PREFERENCE: Big ships/Smaller ships????

[PDXgranny]

Our first cruise is in a few days. HAL Rotterdam appealed to us because its a smaller ship.

Has anyone here sailed on one of those 4000 pax+ ships? Do you prefer them?

[cb at sea]

4000 passengers, while not a "Mega" ship, is hardly what I consider to be "small"! But, I do prefer something that has around 3000 or less.

[Clarea]

Our first cruise is in a few days. HAL Rotterdam appealed to us because its a smaller ship.

Has anyone here sailed on one of those 4000 pax+ ships? Do you prefer them?

Nope, prefers the smaller ships.

[Lionesss]

After sailing on the Allure and the Oasis, I do not know if I could go back to smaller ships........................but

 

If we want to do Alaska one day, guess I will have to ......

 

Safe travels.

[bobkat12]

Is it the cruise, or the destination? For us it's both. There is so much to do on sea days ( or not ) on the larger ships which we love. They are also usually newer and that matters, we find there is also a bit less motion on them. Bottom line, it's a personal preference, but I recommend trying the larger ships once to make your own determination.

 

 

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[PDXgranny]

Is it the cruise, or the destination? For us it's both. There is so much to do on sea days ( or not ) on the larger ships which we love. They are also usually newer and that matters, we find there is also a bit less motion on them. Bottom line, it's a personal preference, but I recommend trying the larger ships once to make your own determination.

 

 

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Will be on Solstice this Fall - not a whole lot larger than Rotterdam, but will be interesting to see how much difference there is.

[SmoothFlying]

Our first cruise is in a few days. HAL Rotterdam appealed to us because its a smaller ship.

Has anyone here sailed on one of those 4000 pax+ ships? Do you prefer them?

 

We've done both, and love each class, for different reasons. Originally, we had only sailed the 3,000 passenger class ship (both RCL and CCL) then in October 2013 we did a balcony sailing on the Oasis OTS. And to say we were WOWED would be an understatement. The ship was,in a word, UNBELIEVEABLE. BUT, with over 5,000 guest, to someone who had never sailed on a mega ship, it was also OVERWHELMING. While the buffet was HUGH, with almost 3,000 people at all three meals ALL trying to vie for everything there was NO order or line. People would cut you off, snarl, pile heaps of food, move to another steam table bier, break in front of someone, and repeat. It was almost like the offending animal thought the ship was running out of food. Their action was totally uncalled for, but you just smiled and tried to get something to eat. I'm not a 'pool person' but the crowds were rather large, and sometimes, unless you went early, deck chairs were scare. And even then you always had some chair HOG who spread his towel over three or four chairs 'reserving them'. So, sometimes, BIGGER is NOT better. Of course all of this is IMHO. :)

 

Mac

[donaldsc]

How in the world can you call a ship w 4000 pasengers a small ship. In my opinion, it is an over-sized monstrosity. The biggest ship I have ever cruised on was about 2500 and I thought it was absurd. My best cruises have been on much smaller ships and my 2 best were on a ship that held 22 people and one that held 50 people.

 

When all the smaller ships get taken out of service, I will stop cruising. My next cruise is on the Azamara Quest. She holds 690 people. Plenty big enough for me.

 

DON

[PDXgranny]

How in the world can you call a ship w 4000 pasengers a small ship. In my opinion, it is an over-sized monstrosity. The biggest ship I have ever cruised on was about 2500 and I thought it was absurd. My best cruises have been on much smaller ships and my 2 best were on a ship that held 22 people and one that held 50 people.

 

When all the smaller ships get taken out of service, I will stop cruising. My next cruise is on the Azamara Quest. She holds 690 people. Plenty big enough for me.

 

DON

 

 

I wasn't referring to a 4000+ ship as small - I was using it as an example of a quite large ship. And because I've never cruised before, it's a size ship that astounds me. I think my dislike of huge crowds kicks in. It's probably a class of ship I may prefer to avoid. Thanks for your opinion:)

[Aquahound]

Our first cruise is in a few days. HAL Rotterdam appealed to us because its a smaller ship.

Has anyone here sailed on one of those 4000 pax+ ships? Do you prefer them?

 

I've sailed small and large ships....and I've loved them both.

[champagne123]

I've sailed small and large ships....and I've loved them both.

 

Same here. We love them both for different reasons. :)

[Host Walt]

We sailed a lot in the 1990's on the HAL "S" class ships which are slightly smaller than the Rotterdam (they were all 1286 pax, if I recall) and they were as big as we really wanted.

 

We've also recently sailed on Princess 3000 pax ships (as well as earlier smaller Princess ships) and found 3000 was just too big. There was no real issue about crowds on the big Princess ships anywhere on board but the distance of the hike from forward to aft was too long and it was hard to do things with folks we met on board.

 

We also found that the queuing in the shore activities was not so great either.

 

Our best cruises were on the 148 pax WindStar sailing ships and on the smaller river cruises in Europe, but the per diem cost of those bookings made them too expensive.

[WupperAV]

I prefer any with impeccable service and the ability to right things like rationing butter and warm cookies. Less than 3000 PAX.

[GUT2407]

My preference, under 1000.

[Scrapnana]

Mid-size (about 2000 people) is my favorite. I have been on some larger (3500-4000) and they were too large for me. The only small ships I have been on were either river cruises or cruises 40+ years ago when all the cruise ships were smaller. I will be going on an under 1400 pax ship next year, so I may change my mind.

[Flatbush Flyer]

How in the world can you call a ship w 4000 pasengers a small ship. In my opinion, it is an over-sized monstrosity. The biggest ship I have ever cruised on was about 2500 and I thought it was absurd. My best cruises have been on much smaller ships and my 2 best were on a ship that held 22 people and one that held 50 people.

 

When all the smaller ships get taken out of service, I will stop cruising. My next cruise is on the Azamara Quest. She holds 690 people. Plenty big enough for me.

 

DON

 

 

Yes Don - the R ships (whatever premium line - Azamara or Oceania) are just the ticket. Nonetheless, I also like Oceania's O ships with 1100 passengers because of the four specialty restaurants and the only true dedicated cooking school at sea.

 

 

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[trish1c]

We sailed 2 large ships: NCL Epic & Getaway. They are just too big IMO.

 

However, if I had kids, I'd be thrilled for all the on-board bells & whistles to keep them entertained.

[Hlitner]

Our preference is small...the smaller the better. For real cruise ships this means less than 800 passengers...with 200 being even better. We have also been on a yacht cruise with only 20 passengers...and that was wonderful. For those that think big is better, we like to point out that the ultra luxury cruise lines only use small vessels.

 

Hank

[calliopecruiser]

Our first cruise is in a few days. HAL Rotterdam appealed to us because its a smaller ship.

Has anyone here sailed on one of those 4000 pax+ ships? Do you prefer them?

Larger and smaller are comparative terms - to me, 1400 passengers (like the Rotterdam) is about the largest capacity I would ever like to go. My preference is a little smaller - about 900-1000 passengers. I think smaller than 500-600 would be too small for me (especially traveling solo), and larger would be too much like living in a small, confined city.

 

Then comes the different question of the actual size of the ship (not the capacity).......Since my favourite cruises are transoceanic, I don't want to go in anything small enough to set my stomach gurgling in rougher seas. I'd say 50,000 or 60,000 GT would probably be the minimum size of the ship I'd select (unless I was doing a sea voyage, not a transoceanic).

[Robinsoncruiseso]

I love the apx 3500 passenger ships. I would not mind a ship with more passengers, but they just don't look like ships. I normally cruise Princess and adore the larger Royal Class. I do not find it crowded, except sometimes at the elevator. But without a crowded elevator, where you share your stupid crowded elevator jokes?

[George C]

Hal has no large ships and also has older passengers, I prefer larger ships that have more entertainment options and more restaurants to choose from, but we do like Hal and have done them several times

[HiteshueCruiser]

I prefer the larger ships. My favorite ship so far has been Allure of the Seas, and it was fantastic! I love the endless activities and entertainment options as well as all of the food options! Only bad thing is that the big ships can't get into every port.

 

 

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