Count me as passing on the new mega liners.

Reading about the new Harmony of the Seas, and being grateful HAL is unlikely to ever go in that direction, I think if I ever took a cruise on anything much bigger than Eurodam (although I have been on Queen Mary 2, but she's a legend), I would need a vacation from my vacation. It must be exhausting walking around a mega ship! I look at the deck plans of those monsters, especially the decks that are all accommodation, and wonder if the walk from here to there would ever end? I'm one of those people that likes to explore the ship, especially a new one for me, on boarding day. I have no other than purpose than to see what's where when I do it. If I did that on one of those floating gargantuan theme parks, I'd need a nap halfway through! Don't get me wrong, I walk A LOT on a daily basis, but while I am fascinated to take a tour on one just to see what they can squeeze into one of those things, I just can't see being very rested after a cruise on one.

We just returned from our Sailing on NCL Breakaway to Bermuda.....never, ever again! Not only is this ship much too large, it's very poorly designed and constantly feels crowded. The decor is cheap and tacky and not comparable at all to HAL or Celebrity's standards. The pool deck is all slide, rock wall, etc. etc. and many, many children. I would imagine that the RCI mega ships would offer a similar experience.

We came home last week and immediately booked Nieuw Amsterdam to have something to look forward to. We really appreciate what the smaller ships offer in service and quality of food and, of course, the elegant and sophisticated decor.

We cruised on Oasis last November. Upon our return, we cancelled a cruise on Allure to cruise on Westerdam. We found Westy to be a much more comfortable choice for ourselves. Oasis is geared to a younger demographic which we did not find attractive.

There are people who just love those mega ships...and that's good, because it means more room for me on the smaller ships.

My husband and I cruise because we really WANT to know and feel we are on a ship and not a floating resort. I'm a sucker for the old school touches: teak decks to take walks in the morning and evening, traditional dining at a set time with the same servers who feel almost like family at the end of the trip, finding a deck chair with a view of the sea, not the pool, along with a good book and a few cold beverages and NOT buying an internet package because when we wave goodbye to the shores at embarkation, we disconnect from the world.

So yes, give me one of those ships without all the bells and whistles every time.

Nope, you won't find me on those mega ships,:( the reason way to big, would rather sail on the medium size ships. Whats wong with that? Hey you cruise lines, listen up!!

We have no interest in sailing on those mega ships.

We don't even like the looks of the Koningsdam.

We cruised on Oasis last November. Upon our return, we cancelled a cruise on Allure to cruise on Westerdam. We found Westy to be a much more comfortable choice for ourselves. Oasis is geared to a younger demographic which we did not find attractive.

Different strokes for different folks. :)

We have had 7 wonderful cruises on HAL ships and 3 fabulous cruises aboard the Oasis and the Allure. We loved ALL our cruises. On the "mega" ships, the ship is the destination for us. There is so much to see and do and we have never felt crowded since the ships are divided into different neighborhoods. I have had no trouble finding a quiet place to sit and watch the sea, read a book, or nap on the Oasis or Allure. Service was just as good on Royal as on HAL. Yes, there is more walking on those ships than a HAL ship, but there are also more elevators to get you where you wish to be.

For me, the main advantage to HAL is the wrap around teak deck. I do love strolling along that deck. We cruise HAL for the ports especially in Europe, but will always take Royal's mega ships to the Caribbean. I didn't even get off the ship on one of our recent Caribbean cruises on Royal. BTDT in the Caribbean and didn't need to get off at those ports again. Looking forward to our Alaskan cruise with HAL and the Caribbean on Royal.

We have no interest in sailing on those mega ships.

We don't even like the looks of the Koningsdam.

Considering we think the Vista class ships are too big you can kind of figure what we think of the maga ships. Started HAL in 1995 on the then pretty new Ryndam and she and the S and R class ships were plenty big enough for us. We're in a downtime now with no cruises booked or really being seriously researched. That has happened before and there have been spans of up to three years without a cruise so nothing unusual. For a myriad of reasons sooner or later we all take our last cruise and maybe the new ships are pushing us to the sooner decision.

This is an interesting topic. We have cruised on 14 lines (more then 60 different vessels) and our favorite HAL ship is the Prinsendam (we have sailed on her for 200 days). But we have also been on our share of very large ships up to about 166,000 tons...but have not tried the Oasis Class.

While we love small ships (we have cruised on a 20 passenger boat) there is a lot to say about the large ships. We do enjoy the expanded entertainment options, larger selection of bars/cafes, etc. When RCI launched the Oasis, DW said "no way do I want to go on that ship." And because those monsters only do short cruises we have never tried one...although given the right circumstances we would give it a shot. Several HAL cruiser friends have all told us that they really enjoyed the Oasis/Allure vessels. Just think, a ship that actually has some night life after 9pm!

On the other hand, when it comes to HAL cruisers the reality is that many could not easily do those large ships because they simply do not want to walk that far (from one end to the other) :).

Hank

I cruise mainly for the ports, and I cruise solo. For both of these reasons I prefer smaller ships. Smaller ships often have preferential docking locations and fewer lines getting on and off the ship. It was a pleasure, for example, to dock right IN Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok as opposed to docking in large commercial ports that are a good distance away.

Because I travel solo, I enjoy ships with fewer passengers onboard. You actually have a chance of meeting someone once and then running into them numerous times onboard. (On some larger ships I've been on, that just doesn't happen.)

I don't think I'll ever cruise on the really, really ginormous ships. I'm plenty able to get around, but they just don't appeal to me. Having to book everything I want to do in advance -- no thanks!

Not interested in the new mega ships. Not interested in the smaller, older ships that are well past their sell by date.

This is an interesting topic. We have cruised on 14 lines (more then 60 different vessels) and our favorite HAL ship is the Prinsendam (we have sailed on her for 200 days). But we have also been on our share of very large ships up to about 166,000 tons...but have not tried the Oasis Class.

 

While we love small ships (we have cruised on a 20 passenger boat) there is a lot to say about the large ships. We do enjoy the expanded entertainment options, larger selection of bars/cafes, etc. When RCI launched the Oasis, DW said "no way do I want to go on that ship." And because those monsters only do short cruises we have never tried one...although given the right circumstances we would give it a shot. Several HAL cruiser friends have all told us that they really enjoyed the Oasis/Allure vessels. Just think, a ship that actually has some night life after 9pm!

 

On the other hand, when it comes to HAL cruisers the reality is that many could not easily do those large ships because they simply do not want to walk that far (from one end to the other) :).

 

Hank

I agree with CruiseMom. If I wanted to go to Vegas, I would go to Vegas. Additionally, someone should have explained to the pax on the January Rotterdam Passage to the Far East, including the 82 year old who shared an elephant ride with me, the 85 year old who managed the long trek on Komodo, and the intrepid 93 year old who walked the entire route into Petra, that we were sailing her because we were not able to or did not want to walk any distances.

We enjoy HAL'S smaller ships. DH thought the Eurodam was too big.

Karen

This is interesting. DW and I started on the smaller HAL ships (S class), and now find we prefer the much larger mega ships. Different strokes :)

Different strokes for different folks. :)

 

We have had 7 wonderful cruises on HAL ships and 3 fabulous cruises aboard the Oasis and the Allure. We loved ALL our cruises. On the "mega" ships, the ship is the destination for us. There is so much to see and do and we have never felt crowded since the ships are divided into different neighborhoods. I have had no trouble finding a quiet place to sit and watch the sea, read a book, or nap on the Oasis or Allure. Service was just as good on Royal as on HAL. Yes, there is more walking on those ships than a HAL ship, but there are also more elevators to get you where you wish to be.

I totally agree. I've cruised small ships and mega ships, and I love them both. HAL's ships might be more quaint, but HAL isn't even in the same ballpark with the mega ship when it comes to entertainment. Not even close.

Hey you cruise lines, listen up! Keep both. The newer generation cruiser loves mega ships.

We love the size of the S-Class ships, but have cruised primarily on HAL's Signature-class and Celebrity's Solstice-class ships. Although there's quite a difference between, say, the Maasdam and the Eclipse, we've found the adjustment easy to make and are happy at both ends of the scale.

While DW and I have no particular desire to go larger, a family cruise with our kids and grandkids was democratically planned, and as a result, next year we will sail aboard the Allure of the Seas. I've consequently been spending time on the RCI board, but nothing that I've read so far would lead me to believe that our venture on the Allure will be any more than a one off experience. I'm not critical of the Oasis-class ships or their competitors, but HAL's and Celebrity's current offerings are big enough for us.

Was in the audience when Stein Kruse announced the new ship, now the Koningsdam, and it's passenger capacity. He was very taken aback when he was booed by the majority of the audience (we were on the Amsterdam). Now HAL is ordering more large ships so you can tell they paid attention, but they do want to capture more of the Caribbean market.

My sister is just off the Oasis and was late to dinner as it took her almost 30 minutes to get from point A to point B, and after 7 days, she is not sure she saw everything. She did enjoy the many entertainment options but was not a fan of the lines or the food.

My favorite size is about 1000 passengers so hopefully there will still be future available options.

I totally agree. I've cruised small ships and mega ships, and I love them both. HAL's ships might be more quaint, but HAL isn't even in the same ballpark with the mega ship when it comes to entertainment. Not even close.

 

 

 

Hey you cruise lines, listen up! Keep both. The newer generation cruiser loves mega ships.

My wife and I actually "jumped ship" over to Norwegian after our experience on Breakaway, and the FABULOUS Haven Complex. We have sailed on the S-Class, up to the Breakaway, and prefer the larger vessels. FWIW, DW and I are 3 star with HAL, and platinum with NCL, so not newbie cruisers ;). Most cruisers new and seasoned prefer larger ships.

My wife and I actually "jumped ship" over to Norwegian after our experience on Breakaway, and the FABULOUS Haven Complex. We have sailed on the S-Class, up to the Breakaway, and prefer the larger vessels. FWIW, DW and I are 3 star with HAL, and platinum with NCL, so not newbie cruisers ;). Most cruisers new and seasoned prefer larger ships.

I guess I missed that poll. :)

We cruise mainly for the ship.

We loved the S and R class and were wary of the Vista class. We found after perhaps 4 cruises on that class that it was not too large, crowded, etc.

Now, we feel slightly reluctant to sail on the S and R classes because we don't find the service, food and surroundings up to par with the Vista class ships.

So, we adapted to the larger ships. A scary thought: would we adapt to the larger Pinnacle class? Easily? And then what, the monsters of RCL and NCL?

Yikes!!

...................... and the intrepid 93 year old who walked the entire route into Petra, that we were sailing her because we were not able to or did not want to walk any distances.

And that's not an easy walk, especially, the return leg uphill so more power to her! :)

Different strokes for different folks. :)

 

We have had 7 wonderful cruises on HAL ships and 3 fabulous cruises aboard the Oasis and the Allure. We loved ALL our cruises. On the "mega" ships, the ship is the destination for us. There is so much to see and do and we have never felt crowded since the ships are divided into different neighborhoods. I have had no trouble finding a quiet place to sit and watch the sea, read a book, or nap on the Oasis or Allure. Service was just as good on Royal as on HAL. Yes, there is more walking on those ships than a HAL ship, but there are also more elevators to get you where you wish to be.

 

For me, the main advantage to HAL is the wrap around teak deck. I do love strolling along that deck. We cruise HAL for the ports especially in Europe, but will always take Royal's mega ships to the Caribbean. I didn't even get off the ship on one of our recent Caribbean cruises on Royal. BTDT in the Caribbean and didn't need to get off at those ports again. Looking forward to our Alaskan cruise with HAL and the Caribbean on Royal.

I too love the HAL wrap around deck and was personally very disappointed to learn the the big new Kdam which is ten feet wider basically eliminated the deck chairs as well as made the prom deck so narrow that two people can barely pass in some spots. So the ship is ten feet wider but they make the prom deck more narrow...IMHO a poor design decision. Thankfully there are other Holland ships that still have good prom decks and those are the ships that i will sail upon.

Been there done that on the monster ships and really NOT my cup of tea. Give me a 1200 pax or so ship with a nice prom deck and I am a happy cruiser. Bigger is not always better.

The smaller ship size is one of the factors that drew us to HAL in the first place after trying the Golden Princess where we could never get 2 chairs together and we had to queue to everything and the ship was not full.

we have the Koningsdam booked next year to try but I would be just as happy on an R or S class ship. Now with my new visual restrictions there is no way I could go on the mega ships with their neon, flashing lights and press of humanity. I learned on Disney Wonder that I fall very easily when pushed from behind.

Since I don't need flow riders, bumper cars, rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, a sky diving simulator, water slides, zip lines, etc., I feel no need to go on the mega ships or even the "almost mega".

I was on Liberty of the Seas last year with friends. I never could find a good place to sit and read and be able to have a sea view (too cold to sit outside). Also it was difficult to get an elevator (usually had to wait a few minutes) because there were only forward and aft elevators and there were the same number (14) as on Westerdam. Liberty carries twice as many people as Westerdam.

Bigger is not always better!

I was on Liberty of the Seas last year with friends. I never could find a good place to sit and read and be able to have a sea view (too cold to sit outside).

Viking Crown Lounge? The sea views up there are phenomenal.