Small cruise ships

[lenquixote66]

What is the smallest (number of passengers) cruise ship you ever sailed on .

We were on a Cunard cruise from NY to Bermuda,7 nights ,806 passengers.

It was a wonderful experience.

[clo]

Hurtigruten's Lofoten with about 100 pax for a Norwegian coastal cruise in March.  January 2018 we did Hurtigruten's Midnatsol to Antarctica with about 400 pax.  And we'll do Oceania's Martina with about 1200 pax in December.  I already know I could never do those ones with water slides and the like.  Ugh.

[cruisemom42]

Nine cruises on the 350 passenger Aegean Odyssey (Voyages to Antiquity), mostly Med cruises -- fabulous lecturers (mainly recently retired or still active British professors) and itineraries created to complement each other.  One cruise on the similar sized and similar "model" Swan Hellenic Minerva, now sadly gone.

 

Started my cruising career in the 1970s on Sitmar's Fairwind and Fairsea, both of which carried less than 900 passengers.  I loved those ships as a kid because of the wonderful Italian crew who spoiled me.

 

[Cruzaholic41]

Celebrity  Xpedition. There were 88 on my sailing, although the ship holds 96. It was one of the best cruises I’ve ever taken. 

[clo]

1 minute ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

Celebrity  Xpedition. There were 88 on my sailing, although the ship holds 96. It was one of the best cruises I’ve ever taken. 

Where did you go?

[Cruzaholic41]

2 minutes ago, clo said:

Where did you go?

 

It was a Galapagos cruise. 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Cruzaholic41

[Shmoo here]

55 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

What is the smallest (number of passengers) cruise ship you ever sailed on .

We were on a Cunard cruise from NY to Bermuda,7 nights ,806 passengers.

It was a wonderful experience.

Define "cruise ship"

 

River cruise  - 176 passengers (Black Sea to Cologne 28 nights)

Ocean cruise - 1400 passengers (2 cruises - Tahiti 28 nights and Panama Canal 21 nights)

[Aquahound]

19 minutes ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

 

It was a Galapagos cruise. 

 

23 minutes ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

Celebrity  Xpedition. There were 88 on my sailing, although the ship holds 96. It was one of the best cruises I’ve ever taken. 

 

Definitely a bucket lister for me.  The new Celebrity Flora looks amazing.  

[clo]

21 minutes ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

 

It was a Galapagos cruise. 

We want to go there.  Can you provide a link to the trip please?  TIA.

[RSLeesburg]

42 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

 

Definitely a bucket lister for me.  The new Celebrity Flora looks amazing.  

Ours too!  I am waiting till my son gets a tad bit older and trying to talk my wife into going.  She went there 20 years ago, and is afraid it will be spoiled from what she remembers with all the ships sailing there these days.  If I can talk her into it, we would either book Flora or through Tauck Bridges (they charter one of the Ponant ships, which are also lovely).  

[Cruzaholic41]

55 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

The new Celebrity Flora looks amazing.  

 

I’ll let you know in a couple months. 😊 

 

53 minutes ago, clo said:

We want to go there.  Can you provide a link to the trip please?  TIA.

 

Just go to Celebrity’s website. They have a few small ships going there including the brand new Flora that Paul mentioned. They’re pricey but totally worth it IMO. 

[Silver Sweethearts]

1 hour ago, clo said:

We want to go there.  Can you provide a link to the trip please?  TIA.

 

You might give Silversea's Silver Galapagos a look.  Only 100 passengers.

[CPT Trips]

Grand Circle Cruise Line - Artemis - 48 capacity - 1206 tons

 

IIRC we had 43 aboard.  All the passengers were invited to the bridge for the cruise through the bays leading into Kotar as the Captain and Pilot provided commentary.

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, clo said:

We want to go there.  Can you provide a link to the trip please?  TIA.

 

Lots of links to Galapagos cruises on Google.

 

DON

[donaldsc]

21 passengers.  https://schoonerfrench.com/accommodations.   35 gross register tons (GRT)..  Do I win?

 

Some day I want to do a Alaska fishing trawler cruise.

 

DON

[crystalspin]

Marco Polo while sailing for Orient Lines (passenger capacity 650-760). Cape Town to Buenos Aires.

It was awful. First cruise very nearly my last.

 

This doesn't count our Russian "river" cruises or Yangtze cruise .

[KmomChicago]

First cruise, Premier Cruise Line SS Royale, previously with Costa and later with Dolphin, 21,000 tons and 840 passengers.  Very low end, laid back cruise but had many of the classic elements like actual formal nights and desserts like Baked Alaska. I remember afternoon activity prizes were pretty good stuff including bottles of wine. Not a lot of bells or whistles, however, compared to today's ships holding several thousand of your closest friends.

[dogs4fun]

Ocean vessel - Oceania Marina

River cruise - Monarch Baroness (136 passengers on Danube cruise)

[ontheweb]

The Ocean Princess (since sold by Princess) on a British Isles cruise. I don't remember the exact size, but I think it was about 700.

[snowskier]

Small ship cruises lately -- 5 day Panama Canal 23 passengers; 12 day Antarctica 98 passengers

 

[buggins0402]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

Ocean vessel - Oceania Marina

River cruise - Monarch Baroness (136 passengers on Danube cruise)

Wouldn’t Nautica be your smallest ocean vessel (noted on your signature)?

[dogs4fun]

15 minutes ago, buggins0402 said:

Wouldn’t Nautica be your smallest ocean vessel (noted on your signature)?

Yep - you are right. From the ships listed in my signature, Nautica had the least number of passengers. I forgot (as I am prone to do ever more frequently).

[DarrenM]

Maybe its because I am new to cruising, and this site, but I want to go on the biggest ships possible. It doenst matter to me that there might be another 3000 on the same ship.

 

These small boats you are referring to in this thread seem very small to me, and I am sure I would be seriously sea sick.

 

I was, on a ferry from Plymouth England, to Roscoff Northern Brittany.

 

I still feel ill thinking about it now 10 years on.

[cruisemom42]

Size of the ship isn't always a reliable indicator of how she handles on the water.

 

Small ships like ferries usually never get that far from shore and depending on the geography, they can encounter waves, currents, and what-have-you that lead to more motion on board because they operate in shallow rather than deep water. When you are out at sea, there are different forces at play (I'm not a scientist so this is simplistic), but these may not feel that different on larger versus smaller ships. Also, wind can play a role with the large superstructures of some modern cruise ships with shallow bottoms -- in that case, bigger is not better.

 

Larger cruise ships are more likely to have stabilizers, which help minimize motion while at sea. (They also can slow ships down because they cannot make top speed when stabilizers are employed, or so I've been told.)

 

Ships that were built as true ocean liners handle the conditions at sea better than most cruise ships, notwithstanding size. This is because they are designed to cut through the waves rather than "riding" them. There are few ocean liners left, though. The Queen Mary is one example that comes to mind.

 

[George C]

My smallest was old holland America statendam  in 1980 about 880 , only time in 65 cruises I ever got sea sick. From nyc to Bermuda