Which Ship/Line Has Highest Space/Passenger Ratio?

[sherilyn70]

Some other follow-up questions:

-Which ships/lines have the best food?

-Which ships/lines have the best entertainment?

-Which ships/lines will make me feel less like I'm being herded around like cattle, and more like, this is MY vacation?

-And another, while I realize this will be individualized per cruise, per week, per ship, but what about most courteous passengers? Honestly, I have some medical issues where I can't stand long periods of time. On our cruise in June I had to sit down in lines, and when it was our turn to move forward, even with my husband whisking me to my feet as fast as he could, passengers behind us took the opportunity to bypass us and cut in line around us while I was getting up - EVERY TIME! Dozens of them! It was so incredibly rude! And it made me very upset because I didn't ask for this problem, we paid hard-earned money for our trip too! I don't desire to be around people like that again!

All of these question are so subjective. We don't know what you're looking for in terms of food and entertainment. Do you like fancy French courses or do you like good homestyle cooking Do you want tea times or food available 24/7?

 

On Oasis of the Seas we never felt crowded even though it's an extremely large ship. I don't recall ever standing in a line other than to get into a show (which in my opinion were all very good).

 

Rude people are everywhere, you can't avoid them. They all have the same attitude of "this is my vacation" I don't want to have to wait or be bothered with others. You just have to develop a thicker skin and stand up for yourself when people start cutting ahead of you. It's the modern world we live in.

[hansolosmom]

Again as others have stated this is all subjective, but I'll share my thoughts for the lines we've traveled.

 

Disney - good space for both cabins and open areas, excellent food & service. It's not a kids only line, there are lots of couples that go without children. But again there will be plenty onboard. They are my favorite line.

 

Royal Caribbean - on the ships with the Promenade there's really good use of open space and I've never felt crowded on one of their ships. Even on a capacity ship I've never felt like there were too many people on-board.

 

Princess - we were on Caribbean Princess, I loved it. Good service, food & open areas. I really like the movies by the pool nightly.

 

Celebrity Reflection - I know a lot of people love them, however this was our worst cruising experience the ship was packed & it felt it. I could not find a quiet place to sit & relax. The other passengers were rude & pushy. The design of the ship doesn't have an open feel at all. The food was ok. Again this was our experience.

[swsfrail]

Again as others have stated this is all subjective, but I'll share my thoughts for the lines we've traveled.

 

Disney - good space for both cabins and open areas, excellent food & service. It's not a kids only line, there are lots of couples that go without children. But again there will be plenty onboard. They are my favorite line.

 

Agree. We've been on Disney three times. They do a wonderful job with crowd control.

 

Royal Caribbean - on the ships with the Promenade there's really good use of open space and I've never felt crowded on one of their ships. Even on a capacity ship I've never felt like there were too many people on-board.

 

Depends on the ship. We've sailed on Royal about a dozen times. Allure and Oasis do a good job. Older ships, not so much.

 

Princess - we were on Caribbean Princess, I loved it. Good service, food & open areas. I really like the movies by the pool nightly.

 

All of our seven Princess cruises felt overcrowded. MUTS is not a favorite of mine, being much too intrusive during the day. Worse is when they play a sporting event. The men get too rowdy and loud in area meant to be enjoyed by families.

 

Celebrity Reflection - I know a lot of people love them, however this was our worst cruising experience the ship was packed & it felt it. I could not find a quiet place to sit & relax. The other passengers were rude & pushy. The design of the ship doesn't have an open feel at all. The food was ok. Again this was our experience.

 

Completely disagree. Excellent space utilization - except for around the main pool. Interiors spaces are well designed and comfortable, and the most tasteful decor in the business. Celebrity passengers are some of the nicest I have encountered. Service was on a par with the luxury lines. Staff was always friendly and helpful. Food was some of the best of the non-luxury lines. I have never been disappointed on any of our dozen+ Celebrity cruises.

Edited February 1, 2014 by swsfrail

[hansolosmom]

Completely disagree. Excellent space utilization - except for around the main pool. Interiors spaces are well designed and comfortable, and the most tasteful decor in the business. Celebrity passengers are some of the nicest I have encountered. Service was on a par with the luxury lines. Staff was always friendly and helpful. Food was some of the best of the non-luxury lines. I have never been disappointed on any of our dozen+ Celebrity cruises.

 

Again I said, this was our experience. I think it depends on when you sail, the destination & the ship. We sailed in the middle of summer & the ship was way too crowded. I'm sure if I went on it now it would be much less so. Our waiter told us the ship was at capacity. I agree the decor is lovely & the seats were comfy, however it felt to enclosed to me. There weren't a lot of lounges to just sit & look out the window. For example I loved the Ensemble lounge, but it was very dark. I don't know if you were on Reflection or if it's designed like the other ships, so I can only speak for this ship. Food again subjective, our table mates also said they found the food 'ok' & they had been on 20+ cruises.

Sorry but the other passengers on our trip were very pushy. I saw a fellow CC'er on day 4 or 5 of the trip who was actually leaving the ship in the next port because he couldn't deal with the crowds & fellow passengers.

[Cruzman]

HAL is in the lower side for public space.

 

 

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

 

Notice that I mentioned R or S class, not the larger newer ships.

[ducklite]

Notice that I mentioned R or S class, not the larger newer ships.

 

 

I noticed. There is no comparing them with the industry leaders. They aren't even close.

 

 

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

[Cruzman]

Here is the information straight from the horses mouth.

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1627529

[boogs]

Again I said, this was our experience. I think it depends on when you sail, the destination & the ship. We sailed in the middle of summer & the ship was way too crowded. I'm sure if I went on it now it would be much less so. Our waiter told us the ship was at capacity. I agree the decor is lovely & the seats were comfy, however it felt to enclosed to me. There weren't a lot of lounges to just sit & look out the window. For example I loved the Ensemble lounge, but it was very dark. I don't know if you were on Reflection or if it's designed like the other ships, so I can only speak for this ship. Food again subjective, our table mates also said they found the food 'ok' & they had been on 20+ cruises.

Sorry but the other passengers on our trip were very pushy. I saw a fellow CC'er on day 4 or 5 of the trip who was actually leaving the ship in the next port because he couldn't deal with the crowds & fellow passengers.

 

Can you imagine what the crowds would have been like on other cruise ships that have too many people on them even during off seasons? Some ships the same size as Reflection have nearly 1,000 more passengers on board! NCL's Epic is not much bigger, and she carries 1,200 more passengers! It's all a matter of perspective. If you cruise at peak periods, there will be many people doing the same thing. Just like travelling over a major holiday period - you can't blame the airlines if everybody wants to fly at the same time and every seat is filled.

 

I have been on the Reflection, as a matter of fact, on her second cruise when she was brand new and been in service for only 10 days. Of all the many ships we have been on, she is the favorite of my wife and I, as well as our frequent cruising companions, who up until that cruise were Princess fans. They are now Celebrity fans.

 

As for pushy passengers, again it depends on when and where. If this was the case on this cruise, it probably would have been even worse on some of the other lines during the same busy time period. Imagine what the Epic would have been like! 1,200 more passengers, many of them kids, all fitting on a ship not much bigger!

Edited February 2, 2014 by boogs

[ducklite]

Here is the information straight from the horses mouth.

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1627529

 

 

Again. They are no where near the industry leaders. Not even close. They fall right in the middle, nothing special.

 

 

Autocorrect responsible for most typos...

[boogs]

Wow, talk about a wild guess.

 

Celebrity R Class: 35/36; S Class: 38/39

 

Virtually identical to HAL and Princess--and lower than the newer Carnival ships.

 

According to http://travel.travelocity.com/ecruise/ShipFinder.do, the newer Carnival ships, Breeze and Magic, have a space ratio of only 35. That is much smaller than Celebrity's 40 to 42. Your statistics seem a bit "fishy". :D

Edited February 2, 2014 by boogs

[clem364]

Major cruises, probably Celebrity

Ummm - no

[Shmoo here]

Ummm - no

I think the question was answered abut 4 years ago......

[chengkp75]

I know some architects and planners. While I can not say for ships, I suspect a similar problem occurs as with buildings -- and let's face it, most of the ship is a floating hotel. How many square feet or square metres are in a building depends on how you count it and the companies will count to make stats sound good. Cabins and halls will always be counted but the space in all the other cabins but mine is lost to me. Likewise, a nicely designed hall is seldom mentioned in reviewing the photographs. And don't get me started with a staircase! Some real estate rules allow it to be counted as floor space for both of the floors it reaches between!

 

I appreciate the post with the stats on the space per passenger, but without knowing who supplied the numbers and that all were collected under the same rule, only the biggest of patterns should be used. It was not surprising at all who had the highest ratio. Most of the mass market ships scored about the same. Give what I have seen of architecture, the feel of space is designed into a building and would matter more than the absolute number.

 

My 3 cents Canadian.

 

The way that passenger space ratio is calculated is not quite the enclosed volume divided by the number of passengers. It is actually the ship's Gross Tonnage divided by the double occupancy (not maximum) capacity. Gross Tonnage is a registered number for each ship, so there can be no "different way" to calculate the volume. Gross tonnage is not a number that represents the enclosed volume in 100 cubic feet like the no longer used "Registered Gross Tonnage". Gross tonnage takes the total enclosed volume and multiplies this by a factor that is not linear to the total volume, so the relationship between internal volume and Gross Tonnage is not linear, meaning there is a larger difference between volume and GT for a larger ship than for a smaller ship. Additionally, smaller ships will have a proportionally smaller crew and smaller engineering space, so the actual passenger space portion in the GT is greater for a small ship over a larger ship.