each other on a mix of big and smaller ships,
I have decided there is a perfect size of ship to go cruising on - although it’s not
as obvious or as straight-forward making that decision as I thought it would be.
If you are new here, welcome aboard.
I'm Gary Bembridge and it's my goal to make it easier and more fun to plan and enjoy unforgettable
cruise vacations.
I kept changing what I thought the perfect size was based on whether I was thinking about
travelling by myself, with my partner, with a group of other people like our mothers,
or on a multi-generational cruise with my sister, her grown-up sons in their late 20s
and their young kids.
For each of those, who I want to be surrounded by on board is different.
Big ships are perfect when I want us to be with a younger crowd, like if cruising with
my sister’s 20-something year old sons and their kids.
The average age of cruising is coming down, and it seems to be driven by ship size as
much as it is by the individual lines, although they're interlinked as Royal Caribbean, Norwegian,
MSC and increasingly Carnival operates many of the biggest ships.
The bigger the ship, the younger I find passengers on board are, as they appeal to families,
young couples, multi-generational travellers and groups of young single friends.
As ships get smaller ships, I find I am with more traditional cruise demographics and so
find older couples and so more people like me.
Why is this happening and why the difference?
First, big ships offer a resort-like experience, good value fares and a wide range of cabins
that cater for a range of needs that suits families and cost-conscious younger travellers.
The ships offer inside cabins, Oceanview cabins, balcony cabins and suites.
They have family cabins, which multiple people can stay in, and lots of interconnecting cabins
for families and friends travelling together.
In terms of value, each grade is usually cheaper than the equivalent on smaller cruise ships.
For example, if you compare a balcony on a big cruise ship to a balcony on a small ship,
it is usually significantly cheaper.
In fact, a balcony on small ship often costs the same as a suite on a bigger ship.
Bigger ships have a wide range of activities and entertainment jampacked into big ships
that can keep kids, teens and a young active traveller busy and occupied.
Go-karts, video arcades, waterparks, rock climbing, wave riders, parties, and so on.
There are also large and busy kids’ and teen clubs, and usually babysitting services
to allow parents alone time.
Big ships have a wide range of dining options ranging from fine dining to steak houses to
Asian food to fast food burger joints.
Again, catering for all tastes and all ages.
Big ships tend to be associated with lines like Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line,
MSC Cruises.
But however, we are seeing bigger ships appearing in premium and more traditional lines like
Princess like Sky Princess with 3,660 passengers I was on recently.
Big ships are also appealing for those worried about or travelling with people worried about
seasickness, as they can be more stable than smaller ships.
They tend to feel the motion of the ocean much less.
It doesn’t guarantee that you won't get seasick, but bigger ships are more stable
and move about less.
Smaller ships have less of all of this and tend to have a more classic and traditional
cruise ship layout and naturally fewer facilities due to their size.
Many do not have kids’ clubs.
And I find tend to have older crowd and is more couples and solo travellers.
For me, these therefore are more often the perfect size for many of my cruises which
is why I like lines like Oceania, Azamara, Viking, Seabourn, Windstar and so on for my
cruises especially when travelling solo.
Another consideration on perfect size is if you or people in your group are less mobile
or not keen on having to walk long distances to get to things, big ships can be a challenge.
Small is more manageable.
If choice and range is important to you and the people you're travelling with, then big
is beautiful.
If you want lots of cabin choices, lots of dining options, lots of entertainment, lots
of activities, and want to be surrounded by a younger crowd with more families, big is
going to be beautiful.
However, I did decide that it is a too simplistic approach to focus too much on age and facilities
to decide on the perfect size because all ages may enjoy all a big or small ship offers.
There is more to consider.
So much hinges on what you want in a vacation.
For example, my partner Mark likes lay about in the day but wants to be entertained in
the evening.
He wants good food in a smart dining option, a big show with big production values and
a busy casino with lots of choices of gaming.
That's why for example, on a land-based vacation, he loves going to Las Vegas because it has
all those things.
Me, I generally like a quiet more laid back vacation.
Busy days exploring with earlier nights and a bit more chilling.
Big ships are if you love a vacation to be in a busy bustling environment with lots of
people, busy bars, venues and pools.
You don't mind a noisier environment with kids and people around you.
You like choice and don't mind set dining times, or planning to book specialty dining,
theatre, the go-karting, the flowrider.
You’re not fussed with some lining up for things, a slower embarkation and disembarkation
due to the numbers of people because on a vacation you love the energy, the buzz of
an action-packed resort vacation.
The wide choices and the constant things to do is key for you.
The ship is as important, or even more important, than the place and the ports you are going
to.
You want to be entertained without having to think about or finding things to do to
keep you and your travel party busy.
You want great kid facilities.
You want to keep them busy because that's high and important to your vacation experience.
You want babysitters.
You want “you” time.
Then big is going to be perfect.
Small is perfect if, like me, you want something more cosy, more intimate, lower energy, quieter,
and slim to or no chance, depending on the line, of having kids and families with you.
Smaller ships and the lines that run them are either adult only, like Viking and Saga,
or don’t have kids’ clubs and activities like Azamara and Oceania.
I am happy with less choice on the ship, as for me the destinations are the key to a good
vacation.
A main dining room, a buffet, maybe one or two specialty dining restaurants, a slimmer
daily program, which is more enrichment focused and no big production-shows suits me.
And another small-ship feature important to me is open-seated dining so I can eat when
I want at any table size is important to you rather than having fixed dining times
And, for me, having no lines is a big plus When I am on lines like Oceania, Azamara,
Silversea, Viking, Silversea and Windstar there is no queuing up for anything, easy
and fast embarking and disembarking.
As I travel solo a lot, I find small is easier to meet and make friends.
On a big ship I can interact with lots of people, but I find it’s easier to meet and
get to know people on small versus big ships as you see the same people.
The downside of course, if I really want to be anonymous, small is not great for that.
Big seems perfect if I want that resort-like experience and the on-ship experience is key
to the vacation like when I want those, I am with to have lots do and keep them busy
in board.
A key consideration when travelling with others, especially that multi-generational trip as
it would be stressful trying to ensure my nephews, their wives and kids were happy and
busy as well as my sister and me on anything other than a big ship.
However, this comes with a big compromise that needs to be carefully considered before
settling on the perfect size.
Big and small ships on the surface go to the same places, but there’s a catch.
While they both go to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Alaska, Asia or Australia, Norwegian Fjords,
Baltics and so on, it’s a very different experience.
How and where I want to go, plays a big role in deciding big versus small.
Big ships must stick to deep water ports and to ports that can cope with the numbers of
people pouring off the ships.
If there's a couple of big ships in ports, there can be between 15,000 and 20,000 people
in a port off those big ships.
So, these limits where they can go.
They also avoid small out of the way places which require tendering because tendering
thousands of people is too time-consuming.
Celebrity with Celebrity Edge class ships is trying to solve that problem with their
Magic Carpet, which comes down to the water's edge and allows them to use bigger tenders.
So, although on a big ship you will go to all those main regions, I can see the ports
often differs enormously.
There are four considerations before I choose a big ship as ideal for a cruise:
First, as I happy to only go to the mass tourist places, which have the deep ports and can
cater with the numbers.
So, in the Caribbean that means the big islands like St Thomas, Barbados, St Maarten, and
so on.
Second, am I happy with going to some places that are specifically designed and created
for big ships.
Costa Maya is a good example, but many of the cruise lines have private islands where
they can take their big ships.
Third, am I happy for my big ship to be docked far away from the centre of town, often in
working container shipyards and must transfer in, which could be an hour or longer.
So, for example, in Ho Chi Minh City, I went there on a bigger ship, Queen Mary 2.
We were docked an hour, more than an hour away in the port, whereas Silversea was right
in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.
People could step off and just walk into Saigon area there.
But in St. Petersburg, I went on Silversea and we were slap bang right next to the Hermitage
Museum whereas all the other ships were right out an hour or so further away in the working
harbour.
I've just come back from the Greek Islands.
We were on Seabourn Ovation and whilst others who were on big ships, like Celebrity Apex
and bigger ships, were only calling on the big tourist places like Mykonos, Santorini,
Rhodes or Cyprus, we went to smaller less-visited islands.
Many travellers I talk to have a favourite line and ship and stick with that but asking
what is perfect trip by trip may throw up a different answer.
The revelation I had is that perfect size is complex and should change by trip.
I had not thought about it in a structured way like I have done before but realised that
I was making those decisions without realising it.
I do not stick to one line or ship size and vary it.
This discussion helped my partner Mark who has been a bigger ship fan and has had an
“anything as long as it is Cunard” for cruises we do together and with others like
our Mums.
He has started to realise that he needs to look at these issues cruise by cruise and
consider why we are going, who we are going with and what we want from the vacation.
To find out more about choosing the right cruise line, once you've decided on the right
size, I have these rather unusual tips on how to do it in this video, starting with
the role, believe it or not of one-night stands and affairs in choosing the cruise line.
Intrigued?
I'll see you over there.